Friday, September 19, 2008

Fleur De Lis Beaded Embroidery

I'm trying to catch up on my projects, finish the story of the fabulous fibre artist from Britain I promised you, and take care of daily duties including cat herding.

Above is the picture of the center front bodice for a sleeping beauty gown. It will be worn in the play, "Into The Woods". One of two characters I'm costuming for the production, I've spent the last three days adjusting, cutting and pinning.

For the center front bodice, I want to give a nod to the French origins of the fairy tale so the design incorporates a Fleur de lis. You can see the basting stitches in place to hold the duchesse satin to the interlining muslin, and the pattern I cut pinned to be outlined with chalk. I'm going to raise the design slightly with trapunto and then will bead it. The gown is so opulent, I'm having to curb my sparkly crow self to refrain from beading the ENtire gown!

I'll show you bits and pieces of this and other projects as I work on the article of our mystery artist.

Have a wonderful weekend!

4 comments:

Vikki North said...

This is so cool Dina. I’ve always loved sewing. I found myself getting excited just seeing all the peripheral beads, pins and tracing papers- that sits beneath the bodice piece. You’ve got all kinds of cool stuff!! I’d be in the middle of that in a second flat.

I used to sew constantly in my twenties. The first thing I did when I retired was bought a new sewing machine. I am again a sewing fool and having fun.

I’m really looking forward to seeing the progress on this job.
Vikki

Unknown said...

Vikki,

I got burned out on sewing after a very long career at it with costuming, but now that I'm no longer on a break-neck pace with it, I'm enjoying it once again.

I love to assemble all the components after I decide on the design and adjust it for the best possible combination.

While I was sketching the fleur for the design, I came up with the padded trapunto which would add some dimension to the beading.

I'm putting up some progress pictures later on.

Sewing is a very Zen occupation. It's something that you can float away from with your mind to engage other subjects of thought.

I'm glad you picked up the craft again!

D

Anonymous said...

First of all, it's a beautiful piece as we all know now, after seeing progress pics. But secondly, this photograph is a wonderful still life. I had the same reaction to it that Vikki did.

Then just looking at the tracing and the negative stencil sitting there pinned to the fabric, I'm also seeing an incredible collage.

Unknown said...

Martha,

You've got that eye for such things! Thanks for another creative view.

D