Year: 2011

Carolyn’s dress: design dilemmas

Carolyn’s dress is very, very close to done, and over the last week I’ve been working through the last of the design issues. First, what to do with the detailing above the bust? I had the ‘brilliant’ (well, it could have been brilliant, you never know until you try with this stuff!) idea to layer different silver fabrics and then add a bit of beads and sparkle on top of it. I looked through my stash of translucent silver fabrics (and yes, it is a bit scary that I have a whole stash of translucent silver fabrics) and found these: I liked the way the two fabrics layered over each other, the foiling just showing through the organza: So I patterned up the bodice detailing, cut it out, sewed it together, and carefully pressed it. Then I pinned it to the dress and had a look at it. Blech! I bet that Snow White’s evil stepmother had bodice detailing just like that on her wedding dress! It definitely has an evil-queen batwing aesthetic about it. …

Rate the Dress: Infanta Mariana Victoria in blue

Published by The Dreamstress

I have been remiss. Last week I did you out of a Rate the Dress altogether (though I must say, no one seemed to mind!). To add to that, when I showed you a Chanel ensemble two weeks ago, I forgot to tell you what Maria Josepha rated the week before that. So, catchup time. Maria Josepha, despite her sourpuss expression, and despite Rowenna describing her as “a pig stuffed in a dress,” rated an 8.9 out of 10. Regency fashion, even if not an exceptional example of the era, seems to be very popular with you! Chanel’s sequined trouser suit received divided ratings: some loved the minimalism with an opulent touch, others thought the lace fussy and the sequins icky. It rated a 7.5 out of 10 This week I’m trying to correct mistakes by including a little minimalism, a little opulence, a little sequins, a little lace, a bit of extreme femininity and a bit of masculine styling all topped up with a much sweeter expression than Maria Josepha had. Of course, all …

Keeping it in the family

Published by The Dreamstress

I’ve blogged about the royal family of Portugal before, and while researching that post, I came across one of the common problems with European nobility. The thing is, there just weren’t enough of them on speaking terms in each generation, so the ones that were on speaking terms tended to marry each other, leading to a lot of inbreeding. So back to the Portugese royal family. Joseph I of Portugal (6 June 1714 – 24 February 1777) had four daughters, two of whom, Maria I of Portugal (December 17, 1734 — March 20, 1816) and Benedita, Princess of Brazil(25 July 1746 — 18 August 1829), married. Maria, then Crown Princess, married her uncle, Pedro III of Portugal (5 July 1717 — 25 May 1786) on 1760, when she was 25 and he was 43. Nice. It gets worse though. Seventeen years later, Maria’s youngest sister Benedita, then thirty, married her fifteen year old cousin, who was also her nephew, as he was the child of Maria and Pedro. Eeeg. Sadly, but mercifully, and certainly not …