9-3-07: It begins!
I’ve been threatening to make a copy of the dress QE1 wears in the Ditchley Portrait for years now. As such, I’ve been scouring the land for just the right materials and now, finally, I am ready to start.
Actually, if truth be told, my motivation is the “Silver Semptress” competition that started this past August 15th and ends in December. The owner of a Yahoo group I belong to had the idea to have a “competition” using just the materials from our stash and an allowance of $30.00 to make an Elizabethan outfit for a male or female. I figured this was as good a time as any to make good on my threat.
That, and that I’ve finally come up with a french farthingale that I like. The pictures elsewhere on this site are of the previous version. I have yet to post more updated pictures, but I’ll probably get to those as I work on this dress. (EDIT: they’re posted. Look them up under the “French Farthingale” diary section.)
I’ve also come up with a set of sleeve farthingales that I think will work nicely for this dress. Come to think of it, I’ll have to post about that as well… (EDIT: also updated and in the corresponding section.)
But anyway, on to the fabric choices! The forepart, stomacher and sleeves will be made from the ivory fabric. It already has diagonal seams sewn onto the fabric on the bias, so it will make the job of adding the poufs easier. The overgown will be made from the red & gold fabric you see on the right. I just tacked the poufs down and set the buttons on top to get the effect. The gold on the brocade isn’t showing up like it does in real life, but I hope you can at least get an idea of how they will look together:
The problem I’m having right now is that I’m not sure how to make those little four-petaled flower poufs that are under the buttons in the original portrait. I mean, I know how to make them, but the thing is that I will probably have to make HUNDREDS and they all have to be more or less the same. I want to make a jig of some kind, but that’s where I’m stuck…
More soon!
But in the meantime, here is a close-up of those flowers…maybe one of you knows a way to mass produce those dratted things…
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