Another one off the needle!

The dress is done! Except for hemming, but machine hemming would ruin the shine on the fabric, so I'll Ebay some Wundaweb or Stitch Witchery to finish it off (fusible web bonding thingies, if you're not familiar with some of the brand names).
It's hard to photograph a full-length gown all by yourself with limited space in the middle of the night, so I propped up the camera on the dresser and made a mad dash to the bed to take these, that's why they're so crappy. As you can see, the skirt is very full. And swooshy. But the top is quite fitted. I like it, it's very feminine but completely impractical. I suppose I can only wear it to medieval festivals. But then again, that's the point! Now for the back...
I think that my sleeve mod worked out OK, and the lace up back looks very medieval, as the DH put it. Now for the deets:
Pattern: Butterick B4827.
Fabric: Embroidered Chinese Silk Taffeta and matching plain taffeta from Shah Textiles on Ebay.
Modifications: I took away an inch of fabric from the back, and shortened the dress considerably, because I'm short. I followed the fold lines on the pattern, and figured how much to remove by making a cheap mock up in a very coarse cotton. I also added an 'outer sleeve' over the pattern's inner sleeve in an attempt to increase the historical accuracy of the dress.
Overall opinion:
Shiny slippery fabrics are difficult to sew. I discussed it with my mother and she said that I had to apply a lot of tension to the fabric so the machine could catch the threads and not skip stitches (like it was doing until I called her up). Thanks mom! I think I strongly prefer to work with cottons and linens. No more silky stuff for me! Maybe the next one will the one of these... but it will have to wait, because I'm back in research mode! I go off to another beamtime in 2 days... so I'm trying to finish off as much stuff as possible, and blog about it at the same time. I figure that BSJ #2 will be done tonight or tomorrow, but blocking will have to wait a couple of weeks. But one bonus of that incredibly long drive to France is that we may stop somewhere along the way to break up the drive. My vote is on Strasbourg, yeah, you guessed it, to visit the infamous La Droguerie. I am not linking to their website because it doesn't show their yarns. Go ahead and google them to see pics of their yarn, definitely droolworthy.

Now that my major summer crafting project is done, I'm thinking about medieval dress accessories. It's cold and wet here all year round, so I think maybe this will fit the bill, to go over top on those cold rainy medieval festival days. Too bad it's not a cardigan, though. The yarn? Remember when I bought some gray wool for a somewhat grown up and sophisticated sweater that I can wear to work and not look like I visited Medieval Town and rolled a villager for her sweater on my way in? I changed my mind. Or a peacock feathers shawl using some peacock blue laceweight I've been hoarding, though that's not historically accurate. Or both.

Ivanova