The Laurel Gown

Well if you've been to visit the Dreamstress you will know that she and I are making beautiful sewing music together! :) My job is to do the tiddly bits on the Laurel Dress.

I suggested that the laurel patterning could be done in a realistic timeframe if I appliquéd and machine corded them, and made a sample last year:

At that point I'd only looked at the drawings and not read the description, and I didn't realise the over skirt was black, hence the light colours. I've left the ends of the threads on the samples but on a garment I would hand back stitch them all.

I've done this by attaching the raw cut shapes with visofix (?) and then corded with my special foot using 6 strand embroidery yarn. It makes the best cording and couching of anything I've tried.

After our shopping spree, I did a sample using the actual intended fabrics:

The appliqué is the gold net. I've placed the piece on more gold net. I don't much like the border pattern and will work on making it look more dainty. Also the metallic thread is such a good match, it sort of disappears, so I've found another one with a higher contrast. I also found that the visofix dulls the net, so I'm going to trim out the middle of the shapes so it only adheres around the edges.

The other problm I had is with the black net. It didn't feel at all like nylon and we thought it may have been mislabelled but it sure as heck irons like nylon,. Even the coolest iron turns it to seer sucker, and without heat I can't attach the other fabric. Without the iron on sticky stuff I can't do this in time. Luckily, the Dreamstess also has found it unhelpful to work with and we are subbing it out.

The original dress was decorated using tiny metallic sequins. It must be incredible. But the idea of sequinning that much linear embellishment makes me want to have a cup of tea and a lie down! This technique, combined with some hand beading to emphasise the pattern, I think will look authentic and, well, just gosh darn fab.

My first job is the ends of the velvet sash, and at the same time I will work on the bodice embellishments. These I'll probably do separately and hand stitch onto the bodice rather than try to do in situ, given that it is ruched. It's going to be blast, woohoo! :)