A Tale of Two Dresses

I finally had a flash about Milly's Cup today. The problem had been slim pickins as far as fabric selection - I needed 12 yards total !! I wanted a nice muslin - why bother sewing it if not to wear it? But, do the math and you'll understand why I was looking for a super red tag. In a sudden grasp of the obvious I realized I could get away with doing the dress tea length for the muslin, thus eliminating about 5 yards of fabric. Another "oh!" when I realized I could also wear this muslin to my cousin's wedding, which a little birdie tells me is right around the corner (HLF you'd better call me!).

I packed up the little man and headed back to BigName, and... (imagine Handel's Halleluiah Chorus in background here) not only were they friendly today, but I found some fabric! It's not quite what I intend to use on the final version (silk chiffon and double georgette) but it's kind of exotic in a sherberty way. The print is poly chiffon and the lining poly habutai. Funny thing is that the lining is the exact color of edupraz's version of this dress! I didn't realize it until I came home and looked up the review :) weird- this dress wants to be a Buddhist. It also evidently wants to be tea length. So here's the start of Milly's Muslin:

And here's the dressform- I've still to work up a base...

I have discussed it with my sweetie-pie-husband-who-will-be-doing-all-the-work, and we are going to make another dressform. This one ended up being too big in the proportions around the waist, and the bust fell on it. I'll keep this one around because it will get use, but I'm going to try the next duct tape form with the wiring inside and see if it keeps f0rm better. As it is, this one is actually hanging from the ceiling overhead and just steadied on a disassembled music stand with pvc.

With all the duct tape, the people at Home Depot are going to start to wonder about me and my husband :)