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Upcoming events: Pompeii to Paris and Pecha Kucha

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m madly busy sewing and writing and researching for two upcoming events.

The first I’ve already blogged about, it’s the Pompeii to Paris redux as part of the Blow Creative Arts Festival.

Excitingly, it looks like it may be webcast live, but I don’t know the details of that yet.  I’ll keep you updated.

The second is a bit more unusual (at least for me).

I’m going to be presenting at Pecha Kucha.

Some of you are thinking “oh, cool!”, but probably most of you are thinking “what the heck is Pecha Kucha?”

Pecha Kucha is a relatively recent movement/presentation format that started in Japan.  A bunch of interesting people are invited to present, and each presentation consists of 20 slides which each last for 20 seconds, so the whole presentation is only 6 minutes and 40 seconds in length.

This means that in one evening you get to be introduced to a dozen interesting ideas, and if some of them aren’t so interesting, well, at least they don’t last long.

As a public speaker and presenter, it’s a fascinating challenge for me: how to present a dynamic, interesting, and complete idea in only 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Obviously I’m talking about historical fashion, but within the time limit, I can only focus on one dress, so I’m going to talk about the chemise a la reine.

I’ve chosen a suitable provocative and intellectual title, and am carefully sculpting my discussion.

The Queen’s Underwear:

How an Un/Dress Caused a Revolution

(in more ways than one)

Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun, Marie Antoinette with a rose, 1783

Should be fun!

Interested?  In Wellington?

Come along on  22 November to the Overseas Terminal, Azzura Room, Upstairs, Chaffers Marina to hear me and a bunch of other fascinating people talk about our creative endeavors.

Juno dress: draping the skirt

Published by The Dreamstress

The Juno dress is coming along. I’ve been draping the skirt.

First I needed to patch the last bits of support fabric (the dark blue) that weren’t covered because the duchesse wasn’t wide enough to drape all the way across the skirt.

Pinning a patch of fabric on

I just used scraps of fabric for the patching, because it is all in areas that will be hidden by the tulle

The sewn-in fabric patch

With that all done, I sewed the back of the skirt on, and arranged the pleats:

Pinning and arranging double box-pleats

A side view to show how the pleating of the front meets the back

The pleats, flat

And sewn in

The front draping is looking rather nice too.

Front meets back

Now, I’m sure you have all been looking at this and thinking “that doesn’t look like train on your inspiration picture!”

And no, it doesn’t. But it will. If you’ve been following my facebook page you may have an inkling of why it doesn’t look like the train above, and how it will. If you don’t follow my facebook page, you’ll have to wait a few days to find out.

I’m off to go drape some tulle now.

Trials and tribulations of dyeing

Published by The Dreamstress

Having decided that the Juno dress really needs to be closer to the original, and that the only draping option I have that will really give the same effect is some silk tulle and mesh, currently coloured gold, chocolate brown, and black (which I dyed over the gold), my only option was to un-dye and than re-dye the tulle to match the duchesse silk of the dress.

So this is what I started with:

Gold silk tulle, chocolate brown silk mesh, black dyed silk tulle

This is what I got after 60 seconds in the un-dye pot:

Peach (that was the black), lemon (the gold), and chocolate

Well, sweet tiny Jamie, that wasn’t what I expected!  Now I have a problem!

Luckily, after a LOT more soaking and stirring, and a whole new packet of un-dyer, I achieved much more satisfactory results:

Palest ivory (gold) and lemon yellow (dyed black)

Even the chocolate silk mesh un-coloured with a lot of encouragement:

Beige isn't ideal, but will do for dyeing

Having finally achieved colours neutral enough to attempt re-dyeing, I tackled that.  I picked a navy blue silk dye.

Unfortunately, on my first go I forgot to add vinegar to help it set, so the colouring was a little insipid.

Chocolate brown to beige to blue grey. Interesting

A dry, a wash, and a whole new dye batch, and I finally got the right colour:

A piece from the first dye batch compared to the second.

And the mesh, now with a lovely deep colour.

Since I was on a roll with the dyeing, I got excited and started dyeing other stuff, like vintage velvet leaves (inherited from Grandma)

Leaves for the garland, original, and dyed

I also took a half meter of some duchesse satin in mushroom, and dyed it blue.  It came out a beautiful silvery blue that coordinated perfectly with the petrol blue of the Juno dress.

Of course, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the coordinating fabric (iron it for a start), but if nothing else it is much prettier than the mushroom and will make a lovely corset!

The original mushroom, the silver blue I achieved, and my dress fabric

With all of my fabrics finally the right colour, I can now sew the back of the skirt to the front of the skirt, and begin draping all my tulles and putting everything together.

Ironing helps!