I’ve been lusting after a 17th century dress in golden yellow duchess satin for months, and months.  The shades they had were so sumptuous. Want! Unfortunately, I didn’t have golden yellow duchess silk satin in my stash.  And I couldn’t find any in NZ.  And I didn’t want to spend US$60 a metre + shipping to order it in.  I thought my dream was over. And then I realised I did have 7 metres of beige duchess silk satin that I found at Spotlight a year ago for $15 a metre on the clearance table (they thought it was polyester, but I knew better), and immediately bought the whole bolt.  And when I checked out it turned out there was a 20% off sale on, so I only paid $12 a metre. Score! Anyway, I could have made a beige dress (there are plenty of lovely beige dresses in 17th century paintings), but I didn’t want a beige dress.  I wanted a golden yellow dress. So I took my fate into my hands and decided …