Velvet New Years Dress

A few days ago I finally took some pictures of the New Years dress. I don’t really have anything to add, I’ve already told pretty much anything there is to say about it. It is floor length, has a zipper closure at the left side, and is lined with a polyester satin (the only material not used before, but I did have it at home).

For those who haven’t read the earlier posts on this dress, it’s all made out of reused materials: the velvet used to be a couple of curtains, the white satin and tulle in the sleeves were leftover scraps from sewing my friends wedding dress. The material for the lattice work on the sleeves and the zipper came from an old dress of mine.

It didn’t really cost me anything to make. It’s based on the old, no-longer-in-use Swedish court-dress, but I changed the colour from black to dark blue. The original black court dress would not have been used by a dancing lady at a ball though – white was the colour for balls at court. The dresses still had the lattice sleeves, but all in white. The ladies wearing the black court dress at balls where the ladies in waiting on “active duty” (without trains), and non-dancing ladies – the chaperons (with a train). I rather like this dress, I think the sleeves are pretty.