“The Lady is Aflame…and Silent”

Like so many historical costumers I found myself staring at Kendra Van Cleave's court dress challenge with longing and trepidation (link).  I really love 18^th century costume and wanted to jump in head first, but kept dragging my feet thinking it would be too much for me to commit to.  Then… a light bulb went off- I could make a court dress for my Ball Jointed Doll!  A much smaller project on all levels, and she won’t mind a pin sticking her here or there. 

I started with the proper under garments.

·      A corset, in yellow silk boned with the tiniest of zip ties
·      A linen shift
·      A large pannier based on the Jean Hunnisett book

My inspiration search led me to the film Orlando.  I love the crazy 18^th century scene that has Tilda Swinton turn to flame amidst a catty group of men that insist, “Most women have no characters at all!”

Her blue silk gown has all the excess you long to see from that period.  

I found a suitable blue taffeta in my stash and started to draft a pattern based on court dress pictures and my dolls measurements.  I didn’t want a lot of fabric stuffed into the waist so I shaped the waistline on the under and over skirt and attached them together to make it easier to dress her.

The bodice was fairly easy.  I covered her in plastic wrap then wrapped her in electrical tape.  I traced out where I wanted the seam lines to be and cut it off then added seam allowance. 

 I added Velcro on the front side opening to make it easier to dress her.  Sleeves and flounces were just as you would wrangle in a person size dress.

The stomacher is hand embroidered and embellished with a pulled apart prom necklace. (I had fun explaining to the young lady at Claire’s that I was not going to prom)

I hunted down the trim on eBay - hand stitched that on- then made a crazy attempt at a wig (doll hair over cotton batting and a linen base.)

 

 

                        Here she is on display at Costume College with the wig I made

All said and done, it was a fun project but took a lot longer than I thought it would… oh well, as I like to say, “it’s the journey!”