Format Question to My Readers

Here's a question for anyone following this blog - when it comes to presenting images of our process, which do you prefer - individual images in a row, or a slideshow of images? If you prefer the slideshow, which do you like better - the format from Picasa, or the format from Flickr?

Please leave a comment below to answer these questions.

Your answers will help me to decide how to format future posts.

Thank you!

Steaming Lace

What construction techniques were used to make this dress?

I wish I hadn't forgotten to bring back the camera today - I missed a great photo op.

Today we almost were ready to start cutting the lace skirt, but when we tried to lay it out, we realized that after the dyeing, the embroidered parts had shrunk a bit more than the overall body of the lace. So, luckily Emily Leimkuhler (VC ' 10) got to steam it all out! She pinned the whole length of yardage up along the storage boxes that line one wall of the shop, and then set to steaming. It would have been a great photo, and I'm sure she would have loved to record the moment for posterity. Because the lace is pretty sheer, at times it looked like she was just steaming the boxes!

Anyway, thanks, Emily!

Construction Order of the Original

What construction techniques were used to make this dress?

After carefully studying the construction details of the original dress, I think I've figured out the steps taken to put it together. Here's a slideshow with some detailed images:



For our construction steps on the reproduction, I've made a few changes to incorporate some modern conveniences, like serging raw edges.
To view a table with the details, go to:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7ouScE49p7pFev1bQXpCWw

Final Materials

Where can we find similar fabrics, trims, and hardware to reproduce the dress?

Now that the lace and jacquard have been dyed, we can show you swatches of all our fabric choices:

From Dyeing

Dyeing

Where can we find similar fabrics, trims, and hardware to reproduce the dress?

Two of our fabrics, the silk jacquard and the beaded lace, needed to be dyed for the color to match the original more precisely. Here are the swatches from our attempt to make the match. Students Chloe Boxer (VC '12), Emily Leimkuhler (VC '10), and Charlie Pane (VC '10) all helped to get the dyeing just right. We started dyeing on Weds., and thought we were done, but looking at it dry on Friday morning, it still wasn't quite right. We worked on it throughout the day, taking the fabric out of the vat, adding just a few more grains of dye, and putting the fabric back in to try again - it was certainly tedious, but we finally got it just right!

From Dyeing

From Dyeing

Mockup Fitting

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?
What would the dress have looked like in 3D? In motion?

We finally had a mockup fitting to try out the pattern of the enhanced size reproduction!

Here's a slideshow from the fitting.I'm trying out the slideshow feature from Flickr - if it doesn't show up, please try a different browser. Click on the arrow (play button) for it to start playing. You can also click on the icon in the bottom right hand corner for a fullscreen view - and then, to get out of it, press the "esc" key.

The fitting went amazingly well, with only a few minor alterations. I'm patting myself on the back for my draping!

Final Draping Step for Enhanced Size

What would the flat pattern for the dress look like?

I spent some time over the break working on the pattern and mock up at home.
Here's the last step of the draping for the enhanced size - the overskirt.

From Draping - Enhanced Size

From Draping - Enhanced Size