Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Wow! Been a while!

So, it has TOTALLY been a while since I have updated the blog. Shame on me I guess, but life gets that way right?


So, I have been working on a project lately that has been really helping me to release some stress by being creative. My totally awesome niece wanted a dress for her birthday and I, being the crazy aunt that I am, offered to make one for her. It was originally going to be a mermaid dress, but then after seeing a really cool dress on a friends blog, my niece changed it to a butterfly dress. I was really excited about this because it gave me the opportunity to create and that was something I was really needing at the beginning of this year.

So, in order to keep this blog from getting too long, I will give a quick recap. I did some research and the dress that I was going to be basing my niece's dress off of was designed by Luly Yang. Look it up if you get the chance. The dress is amazing!

I was hoping I would be up for the challenge so I am going to post some of the steps I took to make the dress. At this point it isn't finished, but it is well on it's way to completion.

First off the idea for using black material and painting it by hand came from my sister Patrice. I was a bit nervous that it wouldn't allow the fabric to flow, but my sister Giselle had taken some art classes and had a great suggestion for a brushing technique that left minimal paint while still keeping the colors vibrant. These ideas were fabulous and helped me get started. I then created a pattern and with my niece's ideas decided what the dress would hopefully end up looking like. Then Giselle, with a tiny bit of help from me, made me a stencil. After that, the painting began. Here is my first practice piece.

Pretty cool huh? It turned out WAY better than I thought it would. Well to move on, I painted more pieces and Giselle helped too. Seven for the bottom and five for the top. Here is a picture of some of the bottom pieces finished with the edges hemmed and some of the top pieces that still need to be finished.
I finished the skirt, but then when I was putting the top on, I realized I had spaced out some of the pieces incorrectly. I took it apart, then remeasured it, and put it back together. This is what it looked like before I fixed it. It's over my hoop slip just so that you can see what it would like like all spread out.

I know it is different than the Luly Yang dress, but hey, I'm just your average seamstress!


So, once I get more updates, I will post them on the blog. For now, I'm going to bed. Tah all, and enjoy!