Costuming My Bliss

  

When I saw this dress on the Manchester Galleries site, I fell in love and knew I had to have it! 

So began a reproduction project that took a rediculously long time to complete.

This time I was taking a pattern draping class, so guess what I chose as my final project?

Yup.  Here in lies the saga of the Archery dress.

First, the fabric:

The original is made of a wool, but I couldn't find any in the color I needed.  So we headed down to Stone Mountain Daughter to see what we could come up with. 

I was having no luck at all, when my hubby called me over to look at a cotton velvet he had found.  Perfect!  Who knew he had such a good eye for color?

The pink/salmon is a polyester shantung, the only thing I could find in the right shade, and the black is a cotton velveteen.

This was one of the most fiddily things I've ever worked on.  All the Vandyke trim drove me nuts!  After spending waaay too much time on the hem trim, I was so unhappy with it, I pulled it off and started over.  It's better now, but I'm still not 100% sold on it. 

I wound up using a fuseable interfacing to stabilize the salmon fabric, it was way to squidgy.  I then cut and stiched it to the black.  I covered the raw edges with a black bias tape.  If anyone has a better way (there must be one) to treat a Vandyke trim, would you be so kind as to drop me line and clue me in? (Bats eyelashes, and smiles sweetly)

As soon as I can talk the hubby in to taking pics of me in the dress with the under sleeves on, I'll get those up. *Some pics have been taken, but I'd like to get some better ones.

But for now, here are the making of pics, as well as the finished gown being modeled by my lovely assistant, Gemma.  (that's the dress form)