Red and gold "Fleur de Les" gown                      page  1   2   3
 
     I saw the fabric for this gown at a discount upholstery fabric store. The shop gets odd and end. I fell in love with the pattern and richness of the red. Although the last thing I needed was another red dress, I bought what was left.

     The problem was that there was only 4 and half yards at  60 inches wide. I had to be very conservative if I was to get an entire gown. I decided to draw out the intended pattern before cutting. I barely had enough.

     The other challenge with working with this stuff was that it's edges curled up after it was cut. I used fusible interfacing on all the edges and smaller pieces. Although this is not a "period" technique it saved what was left of my sanity. 

     Before constructing, I stitched a 6 mm pearl on each of the Fleur de Les.

 

Left- front view
Above- the Fleur di Les pattern of the brocade with the pearls