White underskirt; gold and red petals; red bodice and sleeves; gold oversleeves; gold ornamented neckpiece. Veil. Embroidery on topmost petals.

I had to cut my 5 yards into 45" long pieces and then sew the sides together, as the damask pattern went along with the warp of the fabric instead of the weft...

5 yards, pleated down to 32". Debated whether to pleat or gather - still not sure if I made the right decision.... The fabric is quite lightweight, so either would have been fine.

I have 5 yards of gold fabric with borders; the challenge was to use it without cutting. Very difficult - I believe I've spent at least ten hours going through different draping designs. (Some with an additional fabric... have abandoned that for now.)

Finally settled on a simpler design. I might still fold up the back more, but the waist pleating is done and basted to a twill tape.

Interlining of cotton drill; lining of quilting cotton. CF and princess seams are boned with spiral steel.

Serged; awaiting binding. I'm going to make the jacket first, because I suspect I might want to open up the chest a little bit more... Also - settled on a mid layer. Red brocade currently only pinned on.

Not enough red showing - will re-pleat and stitch so there's more red closer to CF

Too far from my original design now; need a new sketch to refer back to.

Started with a generic 'kimono' top pattern; altered it to be closer fitting, cropped, and have funneled sleeves

The silk was oddly resistant to marking (pencil, chalk, etc) so there was no way I could make symmetrical designs.