We Have A Winner!

As this dress has been on my mind constantly for the last week, I’ve been mulling over construction and shape, and here, at last, the *FINAL* sketch for the design of this gown! The yellow robe you see in the drawing is what I plan for the mock-up before I jump full-on into the feather monstrosity. The mock-up will be done up in lightweight yellow linen-rayon (a blend because linen wrinkles just by breathing on it), and worn over the gown for a costume picnic in June.

So let’s talk materials in general…
For the gown, I’ve been debating between cotton voile or cotton lawn. Both are thin, semi-transparent, and gauzy. In my last encounter with voile, however, I found it to be THE DEVIL. It sticks together and is generally difficult to work with. Lawn is much easier to work with, though less floaty, which I think may be essential to this dress. Both of these fabrics require petticoat(s), as going without will show the world a bit too much. The solution to the problem is to use both! The top layer of the gown will be voile, the interlining lawn, and the lining layer a slim sheath of muslin (the petticoat). Three layers may sound like a lot, but the weight of these fabrics is so tissue-thin that it will not poof out the way any heavier fabric would.
Here are some sources I’ve found for voile and other such lovelies:

Dharma Trading Co. – white 100% silky cotton voile (that’s silky, not actual silk).

Prices range on all of these fabrics, but none are all that high, which is encouraging, since there might be quite a lot of yardage in this gown.

Here are two linens I found that looked suitable. Unlike the voile and lawn fabrics, linen is widely available in just about every color, and many blends:

The robe may or may not need to be lined, depending on the weight of the linen. The idea is for it to be floaty, summery, and cool (temperature-wise).

These fabrics will need to be ordered (boo), but once they arrive, and all other costume nonesense has been completed, I will begin the gown!

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