(no subject)

[mandie_rw]

Had a most excellent time invading Allaire today - I'll do a proper event post once I swipe all the pictures from Robin, as I don't think I got any pictures of me on my camera, haha.

We had immense fun costume-plotting afterward, as they were silly enough to inform us that they're having a new event this summer, a "barn dance" in August, which we cheerfully took to mean, "you ladies should probably show up in 1830s ball gowns" Or, dancing-appropriate dresses, at least, but we are fond of overdressing... And Robin was schmoozing the kid who's in charge of the event, and got him to promise there would be candlelight. He'd best not be fibbing!

Allaire's a village for the industrial workers of the mill in the 1830s, so a very fancy dress would be silly - so naturally my mind jumped to a spangled probably-late-1820s dress in the Met that I've loved for ages:

Except then I zoomed in as far as I could on the closeup, and "wait, I don't see holes in these spangles, how tiny are they? waaaaiiiit... these aren't spangles!!" I'm guessing at some sort of bullion, since I can just see the flat fibers kind of wrapped on top of each other...but I don't know enough about embroidery with metallics to say which type it is, or even if it's really that at all (I would think silver would have tarnished by now!). Little shiny bits of paper? Tinfoil? Tiny Liberace mirrors? Puffy paint?

...what I'm saying here is, suggestions are welcome! I dunno that I really am going to make such an absurdly involved yet plain dress, but I'm still very curious to hear what anyone else thinks about it.

Comments

[llyrafantasyfae.livejournal.com]

Puffy paint definitely puffy paint, (also no clue, interested to see what others say).

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

I do have access to tons of puffy paint at work.. 3:)

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

It looks like silver plate embriodery, though I can't imagine why it hasn't tarnished. I did it in a class at Costume College when I still did that sort of thing.

Here it is in gold. http://www.berlinembroidery.com/goldworkthreads3.htm

[koshka-the-cat.livejournal.com]

And I LOVE this dress!

And hate that the dance is the week after Costume College...

[sewloud.livejournal.com]

come aaaaaany waaaaaaay

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I found that page later when I was poking around some more but wasn't sure...enough people think it looks like silver plate that it probably is. And that is MADNESS, haha.

[starlightmasque.livejournal.com]

I love this type of embroidery! It's flat metal thread, I've seen it used in lots of the royal gowns I researched online when I made my Napoleonic court gown last summer. It's completely amazing and looks gorgeous in a large floral motif-- but this... this... all those itty bitty dots-- that's plain bonkers!! Whomever made that was probably committed to an insane asylum afterward.

[mrs_maupin]

My thoughts exactly ! Why take the stime to make round dots in silver plate when spangles would have worked just as well and be so much faster ?

[isabelladangelo.livejournal.com]

This. It looks like a bunch of tiny french knots to me. Maybe someone was showing off their embroidery skills and wanted to show they didn't need no stinking spangles?

[atherleisure.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it occupied someone's time while in an insane asylum!

It looks like the kind of thing you'd do for mindless occupation. I'm sure after the first thirty or so you don't even have to think about it.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Like...was there a spangle shortage?? Why would you use silver plate to make dots, that just seems incredibly complicated for no reason! That may be a bridge too far even for me, LOL!

[williamsburg24.livejournal.com]

Could the dress have been remodeled (can't think of right word at this hour of the day) from an earlier dress to its present design?

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Possibly? There aren't any signs of it that I can see, but of course you can't always tell online.

[blackcat452.livejournal.com]

Could something like that be factory made? Cause that is insane work for such a plain gown.

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

Seriously! Like...if you want a dotted shiny dress, use spangles, hello? Was there an epic spangle shortage of 1828?? I wouldn't be surprised if the fabric was professionally made in some capacity, though, since with the sheer fabric you can see the reverse of the hem/waistband is dotted too, and if you were embellishing it yourself, wouldn't you not bother with that? Interesting thought!

[rose-bertin.livejournal.com]

If you do lose your mind and decide to do this dress, may I suggest using easter grass? It's an excellent and super cheap substitute for silver plate.

This stuff:
https://img0.etsystatic.com/057/0/9813615/il_570xN.717254680_ow94.jpg

[mandie-rw.livejournal.com]

How would you go about attaching it, though...with silver plate it's bendy metal so apparently you can just poke the sharp ends through the fabric then hammer them into place. Sew it on, I guess? If I'm having to sew, though, I'd probably opt for less insanity and do spangles, haha.