Moy Gown

Soooo, when I was about 15 years younger and the internet was newer, I remember stumbling across something called the "Moy Gown" on a history page. A history page complete with awful 90's style graphics and gifs. The awful layout aside, I was so interested and intrigued in the story of the gown, and the pieces that remained of it. I have a lot of Irish heritage and so it just called to me. Ever since I've read about the gown from time to time, it's just been sticking there in the back of my mind.

In the meantime - I've grown as a seamstress - to a point where I could probably draft my own pattern for the gown, if I truly wished to. However, I don't feel like I have enough of the proper information to do that quite yet, so to suffice until I reach that point, I found Reconstructing History 313.

Reconstructing History 313 - The Moy Gown

The back of the pattern package.

I've got a whole lot of complaints about this pattern, but most of them come from the the fact that it is still not accessible to most sewers because of the lack of instructions, etc. It will quickly be outside of the level of many, many people who fancy themselves quite good with a needle and thread. I fancy myself quite good, and I have had my fair share of difficulties in fitting already.

But I'm getting ahead of myself - I am sad to say, that my local Joann's is going out of business. I know that their wool is not historically accurate, but at 90% off, so I bought a bolt of 8 yards for less than $20, I can't complain too much, right? I bought the last of what they had, amassing myself roughly 8 yards each of black, red, and brown wool. At that price, I figured, "Sure! Now's as good a time as any to tackle this Moy Gown pattern!" And being to tackle it I have!

What's left of my 8 yard bolt of brown wool. Such a steal.

I always seem to forget to take pictures until part way along the process, so I don't have the pieces cut out and unassembled or any of that other good stuff, but I did get a picture of how many pattern pieces you get.

There are 9 pattern pieces in all, two of which you are instructed to tape together before you cut out your fabric so that there is no seam between the back and the shoulder straps. 

The pattern pieces.

You get two packets of a few pages each.
One is the history of the gown, the other the scant instructions.

I have always fit perfectly into a preprinted size due to my God given luck with my body measurements. This time was no different, according to the package, so I cut out the size I called for and cut out my pieces from my wool. I rarely (as in, never) bother with a mock up, though it is a good practice, indeed. I find it saves me time to just make any necessary fitting adjustments on the final garment. Even with the very rare event that a pattern cuts a bit small for me, there is always ample room to be gained in the seam allowances. This has proven to save me time and money (on the muslin) up until this point. This time, however, it was almost a tragedy. 

I had skimmed the directions a few times before I cut my pieces. However, I prefer to cut all my pieces at once and then assemble. This was almost important because my husband laid claim to the remaining brown wool for a Viking era Kaftan. So, I went and cut my pieces out. 

THEN too late, I realized that my front, back and gore pieces only came a bit below my knees. WHAT?! I was heart broken. It only says once in the instructions, and quite far in to the sewing directions - that you are to adjust the length to where you want it. The pattern cover shows both a short gown and a long gown. I am so accustomed to patterns, even vintage ones, being made in the LONGER length with a marking to cut for the SHORTER gown, I didn't even think twice about cutting out this one. It is my fault, however, I want others to be well aware so they do not make the same mistake I did. 

Luckily I had plenty of fabric to just recut at the proper length I wanted. I got very lucky in that with my husband being tall, the short gores are just the right length for his Viking kaftan, so they will not go to waste. Also the front and back sections will easily become a sleeve or something else for his kaftan, so my mistake caused no waste. I was lucky. 

I decided just to machine everything except for hems and the visible stitching. I was going to hand sew the garment, but with the wool not being a historical quality, it just seemed like an awful waste, what with the gores, It would take forever. The gown works up pretty quickly. I still have to press seams and everything. There is also a lot of fitting that I will like to do to create the best fit and remove some odd wrinkles. Here is where I am at:

The front is held together with pins.
 Some fitting needs done yet. 

Here is the famous back with its odd cut. 

The back gore.
I need to see if once the front closure is finished the puckering will go away,
if not, I need to readjust to get rid of it. I think it's very ugly. 

Here you can see the front sleeve gores and the strap.
This all still needs pressed and might need adjusting in the end.

Here are the sides with the upper cores and the underarm area. 

A few of the self stuffed buttons I have finished for the front of the gown.
Here are the circles of wool I am using to achieve this size button.

 I am at the point where I have to finish all the tons of buttons for the front and the sleeves. I will have to add the buttons to the gown, add the buttonholes, finish the edges and hem the gown. I will also undoubtedly need to do some more fitting to ensure I have an accurate, yet flattering gown. I still have much work to do, but it is coming together quite well.