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Being the Saga of One Most Noble Gown of Red Velvet
This diary is being written partially in retrospect. When you get to the bit about finding out that I have, in fact, two different colors of red velvet (Yikes!) you'll have gotten to the present moment, and hopefully to a point where this file is being maintained on a regular basis.
I first did the design work for this gown sometime around the middle of last season. The original plan called for the dress to be made of a changeable red taffeta that I had lately fallen in love with, trimmed with puffwork of white satin, small puffwork in gold organza, black velvet applique, and, of course, gold. What good is a noble that's not trimmed in gold? Really. My romance with the taffeta ended when a very dear soul at faire pointed out that dust gets into it and never ever comes out. (Faires, for those of you who don't know, have two natural states: really dusty, and wet.)
Sometime in late fall, I went off to a fabric store with a mind to buy brown velvet. I came home with black and red velvet. I still don't know quite how that happened. But when fabric calls, it's best to listen. The next thing that changed was the trimming: Instead of puffwork in white satin applied to the gown, I decided that, for the sake of washability, I ought to do the trim as a series of removable appliques. The appliques will be constructed of a decorated piece of black velvet, an inner lining of white satin, and a backing of black duck.
In the beginning of a long term fit of costuming anxiety (I get this every time), I had a terrible dream somewhere in december that I was on stage for the final costume competition, and suddenly noticed that my skirts (hoops and all) only came to by knees, and I was wearing flourescent pink stockings with my red gown. Decided I was taking this whole thing way to seriously. I mention this only because it inspired me to actually do up the math in Ye Tailor's Little Booke of Geometries, regarding skirt length.
The next thing that changed (there's been a lot of that going around) was the construction of the sleeve. I decided against doing the 'queen' sleeve, in favor of making a larger shoulder treatment (those odd little quarter-arm poofy sleeve heads you see are often part of the shoulder treatment, rather than part of the sleeve), with a slashed sleeve beneath. This came from talking to a friend about her planned dress. I am currently bartering a completed pattern for the shoulder treatment against forgiveness for repeatedly "adopting" her ideas. Sorry, Jenn....
Last weekend, I realized I did not have enough of my red velvet, and bought more. Of course, I'm an absolute, screaming idiot sometimes, and did not bring a swatch to the fabric store. (I'm normally really good at remembering exact colors.) I bought more of what I would have sworn was the right color. It even looked like the right color when I compared it to the original piece (in a dimly lit corner of by bedroom with a dress dummy between me and the primary full spectrum light source, late at night.) I've very recently completed an italien woman's doublet (and associated costume) out of heavy brused cotton. I decided that I liked the lay of the heavy skirt fabric so much that I will interline the velvet skirts with heavy cotton to make them fall into the same deep folds, which should be quite striking in velvet.
Two nights ago, I was laying out the fabric on Janey (my dress dummy), and noticed that the red was too cherry to use a white satin puff in the applied trim. Hmm, I thought, that's odd, you'd think I'd have thought about that when I bought the velvet in the first place. Instead of thinking about that further, I decided that using a red satin for the puffs, while less documentably common in period, would certainly be striking and would match the sleeves.
Last night, I needed more fabric to lay out on Janey, so I grabbed the original piece of velvet, and noticed that, lo and behold, it's a different red. Yep, I've got one true red, and one blue based red. They are the same value of red, but the base color makes them look about a shade off. After contemplating my options for a while (try to find a velvet that matches the original, add a band in black to the bottom of the skirt to save enough fabric for the bodice, die everything a darker red, or just dye the whole thing black and forget about it), I started in to the patterning. I've decided to use the bodice from my green middle class dress as a basis for the bodice patter. It fits nicely, and has a proper arch at the front. I determined that I will need to move the side back seams a little closer to the center back, shorten the back about an inch, and make the shoulder straps tighter. No great shakes.
It's currently the beginning of February. I live in the Midwestern US. There is no natural light availiable by the time I get home from work, unless I get into the office at 6:30am. Generally, that means I'm trying to match fabrics by turning on one of every type of bulb I can get my hands on (incandescant, flourescent, "natural" light, plant lights, soft lights, etc etc etc) and hoping that I come out with something approaching the full spectrum of sunlight. (Don't bother; it doesn't actually work.) I decided that the only thing to do about the two slightly different reds was to hide the difference in the skirts, below the patterned band that I'll be appliqueing on later. That saves me 6" on each of 4 panels, and what with me being short and all, that's more than enough for a bodice. Hopefully, no one will know unless they read this. I did all the math for the skirt (45" wide panels split between too velvets, 60" wide heavy cotton interlining, and a linign of black taffeta that I cannot seem to recall the width of right now - that's too many things to keep track of without writting things down), and cut the larger velvet panels last night. I also noticed another color problem: I cannot find a true red satin to use for the visable lining material between the panes on the sleeves. I've been experimenting with overlaying gold organza or fine gold mesh over cherry red satin. This has two effects: the yellow tones in the gold tone down the blue in the cherry color, and the gold completely masks the red when seen directly under light - you can't actually really tell if the reds match or not. Cloth of Gold, used in period, was (if I understand this correctly; if anyone has better info please tell me) made with weft threads of colored silk and warp threads of either thin gold strips ("tynsell"), or thread covered in thin gold. This would create a changeable fabric - gold when viewed straight on, and the color of the silk threads when viewed orthogonally. I am currently doing some research to try to find information on what it should look like, to see if the organza/mesh over satin method is a reasonable approximation. I will also need to do a little more playing to decide if I like the effect. I may try to make the visable linings detatchable, so that I can change them if I do not like the way they work out.
I tried to start working in earnest over the weekend. I failed. I was rudely reminded of the fact that as much as I like the look of velvet, I absolutely *hate* working with it. I was absolutely confounded by the fact that my velvet apparently contrived to grow, more or less randomly, along the hem. I swear, I thought I had sewn it straight.... (After some measureing, it turns out that I did sew it all striaght. Somehow, it contrived to grow. My mother, who does the seamstress thing professionally, was surprised that I was surprised by this.) The other problem I have encountered is that the heavy cotton I'm using as an interlining on the skirt is stretching - I had prewashed it on hot, and now its own weight is causing it to stretch where it had shrunk. This is just as well - I accidentally stretched it a little while pinning it to the velvet, so there is little bagginess between the two layers. The interlining gained about a quarter inch the first night I left it hang, so I am thinking that it will all work out in the long run.
I
finally got enough of the shell constructed to do a fitting session on Janey.
This isn't actually really the color it is. The red of the polaroids did not
match the red of the fabric, and neither match the red on the screen. I am not
actually portraying the Grand Tomato at faire. If you look closely at the back
(and your browser isn't compressing the image) you can see where I have pinned
down extra fabric. You can also see one of my bodice contruction techniques
in actio - the straps only extend up a bit from the back. This saves fabric
while cutting - the scraps can be cut on a straight edge of the fabric later,
leaving fewer unusable scrap areas to contend with. Once I have sewn the rest
of the strap onto the stubs in back, I will finish the whole thing and then
tack the straps down in front. The skirt you see here, incidentally, is not
anywhere near finished - it's only the outer velvet and the interlining, and
it has been temporarily pleated because I find it easier to run a line of pleating
stitches by hand than I find it to try to keep ~6 yards of heavy fabric straight
while marking a hem. Your mileage may vary - it depends on how easy you find
it to run 1" stitches. My handsewing is very quick and fairly even, so
this is eaiser for me. For some people, it is easier to use a measuring tape
and figure things out that way. I'm good with needles, but really bad with measuring.
This
is a means of marking alterations. I've put the bodice on Janey inside out.
The yellowy color is the heavy cotton that I'm using as an interlining. Instead
of trying to mark the new seam lines with pins or a pen, I'm basting them in
with buttonhole twist. Then I can simply sew right next to the basting line.
This technique takes more time, but it is less painful than continuously pushing
pins into your fingers while trying to get them neatly into the fabric for the
seam. It is also more accurate, in this case, because the seam is slightly curved.
![](="../pictures/realpieces/doctoreddress.jpg")
This
is a (badly) doctored picture done up in photoshop to show roughly what the
trim patterns on the dress are going to look like. (No, not just like that;
I only felt like drawing out half of it. Sheesh.) This is my final 'proof of
concept' drawing fof this dress. Hopefully, it will all go according to plan
from here. Dressmaking is, of course, as much of an exercise in resourceful
problem solving as it is in creativity. When things stop working out according
to plan, sometimes the best solution is to change the plan. I am hoping not
to do that too many more times in this process...
I finished up the skirt last night, and threw it on Janey to make sure it had, in fact, decided to come out the right length. Somehow, it was 2" short. After all sorts of panicing, remeasuring, cursing, blaming the cats (who protested innocence), and re-remeasuring, I finally remembered that I had moved janey up on her pole a few days ago to allow the unhemmed skirts to hang. Remember, always check the waist to ground measure on the dummy, too....
It is now March. Things are coming along very nicely. I've finished
all the trim pieces for the dress. The trim is made by applying cheap thin metallics
to pieces of black velvet. First, I traced out the pattern I was using on tissue
paper. THen, I pinned the tissue to the back of the velvet, and sewed around
the design in red. This effectively transfers the design from the back of the
fabric to the front. Then I sewed the trin down according to the patter. I handstitched
the trim onto the bodice, and used a zigzag stitch to attatc it to the 
skirt.
The results can be seen to the left.
The sleevecaps are made of black velvet edged in two kinds of gold trim. This lie over a gold organza/red satin layer. I may redo them, because I do not like how far away the lining pulls from the panes.
Eventually, I will be doing a lot of bead and pearl work, but that will take a while an while to do.
