Current Forever Project: Dress Me Up, dresses 7 & 8

I've done a few previous posts about what my Forever Project ™ concept is all about.  To recap: it's a hand-work project that I can take with me to keep busy and be productive when I am not in my sewing studio.  My current Forever Project is "Dress Me Up", a series of 12 hand-embroidered dresses, circa 1950s, created by Bobby Sox Studio.

I've talked about the dresses that I've already completed: dresses 1 & 2,  dress 3, dresses 4 & 5, and dress 6.   Whew ... that should bring us up to snuff.

Well, I have now finally finished dresses 7 & 8, taken appropriate pictures and am now remembering to BLOG about them!

Dress 7 is  a classic 1950 image ... a blouse and the poodle circle skirt, accessorized with a neck scarf and belt.

The neck scarf, skirt outline and "leash" for the poodle were done in a light purple, the blouse is outlined in black. 

The belt has a 'gold' buckle.

I procrastinated finishing this dress ... I stitched the poodle in a single ply of floss.  Oh. My. Goodness.  '

It took *ages* to stitch all the tiny curves to depict the fluffy cut of the poodle.

close-ups of the neck scarf and poodle:

 And then there's Dress 8.  I'm not quite sure what kind of collar this is .. it's kinda like a Bertha, but squared-off.

There's a cute little bow at the center front and the dress "fabric" is an all-over print of daisy flowers.

The mannequin features a very lovely turned, spiral stand.

New to me is DMC's metallic floss.  I discovered it rather late in the game .. I ran out of black and in the course of replenishing my supply, I saw this nifty "new" floss on the shelf.  In purple.  Two shades.  How could I possibly resist it?

So I didn't.  :-)

I should have realized that the metallic part of the floss would result in a rather wirey feel. 

This floss is very stiff to work with and likes to twist, tangle and knot around itself.  You need to talk nicely to it, so it will behave for you.

I put a single French knot in the center of the lazy daisy flowers.  The lazy daisies were done with 2 ply of the metallic; the French knots were done with 1 ply and 1 wrap.

I rather like the look of the turned spiral stand.