Sheer Dress Progress

I've been working on completing a sheer silk dress for myself in my free time. Here are a few shots of the progress. I hope to complete it in time to wear to an event on Sunday.

Above: The sleeves are an open pagoda sleeve style. Since the sleeves are unlined, I'm finishing the edges with bias cut silk, machine sewn to the sleeve edges and hand hemmed. Trim will cover these edges when the dress is finished.

Bodice Lining: Ivory Silk. I had in mind a lighter weight silk, but this was in my stash, so I went with it. The top edges of the half-high lining are finished with delicate lace trim. The lining is fitted with darts - like originals - and has boning at the front darts. The sleeves will also have a short sleeve created of the silk lining fabric with lace trimmed edge. Some sheer dresses had short lining sleeves under the sheer sleeves while others had no lining sleeves.

Bodice Front: The bodice has 5 rows of hand gathering on each side of the center front. The top row of hand gathering is basted into place to the lining to keep the gathers from shifting. A small 1" wide waistband is sewn to the bottom of the bodice. The cartridge pleated skirt will be attached by hand to the waistband.

Bodice Back: a little wrinkly from laying around while I finish the sleeve details. :) The center back of the bodice contains 5 rows of hand gathering. The bodice is all ready for the sleeves to be attached. The piping has been sewn in place and the bodice lining is pinned to the outer bodice fabric, ready to be stitched into place. The armscyes and neckline are piped. Sometimes dresses had piping at the bottom of the bodice as well, although I left this bodice unpiped at the bottom because I found that some sheers did not have this piping, and I liked the look better without it for this dress.

The sheer fabric is 100% Silk Organza.