Royalty ~ Sewing + Photography Adventure

I really liked how V's dress turned out, actually! And when I went to take those photos of Cookie on the train rails, I thought: I need to make Coco a huge, huge dress similar to V's and take photos of it here. Picture the hubby face-palming, after realizing he would have to go around me, double checking on Coco, my camera and myself.

Oh well, I have some green nearby and I'm gonna take advantage of it for photos! Of course, I'm kind of not worrying about people's looks, actually. I'm more worried about getting robbed. But oh well. Anyways, there is no story here at all, just some photos! And after the pretty ones, I'll share what inspired me and some WIPs I posted on Instagram!

Sewing Anecdotes

But, where did I got the idea for this? Okay, I was partially inspired on V's dress: the idea of a white satin+tulle outfit, with a touch of color. Picking a color was easy: blue was out because it was V's dress; green was not a choice since I wanted outdoor photos and it would clash too much; yellow was also scratched because it would make her look too yellowed and saturate my camera, and lilac was out... because I always end up using lila in Coco. So, I got the idea of royalty, and decided to go with red. A plus was that I -for once- already had matching thread.

For the top I used the same pattern I created for the commission I did in 2016: a miniature of the dress Daisy Ridley wore to the Star Wars red carpet. I wanted an asymmetrical skirt just because, so I made an asymmetrical skirt. Because I am a cheap person, I didn't bought more fabric to this, so I spent around 40 minutes placing the pattern and folding what I have of fabric, in order to optimize the positions and obtain the three layers I wanted.

Then, it was time to decide on the cape! I was torn between a bolero and a cape, but... I like epic dresses, I already made boleros, and I'm too partial to trains. A cape it was. Which cape? I spent another hour or so googling inspiration photos, until I remembered a cape I loved! Maxima Zorreguieta's cape, the one of the blue gown! (click the link to see it). It had such a great fall and drape, and I loved how those shoulder looked: almost like a fitted jacket: perfect!

I actually started from V's shirt pattern, and modified it. Then, I cut the outer layer of the cape, but... it wasn't looking nice. I had made it floor length, like the reference photo and it just covered the dress to much. So hubby helped me brainstorm, and I ended up cutting the cape to make it asymmetric as well. And then, updated the pattern. What do you think?

Don't get me started on the embroidering: the transparent thread was like... too much. It actually is transparent though. I couldn't see WTF I was doing. Honestly! It is way worse than sewing black thread into black fabric in a cloudy day or at night! But it was worthy. She is my queen! And the wings... well, V's dress had horns, Coco should have wings!

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and I apologize for not having a video of this dress. I actually enjoy doing the WIP videos but it wasn't possible this time. Have a great weekend!