Ok, not bright red.
I got the main fabrics for the dress yesterday - the pink dupioni, which is eye-wateringly bright in large amounts, and pink cotton to flat line with. There was a dupioni in the same red as the warp in the pink fabric, which I assumed would work as a contrast, until I looked at them next to one another. It doesn't work. At all. The hot pink brings out a strange, rusty tomato shade in even cool, true reds and it looks awful.
So bright red is off the list at the moment and I'm considering burgundy instead, but I am rather stumped at the moment. Will bring a pink sample and hunt for contrasting fabric tomorrow and next week. Bummer.
Also got some silver cord for the Panzer dress - have added some of it to the shoulder straps, and I'm thinking of putting the rest together with a small silver tassel I had lying around to make a sort of... yeah, whatever that cord and tassel thing draping between the collar and/or lapels and the shoulder strap is called on uniforms.*
Finally found a source (in Swedish) that gives clear and reasonably comprehensive information about the various three crown buttons, by the way; as far as I've gathered, the grey metal ones are M/1939, the gold and silver coloured ones are M/1960, a furlough uniform. The gold colour is the standard, with the silver ones used only by a few regiments, which would explain why they are harder to find, of course. I'm guessing that the grey plastic version is from one of the 1950's or 1960's uniforms, too - M/1959 or M/1968. Nice to get that sorted out.
*Aiguillette or possibly lanyard, it turns out; ägiljett in Swedish. The Swedish uniform regulation is very useful for this kind of stuff, apparently. And I did make an aiguillette sort of thing with the rest of the cord.
So bright red is off the list at the moment and I'm considering burgundy instead, but I am rather stumped at the moment. Will bring a pink sample and hunt for contrasting fabric tomorrow and next week. Bummer.
Also got some silver cord for the Panzer dress - have added some of it to the shoulder straps, and I'm thinking of putting the rest together with a small silver tassel I had lying around to make a sort of... yeah, whatever that cord and tassel thing draping between the collar and/or lapels and the shoulder strap is called on uniforms.*
Finally found a source (in Swedish) that gives clear and reasonably comprehensive information about the various three crown buttons, by the way; as far as I've gathered, the grey metal ones are M/1939, the gold and silver coloured ones are M/1960, a furlough uniform. The gold colour is the standard, with the silver ones used only by a few regiments, which would explain why they are harder to find, of course. I'm guessing that the grey plastic version is from one of the 1950's or 1960's uniforms, too - M/1959 or M/1968. Nice to get that sorted out.
*Aiguillette or possibly lanyard, it turns out; ägiljett in Swedish. The Swedish uniform regulation is very useful for this kind of stuff, apparently. And I did make an aiguillette sort of thing with the rest of the cord.