Project the First: Miranda

This project started out to be a sideless surcoat to wear this Friday evening to a Medieval festival in Simpsonville, but it has become much more. When I arrived home and looked at the pattern I'd bought to modify, it occured to me how much it looked like the style of the dress in a painting I've been dying to reproduce:


J.W. Waterhouse's Miranda: The Tempest. This has to be one of my all time FAVORITE Waterhouse paintings, and the dress seems relatively simple to construct. The main challenge, I think, will be the inset red sleeves. Since I can't see the dress from the front, I'm having to imagine what the front looks like. Although...I have some ideas from JWW himself... Behold, what I think to be the same basic dress, on Ophelia this time:


A bit more ornate in trim, but the same design. I like the slightly more rounded appearance of the neckline on Miranda, and will not be adding quite so much decoration to my gown.

I was worried about the sleeves, but then I found a third incarnation of the same basic dress, this time worn by Fair Rosamund.


You can see there the bands around the upper arm that should conceal the seam in between the blue and red sleeve, as well as the flowing nature of the blue sleeves. I have the blue fabric and some red...we'll see what happens...