I have a design for the 1912 luna moth frock!

Well, sort of. I drew a design that I loved, until I looked at another inspiration gown, and then I wanted that one. I’m such a design flibbergibbet.

Here is my loved-until-the-next-shiny-caught-my-attention design:

front

back. The gossamer wings will also be visible from the front, I just didn’t draw them because I didn’t want the design to get too complicated and hard to see. The wings will clip to bracelets above the elbow and around the wrists, but can also be unclipped and worn loose hanging from the shoulders.

A detail of the double train, like the tail wings of a luna moth

It is heavily influenced by the gown on the left (the red one) from the wardrobe of Queen Maud of Norway (she was Queen Victoria’s grandaughter and Princess Alexandra’s daughter fyi):

It will be in luna moth inspired colours and fabrics (of course!):

Like all of my sewing, I will tweak things as I work, because what looks good on paper doesn’t always look great realised in fabric.

There are three problems with this design.

1. It requires a lot of different fabrics that all look good together and are quite specific. I am thinking a yellow silk velvet, a green silk velvet, a green silk gorgette and a green silk chiffon. It isn’t that easy to find all of these fabrics in Wellington (and ordering online is hard unless you get samples to touch and compare first). I could always dye my fabrics, but that would put me in a special category of truly insane costumers.

2. It will require a ton of handwork. Literally hundreds and hundreds of hours of hand-beading.

3. I also really, really love this dress, also worn by Queen Maud, and wonder if the simpler, less fussy design is better for a luna moth? Not to mention that this dress would require less different types of fabric, and less handwork.

I think I will draft up a design inspired by the pale pink dress, and then go fabric shopping and see what I find. With all my sewing, my final design direction depends on what I find to work with.

I am also, as always, very easily swayed by the opinions and enthusiasm of my readers, so if you really want me to make one of these dresses in particular, better speak up!