Anyway, Netflix has a lot to answer for and one of them is Merlin. I was still at home when this was on, so every Saturday I'd emerge from my cave of teenage angst and sit with my parents to watch it. We did that for the 5 years it was on TV. I loved the costumes back then, when I hadn't started my costuming journey, the first few seasons more Morgana's floaty goodness of chiffon and satin, and then Gwen's more vibrant and structured gowns of the final season.
When Merlin appeared on Netflix, I began to re-watch the final season because I kind of felt like it, and as soon as I laid eyes on Gwen's red velvet dress I was hooked, and I immediately began to move because inspiration is fickle. I devoured all the pics I could find, took screen shots whenever it was in an episode and collated them all into a pinterest board. Then I began the breakdown of construction.
I was a little stumped as to the construction of the bertha, but that was for the construction period. Let's break this down.
It was actually really easy to find a velvet of a similar colour to this. It's not as dark in real life as it looks in these pics, as you can see from the below screen shots.
It didn't really matter anyway because, just to be different, I didn't really want to do an exact reproduction. Others may like it, but I would always be comparing miniscule details between mine and the original and I'd never be happy. However, due to some bizarre psychology, if it's in a different colour it gives me more licence to fu*k up. All I mean by this is if it's not an exact replica structurally then I feel better because it's not the same colour. I know, weird.
We can dive into construction. Be prepared for the least technical and probably least accurate breakdown of a costume you'll ever read. I'm completely self-taught, and by that I mean I've never attended any kind of course about sewing, dressmaking, or anything of that ilk. Hence, I don't know all the terms. You may have to use your inner translator.
I call the seams on this dress princess seams, and to be honest I don't quite know what this means. To me, rather than darts at the front of the bodice giving it shape, the seams themselves are shaped. From what I could make out from this dress there's a front panel, possibly one single side panel, then side back panel, and finally a centre back panel where the lacing for this dress is. Whether or not the side panel has a seam exactly at the side is up for discussion since she never raises her arms. I'm pretty sure in the small pic below that the back is definitely a side back and a centre back.
The lacing at the back also doesn't close all the way, probably to make it fit like it does. To be honest, it looks spiral laced, and there's not a metal grommet in sight (Bollocks).
Gwen, or Angel Coulby the actress who plays Gwen, is definitely wearing some kind of corset underneath that gives her that silhouette, and obviously supports the ladies. I don't mind, I've got a few corsets that should do the job, but I'm afraid I'm not as well endowed in that area.
I was debating with myself about other under-structure. In episode 2 or 3 Gwen is dealing with a servant who's betrayed Camelot, and I swear when she steps forward it looks as though she's wearing a small crinoline underneath the dress to keep the hem out. When she sits back down there's definitely something white peaking underneath, probably a petticoat. I'm afraid I intend to go for a more natural look as I don't really want to make a crinoline that small.
Speaking of skirts, by Merlin, that's a lot of fabric. The dress has a train (like it couldn't be any more fabulous), but also has triangular gores at the front, but I'm unsure it if has any anywhere else. I'm not a big fan of triangular gores, I think they're an absolute pain to sew, and velvet will be difficult enough to work with.
The alternative is cutting the gores as part of the panels of the dress. You can see that there is no waist seam on this dress meaning the bodice and skirt are cut as one. I think in the original the front panel is cut with a straight skirt, and the gores are added in just at the hips to give the skirt some volume without adding bulk to the waist. A common method in garments from many historical periods. I could be wrong, of course, they could also have shaped panels and then add the gores in on top of that to make the skirt extra full. I'll have to see how full I can get the skirt panels because I really do hate gores.
The sleeves are definitely one of the best bits of this gown. I mean who doesn't love romanticised medieval gowns with those long pendant sleeves? I'm not sure what they're actually called. I typed in pendant sleeves to Google and it didn't know what I was talking about.
I already have an old MacCalls pattern somewhere with sleeves I can hack into the ones above. The only thing I am stumped on is the under sleeves, also of velvet, but embroidered with gold. Are they attached to the arm scye along with the over-sleeves? Are they attached to the over-sleeve just under the bertha? Are they just tied on with elastic? Velvet isn't that thin so I can't imagine it's a good idea to double up in the arm-scye. I prefer making the under-sleeves shorter and stitching them to the over sleeves, then hiding the stitching under the bertha. Perhaps they're attached in a method I can't fathom because I just don't have the knowledge, who knows?
Ah, the bertha. You give me so much to think about. I call this a bertha because it reminds me of the berthas on Victorian gowns. You can see from the picture below that this is double-layered, with a smaller piece sticking out the bottom of the embroidered strip.
As of writing I've figured that it's definitely sewn on because there are no seams in the Bertha that correspond with the seams of the bodice. I'd thought for a moment they'd been cut as one with the dress panels, but then realised there would be seam lines visible, which there aren't.
So the Bertha is constructed separately and then mounted to the bodice, just like with Victorian Berthas. Issue solved. I think it's probably stiffened with something. I don't know what makes me think that but it just makes more sense to be, especially since it's got the embroidery on it.
And there we have it, a really amateur-ish break down of Gwen's red gown from Merlin. Thankfully my bodice pattern for my natural form era gown is quite similar to this one with respect to panels, so it was easy to tweak, with a plus that I know it fits over the corset I'm probably going to wear underneath.
As for a petticoat I couldn't wear it over the corset as normal because this gown is to form-fitting that the waistband would definitively be visible. Either wear it underneath, or fashion a petticoat that attaches to the bottom of the corset. No crinoline though, I've got too much else going on to faff about with designing that.
I don't know how long this gown will take me since, as I've said a hundred times, I've got a lot of other stuff going on at various stages of completion, so I wouldn't hold your breath.
