The Fabric Samples... or should that be whoop! whoop!

Of all the weekend's fun and games, this is the easiest bit to blog about, so it's where I'll start :o)   Saturday morning, just as I'd given up on any fabric samples ever a) arriving or b) being "right", and was about to take myself of on another trawl of the local shop in the vain hope that I might find something I'd not seen before, three of my ordered samples arrived in the post.  Even betterer (as the 11yr old would have said before it wasn't "cool"!), of the three samples, two were contenders, and of the two contenders, one is a Gun Metal Drape which is near perfect! 

I didn't bother with the Poly Taffeta, nice fabric but if I was going for black, the dupion beat it hands down.  The dupion is lovely and, if I was going for a top-end high status outfit it would be the perfect choice, but I have it in my head, my stubborn, stubborn head, that I want to finish this outfit off with a grey lightweight wool gown.  Though not a wool, the drape is a lovely weight and colour is exactly what I was looking for, so in this case it will be a grey 79% polyester, 17% viscose, 4% elastane gown... I wonder if a Tudor tailor would be disappointed or impressed? 

Gun Metal Drape (L) and Black Satin Backed Dupion (R)

It's times like this that I really wish that I had better lighting in my little old cottage - flick a switch and a professionally lit studio appears out of nowhere! - as the photos don't do either fabric justice.  In the old house I had a lovely, large, well lit kitchen... sigh ;o)  I'll try for some more pics as I go along, in the meantime, I'm just going to get it ordered, it's October 1st folks!  Time to get cracking...

PS  I have been invited by instructable.com to post some instructions on the Elizabethan costume!  So excited :o)