Finished Dress Teaser

Finished Dress! I'll get some better shots once I can find a minute to wear it again. Silk satin, silk net, hand embroidery, gold bullion trim at the hem with silk satin puffing. And piped tabs on the bodice.

Thought I could get the puffing done on the drive down. Ha! I got most of it based down, but next to no trim. So for the first two days of CoCo I was sewing at any moment I could, trying to get the puffing done and a few other small details. Reeeeaaaalllly should have used up a vacation day or two like I'd initially planned.

I set the silk net separately over the skirt to encourage it to move independently. What had started as a just touching the floor hem for the net elongated by about 2 inches over the evening, forcing me to trim the net at center front so it wouldn't get tangled in my shoes or trip me. Unexpectantly the stretching made the back drape amazingly beautiful. The puffing just touched the floor in the back while the silk lining did not, showing off the net to a beautiful effect. Was not planned but I fell in love with the look.

I got super geeky figuring out the puffing. I played around with placement until I discovered a 60 deg angle worked best (conveniently marked on my cutting mat too) and measured out the length of 3 motifs of the gold bullion trim. Just shy of 3 inches, x2 to ensure adequate puffing, plus allowances. Needed to take into account how much the angle will pull along the hem, so a big of trig was necessary. O = H * sin(60) was the answer.

Unfortunately I added to much extra (1-2 inches per panel) along the hem to give the puffs a bit more bulk, which doesn't work with this light weight silk. Add in that the top of the band (being a gored skirt) had even a bit more and some places was super floppy. I had to add double the number of gold trim bands, which is good because I'd not realized how spartan the look would have been given how the skirt is set.

The necklace, earrings and tiara were from Dames a la Mode, whom I met in person at Costume College.  My hair is mostly fake - fake curls I made ages ago and a fake bun. Plus opera length black silk gloves and a giant Miss Bingley feather to cap the look.