The beginnings of Azira's dress

by **Drusilla** on November 26th, 2014, 5:58 am

41st of Fall

Drusilla's spirits were high today as she began her work. She had pulled up Azira's newly updated sizes and the dummy that matched. Moving about her station she gathered what would be needed for today. Finally removing the beautiful silk from a drawer. She felt the eyes of the other Avora and Cheits on her and the beautiful fabric. However she was too excited to care.

She had already cut templates for the dress after making sure it was perfect several hundred times. Everything had to be perfect. Drusilla looked over the sketches she'd done. She'd start with the flowy bryda that went under the dress giving off the look of extra fabric. Much like a slip or second layer.

Laying out the black silk Drusilla pinned it down in the corners keeping it from moving while she worked. Once satisfied that the fabric wouldn't move, she continued on to laying the cut pattern on the silk and pinning that as well. Now certain nothing would shift or move she could begin to cut around the pattern cutting a copy out of the silk as well.

The cutting had to be slow, careful, and exact. Drusilla even at times held her breath as if her breathing would throw off her cutting. Slowly, slowly, curve slightly, good, now careful. She coaxed herself along mentally as she worked, cutting inch by inch in a slow almost meditative state. She had tuned out everything around her every bit of her being focusing on perfection. A bell later she had a perfect copy of the pattern, only in beautiful black silk. Drusilla folded the cut silk gently and prepared to relay the pattern and cut the other side of the bryda out.

Once the pattern had been relayed on the silk and everything repined. She began the slow cutting process again. All of her focus returning to the job at hand, it was as if the world was in slow motion as she worked, or perhaps time itself had stopped. While neither was true the Symenestra continued on ever so carefully and ever so slowly until the second bryda cut was done. Finally she could breath, for now.

by **Drusilla** on December 6th, 2014, 6:24 am

Drusilla unpinned the silk and lined up the two cuts for the bryda, making sure they matched up. Much to her delight they did which meant she could get to sewing the pieces together. Finding her favorite needle and the perfect thread, she dove in to her work.

This would be another long process, the sewing itself. Every stitch had to be perfect. She had left enough fabric for the seams so hopefully everything would go smoothly. Drusilla turned the fabric inside out and began to sew the outside of a pant leg. She smiled she missed working with silk. It was nice to work with it again. Silk was a familiar cloth to Drusilla, she knew what to expect of it, how to work with it. At The Weft and Warp she had learned how silk was made. In fact, she herself had worked making silk. It had given her a respect for the fabric and for the many hands that helped make it and the soft moth larva that died to make it all possible. So much went into the making of silk, she had seen it first hand.

Drusilla stopped to take note of how far she had gotten along the pants, halfway she noted. Now stopping to look at the bryda, they weren't full length bryda, more knee length or more just below the knees. Azira was young and fit, after all she was a hunter. Drusilla nodded this would show off her no doubt toned legs nicely.

by **Drusilla** on December 10th, 2014, 3:39 am

Drusilla returned to the bryda and sewing up the outer part of the pant leg. So far the stitching was looking good and she hoped it would keep looking that way. She had no room for sloppy mistakes. The sewing of a garment was tedious, but it was calming and relaxing. One just had to remember that they were working on an important project and not just sewing to sew.

Finishing the outer part of the pant leg, Drusilla realized that most of the seamstresses were heading to lunch. When one asked if she was going to come along, she waved her away saying she had to finish her current project. By the time most of the workers were returning Drusilla had finished the inner part of the pant leg and was preparing to start on the second leg.

She went about the second leg the same as the first, matching the stitches to the first leg. Then she moved to the inner leg and then up to the crotch of the pants.

Now all she had to do was the hemming.

by **Drusilla** on February 7th, 2015, 10:24 pm

Drusilla held up the pants, mentally taking in where she would hem them at. She laid the pants back down with a smile. Delicately folding one of the pant legs inward, needle in hand she began to sew hemming the pants so they would fray any time soon. Although she was making these for Azira... She'd sew the hem with extra thread to make sure it stayed in place.

She finally held the pants up, looking over her work as a whole. For the most part yes, of course there were some minor issues here and there. But Drusilla had expected as much and began to fix each and every little detail. Only then could she add the final touches to the pants.

And so she worked fixing every little flaw, keeping her mind strictly on work even though it desperately wanted to daydream. She held them up again looking over everything she had fixed. Drusilla smiled at her work.

Moving the pants aside she took and spread the gold silk on the table. She cut a long thin strip from it and safely tucked the rest of the gold silk away. The pants returned to the table getting the final touch a gold stripe at the very edge of the pants, an accent that would match the dress itself. Perfect. The Symenestra was very pleased with her work. The pants, after another look over were finished and she could move on to the dress itself.

She folded the beautiful pants and put them away for safe keeping. Drusilla looked over the dress design Azira had settled on. She made a few notes here and there.

by **Drusilla** on April 6th, 2015, 12:26 am

The gold silk was laid out on the table and the Symenestra smoothed it out carefully. The way it shimmered was dazzling to the eye. Drusilla couldn't help but smile at the workmanship of her once peers at the Weft and Warp.

The already cut patterns were pinned with precision to the silk, so that the patterns would stay safely in place as she cut the silk to match. Very carefully and very slowly Drusilla began to cut around the patterns of the dress's form. Unlike the pants which had been an identical cut for the front and back, this dress was backless for the most part. It did have some straps, but those would be added later on. Right now the cloth pieces needed to be cut perfectly or as close to perfect as one could get.

With both pieces of the dress cut, Drusilla gave them a good look over for any imperfections. Seeing no visible flaws, the Symenestra went on wards with the dress. Laying out the sides that would be the inside of the dress out Drusilla matched the seams to each other.

by **Drusilla** on April 7th, 2015, 12:50 am

It took a long time to sew the dress pieces together, but once the two pieces were one Drusilla took the dress and placed the dress on the dressmaker's dummy. It was pinned to the dummy. She turned the dummy around and looked over the form. She spun the dummy, examining how the dress twirled. Perfect.

Now the straps were to be added, black in color. The straps overlapped each other, forming a diamond above the breast line. A black strip was added to the bottom of the dress. It tied behind the back.

Drusilla finished up and polished up every little detail. Very pleased with her final product, the Symenestra removed the dress from the form and carefully folded it and placed it with the pants. She'd have to give this to Azira and hope it didn't disappoint.

by **Khara** on May 31st, 2015, 7:10 pm

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Drusilla :

Please don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions/comments regarding your grade. I'll be more than happy to take a second look if you think I've missed something!
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Also, please don't forget to edit your post as 'graded' in the request thread.

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