I figured that once painted with metallic paint, the links would be close enough to pass for a stage costume. The solution was clear - to freeze each costume in order to kill the larva and eggs, but how to go about this?

I’d originally planned on attaching the skirt directly to a separate waistband at the natural waist, to let the weight of the skirt rest there rather than dragging down the bodice. First, there’s a curved piece to serve as the base, then a top layer that’s cut larger and gathered down. There were many challenges along the way; avoiding cross contamination, identifying materials that would suffer in the freezing process and carrying the boxes down icy steps, through small doorways and over a busy road to the freezer all in very cold temperatures. I had a great time wearing this whole ensemble to the Costume College gala this year– it didn’t fit the theme (“The Opulent Streets of Venice”), but it was indisputably the most fabulous of my costumes, so I had to wear it! The front was an A-line, while the back was a half-circle, both with gathers at the waistline for extra fullness. The final touch for this costume was the crown, which Lady Macbeth is shown raising above her head in the Sargent painting. I have no idea. Don’t listen! Whether you are interested in conservation, gardening, or simply want to be part of a friendly team doing valuable work, we always welcome new volunteers at Smallhythe Place. As I discussed in my patterning post, the sleeves are cut with the long edge at the shoulder and hang almost to the floor. Anyway, as you recall I’d originally planned to use pre-embroidered trim cut from a vintage sari. The original belt for the gown appears to have been made of metal links with a raised design on them– the belt wraps twice around the waist and ties in front with a length of twisted fabric. Back in 2009 I blogged about the “Beetlewing dress” worn by Victorian actress Ellen Terry to play Lady Macbeth- and the National Trust’s project to restore it. Second, make a fake metal crown out of craft foam and gold paint. However, the more I looked at it the more I was dissatisfied with this plan– the trim was too elaborate, it wasn’t curved so would need some work to fit the sleeve, and the background color was a different green than my lining fabric, which didn’t look right. I lined the dress with cotton crinkle gauze because I wanted it to have some stretch to allow me to fit the bodice snugly without needing boning. That being said, the internet assures me that 1) this was supposed to be King Duncan’s crown, not hers, and 2) she never actually struck this pose in any of her performances of the play. Or perhaps a bunch of hairnets? And since I’m fairly sure that the wings they used in the original dress were smaller than the ones I have now, I’m betting the original used at least that many as well. Since the trim is curved, it can’t just be folded over and still lie smoothly, so it has to be one or the other. Once I let down the upper section of hair and gathered the whole thing into a ponytail, the glued sections weren’t really visible except as a slightly thicker section of hair. That seemed awfully expensive for a prop. I stitched the ribbon in place using light brown thread to keep it from slipping out of position. I wrung it out afterwards before going back up to my room to blot it with towels before turning the hair dryer on it so it would dry out enough to completely dry by morning. Beetlewings: All the write-ups of the original dress say that it used “1,000 beetlewings,” like that’s some sort of huge number. I think if I’d wanted to shape the wings more I might have needed steaming so I could use scissors, but as it was, I was just happy to avoid one more step. I still need to do the bodice and the upper sleeves, which I intend to stitch with wings that have been clipped down to size rather than the full wings– the original dress had this feature as well, which allowed for closer spacing of the wing bits and a more dramatic look on the bodice. Let me just say, this step took FOREVER because of all the embroidery, but I’m finally done! After consultation we settled upon treating the costumes in our large freezer, which runs at -30 degrees, for 72 hours and 14 days in our small freezer, which runs at -24 degrees, in order to kill the infestation. elytra).

I think I’ll probably go through most if not all of my original 1,000 wings in finishing the back skirt panel, so once that’s done I’ll open up the second 1,000 and start clipping them to the smaller size so I can get to work on the bodice. For the top layer, I made my piece about twice as long as the base to allow plenty of room for gathers. Anyway, all in all this was a really fulfilling project– I was extremely happy with the final product and had a great time wearing it, and learned some new skills along the way! And now the dress is technically wearable and actually looks like THE DRESS (though still not finished)!

I may even, as I mentioned in my belt post, re-do the belt someday to make the links smaller the way they are in real life. If I could go back I might have purchased one more skein of gold cording to double up on the border lines (like in the original), but I don’t know if I’d have bothered to correct the trim width– couching that many gryphon motifs was difficult enough, I don’t even want to think about doing 30% more…. Carry on browsing if you're happy with this, or find out how to manage cookies. I spread the hair on the lower section over the floor (which was covered in parchment paper to avoid glue getting on the hardwood). That is precisely the image designed by Alice Comyns Carr. Lady Macbeth Beetlewing Gown, Part XV: Final Thoughts. Taking a break from construction, it was time to get started on the most distinctive feature of the costume– the beetlewings! Since I am not experienced in metalwork, I had three options: First, have a metal crown custom-made for me. I know it should’ve been five layers, but I miscounted and figured it wouldn’t matter anyway. I found that as long as I didn’t try to clip across the entire curve of the wing at once– instead putting the clipper only halfway across the curve at a time– the wings would clip cleanly the same way fingernails do.

Yes, it’s pretty heavy, and no, I don’t think it’ll stand up to much abuse, but it looks decent and it took me about an hour to style, so I’m counting it as a win!

It’s possible that the top layer was also a proportionally-cut curve that’s gathered to fit, but to make the process easier I just cut a big rectangle and relied on varied gathering to shape it into a curve. After consulting with fellow costumers online I came to the conclusion that the dress in its original form had the trim on the outside, but that at some point during its history the trim must have been folded to the inside, with tiny darts taken to keep it smooth. Really, the only way it works is when your arms are down by your sides.

Why do I always do this? Belt: That being said, I do think I may redo the belt at some point. If I were doing this again I would move the curved seam to the top of the sleeve, relying on the crochet lace and beetlewings to disguise the seamline, historical accuracy be damned.

And I’m considering getting some gold foil to glue over the links for a “real metal” look, rather than paint. But there are definitely images of the dress showing the trim with both options. The water in the center was actually a lot deeper than I’d expected– about knee-deep– so my dress got pretty soaked! But that may have to wait until next year’s Costume College! I’m definitely going to have to put on the outfit again to get better full-length photos at some point. The skirt is taking forever– there’s just so much fabric to cover in the half-circle back panel alone, that even though the wings are spaced about 2″ apart it’s a serious undertaking. One thing about the sleeves always bugged me (no pun intended): is the trim on the outside or the inside? Ellen Terry, who was playing the role of Lady Macbeth, was creating also the impression of a peculiar hybrid - the Medieval Knight and the Serpent. I will note that in the future I may opt to wear a corset under the dress for a properly hourglassy figure, even if Ellen Terry’s contemporaneous letters expressed joy about how she didn’t have to wear one under the dress onstage. We use cookies to provide you with a better service. More progress! Lady Macbeth Beetlewing Gown, Part XIV: Final Photos!

Once the dress was structurally complete I got started on the belt (which had to sit a certain way over the dress to look right). Once the dress was done, I turned my attention to the wig I’d need. Fabric: The original dress was made out of crocheted tinsel yarn, though I managed to find a decent approximation with what was listed as “crochet lace” (totally not crocheted, you can tell). Terry's spectacular gown was designed by Alice Comyns Carr (1850–1927) and made in crochet by Ada Nettleship, using a soft green wool and blue tinsel yarn from Bohemia to create an effect similar to chain mail. It was embroidered with gold and decorated with 1,000 iridescent wings from the green jewel beetle, Sternocera aequisignata. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. Sleeves: I know I got the sleeve shape right in terms of the elbow crook being at the underarm seam– it was clearly that way in the original– but honestly, I don’t like it. Finally, I glued the shorter weft section over the top of that, at the same level as the first one. 1830s Butter Yellow Day Dress, Part IV: Skirt. Initially I thought I’d repurpose some belly-dancing belts with similar metal links to make my own belt, but they were pretty expensive and didn’t have the right overall look– too much filigree, not quite the right shape.

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