April 17, 2008...10:36 am
A whiter shade of pale
I finally splashed out and bought the entire sample pack from fabric supplier Whaleys of Bradford. Whaleys specialise in fabric for dyeing, natural fabrics and fabrics for use in the theatre. So, basically, any fabric as long as it’s white, or shades of. With a few blacks thrown in. Which is all well and dandy for a Bridal dress :)
The swatches (of which there are far more than those shown above) are an education. I never realised there were quite so many different kinds of fabric. There’s some really interesting ones in there that have me dreaming up new projects, but all in good time, all in good time…
So, six metres of heavy silk crepe de chine arrived from Whaleys yesterday. It’s glorious. I realise that a photo of white fabric is pretty low on excitement, but you can see the glorious soft sheen the silk has:
It has a hot (or cold) date with some pink cold water dye (I couldn’t find pale pink silk crepe de chine without paying more in shipping from the US than the cost of the fabric, and even the necessary swatches alone would have set me back a ridiculous flat shipping fee). When it’s pink it’s destined to be the outer layer of Hettie’s Bridesmaid dress. The fine cotton for the underslip of Hettie’s dress is coming from the US, from Farmhouse Fabrics, along with trimmings. (Don’t you just love the word trimmings?) The skirt of the underslip will have a an overlay of this embroidered tulle which comes from ebay store Lindy Laces:
This is pale gold on ivory. I also bought some in silver on white and couldn’t decide between the two, but with Hettie’s help we’ll go for the pale gold- it does look more antique and less glittery.
Hettie came to try on her test dress at the weekend- thanks, Hettie! I think we just about got it to fit after a few adjustments! I was so concerned with fitting it I forgot to take any pictures- sorry about that. I guess the finished dress will be even more of a surprise!
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