Fashion Historian & Historical Costume Maker
Howdy! I haven’t forgotten about this here dress diary, I’ve just been so busy SEWING that it’s hard to pause to blog! The bulk of the base dress is done, and I’m now in the hemming yards of organza and fiddling with things stage. But today I want to talk about the bodice!
I’ve gotten a few new inquiries about joining the 18th c. court gown project, so I’d like to weed out those who have dropped out from the list of “claimed” gowns, because I’ve gotten some “I’d like to play! Oh wait, someone else already claimed the gown I want.”
If you’re someone who claimed an 18th century gown: Are you okay with me letting “your” dress out into the wilds, or do you still want it claimed for you? There’s still no deadline, just, if you think you’re not really going to get to “your” dress, I’d like to de-claim it.
Don’t worry, I’ll assume your dress is still claimed unless you tell me to let it run free!
FYI, the list of claimed gowns is here.
The plan is to do the embroidery for the robe de cour using ribbon embroidery. I hit on the idea as I was thinking of ways to speed this project up, and after I found a few examples of 18th century ribbon embroidery. You all helped out, and with what you came up with, I’m convinced enough that this is a viable, historically accurate option.
I’m right on progress, having done a bunch of embroidery and getting close to done on the petticoat (ie underskirt) and train (ie overskirt). Today I’ll talk skirts, tomorrow embroidery!
Now that this project is underway and the under-petticoat is done, I want to talk a bit about what I’m planning for my dress!
Here’s my source image, which is a preparatory drawing for a fashion plate:
