January 10, 2008

lady susan

Phew! It's been forever since I posted! My sister has been on break from college, and we've really enjoyed just kicking back, seeing the city, and watching old movies. Before I go into any of that these dress pictures are long overdue! Here at last is the Jane Austen bridesmaid dress, a private commission I took on during December, using red velvet and Jenny Chancey's Simplicity 4055.

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My client has almost the same measurements as me, so I took the liberty of taking some pictures before I handed it off. Thanks so much to Tracey for helping with the photography! Incidentally, all of the pictures were taken at my sister's dorm - pretty fly for college housing, no? Anyway, the lighting/camera weren't the best, so a majority of the indoor pics didn't turn out. It's just as well, I suppose, as we did tend to get carried away . . .

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A lot of my interest in sewing stems from the costume world. As a young literary-minded girl I swooned over the romantic fashions of costume dramas, and for some years in junior high, I wanted to be Kate Beckinsale's Emma. Besides, all of us like to play dress-up every once and a while, no? So it was really fun to revisit that fascination with this dress.

Overall, it came together nicely, but the dress certainly has left its mark - literally. Not only is the studio filled with red velvet fuzzies, but my poor machine bed is now stained pink! I tried using rubbing alchohol which helped, but the plastic seems to have absorbed some color. Moo.

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(Btw, kudos to anyone who recognizes the novel this post is named after! I thought the dress's crimson color was well suited to the brazen lady.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh! What a wonderfully gorgeous dress! I just love the color and how beautifully it turned out (and you are quite a striking model!)! :) Bravo!!

hehe... I certainly recognize the post title!! :D Hurray for Jane Austen! ;)

Hope you're having a lovely week...

Anonymous said...

absolutely stunning!

Anonymous said...

I came over from sew mama sew. You look so wonderful in that dress. BTW, PBS is having a Jane Austen movie special this month. Which book has Lady Susan? I must have missed that one. Oh and you did a great job on the dress!

mrsfish_94@hotmail.com

Paul Pincus said...

Terrific post!

Cheers.

bery said...

I love it! *Dies from overload of goregousness* What month is/was the wedding to be in? Were all the bridesmaids going to be in red velvet? Just curious! :)

Blaze said...

Beautiful dress!! I just love the red against the green pines! You have a lovely smile too! :)

Glad you are back! Here's to a new year of blogging beautiful things! :)

Katrina - Edelweiss Patterns said...

OH my goodnes - what a stunning gown! I have never seen Jennie's pattern made up from velvet before, and you have down a terrific job.

Happy sewing!

Katrina