Renaissance project finished this year!

I never thought I would finish this project just in time to see in the new year.

Well this is how it turned out. I know that my patience ran out at a few stages during construction may be resulting in a less than perfect finish. However, what are you going to do when you have university deadlines, planning for Christmas and organizing a social club? Do the best you can with the time you've got. To a costumer, there are a couple of things that you keep in mind when  making a project. Do you want it wearable? Do you want it perfect? Do you have enough time to make it to the standard you want? If you don't have enough time you have to sacrifice construction standards and make it so that it is presentable and wearable. So that's what I've had to settle for with this project. Although most people liked it who have seen it are not sewers and may be only have experience in sewing on a button. But I am greatful for the encouragement.  I must add that all of the trim had to be sewn on by hand as there is no machine foot that I know of that will sew gimp braid to satin or brocade.  When making up the skirt I used a wide zig zag stitch and some 12 gage embroidery cotton with a cording foot to make gathering a one step operation. Leave a long tale on the embroidery thread and wind around a pin and start stitching with a back stitch. Then as you stitch just inside the seam allowance feed the embroidery/upholstery thread through the cording foot's guide. End once again by back stitching and leave a long tail on the upholstery thread. Pull the long thread tails and adjust the size of the waist band and the gathers.  Secure the thread tails and attach the waist band. This way is so much easier than doing a double row of 5mm stitches and trying gather by pulling the bobbin threads.   This skirt does differ from the pattern because of the box pleat in the brocade panel. This was necessary because the brocade was thick and difficult to gather.  I also used a trouser closure bars on the waist band  instead of the standard eyelets and lacing because this skirt is quite heavy. To make sure the skirt placket stays closed I used a press closure so that no surprises happened while dancing and feasting.