Elizabethan Maid of Honor Gown by ladyrose04 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

I made the lime and brown gown in the foreground. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I have thus far. Hopefully a better one will turn up soon.

Anyway, I am really quite pleased with the way this gown turned out. The main body of the gown is a lime green faille that was wonderful to work with. The gown is trimmed in bands of berry microsuede (far from my first choice of material, but it was the only thing that was the right shade of berry) and bordered with an old gold/berry/apple green trim and a cream, berry and sage twisted cord.

I wish I had a picture that showed more detail on the forepart and sleeves--the embroidery on them is what tie everything together. They are made from brown embroidered cotton and embellished with pearls, gold glass beads, and adventurine. The guard on the forepart and the cuffs are a green poly-cotton satine. Pretty much it needed something and it was the only green that went well with the greens in the forepart and the dress. The overskirt is guarded with gros grain ribbon so a more substantial berry colored guard can be added next year. There is room for a larger guard on the forepart as well, and I believe I left some room up top for the pattern whole piece to be let down. Em is only 13 and both her parents are around 6' tall--so we are expecting some more growth out of her in the next few months.

Not that you can see them, but I also made her underpinnings: lime green duck corset, a beige twill farthingale, a lime green bumroll, and a petticoat of mint green crepe back satin with a chocolate brown ruffle. I did not make the shirt or the French Hood, they were both borrowed from another cast member.

As a side note, you may notice M & D in the background, these are the finished gowns over the underpinnings I constructed. While I did not do any of the construction, I was on the design team.

Photo courtesy of Vicki Callahan