Rembrandt, the night watch

I got myself a Rembrandt Night Watch fabric some time ago and I wanted to create a jsk with this but, there were a lot of obstacles I had to overcome! 

As this is one of my favorite paintings I couldn't resist giving this fabric a go!

Sadly, when I got home, I realized that 1 panel wasn't enough so I had to wait till another fabric fair to be able to buy one...
After a while, my friend went to one of those fairs and knew I still needed one (as I asked her to get me some when she went to this place) and I got an extra panel for my birthday!

(Thank you so much Jokemus <3)

I decided I would try a new pattern so I chose one from my Otomo no lolita sewing books!

and I picked out this pattern

I felt that the style and the cut from this jsk was really flattering, elegant and fitted the aesthetic from my fabric most!
I never made lace-holes in fabric so I thought that would be a nice challenge. (and it was... I think making this jsk got me a level-up in my sewing skills!)

First I drafted the pattern!

 I chose size L cause I felt that I would be to big for the other sizes but, I it would have been better if I took size M cause it runs really big!

 I drew all parts two times cause the fabric isn't double and this way I could see really well how and where I could cut the top pieces from!

 It was a real puzzle to figure out what part I could cut out from what part without losing any of the painting

 When all parts got a place on the fabric ( two Rembrandt panels and 1 black panel)

 Here is my partner in crime, my sewing machine!

 First I started with making the shirring panel! I tried to follow the instructions from the sewing-book and it was quite easy to understand and follow!

After I cut all the parts from the dress, I took the back shirring parts and sew the 2 parts together, then turned it the right way and I ironed it so it's perfect! after this I drew on markings for the stretch tunnels and started sewing!

When the tunnels were made I pulled all the stretch trough ( I really hate this part :P takes up so much time and it's so annoying to do!)

 All done!!!

After this it was a little puzzling time... what go's where and how...
I've never made my shirring panel upfront so I was a bit skeptic about how to make this work!

 And then we put all the parts together... TADAAAAA!!!

 After sewing all parts together, I ironed the entire thing and practiced the art of making the iron lace-holes!

 The making of the holes didn't take up a lot of time and I felt very happy about the result I got!
Then as a last part, I had to sew the bodice and the skirt part together! not the hardest part but I always find this a very time consuming part so it always makes me nervous! 

And this is the result!

 When I tried the jsk on, it was WAY to big! I was a bit disappointed I didn't measure the parts better and with the way I made the shirring panel, it's not possible to quickly pull the stretchers to a smaller size so I decided I would also put in some lacing in the back so I can make it as big or small as I want!

 I'm really happy I did this cause now I can really fit the dress to my bodytype!
Here a picture of the full back!

 

Result:

 

Thank you for reading <3