Yesterday I was worried that I wasn’t going to have enough fabric to do the trimmeries on the LACMA sacque, but today, oddly enough, I think it will all be okay. Here’s where I am currently:
There are a lot of pins holding stuff on, but this is one of my favorite stages of costume development – mocking up the whole thing to get an idea how it will look when complete.
The trim on the original is quite loose. It appears to be shallowly pleated, with puffs that have since deflated or been pressed flat. The silver gimp-y-stuff appears to have been pleated with the fabric, which gives it a nice three dimensional texture.
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| The original dress, closeup of the trims, stomacher, sleeves. |
I didn’t achieve this organized-chaos look on the half-a-stomacher I trimmed last night, but I plan to give it a shot on the other edge trims.
My silver trims aren’t metallic – I’ve spray-painted various laces and whatnots. This is my favorite costuming hack, but this time I’ve learned that base color makes a big difference – the gimpy stuff started out shiny metallic gold, which when spray over with silver remained sparkly and lovely, but not too strong. The black lace in this picture, however, when sprayed over silver, just went kindof gunmetal and rather dull when paired with the gown.
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| The trims, pre-spray paint. I may only end up using one of these. |
There’s one more element that’s giving me troubles – the deep silver flounce on the skirt. I tried some lace fabric sprayed silver, but I think the design is too dense. Finding a wide piece of metallic lace is going to be both difficult and expensive, so I’m thinking I might do something else for that flounce or omit it completely.
Experiments!
14 Comments
Mutemouia
November 5, 2013 at 8:38 PMOMG that looks so perfect already ! ♥ I can't wait to see the finished product !
Lauren Stowell
November 6, 2013 at 12:39 AMthank you!
vintagevisions27
November 5, 2013 at 8:40 PMWow, this is coming along nicely! Can't wait to see it finished. Really liking the gold gimp trim. Great tip on using spray paint, I would never have thought of that!
-Emily
Emily's Vintage Visions
Lauren Stowell
November 6, 2013 at 12:40 AMThanks! The spray paint works pretty well on small bits. The first time I used it was for a 17th century dress and it worked a treat, except that I didn't have quite enough paint, so the burgundy base color showed through a bit. This time I made sure to really cover it all well.
Little Mothball
November 6, 2013 at 12:53 AMI like your version much better than the original. Your fitting looks better and the overall look is more delicate. Great work!
Lauren
November 6, 2013 at 3:05 AMLooks great 🙂
Sanna K
November 6, 2013 at 5:05 AMThis is going to be the most fabulous dress you've made so far!
Caroline
November 6, 2013 at 6:42 AMOooooo!!!!!!
Augustintytär
November 6, 2013 at 10:11 AMIt looks splendidly like the original!
AuntieNan
November 6, 2013 at 5:21 PMWhat about for the flounce getting some lace or point d'esprit and dyeing it blue to match the dress and THEN spraying it with the metallic?
Lauren Stowell
November 7, 2013 at 4:34 AMHrm, that might work!
Unknown
November 7, 2013 at 4:16 AMI must ask… What do you spray paint your trim with? Something designed specifically for fabric, or plain ol' spray enamel?
Lauren Stowell
November 7, 2013 at 4:33 AMHi R – it's just plain ole Rustoleum spray paint from the hardware store!
Anna-Carin
November 8, 2013 at 3:02 PMBeautiful!
There *may* be another way of turning gold trim into silver. Both metallic glass Christmas tree balls and gold paper trim for scrapbooking are actually silver color with a transparent colored coating. On paper trim, it comes off if you wipe with nail-polish remover. So there's a chance that your gold trim will also turn silver if you use the right solvent.