Water Blue Gown Rebuild

Finally a project that got done fast.  I shouldn't be so excited because it wasn't too much of a rework.  I took the waistband off the skirt, removed & layered the sparkly stuff over more blue satin to make another separate skirt, then whipped the wasitband of that one into the bodice. Put the waistband back on the original. Voila! No more waist gap in the back. Now I'm wondering if I should add big fussy bows to the front. In Baroque, excess is best.

Renovation--18th C Turquoise

This gown needs a tweak and Carnivale season is here with a good excuse to wear it again so it's time to see what I can do on "round 3".  The first iteration was done last year for a trek to Venice for Carnivale.  It was intended to be a streetwear costume in February so I didn't do a bodice on the original I did a padded winter jacket with period lines that I could wear a bulky sweater and ski unders with.  Fabrication and periodicity wasn't as important as fast, warm, and easily transportable so it's 100% polyester satin with random synthetic accents.  The base satin & lace were less than $3 a yard, and the fluffy net stuff was my old curtains from 20+ years ago. The coat is also poly, fully reversable to gold cotton/poly brocade (to be worn over my formal and very period gold ballgown) and filled with needlepunch batting.  Lots of tourists photographed me walking the streets of Venice, but this is the only full dress shot I have and it's indoors.  Iteration 2 was for a pirate ball last Autumn & required finally making a bodice.  The skirt already had layers so I didn't add a peplum or skirt to the corset shape.  A few hours' wearing showed why so many 18th C. gowns have those features:  skirt gap.  Despite tapes to keep the skirt & bodice together I ended up with the waistband slipping and chemise hanging out in back.  Iteration 3 will be to take the skirt apart & add some kind of peplum or pouf layer to the bodice to cover the gap. I've assembled a pile of every piece of turquoise fabric I have & will start mixing it up.  Deadline is ~ 2 weeks out for a Mardi Gras ball.

A Palazzo in Venezia-Version 1

Hiding from Pyrates in a Salon-Version 2