Modes Royale Inspired Four Piece Cocktail Ensemble

I have been planning on making this outfit since 2008 when I discovered the Modes Royale patterns.  Of course other projects kept jumping in front of this one, and another designer made this before me, but I still was obsessed with making this design myself.

I really like the idea of the lace sheath under an overdress or redingote.  I started thinking about other possibilities and I ended up adding a sash, and a straight skirt to create four different outfit options.

I wanted to make this outfit for last year's "Every Day a Holiday" convention, but I didn't like my first attempts.

I originally designed the redingote with a full gathered skirt.  I like the way it looks with the straight skirt under it, but I hated the way it looked over the lace sheath.  I will be selling this outfit as a 2-piece cocktail dress.

This is my original lace sheath, I loved how it turned out with this lace, but I felt like the pink underlining didn't show through enough.  I ended up selling the sheath and sash as an outfit without the redingote and skirt.

I decided to start over on the redingote.  After really inspecting the original picture I realized that the skirt is not gathered at the hips.  It is more of a flared skirt.  Why had I missed that detail the first time around?

Here is my 7th attempt.  It took a lot of tries to get the skirt to look the way I wanted it to.

I changed the lace on the sheath, and I like the way the pink underlining shows more.

I think the sheath looks beautiful with the matching sash.

I added the straight black skirt to be worn under the redingote.  This is my favorite look!  I think it is so elegant.

 As an afterthought, I realized that the skirt could be worn over the sheath for another look.

Here are all four pieces combined into two great outfits.

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