Velvet Galore!

I received my final four yards of red velvet from fabric.com yesterday, so today I set about finishing laying out the pattern for the overdress. Because of the way that the pattern is laid out, even though I didn't have enough material left for the final piece due to length, I now have enough velvet to clothe an army of midgets. I've got it all cut out, and now I'm putting it together, but the big question is ... where are all the splits on Susan's dress? Because I'm sewing the seams that will be split with a large stitch right now. Later I'll figure out how high the splits are, then rip the seams and fold and sew the edges.

You can see the splits in the above photo.

I think it's probably split either just on the side front seams, or the side front and the side back seams. I doubt it's every seam, otherwise the dress would hang differently off of Anna Popplewell. But, I'm not sure. I think for now I'll go with the side front and side back seam theory so that I can test it out later without too much ripping.

So, now the main bits of the dress are assembled. The next step is to attach the yoke and the sleeves, and then to create the splits in the dress.




You can see, however, that there is a bit of puckering in the bodice due to the velvet being a bitch to work with. Normally, I'd rip that out and resew it, but the entire bodice is going to be covered with chainmaile and leather corset, so I didn't bother. It's actually not as bad as it looks in this picture, it's just the way that I pinned the back to keep the dress tight against the dummy. The only puckering is just on the seam right on the bustline. But still, it's killing me. Heck, I spent a half hour trying to line up the center back correctly. I can't stand having these small imperfections, but the truth is, no one is going to know. Well, except for you guys.

Also, I'd like to point out that I didn't white balance my camera before taking these pictures. The velvet is NOT that orange, I promise!