Dress progress

Here are some of the things I'm working on:  Here's the bottom of the Betsy dress.  It is four layers.  One bright white cotton underlayer, one thin polyester white layer, two layers of tulle and there is a black tulle stripe.  The tricky part was the black tulle.  It had to be sewn on with nylon thread.  The black thread you are seeing is the basting thread.  The zipper will go in the front.

Here's the top:

 I sewed the lycra netting onto a piece of nude lycra material.  This is the entire top.  The edges will be attached in the front to a zipper (hard to imagine, I know).

Here's the first look at the Zuhair dress:  This is about 4 steps into it. There was template making, tracing, cutting, and pinking of entire edges.  It took a lot of work to get here.  Doesn't look it.  I have a new respect for the people who have to construct garments.  (Designer -- yes I know they do the amazing part), but the unsung hero is the pattern maker who interprets the design into a workable garment.

Lastly, the black silk arrived as a beautifully flat, ironed thin piece of fabric resembling voile.  I need said fabric to be crinkled randomly.  First I wet it (and it bled like a dickens -- dye everywhere).  Then I did the broomstick skirt method twirled it and put it in a knot.  Like so:

It dried.  I unrolled it:

Looks perfect, but I'm sure it is not going to be easy to work with.