'Carriage' Top

Inspired by a picture of a Victorian carriage, this could be worn as either a long top or a short dress. It is made up of black and white panels, fitted together to form the shape of the carriage when the wearer's arms are down by their sides. The top has wide, three quarter-length sleeves, and the wheel shapes are appliqued onto them. White ribbon is used to outline some of the panels, such as the rectangles that make up the carriage windows, and around the edge of the neckline and the sleeves. The top reaches to the upper thigh.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by History' project. For more designs check back here on the 1st of November or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Image © Bronzedale Designs

'The Sunne in Splendour' Tunic

I have recently read The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Penman for the first time, and absolutely loved it. So I decided to use that for my Design Inspired by Literature this week.

This design uses Edward IV's sunne in splendour badge as a motif on the embroidered front panel. The panel uses the motif three times, one on each shoulder and one in the centre of the tunic. This embroidered panel then attaches to a brown tie-belt, which ties at the back of the tunic. The tunic is sleeveless, but in this drawing it is shown worn over a plain cream shirt. The tunic's armholes are edged with the same brown colour as the belt. The rest of the tunic is left plain to draw attention to the embroidered panel.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by Literature' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Tunic Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Holes' Top

This design is inspired by the book Holes by Louis Sachar. It's a very clever book, and is a really enjoyable read, which is quite surprising when most of the book is about digging holes.

Because of this, I've used a spade motif across one side of the top. The top is intended to be fastened where the green panel joins the orange and blue panels. Snaps would be used under each of the spade shapes to fasten the top. The other part of the top is split into an orange panel, and a blue panel, with a lizard appliqued in yellow, imitating the book's cover. The edges of the top, around the neck, arms and hem are bound in the same colour yellow as the lizard and the spades.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by Literature' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Roman Wing' Top

This post is late because I've only just finished the design. I've been procrastinating doing it all week, because I didn't have a clue what I was going to do. I'd run out of ideas and couldn't find anything to base my design on. After quite a while of looking for ideas I ended up on a BBC news article published yesterday about a piece from a roman statue that was found in Gloucester. The wing piece is thought to be from a statue to Victoria, the Roman Goddess of victory.

This design uses the wing shape as decoration on the top. The wing shapes are embroidered onto the top, the shapes are backed with a slightly heavier fabric so that they retain their shapes. The fabric of the top is loosely gathered at the edge of the wing shapes and also at the cuffs. The cuffs are made in the same way as the wing shapes are, and are embroidered in the same colour. A small button would be used on each of the cuffs so that they can be loosened. The top fastens by two buttons at the back of the top, because the way that the wing shapes overlap would make it impractical to fasten at the front.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by History' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Henry VIII' Tunic

This portrait of Henry VIII is one I'd seen so many times that I'd stopped really looking at it. It wasn't until I was looking through a book about Tudor and Jacobean Jewellery, and was actually looking for ideas that I really noticed the detail on Henry VIII's clothes.

This design uses some of the details from the portrait, the tunic is a similar colour and the embroidery is inspired by that on Henry VIII's tunic, (though I'm afraid I didn't quite do it justice - that sort of intricacy is incredibly difficult to try and copy.) The tunic is very loose, but is pulled in at the waist by a belt. It has simple, short sleeves reaching to the middle of the upper arm and a bateau neckline. It reaches to the top of the thigh and would be made out of a light cotton material.

Detail of the belt

Detail of the embroidery

I hope you like this design, it is part of my 'Designs inspired by History' project. For more designs, check back here next week or visit my other blog, Bronzedale Bridal Designs at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Tunic Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs