paillettes

it looks great from my browsing of it. lots of helpful information in there, like a history of the dress style with sketches of how it appears in paintings.

so... there's no reason i can't use my mid-16th c. camicia-in-progress as a hemd under a cranach gown, right?

i'm working off this judith because it's green, but her skin is so creamy i can't tell if there's a very sheer partlet/high necked shift going on under there.

i'm also wondering what to use for the brocade. i'm not finding anything that has that look of black lines on gold. well, i did find one at istok but it's like a gazillion dollars a yard with a minimum purchase of 10 yards.

1. the green jacquard is on hold. i still don't like the color, but i also haven't had a chance to overdye a swatch to test its fixability. meanwhile i have found yardage of a similar jacquard online, in grey-on-grey. i've bought a little piece of it, since the seller could not confirm the fiber content and doesn't take returns. so i'll set it on fire and see what i get.

2. the dead spaniard fabrics will be an elizabethan, not a tudor. i finally realized that i like elizabethans when they aren't piled up with gewgaw like "heidi's homeland" lingerie. so, not a court gown, basically. i've made a sketch but my scanner's not hooked up (still unpacking from my move). i'll use the taffeta with black velvet guards for the dress, and the beaded stuff for sleeves and forepart, and a red petticoat (it's so monochromatic, it needs a peek of color).

3. i've realized a big reason i don't get around to sewing and cutting is that i'm scared to mess up. i'm not confident in my patternmaking skills, and i don't have a dress dummy (i must fix this a.s.a.p) so i have to do any draping and adjustments on myself... i procrastinate and then i run out of time since i wait too long and then i get frustrated in my last-minute rush. so i decided i should get a decent pattern and try that, since i'm pretty confident in my pattern-following skills. after seeing this beautiful 12th night gown via jenthompson's journal, i ordered the saxon gown pattern from reconstructing history. so after all my idle perusing of cranach portraits, thinking "i'll never get to a german dress at this rate" it has rocketed to the front of the list. figures, it's moved to the front yet i don't have fabric for it. so i'm on the lookout for green velvet, or white velvet and a different shade of procion dye than i used on the jacquard.

maybe i'll be judith for halloween after all!