The Making of Millie's Royal Gown
The Beginning
We began with the selection of the design, then the colors and fabrics. We chose cream Silk Duchess; cobalt and amber Swiss Cloque; French cobalt double-face Silk Satin; Silk/Rayon Velvet; Silk Charmeuse and French Chantilly Lace. The design required hundreds of types of crystals from Swarovski®, pearls and flat-back sew-on-stones as well as Japanese bugle beads and seed beads. This is the first glimpse of the color range of the fabrics and the beads.
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The Under-Dress
In true Elizabethan form, the gown required an under-dress and an over-dress. The under-dress needed texture and interest, so I decided to cut hundreds of strips of silk duchess; construct a loom of stretcher boards, and weave the strips at a 45° angle. The images below show the some of the steps in creating this fabric.
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Once the fabric was woven and fused, the body of the skirt was cut and the sculptural shape of the skirt was made with corset boning.
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Over a thousand flat back crystals from Swarovski® and pearls were attached to each woven intersection graduating from 5 millimeters at the top of the skirt to 12 millimeters at the hem.
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The skirt of the under-dress was attached to a solid Silk Duchess harness top.
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Chantilly Lace
The only available color of lace in the pattern we wanted was white. I used 50 tea bags to dye the Chantilly lace to a beautiful ecru color.
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The lace was cut and stiffened with starch for the collar and the hem of the under-dress.
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The Over-Dress
The over-dress is composed of Swiss Cloque, Silk Velvet and French Double-Faced Satin. We will begin with the Swiss Cloque part of the gown. The tulip shape was cut and embellished with three tones of crystals from Swarovski®. I spent four days placing crystals and seed beads on the fabric and decided it was just too busy. So I ripped all of the beads off and started over. I was very pleased with the overall effect of the final beadwork.
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The next part of the Over-Dress is a band of silk double-faced satin. A template for the design was cut and the motifs were formed from bugle beads, crystal over-beading and flat-backed crystals. The effect is very three-dimensional.
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The Over-Dress Bodice
The bodice is composed of Silk/Rayon velvet with a monogram "MLR" representing MILLIE LaRUE. The monogram base is 24K gold seed beads and is over-beaded with crystals from Swarovski®. The yoke of the bodice is hand-woven strips of double faced silk satin with crystals at every woven intersection.
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Sleeves on the Gown
The challenge was to create sleeves which were three-dimensional and fan-shaped. Each sleeve required 18 half-moon shaped double-faced silk satin pieces which were sewn together and then stuffed with tulle to retain their shape. Along the edges of each sleeve fan, crystals from Swarovski® were attached. Once the sleeves were set into the bodice, a double-faced silk satin band was placed on the bottom of the sleeve and Chantilly lace was attached.
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The Final Product
The Under-Dress | The Over-Dress |
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Millie's Royal Gown was truly the most challenging and beautiful piece I have ever created.
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The gown I created for Millie LaRue and for Darsey took 8 weeks to complete. It was an honor and I am most proud of the end result.
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Along with the Royal Gown, we had the Royal Crown, Leash, Darsey's bracelets, earrings and Tiara. Everything was custom-made and everything matched.
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