Vintage Wine Coloured Velvet

This little number was a lot of fun to make though I ought to have done a much better job of documenting its construction. 


I've had about 3.5 yards of vintage rayon velvet awaiting the correct project for about three years. It obviously wasn't nearly enough to construct the entire skirt from but I have enough fabric in reserve at any given time that it wasn't difficult to select something to complement the composition.


Essentially, I wanted to make something elegant and dark. I have a stretchy nylon mesh that is more than a little transparent that I used for the underlying structure on the bodice. The velvet only has a little bit of give to it and, laid over and sewn to that underlying stretch fabric, it does a good job of maintaining its form and covering my top lady bits. 

A lot of the bead work I'd done on the front of the gown in these pics was subsequently replaced  with bronzed metal medallions and pearls. I just wasn't digging the previous result, though I really liked how the back turned out.
To top it off I added a chain headdress of pearls and garnet coloured beads and a rather elaborate feather clip. 


The long train bustles up quite nicely as well. I'll hopefully have pics of the finished gown after Faerieworlds next weekend.