The Plan.

I've got 10 weeks left to finish this project and while that fact may seem quite daunting I'm taking a new look at it. 

• Two more weeks researching fairytale histories, fashion through the centuries, the fabrics and the type of embroidery done on these fabrics.
• Followed by four weeks of sampling, experimenting, hunting down fabrics I can use for an end project and ultimately deciding which Princess or fairytale creature I'll be focusing on.
• Then four weeks of design and construction. Which makes the next three months seem a lot simpler but it may not happen that easily. But for now I'm still sticking with it and have been out again in the hunt for more research.

I've been to the V&A a few times now but every time with a different project on mind so I'm always looking out for different things, this time it was for 18th and early 19th century fabrics and embroidery. 

Close up detail

It's hard to believe sometimes that this kind of embroidery and stitching done hundreds of years ago was completed by candlelight and without a sewing machine in sight. The amount of detail can be astonishing when it's seen repeated all over a dress. When I think of designs I imagine some detailing around the hem or just in a corner and that can feel like too much to take one but it was a different world back then when it comes to hand embroidery.

Detailed embroidery over textured, raised fabric