Success!

Wow! I've just found out that the dress that I re-created off Alessandro Allori's 1555 portrait of one of the Medici women is going to be showcased on Realm of Venus! (the flatmates can attest to me screaming and bouncing around the house upon recieving the email) That is the pinnacle of success for me, and I'm deeply grateful to Bella for wanting to show my work off to the world. Woohoo! Here are some photos of me in my dress, but you can refer to the Showcase for more details.

The photos turned out much better than I hoped. Hopefully though, this won't be my only showcase, despite Bella deciding to end the Showcase at the end of this year. The plan is to make Venetian courtesan gowns for me and my best friend Corinna Roussin this year, mine in red/gold, Corinna's in green/gold. Here's the twist - mine will be entirely handsewn from the corset up, while hers will be made (much more quickly and efficently) on my machine. As I said in my previous blog, I've already started on the corset. One piece is almost entirely finished except for some strengthing stitches around the edges. The channels were sewn into twill and then covered with a layer of dark red velvet, while the edges have been bound with black polysuede. Very gothic and sexy. I also managed to do 17 eyelets on the one piece over the weekend. The second front piece has a few more channels to be sewn before the boning can begin.