Gold Silk Gown

This gown was an exersize in temperature control. I wanted to make an outfit that would be cool enough to wear during the hot Californian summers without sacrificing stability and this was the end result. I chose this silk because it is a nice, breathable fabric and it was lusterous enough to leave realitvely unembellished.

The bodice is lined in heavy satin and interlined with canvas for stability. I wear it with a lightweight cotton corset. The skirt is lined only with satin, which allows it to move freely over the farthingale. Obviously I wasn't aiming for historical accuracy with this outfit; I was simply seeing how much I could discard before I got down to the barest minimum of materials. Under ordinary circumstances the skirt alone would have been interlined with flannel to give it the necissary weight and drape and the bodice would have had enough stiffening in it to practically serve as a corset on its own.

Still, this dress made it through the summer and now awaits "modification".

3/4 view of gown. For such a light weight outfit, it's very stable. It is worn with a simple white silk chemise.

A side view. The skirt is a standard cartiridge pleated skirt and hook-&-eyed to the bodice. The weight of the skirts pulls the bodice downward, making a lot of boning in the bodice unnesessary. Ain't gravity cool?

A close-up shot of the machine-embroidered design on the front of the bodice. This is the very first costume I used my Pfaff to embroider and it went fairly well, for the most part. The only drawbacks to machine embroidery is the lack of control and the fact that if you screw up, you've, 9 times out of 10, ruined the fabric too. Picking out machine embroidered stitches is very, very difficult and highly frustrating.