A Lady Pouring Chocolate

When I go to an art museum, I look at the clothes.  When I am confronted with a roomful of nudes, I get all annoyed.  Why would anyone want to look at people without clothes?  I just don't get it.  Above is a painting in London's National Gallery called A Lady Pouring Chocolate by Jean-Etienne Liotard.  If you ever get the chance, go and see this painting, and get the audio tour.  The explanation of what's going on in the painting is hilarious.  But about the dress.  I've been wanting to make one like it for a while.   When the new Vogue patterns came out,  I saw that Vogue 1152 bears some resemblance to the dress in the painting.  It is certainly not exactly the same, but it has the deep V and the horizontal detail at the waist.  I have no desire to look like I just stepped out of a costume drama (most days, anyway), so that's close enough for me.

Here's my finished dress.  The center panels are silk georgette, the side panels and sleeves are a silk-cotton blend.  I made a few changes to the pattern, starting with the detail at the front.  I tried to use piping, as recommended on the pattern, but it came out all wonky. So I started again using shirred georgette and strips of contrast.  It came out much better.

I also changed the neckline finish.  The pattern has a facing, which I just hate.  Facings never stay in place.  Instead of the facing, I cut the 4 of the upper center front pattern piece, and used 2 as a sort of self-lining.

The pattern recommends a side zipper.  I basted the side seams together, and realized that I could still get it on over my head without the zipper, so I omitted it.

Here's the back.  I cut the size pattern that my measurements would indicate, but there was too much ease at the waist.  I did a quick-and-dirty fix by pulling in the elastic a bit to make it tighter at the waist.

French seams

Strawberry embroidered on the inside back yoke