Velvet!

The velvet's arrived!

It's cotton velvet - we looked at 100% silk velvet (not silk/rayon mix, which I find awful to work with), but to get it in the right colour, and with a dense enough pile, was so appallingly expensive, that we opted for cotton instead. I'd have been terrified to cut the silk velvet, as any mistakes would have been so costly. I don't feel so bad about the cotton.

The white is for the central panel, and the red is for the outer sections, points, sleeves, and the central cross, which will be appliqued. You can get an idea of what it'll look like from the toile.

Inevitably, the materials I need are all arriving in reverse order. I need the linen first, to transfer the cross design onto and to back the velvet, so of course that's the last to arrive. I do have linen in my fabric cupboard, but I'm going to need quite a lot, and I feel I ought to use all the same. I worry that if use different weights, it might distort or shrink or something. Best to keep it all the same. I'll just have to be patient!