Lace swatch, well not a net lace, but what you would get if you made machine embroidery lace just on stabilizer fabric then washed away the stabilizer. It is not tacked onto the collar either, but floats, and is sewn into the seams. Or to be more stable, stabilizer and net then cut away the net and stabilizer.
Under skirt is china/butterfly silk dyed a similar shade to the leather but is a bit lighter. It is a very, very fine machined edge. Whether a narrow but long zig zag or some very fine overlock not sure. But industry grade sewing machine at least. Could replicate using a machine though. The width is about what you would get if you finely zig zagged over a fishing line. In fact this might be a way to achieve the same look (ie no flaring of the hem which you get zig zagging) and then remove the fishing line.
Ties are the same silk, but darker. And is very definitely a purple grey, not dove grey, and darker than the suede. There may be some compensation for the lighting, but not much. The front ties are edged like the under skirt, but the back ties are narrowly hemmed. About a 3mm turnover. The back ties are sewn into the seams. No leather tabs were noted and the silk did not appear to be lined either. The ties did not do any purpose for the dummy, so no force was exerted on them.
The undersleeves are a white and metallic silver tissue, quite easy to procure. Only part of the hem looks to be selvage as it is curved (gently not greatly), the part that does look like selvage is right by the seam. But I’m sure the seam also used selvages, so it may be that the hem is not the selvage at all. The ends are unfinished, but this fabric has a tendency to curl which neatens the unfinished hem. The natural crinkly lines of the fabric do go straight down, so this will be an indication of which part will be the selvage, in this fabric I’m sure it follows the lines of the crinkle, so it is not likely to be in the hem. And probably only on one seam allowance per arm.
The suede looks very much like a mix of grades, in texture though not weight. In fact on the inside of the left flared cuff it is a leather like surface, not sueded.
The fronts are cut in one with the back of stand up collar back, the folds on the left hand side look like the collar is darted on the fronts, but this is not apparent on the other side, so is just shadow. There is no centre back seam to the collar, so both fronts are cut in one with the collar.
The princess seams have a baseball stitch as decoration. Probably sewn just over the top layer of suede, the seam allowance probably glued flat in the back and then the hand stitching followed that. This stitching is actually a technique to sew two pieces of a material that do not overlap. The thread looks very worn, and is a barely shade lighter than the suede.
The rolls at the shoulder are quite narrow. They are not an actual sleeve cap, just a decorative effect. The sleeves will be set in.
The fronts are definitely boned, and there is no evidence of an invisible zip. The internal fastening is clearly sewn to the inside, not integrated with the seam of the collar and facings. This seam is uninterrupted past the point where the bodice closes. The boning is also uneven, i.e. one front is slightly more pronounced than the other, in keeping with what you get with hooks and eyes. Also the shadows showed shallow pits also classic with hook and eye fastening. It looks to be the same fastening as Legolas’s leather top too. What ever they are they are almost certainly the same technique.
The boning is very solid, and actually forced the pointed waistline to curve back somewhat. The selvages of the skirt and bodice also contributes to some waistline disturbance.
The design on the sleeve appears stamped, and even in person is very faint. It was mounted on a stand that was knee high so was quite hard to see.
The sleeve cuffs are very interesting up close. The curve that they are set to in the fitted part of the sleeve is not at all even. There is a normal slop from the front, but the curve at the back is very abrupt and then goes straight up a good few inches as the inner sleeve seam before the front of the overlap it reached. A sketch is much easier to explain this. The sketch I've provided is from the inside of the right sleeve. Note how the curve is gentle at the front then at as the back meets the inside seam again it ends abruptly and goes straight up from there. The front of the curve looks like it would be above the elbow line and the back quite a way below. I suspect the point opposite the inner sleeve seam is where the curve is level with the elbow. But as the dummy had no arms, and certainly not Liv Tyler's arms it's hard to be sure. I'm sure photos of her in the costume will be a better indicator.
The bottom edge of the skirts are also very slightly curved. More like the curve you need for a flared skirt than anything else to take into account the curve of the body. The backs are only slightly flared, enough for a few folds at the hem, but not deep either.
The backs of the under skirt were curved and in fact folded back over themselves for about 6 inches at the hem. Whether this was the fabric being caught between the dummy and the suede, or actually sewn is too difficult to tell.
The boots are gorgeous, though definitely took me back to my days as an extra on Xena;) The back laces up with nine loops on each side, the cord is matching but of cotton, and very similar in thickness to the loops. The loops being quite thick rolled suede. The didn’t look hollow, so either made from rolling the suede several times or wrapping the suede over a cord. The boots appeared to go higher than the lacing, which ended about an inch below the back of the knee of the mannequin. The sueded showed creases above that, but the tops could not be seen. The front decoration is sort of piping, but much thicker and flatter. About 1cm wide and a couple of mm thick. Again the suede looks to have been wrapped around something to give it solidity.
