cloth of gold

[DragonWing]

My partner and I got this fabric at Joann's for his garb.

[operafantomet]

Loops of gold in Eleonora di Toledo's monumental 1545 portrait dress:



Not cloth of gold as such, but a very advanced fabric to produce, as real gold was used, and it required great skills to not stain or rip the white silk. For such cloths-of-gold real metal threads were sometimes used, but it was more common to use thin linen or wool threads covered with thin layers of gold.

If anyone want to read more about the subject, I highly suggest the book "Merchants, Princes and Painters" by Lisa Monnas. It's about various historical (1300-1550) fabrics, and the author compares depictions of fabric with surviving samples and pieces. Very interesting, and cloth-of-gold occurs several places.

http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300111170

[Kathleen MacLeod]

I used the same fabric as DragonWing posted for the underskirt and sleeves of my first noble gown. It frays if you look at it wrong, so it's a pain to cut and sew, but once it's finished it holds up fairly well. It looks beautiful in sunlight, too 

[ladyharrogate]

thank you for all the wonderful comments.  I used the lame but I fused it to a cotton twill before putting it on the caparison (horse costume).  I will post pictures in the finished gallery soon.  I still have three more sets to finish for the order! I would like to find a nice gold that I can use with my daughters princess gown for CRF.  I have fabric from two Indian skirts that is embroidered with gold bullion (on burgundy silk chiffon).  I'm going to appliqué the pieces to her gown and really want to make it FABULOUS!!!