Fortuny 2.0: the shoulder

I sewed the 4 panels together. This was time-consuming but simple as it was all selvage to selvage, so no hand finishing was needed on top of that. But then I needed to shape this tube into something resembling a dress.

I opted to go the simple route: opening all 4 seams about 10″ at the top gave me a v neck, v back, and armholes, easily adjusted later if they cut too deep or not deep enough. The original Fortunys from the 1910s-40s seldom had a v neck but I didn’t want to mess with the (likely?) difficulty of shaping a scoop neck in already-pleated fabric! However, the v-neck is consistent with the “reimagined” dress* they made for Lady Mary in the Downton Abbey movie**.

So, I needed to shape 2 raw edges into 2 tapered shoulders, how to do that? I turned under the raw edges and then sewed a running stitch on either side of the seam to pull into tight gathers. Once gathered, I sewed the pleats to a strip of twill tape as I not only needed some kind of reinforcement for the delicate fabric but something stronger than only thread to keep the gathers in place in slippery silk.

close up of tightly pleated material sewn to a strip of cotton tape
Yes, the stitching is ugly, but the tape was wider than the seam allowance so I improvised.

I think it turned out rather well.

tightly gathered pleats

Next up: turning under the edges of the neckline and armholes and reinforcing these if needed.

*My heart leaps at the thought that the Fortuny company might start making the Delphos/Peplos again! But this article is from 2017 and I’m not seeing any movement in that direction.

**I haven’t seen the movie.

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Allison Thurman

Raised on a diet of Star Wars, Monty Python, and In Search Of, Allison Thurman has always made stuff, lately out of words. She lives in a galaxy far, far away (well, the DC metro area) with too many books and not enough swords.

One thought on “Fortuny 2.0: the shoulder”

  1. That shoulder seam looks great! (having seen the hot mess that’s the inside of some designer garments I’m not about to critique your interior stitching) And v-neck and back is definitely a wise and simple solution; I can see that slight angling of the pleats in the reconstruction dress gives the fabric a bit of bias angle where it falls over the breasts which looks softer/better than I imagine the pleats gaping open there if they were running 100% vertically would. (yes, that’s a meandering sentence but I’ve only just started my second cup of coffee and I’m not being paid to think today)
    Will you be beading this dress ? Asking because I like the bead use on the reconstructed dress.

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