Construction Details:

This is the Empress Elisabeth Winterhalter Portrait dress, original made by the original couture hose Charles Worth. In the Elisabeth Musicals this dress is recreated many different ways. I approached this dress trying to recreate the dress worn in the 1998 rendition by Takarazuka, but still in the spirit of the original period correctness of the dress.
I'm wearing a steel boned corset in this dress as well as an Elliptical hoop skirt with 11 boning channels and a petticoat, all of which I made. The skirt and bodice are basic Civil War ear ballgown patterns altered for length and tweaked a little in the bodice for style. I hand pleated the bertha collar on the bodice and hand stitched the puff designs and jewelery pieces on the bodice. The sleeves have two separate layers of lace for depth.
The skirt took 54 yards of fabric and is four layers. Two voile, one crinoline, and one lining. The wig is a 3/4 wig pieces that slide into my own hair. The original dress was worn with a five strand beaver-tail braid, but I fail at braiding anything but a basic three strand. I made two braids, glue one standing on it's side an the other laying flat then warped them around the wig, tucking the ends under the bottom of it. The stars were sparkly buttons that I glued into the wig.
The necklace was also hand made. I think I will be remaking it with a more accurate pendent, when I get a chance.

Overall I'm super pleased with how this turned out and super pleased with how easy it was!!

Sorry, you must be a registered user of and logged in to view and add comments. Either log in or register now!