[Costuming] Iron Dress Musings
More precisely... I'm goofing off from that essay I really need to get started. But this is necessary goofing. Promise.
My original intention was to make this an open front, or Ladder-Laced bodice dress. This is classic Venetian. You see it in portraits everywhere. There are very few portraits that I've found, that show a ladder laced bodice AND a split front skirt. I've found one, to be precise:
Great, that's workable. But the dress is so heavily decorated, that the sleeves I want to do really won't work. It'll be TOO much, IMO. Granted, the Courtesans did have some strange tastes in their attire, but you also need to remember that they were just as richly attired, or perhaps even more so due to their freedom, than the average Noble's wife. Plus, for an open front dress like that, I'm relatively certain that I'll need to make the bodice and skirt separate AND make a 'dickey' of sorts out of linen to cover the waistband of the underskirt.
The other alternative to the open front is this:
I get the best of both worlds - open front overskirt, subdued trimming on the bodice and no dickey. Plus, I get to use the cutwork sleeves. The bad part? I need to figure out a way to get in and out of the dress, by myself, because the lacing will be in the back. That's a big minus.
Now, I could meet in the middle - make a front closing bodice that closes completely, no exposed ladder lacing. That means easy to get in and out of, no dickey to make, I can keep the open front over skirt and I can still trim it as tastefully or low-key as I need in order to not clash with the cutwork sleeves. Plus, that gives me an opportunity to use piping in the lovely lime/citron silk on all the edges AND make the dress one piece instead of separate bodice and skirt.
Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. Maybe I can get some of that citron silk bias cut narrow enough to use as decoration on the bodice as well. That might be pushing it. We'll see.
My original intention was to make this an open front, or Ladder-Laced bodice dress. This is classic Venetian. You see it in portraits everywhere. There are very few portraits that I've found, that show a ladder laced bodice AND a split front skirt. I've found one, to be precise:
Great, that's workable. But the dress is so heavily decorated, that the sleeves I want to do really won't work. It'll be TOO much, IMO. Granted, the Courtesans did have some strange tastes in their attire, but you also need to remember that they were just as richly attired, or perhaps even more so due to their freedom, than the average Noble's wife. Plus, for an open front dress like that, I'm relatively certain that I'll need to make the bodice and skirt separate AND make a 'dickey' of sorts out of linen to cover the waistband of the underskirt.
The other alternative to the open front is this:
I get the best of both worlds - open front overskirt, subdued trimming on the bodice and no dickey. Plus, I get to use the cutwork sleeves. The bad part? I need to figure out a way to get in and out of the dress, by myself, because the lacing will be in the back. That's a big minus.
Now, I could meet in the middle - make a front closing bodice that closes completely, no exposed ladder lacing. That means easy to get in and out of, no dickey to make, I can keep the open front over skirt and I can still trim it as tastefully or low-key as I need in order to not clash with the cutwork sleeves. Plus, that gives me an opportunity to use piping in the lovely lime/citron silk on all the edges AND make the dress one piece instead of separate bodice and skirt.
Yeah, I think that's what I'll do. Maybe I can get some of that citron silk bias cut narrow enough to use as decoration on the bodice as well. That might be pushing it. We'll see.