| The
original costume featured in "Wonders in Letterland" and
"T-Bag Strikes Again". This dress was made by myself using my video recordings as my guide to colours. Many thanks to El for humiliating herself on the streets of Aberystwyth. She did get some funny looks, but I have seen stranger things in Aber! The fabrics were chosen according firstly to what I was told by Raymond, and secondly by close scrutiny of the recodings and guesswork. To find out how I did it, click here. |
| Overview |
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Description: The dress is standard size 12. It is made from red polyester taffetta shot with black in the main, and this is overlayed with maroon crystal organza. The godets of the skirt are cerise taffetta shot with royal blue. The skirt has six godets in it which make it VERY full. This dress is huge!The sleeves taper to a point on the backs of the hands. The dress fastens with a concealed zip at the back. The undersleeves are made from the red/black taffetta, but they are not overlayed. The batwing oversleeves are made from the organza, and the cuff end is trimmed with diamante trim.
The length of the dress is approximately 56" (142cm) from shoulder to floor.
The neckline of the dress is trimmed with diamante trim. The bodice is princess seamed, and the bodice and skirt are all one piece, as with the velvet dress. In fact, this dress was made with the very same pattern for the bodice and skirt. The variation comes in the oversleeves.
The Bodice
This was one of three T-Bag dresses that didn't have a fancy belt and trim. The other two were Tallulah's Star Dress (T-Bag and the Revenge of the T-Set) and Tabatha Bag's Sunstones Dress (Sunstones of Montezuma). Decoration for this dress comes in the form of a diagonal starburst of sequin star appliques (above) and large round sequins running from the right shoulder to the left hip across the bodice. The inside of the bodice is lined with white linen.This dress has a simple diamante trim for the neckline (visible above), and a piece of gold cord with a gold tassel at each end for the belt. The cord is kept in place by two belt carriers, one at each side seam. In the original dress, these were gold, but I have made mine out of the red tafetta, so they are not so conspicuous. Instead of fancy trims and belts, the dress has a very floaty array of organza triangles loosely overlaying the pink godets. Also, it has two long drapes of organza from the shoulders. The organza array billows and floats in the breeze very effectively.
Trivia:I have cheated a bit with the sleeves of this costume. The original had cuffs that fastened with poppers, but mine have no fastening. I used bias cut tafetta to give the sleeves enough stretch to get your hands through the cuffs without having to fasten them.
Despite the size and fullness of this dress, it is surprisingly light. In fact, it is one of the lightest in weight of all the costumes that I have.
