Queen Elizabeth 1, Costume Sneak Peeks And Lessons Learned

Today has been a challenge.  My sewing machine, which last week sewed through multiple layers of faux leather (for my LOKI costume) without hesitation, today decided that it really didn't like sewing the fabrics for my royal dress.  Using scraps of the fabric, I fiddled with the tension, needle types and threads till I was quite irritated.  The fabric is slippery and is my least favorite kind to work with but it is a dress for royalty so there weren't really too many options and it is beautiful.  Yesterday my daughter and I cut out all the fabric pieces.  There is a lot of fabric!  There are 6.5yards of the main gold color and 2 of the coordinating red.  The skirt is gold and the bodice is red and yes the skirt took nearly all the 6.5yards!  

My first problem was that my trusty walking foot snagged the delicate fabric.  Thank goodness this was the wrong side!   

Then I had to deal with a stroppy sewing machine with tension issues.

When the tension was finally acceptable, I had to double pin everything to stop the layers shifting.  Below is the bodice lining.  I have used a very soft quilting cotton so it will feel nice next to my daughter's skin.  This was my first time using boning and it went pretty smoothly - thank you Google and YouTube!  I had to make some fit adjustments to the bodice when my daughter came home from school but nothing too major.  Tomorrow I will finish up the sleeves and put the bodice together.  Hopefully I can make some good progress on the skirt too.  More tomorrow!