Scary monsters, and yet more painting

A couple of weeks ago, I blithely mentioned in a post that I had finished all the fabric painting for the beaded dress. However I spoke too soon.

In “Patterns of Fashion”, Janet Arnold mentions that the original dress has a small label inside to distinguish the front from the back. Having made my orange dance dress from the same pattern, I can confirm that it is very hard to tell the difference. So I decided to simply things by adding an extra motif on the front of the dress at the neckline

I based this on part of the centre motif on the hip band, but turned round by a quarter.

Hip band, centre

While I was painting it, I knew that it reminded me of something, but I couldn’t quite think what. Then it struck me; this ...

looks very like this ...

... but with horns!

I asked Mr Tulip for a second opinion; and he confirmed that once you’ve seen it, it’s very hard to un-see it. So, I needed a new design.

I didn’t want to introduce yet another motif, so used the design from the side of hip band instead. This shows what the side seam should look like when completed.

Hip band, side (mocked-up from photograph)

I tilted the side pieces up to make the motif slightly narrower, and to form a triangular shape.

The new neckline motif, not a monster in sight

There was a bit more painting to do. When I painted the hip band I had heavily outlined the design, and when washing the outliner out, this also removed some of the gold paint and the colour underneath. So, these areas needed a repaint. This was tricky as there was no longer any outliner to protect the design, so I had to use a fine brush with tiny amounts of paint. For the new motif I simplified things by painting the colour, then washing out outliner, and only then adding the gold.

In between all this painting, I have completed the beading on another two motifs, and I'm happy to report that they are wiggle-free. Progress!