This was not a terribly technical portion, mostly it was just a really tedious job. The details of Ophelia’s dress include a lion rampant along the skirt hem in a pretty gold. What’s a lion rampant you say? It’s basically one of those lion designs where it’s up on its hind feet and roaring or something. It’s a heraldic symbol often seen on family shields and things. 
So! I went on a hunt for a design I liked. There were a lot of nice lions rampant out there, and I wanted to get close to what the design on the skirt looks like, but I also wanted something interesting and to my preference. That’s when I found this cool lion rampant with a forked tail! That was totally the guy.
Next, I needed to size it up. At 5’2”, I am fun sized and I know it. In Ophelia’s portrait, the lion starts just at the top of the gold trim on the skirt and doesn’t quite come to her knee. So while I initially thought I would need a large design, it turns out the best size for me is really just about a regular sheet of paper sized. That made printing pretty convenient!
The next portion was one of the tedious parts. There are of course of a lot of little scrolly bits and fur on knees and things, and I carefully cut out the design all the way around. Then there was YET MORE TEDIOUS TRACING. After I affixed a section of the gold charmuse to some WonderUnder (WU is a paper-backed fusible webbing that comes in several weights. You can use it to basically make appliqués, bonding fabric to fabric, or even fabric to other porous materials), I started tracing the design onto the paper backing from the original print. Tracing the design onto the paper backing means I don’t have to mark the fabric and risk getting a mark in a place I don’t want. Yikes!
Once again, there was MORE TEDIOUS cutting, but I came out with a really good result!
Which awaits application to the skirt of the dress, when it’s time. Using the WonderUnder makes it really easy: all I have to do is iron it on! Ta da!
No comments:
Post a Comment