Fashion Design - My First Ever Wedding Gown

Good Evening Bloggers,

In 1987 as a GCSE Textiles student, I took part in my school fashion show. I modelled my GCSE contribution, a wrap around red and black check ankle length skirt with a pair of DM's !!!! I remember the Textiles teacher hosting the show and when I walked out, she described my outfit as 'Very Claire'!!!!! Although it was the first skirt I had ever made, I knew I could and would one day do better. One of the A-Level students, Mel had made a beautiful wedding dress and an old friend of mine, Lynne modelled it - she looked absolutely amazing. One day, I thought, one day................


Spring 2014, I attended a Shelly Goldsmith's Transfer Printing workshop at The Beaney in Canterbury, Kent. She asked us to bring synthetic fabric to print on. I took lingerie which I printed, frazzled and burnt in places with the iron!!!
I dumped the printed corset in my scrap fabric box and expected it would never see the light of day until ...........................................

I went on my annual holiday to Turkey and purchased a suitcase full of white lace fabric. You guessed it, my dreams of making a wedding dress came flooding back. But this was to be no ordinary wedding dress, oh no, this would need to be a funky Bohemian style wedding dress with splashes of colour and a burnt, transfer printed corset!!!!!

 I started on the bust with some hand dyed lace, then began working on layering up lace around the corset. I left pieces hanging hoping they would tie into the design later and create some interesting shapes.

I then began covering each of the corset panels with lace and stitched various patterns in contrasting threads on top.

 At this point, realisation dawned that this was indeed looking very much like a funky wedding gown!! Day and night it was on my mind and I was planning the next section. I just could not wait until my days off when I could continue making the dress.

To be continued ...................................................................................................................

Golden Ethnic Dress - Bohemian Fashions

Evening readers, are you ready to read more ramblings about my passion for making something from nothing!!??

I wanted to make a dress completely from scratch. I had some ideas about the shape and general design but I also wanted the dress to 'speak to me' along the way. I love it when I pick up unusually shaped scraps of material in my fabric boxes and find they are just the right shape for  a section of the garment. Often, these pieces are shapes that I would never, ever think to actually cut to fit in a particular space though - this is where the garment appears to construct itself.

I began with some contrasting colour satin fabrics like this ........

I worked down from the shoulders and chest to the waist and hips with a lovely tapestry fabric and added some darts to give the garment more shape.

I like to work on the back and sides of the garment before the front gets to detailed otherwise the front gets all the attention and becomes a little to fussy!












Always the trickiest part, the skirt. I find that the bodice comes together pretty quickly but the skirt takes a lot more pinning, pleating tacking, removing, starting again, cup of tea!!!!

The number of different fabrics I pleated, pinned, photographed and removed was bordering on the ridiculous!!

Finally, the dark purple seemed to be the best fit from the hundreds of pieces of fabric I scanned in my workshop.. It is actually the lining of an old 'Monsoon' skirt.

Finally, I added some unusual wool around the hips that I purchased in my favourite haberdashery shop in Didim, Turkey. It looks great but was a nightmare to stitch. In the end, I resorted to giving the sewing machine a tea break and hand stitched it in place.

The end result ..................

I hope you like it. Further images and information can be found in my Etsy and Folksy shops (scroll down for the links).


















https://www.etsy.com/listing/199685870/ethnic-dress-bohemian-gypsy-shabby-chic?

https://folksy.com/items/6516287-Ethnic-Dress-Bohemian-Gypsy-Shabby-Chic-Romantic-Fantasy-Prom-Dress-Unique-

Fashion Design - The Creation of 'Autumn Glow' - Bohemian Fashion

Good Evening Bloggers,

It has been over a year since writing my last post. Due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to post images on here as the settings had been changed by the 'powers that be'!!!!! Finally I think I may just have cracked it. This post was actually written initially in October 2013 but left unfinished until now............

I have made many, many new garments over the last year and will post these as regularly as I can so long as I continue being able to upload photos!!

Autumn Glow was created in Autumn 2013 and it all began with a corset my sister gave me, just here.................................................................I stitched layers of ribbon, lace and other fabrics onto the corset in Autumn colours.

 Then I started working on the skirt, layering fabrics in contrasting colours.

I added a few tucks, pleats and gathers here and there to create an asymmetric hemline. As always, some fabrics are new, others are recycled.

Finally the skirt was complete and stitched together with the bodice. I added detail on the back of the flowing skirt and took some photos in the Autumn sun.

'Autumn Glow' is for sale in both my Etsy and Folksy shops. I hope you like her!!!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/178010348/autumn-glow-green-dress-boho-hippie?

https://folksy.com/items/5450181-Autumn-Glow-Green-Dress-Bohemian-Hippie-Romantic-Corset-Burlesque-Steampunk