Wearables Rocking the rococo -- a robe a la francaise gown for a supergem girl update 5/8/2016

A few months ago I finished a yellow robe a la Polonaise for a swap run by the amazing fashiondollie. It was great fun, and while I was making the garment I promised myself that I would make something from the same era for one of my girls. Now that I've finished a cosplay for a friend's doll I have the bits and pieces of time available to start on this.

The eighteenth century is one of my two favorite fashion eras, so I am eager to make something representative. My plan is to take my time, and to do as much of the work by hand as is feasible.

Here is my inspiration-- the fashions of the European aristocracy. At the time, over-the-top was the standard for the wealthy. However, my own taste is a bit more subdued.

This first gown is circa 1775:



It has the gorgeous Watteau back seen on these gowns, but the pleating is more narrow than in earlier years.

This gown is from the Netherlands, circa 1780:





And then there's this incredible dress, from the 1760s:



You can tell it's earlier than the other two because it's more exuberant, because the pleats are wider and the trim is curved into organic shapes.


Check out this detail:




If you look closely, you might be able to feathery stuff called fly fringe. I think it would be fun to make some, as it can't be bought nowadays.

I need to make a decision about the decade. I already have the fabric and some of the possible trim on hand. When I was buying fabric for the historical swap dress, i found a yellow and cream damask that I thought would be perfect. But when I got home I realized the yellow wasn't as bold as my swappee wanted, i remembered cream was on her "no" list, and that damask was perhaps too rich looking for a middle class garment. So it will be put to use now. It's funny, because before this swap I was never a fan of yellow. But it's grown on me.

First up, the shift.

 

Here is the pattern I will be using for the shift-- it is from a historical costumer, Mara Riley and can be found on her website. I've modified the image to show the measurements I'll be using for the prototype.


As for the fabric, for authenticity's sake, i bought some handkerchief linen for the shift, because i thought it would be in scale. It arrived yesterday... and it is too coarse.

So i need to buy some cotton lawn or batiste, because those will be in scale (just not accurate) and I will probably use the linen for the panniers. In the meantime, I thought I'd start on the pockets.

I was very surprised when I learned that in the 18th century, only males had pockets sewn into their clothing. Women wore large linen (or silk), flat bags tied to their waists with tapes.

Here are two 18th century examples:


And here is what I accomplished last night:



In real life pockets are about 17 inches long, so these will be about 5.5 inches when complete. the right one is in progress. I am concerned maybe these are too coarse for the dress I have in mind, but i really don't know enough about 18th century fashion to make that determination. I based these off the pockets in Costume Closeup, which gives detailed views and measurements for some items from Colonial Williamsburg.

 

Ohbumblebee, Pinkiexme, and Alewife, thanks! I appreciate your comments, and i agree, the yellow gown is amazing. I hope i can emulate its elegance in doll scale.

Some progress to report. I finished the pockets today. Here is one. Apologies for the nighttime photos.



I lined them, and for the most part I'm happy, but i wish the linen I used was heavier, as there is some show through of the embroidery threads. Something to keep in mind for next time.


I was slammed at work this week so I didn't have the opportunity to pick up some batiste or cotton lawn for the shift. However, I did order some handkerchief linen intended for heirloom sewers, and i have my fingers crossed that the third time buying linen will be the charm.


As the linen was expensive, I figured it would be worthwhile to make a prototype out of something cheaper while I'm waiting for it to ship. So here's how far I got today, using some shadow-striped cotton:



The shift is inside out as I'm only half done with the French seams. The real thing was sewn with flat felled seams for strength, but after burning my fingers (and my arm, as i was swearing over the burned fingers!) trying to fold under the seam, I decided I'm going to have to settle for less accurate. Unless anyone has pointers? My felling foot is too wide.




I noticed I made an error on the measurements. For A the diagram shows 17 cm, but it should read 17 inches (43 cm). I will fix the diagram once I'm done prototyping. I think maybe the gussets are too big, but so far the cut seems okay. And the width of the fabric was 27 cm before folding.

 

Thank you, Alewife! I tried finger pressing but it looked sloppy. Maybe if I starched the fabric first? For now, I'm going with french seams and faking it.

So, as for an update:

After a loooong week at work, I couldn't find my pockets and prototype shift. My hubby (who is a sweet guy) thinks he might have accidentally thrown them out. He's not sure, and he was super apologetic. I'm hoping he just moved them someplace and forgot where. He's a neat freak, and i am... not, so our life together has long been a balancing act between extreme order and entropy.

I hope they turn up, but if they don't I'll take that as a cue to redo the embroidery on heavier fabric.

The handkerchief linen I ordered (from Wm Booth, Draper, a historical fabric store) arrived, and i decided it was nice enough to work with. I will note that it is not the same weight as in vintage handkerchiefs, which is a bummer. It's much more coarse. But it's still nice, and i cant afford to buy more, so i will chalk this up as one of the inevitable compromises that crop up when trying to sew in scale.

I went ahead and made the linen shift. From the prototype i learned that the rectangle i was using was too wide. In this revised version, the center neck to shoulder is the same measurement as above, but now the garment angles from the shoulder to a final width of 13.5 cm, folded. And when i cut the neckhole, i made it 0.5 cm less in width, folded. As a result, i did not need to add a drawstring.

Here is my super gem girl wearing the final shift. I used antique English lace (similar to Valenciennes) for the collar and hand embroidered antique Ayrshire lace for the sleeve ruffle. Neither is period, but i think it's okay, as at least it's in scale. and both were in my stash!



Note the wrinkles, 30 seconds after I ironed it. Maybe poly-cotton would have been a better choice? (just kidding)

Here is a closeup of the sleeve ruffle:



Next I started the stays. I used the same pattern I drafted for the historical swap. They are meant to look somewhat like this 18th century example:



No source on the photo, but the stays look identical to ones from Colonial Williamsburg, from around 1760, so the period is on target. The tabs at the base splay out over the hips, and add width-- and also make the waist look smaller without the need for tightlacing. Unike a corset, 18th century stays were meant to smoosh the breasts, so that the torso looked like an inverted cone. It's not really possible to smoosh resin, though, so the stays I made have curves.

Here's my effort:



More wrinkles, accumulated in the time it took to lace the stays...

As you can see, the prototype is in process-- the bottom flaps need to be bound in some way. For now they are simply zigzagged. In real life the edges would be bound with strip of soft leather or cloth. I tried bias binding, knit fabric, and finally went with satin stitching on the first stays I made, but was not thrilled with the final result. I'm open to ideas, if any one has one! I think I might use kid leather from a lone vintage glove, but i think I might need a pliers to pull the needle through. ugh. Ideas are welcome!

And here's a closeup of Astrid:

 

I've been working on stays this week, and thought I'd share some pics of the construction process. I took these a while back, during the prototyping process.

I modified the stays pattern found in Costume Closeup. The hips, waist and length needed adjusting (Soom girls are longwaisted) and the bust needed major mods. Stays are meant to compress the torso into an inverted cone-- but as it isn't possible to compress resin, the curves needed to be added to the pattern. But because the pattern has curves, it is not so different from a 19th century corset-- the tabs are the major difference, and those could easily be cut off. I'll post the pattern if anyone is interested.

I layered three pieces of heavy cotton ticking and traced the nine pieces. I tried to line up the pattern on the pieces to be symmetrical. Then I sewed around each piece to outline


Next, I channel quilted each piece. On this prototype the stitches are (somewhat) parallel, but on the current project I tried to mimic the angled stitching on some of the pieces. (and happily my stitching has improved since making this prototype!)


In real life, these channels would have been sewn by hand, and each space would contain a reed to add stiffness. But because of density of stitching and thickness of fabric, the quilted fabric here is already quite stiff. And as resin can't be compressed, no feats of 18th century engineering are required here.

Next, I cut out the pieces, butted them together and zigzagged to cover the join.



In real life, the pieces would have been whip stitched together, and the join and edges covered in leather.

Here are the stays before binding:



These stays will be reversible, which is nice. I'm in the process of edging the yellow pair I made today with leather, although I am doubtful it will work. The white pair I started last week is almost done-- I buttonhole stitched those edges. It just needs eyelets to be sewn by hand. I've been practicing...

 

I started this thread just about a year ago. Since then, I was placed on a contract at work that has ingraciously sucked up almost all of my free time. It's good to still have a job: there have been two layoffs at my workplace in the past year in which over 25% of the workforce was dismissed. However, the week per month spent traveling, mandatory unpaid overtime (to make up for the "lost" employees!) and lack of time for a vacation have been really difficult, and exhausting. I shouldn't be complaining, as I still have a job, but this hobby keeps me sane and it has been hard to have a zillion different doll-related ideas and no time to commit to any of them! in the past year I was able to make a new set of stays, as I wasn't happy with the old ones, but nothing else.

So, I was thrilled when my supervisor made it clear that this Thanksgiving weekend was sacred. And of course, I have spent this weekend getting back into this project.

A little while ago, I saw Jenseny's 18th century court ensemble thread. She made panniers from ribbon and zip ties. Brilliant! While hers have a construction similar to ones found here, I used thicker zip ties and went with a construction approach I hope will help to distribute the weight of the heavy damask I will be using, so that the hoops don't collapse. Additionally, I wanted the panniers attached rigidly to each other, to (hopefully!) reduce the problem of shifting that occurs with the authentically-constructed pocket hoops I own.

My inspiration is these late 18th century panniers from the Metropolitan Museum of Art:


Crazy! The things we do for fashion...

Mine are a bit different from the real thing, as they are made from nylon and steel bolts, not cane and iron. But I think they approach the shape I was looking for:




Since my last update I found Astrid's pockets, which you can see here. She can still reach them through the panniers.


The original panniers use strong silk (grosgrain?) ribbon to secure the hoops to the waistband, but the only silk ribbon I've seen is the thin stuff for embroidery, which shreds really easily. Not even close to what I need! I used cheap poly ribbon from my stash instead, which I knotted through the holes drilled in each each hoop and sewed to the waistband made of cotton bias tape. This way, there is less chance of things sliding around, and the hoops will stay at the correct level. However, they are still able to fold so that Astrid, my model, can get through hypothetical doorways:


What's next? Embroidered stockings and garters, as they will be small enough to take with me on my business trip next week.

 

Thanks, chtulhu,

It's good to be among the living again!

 

Thanks, Lillith. You are right about the dolls waiting for you, but at times the baleful looks have made me feel pretty guilty. I think the trick for me is going to be getting materials ready to travel with me instead of waiting until I am packing and realizing there is not enough time. Not being able to take scissors on a plane means everything needs to be precut, etc.

, I was so thrilled to find those pockets! They accidentally made it into the wash, as my hubby had thrown the towel I was using as ironing surface into the laundry. I was really pleased to see them clinging to a towel as I was folding laundry.

Thank you both for your encouragement!

 

I am travelling for work next week, so I want to get stuff ready for the plane trip, which is when I will have some time on my hands. The plan is to begin some embroidered and clocked stockings, either in white or yellow knit, and garters. The pair of stockings I made for the exchange last year were machine embroidered, but I want to try hand embroidery this time. The benefit is that by choosing the right stitches, the fabric will still be able to stretch. The down side is I am a still a novice embroiderer. My mom taught me a zillion years ago, but I haven't practiced much, because I have the attention span of a gnat. So I am giving myself permission to fail, since this project is supposed to be about learning and picking up new skills. And if I am unsuccessful, I'll fall back on machine embroidery. So first task is to start testing techniques.

I have found quite a few pairs of stockings online for inspiration, but for the most part the patterns are pretty ornate. These ones are lovely and match the style of the pockets, but they are far beyond my embroidery skills. No clocking.


This pair has the pattern knit in, but it is less ornate than previous. You can see the gusset, or clock. I think something geometric like this might be doable with my skill set. Maybe in white against yellow, or vice versa? With the gusset in contrast? There is a pattern here that shows how to construct clocked stockings, but I think dye could be used to fake the gusset area. There is a seller on ebay who has silk knit fabric for doll stockings, and I have silk dyes, so I might try that, along with a treatment to keep the dye from spreading beyond the clock. But I am getting ahead of myself-- first step is to dink around with embroidery as a test.

I thought I would try duplicate stitch, which is an embroidery stitch that wraps around and mimics the stockinette stitch of the knit fabric. But then I found this page, which gives lots of other stretchy options for embroidery on knits. I can't read Russian, but the pictures are self explanatory.

I don't know that I am up to the task of doing this type of embroidery on a really fine knit, so I am going to look in my stash for a heavier knit with bigger stitches, just in case the first try is a failure. I am guessing a single strand of embroidery floss will work.

I am also going to try my hand at making some embroidered garters. In fact, I may do these first, as it should be an easier task.

In the 18th century, there was no elastic, so knit (or woven!) stockings needed to be held up, and garters often had internal springs, like these:



Alternatively, garters were simply embroidered ribbons tied tightly above or below the knee, like these:


These ones say, "My motto is to love you, this will never change." Romantic!
I am planning to copy these, as the embroidery is very straight forward. The real thing measure about 4.3 x 90 cm, so and the embroidery measures about 30 cm long, from what I can tell. So I'll have about 10cm x 1.4cm of real estate to work in. But to be honest, as that width is 4 inches it seems too wide. Super gem legs are skinny. I think 2.5 to 3 inches x 1/2 inch is more reasonable. After I do the embroidery I will make a decision about whether or not to use round elastic to fake the springs. I can see the tied ribbons shifting a lot without it. The issue is that a ribbon might work well for human flesh, but elastic might cling better to resin.

To do list (before Monday):

Pull fabrics, embroidery floss from stash, needles, hoop.
Sketch clocking pattern onto fabric, print out stitch references.
Pull yellow or cream ribbon (patterned, if possible). Baste onto netting or wash away stabilizer for hooping.
Sketch motto onto ribbons.

 

Materials are (almost) ready for my trip Monday, and the 4 hour layover.

As Astrid's supergem body has a lower thigh that measures 4.75 inches, I decided to make the embroidered part of the garters 3 inches in width. And as the picture above shows some type of silk, embroidered and then appliqued onto a ribbon, I decided to follow suit. I took a scrap of very lightweight silk satin, placed it taut in a hoop, and used a sharp pencil to outline the oblong shape and the motif:


Why pencil? I have several washaway markers and tailors' chalk, but they all make too thick a line. And I tried water color pencils but they stained. So pencil it was. Hopefully, it won't show.

After reading a bit about miniature embroidery, I realized machine sewing thread would be a better choice than a single strand of embroidery floss I was planning to use, because thread is much thinner. I went through my stash and pulled out a variety of thread types in the colors I need. Some poly-cotton thread, some rayon machine embroidery thread, and some silk thread for hand sewing.

I decided that I should stitch a little bit today, to make sure my fabric choice would work, as it would be bad to be sitting in the airport with lots of time on my hands, only to find out things weren't working as I expected.

I'm really glad I did, because the fabric I chose was an abject failure. I will blame this on my lack of experience with embroidery, but I figured it would be possible to embroider on satin, as that is what the original garters are. Wrong, so wrong, at least in my hands! Even though I used the thinnest needle I could find, a beading needle, the fabric responded by making big old holes and shredding slightly. So for my backstitch, where the stitches actually use the same hole, it looks like there are spaces between stitches:


Ugh. It looks horrible! But we learn from our mistakes, right?

Next I tried a stem stitch, and had a similar problem. The stitches should be almost on top of each other, but they are not because of the holes made in the fabric. Sigh... next I tried a split stitch, where each stitch splits the previous one. I had better luck with that. I tried using back stitch and split stitch to create letters, with similar results. I think the split stitch doesn't look too bad, but look how fuzzy that poly cotton thread is! For scale, the word "changer" is 5/8 inch long.





Then I switched from the black poly cotton thread I was using to the green rayon machine embroidery thread. The chain stitches turned out okay, apart from the hole problem. You can see the results above.

So what to do about the shredding issue? I tried adding two layers of melt away fabric stabilizer under, but this didn't improve things. I realized I would need to try a totally different substrate. I pulled the following materials from my hoard, er, stash: poly-cotton prepackaged bias tape, rayon seam binding, and synthetic (acetate?) satin ribbon. So that I could hoop them, I machine basted each to two layers of melt away stabilizer, and did some quick and sloppy embroidery (and took some crappy photos--sorry!).


Rayon seam binding was a bust. The basting stitches split the fabric, and so did my stitches: from left to right, back stitch, stem stitch, split stitch.

Poly cotton bias tape did okay, but it really doesn't seem fancy enough for a garter.



The winner was the cheap synthetic ribbon.




It is thicker than the satin fabric, and I guess that is why holes aren't visible and shredding is minimal. The down side is that it is a little too narrow. I have some wider, white ribbon I can use instead, but it is a little too wide. So I may be heading to the fabric store tomorrow...

 

Yes, I'm glad, too! Especially since my return flight doesn't leave until 7:30 pm Saturday, and hotel checkout is noon! Silly me to assume it would work. I always test fabrics before actual sewing. It's a sign either of my embroidery noobness or rushing to get things ready that I didn't even consider doing so for the satin at the start. It didn't even cross my mind.

There is a ribbon store here in Portland I have been meaning to visit--I've window shopped and the displays are scrumptious. But they are closed today. However, this ebay seller has a shop at a local antique mall and I've been meaning to check it out, so maybe I will get lucky, if the normal fabric store is a bust.

I have thought seriously about this, to be honest. Or reducing the humongous and pushed up loongsoul breasts into something resembling breasts in stays.

 

Thanks, this sounds like great advice. I've already got beeswax, so I'll be sure to pack it. I didn't see your reply before I went to the fabric store, but I picked up some Gutermann thread, and I already have some spun silk thread, just not in black. So I guess I'll be changing my color scheme.

Unfortunately, I did not find the ribbon I needed at the fabric store, so my plan now is to use two layers of cotton lawn plus a layer of melt away stabilizer, and then applique it onto a ribbon. I tested embroidery on it, and the results were not perfect, but better than the ribbon I tested last night, which did not look as good in the light of day as it did last night. If worse comes to worse I may try silk paints, after coating the fabric with stop flow. But I'm getting ahead of myself... I'll post my work as soon as I have something to share.

 

I am at the airport, waiting to fly back home. Long week. I finished the embroidery for the garters. I think it looks better than the first effort, although I have learned that making french knots with silk sewing thread is kinda hard. I simplified the center motif, as I thought a heart would be time appropriate and easier to render in this scale.

Apologies for the flash and generally junky photo. Pencil marks and some fuzz still need to be taken care of, once I get home.

I have three more hours until my flight, so I'm going to start playing around with the embroidery for the stockings now.

 

Thanks you, Katzen! I read several 18th century reenactment blogs pretty religiously, so that is a huge compliment to me.

 

Thanks you, albeli! Hopefully, I will be able to make more progress this weekend. Unfortunately, I picked up a cold on my trip, and I'm stuck in bed. But the silk jersey for the stockings, and the antiflow for the silk dyes arrived while I was gone, so as soon as I'm feeling better, I will begin experimenting with how to add the look of a gusset to the stockings.

 

Thanks you, littletinygems! I love your Elizabethan gown project (that headdress!) and hope that you will be posting your rococo progress soon.

 

Thank you Girrl and auntbear. I subscribed to Piecework a long time ago and loved it-- maybe
I should again. I'll have to see if my library has back issues-- the article you mentioned sounds really useful.

The definition of clocking seems to be inconsistent-- some refer to the embroidery as the clocking, others to the gusset itself. For instance, this stocking from Colonial Williamsburg has no embroidery at the ankle at all, just a ribbed gusset, but is referred to as being clocked. Same for these which have a knit lace stitch. Whereas for these ones from the same site, the clocking seems to describe both the gusset and the knit-in embroidery to each side, or the knit-in embroidery over the gusset. I'm no expert, and it's a little confusing. The Museum of Fine Arts refers to these as clocked, and they don't appear to have a gusset at all, just embroidery that was applied after knitting. So I think maybe any detail over the ankle can be referred to as clocking? Or maybe not.

 

Great, thanks! I checked their website but didn't find any back issues that looked like they'd have a history of stockings. If you can find a picture of a clock-shaped clock, I'd love to see it. Most of the ones I've seen have crowns or flowers at the top of the gusset. It would be cool to see earlier versions.

Edit: I found this journal from 1877 which gives a couple of speculations for the etymology for clocks:

1. A dropped stitch that runs the length of a stocking like the weight for a pendulum clock.
2. From the French, clocher, or steeple, as the shape is a pyramid that runs 2 to three inches up from the ankle.
3. Ornamentation around the ankle which probably received its name from early examples having some resemblance to early time-marking clocks.

I find it interesting that the second two speculations differ on what a clock actually is (gore or ankle ornamentation.) I also find it interesting that people were discussing this 150 years ago and still are!

 

I think you are talking about tiger tape? I just might have some in my stash. Excellent idea! I am going to drape the side panels in muslin based on the instructions and rough diagram on Le Couturiere Parisienne, but I've got a few more things to do before I get there.

 

Oops! Double post.

 

I'm just about over my cold so I spent some time today fiddling around with the embroidered/gored regions of the stockings. My plan was to color the gore and to embroider the area surrounding the gore to look like one of the stockings i showed earlier.

I also thought that if I was able to get enough detail, I would use the winning technique to paint a silk fan as an accessory for this gown. But painting on fabric is really different from painting something smooth and hard like resin. The paint tends to spread with the weave of the cloth and behave in other odd ways. So a lot of experimentation is in order. But that's okay, because I love experimenting and working out new techniques.

There are three surface techniques for textiles I am familiar with: acrylic painting, which uses an additive to make normal acrylic paints fabric-friendly, fabric markers, and silk painting. Acrylic painting deposits pigment on top of the fabric, so it adds bulk and removes any stretchiness the fabric has. Fabric markers use a solvent to deliver pigment to the fiber, but it's not always clear how permanent they are. Silk painting uses fiber-reactive acid dyes to permanently dye the fiber. It is extremely permanent.

Here are the results of my tests. I didn't bother with photos, because all there is to see is blobs of yellow color-- almost as fascinating as watching paint dry, I'm sure. ;


1. Silk dye. My hobby before bjds was silk painting. Although I have not done it at all in the past 7 years, I still have most of the supplies. So, since the cost was minimal , I tried this first. Because silk paints are actually dyes, they move into the fibers instead of sitting on top of the cloth. They react chemically with silk, so once any excess is washed away, there is nothing left to stain resin. They also spread really easily. Silk painting takes advantage of this fact. However, you can make the dyes flow less by painting the fabric beforehand with an antiflow agent. Then the fabric behaves like water color paper. I found there was still some bleeding when I used the antiflow on woven or knit silk. So the dyes would not really be usable for painting a crisp yellow gore onto a white stocking, but they might be useful for painting a scene onto a silk fan using a dry brush technique.

I am not giving up on the use of silk dyes for stockings, however. I have one more idea. In silk painting, resist is used to prevent dye from moving into an area. I am planning on painting in a gore using resist, then dying a stocking in a contrasting color to produce, say, a blue stocking with a white gore and details. Since I haven't silk painted in a very long time, my resist had dried up, so I had to order more from dharma trading. I'll continue the dying saga when it arrives.

2. Acrylic fabric paint. This worked well straight out of the container. As it is thick it did not run or bleed. But i found it hard to get very fine details on cloth. When I diluted it with water or retarder, it bled into the fabric. However, the antiflow I spread on the cloth slowed it down a bit. The paint did not work well for coloring the gores, however. When the knit fabric was completely covered so that the white of the fabric could not be seen, the amount of paint caused it to stiffen, and no longer stretch. As the stockings need to stretch, this was also a bust. But with the use of antiflow, I should be able to use it on the silk fan. But even diluted, and using a 000 brush, the lines spread to be wider than the lines I embroidered on the garter. So I guess that for now, I'll be embroidering any words, rather than painting them onto silk, unless any fabric painters out there have tips or techniques to share for working on silk.

3. Permanent fabric marker. I was really leery of trying this, as fabric markers are not always as permanent as advertised. This makes me wonder if it will stain resin. But as the first two methods did not work, I visited my local fabric store and picked up a set. In terms of coverage and lack of bleeding on the fabric, they worked beautifully. They bled too much to replace the details i had been planning on embroidering, but for the large gore they are fine.

The package said heat setting was not required, but I pressed the fabric anyway, just in case it helped make the color more permanent. The picture below shows one stocking with the gore colored in, and the outline for the embroidery done in a blue washaway marker. Some washaway blue marker can turn brown and permanent if you iron it, so I ironed the yellow color to set it before adding in the blue outline I'll use for embroidering and sewing.

The silk knit fabric was temporarily ironed onto freezer paper to stabilize it. This made it easier to outline my pattern and color in the gore.

Next, I began the embroidery, using one of the stitches that are meant to be good on knits, as it stretches. Here is how far I got this evening. I made a ladder of parallel stitches and wove rayon sewing thread back and forth through the ladder, so the stitches will stretch when the stocking is put on the leg.

Once the stockings are done and washed with Retayne, I plan to iron them again, and then put them on a damaged piece of resin for a few weeks to see if the color transfers. (Paranoid!)

I'll post the final pics as soon as both stockings are done, and the garters are finished. I have vacation (Yay!) the week after Christmas, so hope to complete it then.

 

Thank you! I hope to finish the garters soon.

Thanks. Pretty soon the underpinnings will be finished, and I'll finally start work on the dress itself. It's a good thing I'm patient, because this is taking a very long time.

 

That sounds like a great idea. If the resist I ordered doesn't work I will try it. I've never done batik because I was concerned about removing the wax, but the fact that it's bound so tightly is it what would make it work well for this application. Thanks!

 

The resist I ordered from dharma trading arrived yesterday. As I am on vacation (!!!) for ten days, I am going to try that first, and if it doesn't work, try batik, and possibly the resist you mentioned, if I can find it. Maybe its jacquard water based resist or Inko resist? While looking through their online catalog, I saw that dharma is offering soybean wax for batik. The say it is a lot easier to remove than beeswax or paraffin. I am trying to keep costs down, so if I need to go the batik route, I am going to use beeswax I already have on hand, and purchase a cheap tjanting-- unless you guys have a better inexpensive solution, or think beeswax is a bad idea. And if that doesn't work I'll try the soybean, or the alternative resist you mentioned. I love that I am getting to play with textiles again. And i greatly appreciate all the suggestions! Last weekend, serendipitously, I happened across a stovetop silk steamer at a consignment store for twenty bucks. So I will be incorporating more silk painting into doll clothes in the near future, although I don't exactly know how, yet.