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The evolution of the gold bullion work:
I started with this as my inspiration; the knotwork motif on Arwen's "Chase Dress" sleeve upper.
The design was copied down in black and white digital format, After that, I enlarged the image to the exact dimensions I needed to fit the width of each princess-seamed skirt panel, and I enlarged a single swirl motif to go up the back of the train. The real size images are linked if you want to download them. They have to be sliced into segments for printing on 8.5x11" paper (shown as "part A", "B", and "C").
21" Wide Horizontal Motif: whole (109 kb)
21" Tall Train motif: whole (281 kb)
The next step was to draw out the basic shapes of the skirt pattern onto the silk pieces, then to trace the black outlines of the knot motif onto the hemline of each segment. The ink drawing of the back panel is shown here (click to enlarge):
The silk was sent away to India and they sent back the panels glittering with gold bullion, again click to enlarge:
The final result sewn together: | |
