Gallery of Finished Projects

[Syrilla]

I love it it.  So very lovely!

[Syrilla]

Amy the dress and your daughter are both lovely!  Great colors!

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

OPera!!

Brava Maddame!!!!

[operafantomet]

Wow, thank you for the fantastic feedback! You sure know how to boost a costumers ego.  Really, I appreciate the comments a lot. I was so close to scrap this project several times, as it never came together right. So getting such nice comments on the finished dress makes me feel it was all worth the struggle.

Gem, I think I've told of the materials previously, but that is probably several years ago...  The blue fabric is a mercerized cotton sateen, in a sky blue colour*. The black trim is a narrow and ornate velvet trim. I used double rows all over the dress, except the sleeves. It comes in a variety of colours, from the brand Panduro**. The backside is adhesive, which was great for getting the placement on the dress right, but I later stitched it down. The dress is lined with a greenish beige polyester for the skirt and sleeves, and unbleached cotton for the bodice. The bodice is boned with rigilene.

Next time I make an Italian dress in this style, I'll try the period way of stiffening (linen cardboard, wool felt etc). I will also use more period fabrics for lining, but probably cotton velvet for the actual dress. The blue one was a tryout of sorts, to see how the pattern worked on me. Hopefully I know what to NOT do next time...


*When I was young and brave, I wrote to Høie, this bed linen company two hours away from my hometown, and asked if they had any scraps I might use for my costume making. They make amazing sateens there. I got a reply saying I should stop by. So I did. To my big surprise they told me to pick whatever I wanted from their tryout-batches. There were meters of shelves with big bolts of fabric, and I could take whatever! I filled a huge plastic bag with as much as I could physically carry, thanked them a thousand times, and probably spent 6 hours getting home with that heavy load. I expected scraps, not big bolts of fabric, ya know...

I got that sky blue one I used for the dress overneath, the brown sateen I've used for the embroidered underskirt (my grandmother did the embroidery), a paler blue sateen, a military green wool, a red sateen, and also various pillow cases. And I still wanna thank them for their kindness, but alas they've moved most of their production abroad, and the people who where kind to me no longer works there.


**Panduro has an English site, and I think their web shop ships worldwide. The velvet trim in question is fantastic, and comes in black, beige-ish orange, wine red, moss green, grey, pink and probably lots of other colours too. Links:
http://www.pandurohobby.co.uk/pan/IboxServlet?p=IXS790&OPT=GET&AID=025286

http://www.pandurohobby.co.uk/pan/IboxServlet?QRY=adhesive+velvet&p=IXS750&m=1

[NicoleBridget]

Gem, I love your costume...but I'm not familiar with Chuck?  Can you elaborate?  I love the crispness of the top, well done!  And 8 weeks AHEAD of schedule...what is this phenomenon you speak of?  Cannot...grasp...concept....

Anea...stunning!  Absolutely stunning!  I think I said it before but I'm in love with that black trim too.  Thanks for sharing the pics of the different stages of dress, how fun!

[Syrilla]

  Alright, I've been almost finished with it for a while now.

[Lady Kathleen of Olmsted]

Absolutely stunning!!!!!!

Syrilla!!!  Any Queen should know.."There is no such thing as being overdressed."  

[amy]

If I may brag on you just a smidgen Syrilla,  she rocked that dress.. Oh you should see the back! the cording and pearls and all.  It is a detailed knockout.    She just shimmered!

[bookwench]

Syrilla, that is an amazing dress! 

Anea, love the getting dressed photos!  Beautiful! 

[Lady Rebecca]

Syrilla, that is breathtaking. Absolutely beautiful!

[Capt Gabriela Fullpepper]

Very beautiful. You do look the part of Queen Bess

[Wickedvox]

Syrilla--uuuuh...wow. What was the total hours spent working on that? It's a masterpiece, truly!

[DonaCatalina]

Looking at Syrilla's work is a day of enjoyment all by itself.

[LadyShadow]

Oh so lovely. wonderful work.

[operafantomet]

Syrilla, WOW! So many details... so cool details!