Casgliadau Arlein

Dress worn by Mrs Uzo Iwobi at her OBE investiture at Buckingham Palace, 2008. Full-length, transparent, pale blue dress, machine embroidered with metal thread and sequins.

The fabric is made from a pale blue Nylon (?) net which is embroidered with gold and silver metal thread, dark blue/green holographic plastic sequins and appliquéd pale blue fabric (synthetic, shiny, tabby woven, semi-transparent). The design of the fabric features six offset vertical rows of large Ø 18cm flower motifs. These consist of an outer ring which is made from the appliquéd pale blue fabric, which is machine-embroidered with gold metal thread forming a thin floral design, as well as a thicker design of scrolls and edging. In the centre of the outer ring is a small floral motif. Both ring and inner flower are embroidered with sequins.

The net ground has been machine embroidered with silver thread (thin silver coloured strip wound S-wise around a white fibre (cotton?) core in a way that the core remains visible); in some areas, the silver thread outlines small flower motifs which are filled in with narrow strips of silver which weave back and forth.The selvages of the fabric have scalloped edges which are embroidered with a thick gold thread edging.

Front and back of dress are each made from one continuous piece of fabric. On one side along the hem (on either side of the side seam) two small sections of fabric have been added to create full width of the skirt. Both side seams have 60cm long slits. The neck is bound with a narrow strip of gold synthetic fabric which is similar, but a shade darker, than that of the underdress.

Each bell-shaped sleeve is made from two sections (front and back) which are joined with upper and underarm seams (on one side, each front and rear section consists of two pieces, joined with a vertical seam, see below). There is a 30cm long slit along the upper seam, allowing the fabric to drape off the arm. The cuffs are edged with scalloped gold embroidery (= selvage of the fabric). Additional strips of fabric (also featuring the scalloped gold selvage) are stitched over the lower part of the elongated sleeve. There are two decorative lines of stitches in light brown which run vertically down front and back of each sleeve. One one side, they mask a seam but on the other side they are purely decorative and were applied once the sleeve was assembled as they pass over the additional strip of fabric which is stitched onto the sleeve.

The hem of the dress is finished with overlocking stitches in light brown thread. Slits on skirt and sleeve are finished with overlocking stitches in blue thread. Inner seam allowances partly finished with blue overlocking stitches.