Thursday, May 1, 2008

Gold Brocade Gown

November 10, 2008

I have finally figured out what to do with this bloody bodice! Okay, first a bit of updating -
After finishing the bodice, I had to eek the skirt out of the remaining yardage, which wasn't much. Unfortunately, the skirt does not fit over my farthingale. :-/ I'll have to either find more fabric, or make a smaller farthingale, which I really don't want to do. I think I have some more fabric around here somewhere, it's just a matter of finding it.
Anyway, the bodice and skirt are in a relatively finished state. I was a bit stumped on how to embellish the bodice, until I re-watched Elizabeth : The Golden Age. There is this wonderful blue dress that Gloriana wears during the scene where Sir Walter and Bess are dancing with each other, and the embellishment struck me as being perfect for this gown.
(You can click on it for a larger view.) I was happy to see that the "trim" was actually rows of beading. I can do that by hand! Huzzah! I intend to give my bodice the same treatment, and will probably work on it with the ladies of the SCA Needleworker's Guild. ^^ Hopefully, I'll have more updates soon!





April 30, 2008


Lack of funds has caused me to go digging through my fabric stash again. Luckily, I was able to find several different fabrics that had enough yardage to make some new court gowns! My favourite was a gold brocade. It's not exactly period, but it's pretty, so I've decided not to care. It was also a chance to try out the drafting instructions on The Renaissance Tailor's website.
I should have made a toile first, especially since I had never done anything off those instructions before, but I didn't. What I ended up with was a pretty respectable bodice, but there were several things that had to be changed - the armsye needed to be opened up and two inches needed to be added to the straps, but overall it didn't need much tweaking.
I added the skirt to it the other day, and finished all the hand-sewing that needed to be done. I'm still not sure what to do about embellishments, but I'm working on a pair of lattice smocked sleeves to wear with it.

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