I have finally reached a point in my Cranach gown in which I can justify having a “Part II” post on my progress. Unfortunately, for those who are incredibly invested in this, “Part III”, which will include pics of the completed outfit in use, will be after Raptor War (August 23-25). So there isn’t too much I can share today, but hopefully these little snippets of progress will ease your minds overcome with the anticipation.

“Part I” ended with a mostly completed bodice:

Since then, I have the entire thing together sans sewn in Brustfleck (I can’t figure out how to make an umlaut in WordPress). The Brustfleck is currently in the process of being embroidered and beaded.

Let it be known that embroidery is not my prowess, but I think it’s turning out rather nicely. I had my mom send me a tiny pearl bracelet that I would wear to events as a child and I re-purposed them onto the Brustfleck. My fingers were dying from the embroidery, but I was on a roll, so I just went ahead and already sewed the pearls on… potentially like an idiot, but the jury’s still out on that front. There were only 24 pearls to use, so they are spaced out in the little groups of three on the inside of the wreath to mimic the heraldic estencily of my arms.

So now the much more boring stuff. Here are some lacing rings:

They are strong and shall hold string well.

While it’s not particularly exciting from the outside perspective, I feel I did the skirt and guards like a f****** champ. My rolled pleats are thicc and beautiful with about 10 layers of the velvet in them. Due to the fabric being black, it has proved impossible to take a decent picture of how the skirt hangs, but I have for sure achieved that tubular look you see in the paintings:

My only pissy point is that the green silk I used for the guards is still really stiff and won’t cooperate with how the velvet hangs. I’m wondering if it’d be worth it to hang in the bathroom to be pulled down by gravity and possibly steam it into submission. Probs worth a shot.

The skirt has about 4 yards of fabric in it, so with guards I had to sew 12 yards total together. I know that you’re thinking “what’s 12 yards of straight lines you wuss?” But let me tell you… I went through 4 Star Wars movies having to do THIS:

…FOR 12 WHOLE YARDS. The velvet is so slippery that I had to closely cross the pins (I don’t know the technical term) so that there was even a minuscule chance of being able to sew a straight line.

The hem is hand sewn and looks much prettier from the outside than the inside:

This is all I can share for now without giving away too much and sharing the finished product, but “Part III” is forthcoming!