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Piping:
Measure around the armscyes (armholes), neckline, and the waistband. You really don't have to add piping at the waistband, but I thought it added a neat touch. I added piping to the top and the bottom of the waistband. Cut strips of the same fabric as your dress fabric, 1 1/4" wide on the bias (cross grain). You can sew the strips together to make a longer strip of fabric. Fold fabric over narrow piping lengthwise, attach zipper foot to sewing machine, and begin sewing together very close to the piping. Be careful not to sew over the top of the piping. You may find it's easier to do by hand.
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Attach piping to armscyes and neckline. Trim off inside edge of neckline as shown in picture:
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Fold piping under and whip stitch to lining.
Cut out waistband and attach piping to outside waistband:
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Sew waistband lining to one edge of outside waistband, right sides together.
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Attach waistband to bodice right sides together. Do not sew lining.
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Turn waistband down and then turn lining under, pin, and whip stitch waistband lining to bodice lining:
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Gigot sleeves:
Cut out two sleeves from the lining and fashion fabric. These really are big sleeves. Each one takes approximately 1 yard of fabric! It probably wouldn't hurt to get 7 yards of fabric for this dress instead of 6 1/2, but that's all the fabric I had to work with.
Sew sleeve lining and the fashion fabric sleeve separately, rights sides together. Remember to not sew all the way to the edge of the wrist. There needs to be an opening to get your hand through. The directions in Patterns of Fashion1 say you can fold edges under after sleeve lining and fashion fabric sleeves have been joined. But, I decided to do it a bit differently. I pinned the sleeve opening of the lining and fashion fabric right sides together, and then stitched together. Then I clipped the corners and turned it so the lining was on the inside and fashion fabric on the outside. Press.
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Run two gathering stitches around the top of each of the gigot sleeves. I did this by hand. Draw gathers to fit into the armscye. Pin sleeve to armscye right sides together. I stitched the sleeves to the armscye by hand using small back stitches. It took a while to do, but I think it made the sleeve gathers look a lot more neat, than if I would have done it by machine. This is a great excuse to pop in a good movie and sew while watching it. It makes the time seem like it goes a lot faster!
Bodice almost finished:
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Skirt:
To figure out how long you need to cut your skirt panels, measure from the waistband to the floor. Add about 1/2" for seam allowance at waist and 1/2" for hem facing seam allowance. Now take off the amount of inches you want the skirt to hang off the floor. So, if you want to have the skirt 3" off the floor, take that much off. Then you add from 1-3" for overlap at the waist. Cut 3-4 panels of your fabric and sew them together at the selvedge edge. I used 3 panels.
Now cut your hem facing. Usually I cut the hem facing about 4-6" wide and if I'm using 45" wide material for this, I will cut about 4 strips. If the skirt used 45" wide material and had 4 panels of fabric, then I would cut 5 strips. Or, measure around your skirt then cut your strips that long plus seam allowances. Then sew the strips together at the selvedge edges. Pin this to the skirt right sides together. Almost forgot, using scalloped or pinking sheers, cut one edge of the skirt facing. Sew all along the bottom edge of the hem facing and skirt.
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Turn the hem facing out and press.
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Then turn in and press. Pin all along the scalloped or pinked edge and by hand make a running stitch all along the scalloped or pinked edge. No need to turn the edge under.
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After you are finished with the hem, now you make the placket. But first, iron under the amount you allotted for at the top edge of the skirt. Find a seam that will be in the center back. You may have to cut an opening. take the seam apart about 8 or 9 inches. Cut a strip of fabric 3 inches by double the length of the opening. With right sides together, pin and then sew the placket to the opening. Make sure you don't catch any ripples while you are sewing it. This can be tricky, so you may consider doing it by hand instead of by machine.
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I gauged my skirt to the bodice. To do this, you run two gathering stitches all along the top skirt edge. This needs to be done by hand or else it does not look right. Draw the gathers close to each other to fit the bodice waist. Tie the strings so they stay gathered. Now pin the gathers to the edge of the bodice. Each gather should be sewn by hand to the bodice.
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Add hooks and eyes to the bodice for the closure in the back and also to the sleeves and your done!