bodice decoration

[mlsdesigns]

sorry again for all the photos!!
i am trying to decide how to decorate the dress, it is made from a lavender, black and grey wool plaid, with black fringe, velvet ribbon and, if i can find them, black glass buttons . i have a piece of wide fancy fringe for a trim along the lines of a yoke, and will use the ribbon to trim the sleeves and maybe the skirt. i also want to trim the hems of the sleeves with fringe, but have got the wrong black, the wide fringe is black black, while the narrower fringe is a browny black. i could use the one i have, as i know it would look period, as i have original, although i suppose the colours were the same once! or i could use it for now, and get some that matches next time i go to london. but please tell me which combination you like best, and the different spaces between the ribbons, (if you can tell the difference, my mother couldn't!)




also, what do you think about putting ribbon on the skirt? i was gonna put it about 12" up from the hem all the way around the same as the sleeves, but couldn't get enough of the narrower one, and i think it would look odd if i used just the wider one, what do you think? i could get WIDER ribbon?!!
please help me!!!

Comments

[myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel about going to London for fabric shopping!!

I hate doing it myself. To get really good bargains a person has to expend a lot of shoe leather going all round the place. I tend to buy via the internet and have built up some good contacts - most are in the US though! Thankgoodnes for swatches!!!!

Though I work in London I'm too far from the fabric shopping areas so can't even go in my lunch hour to Berwick Street - which would have been useful for my latest project which is a 1912 dress based on one from the Kyoto collection. I have less than a month to pull together all the fabrics and make the thing!!

Where in Suffolk does your Aunt live? I'm not far from Sudbury - sort of between Sudbury and Bury and barely 4 miles from Long Melford.

[mlsdesigns.livejournal.com]

are you near enough to the goldhawk road? they have incredibly cheap fabrics compared to berwick st prices. one shop has the most wonderful collection of wools, and they all seam to have nice silk satins, if you're looking for plainer fabric. i read your post re the dress, and you could find some lovely pinks there, they have chiffon, organza, all sorts!
and my aunt lives in cotton, between stowmarket and bacton.

[myladyswardrobe.livejournal.com]

I work on the other side of the city - East City near Aldgate so getting to Goldhawk Road is next to impossible. I have been there before though - I managed to get a lovely bronze taffeta for one 1540s gown one year and another year managed to get enough ivory dupion for my wedding gown and nice red dupion and deep blue dupion for the bridesmaids gowns - all of us were in late 1540s gowns.

I dont know Cotton but my sister lives in Stowmarket and my Parents are near Bury so your aunt isn't far away.

Small world - isnt it?