Floral Dress
August - October 2020
This dress was designed for and worn by my sister. I designed and built the dress, headpiece, basket, and matching jewelry. The bodice is boned, with lacing in the back, and the skirt is made from layers of gathered tulle. The pink sleeve piece was originally planned as lace, but changed to gathered tulle.
The bodice has princess seams with boning at each seams. This photo was taken before the addition of eyelets for the lacing in the back. When the dress was finished, there were a total of five different closures: lacing for the bodice, a hook and eye for the skirt, three snaps for the cape in the back, three hooks and eyes for the pink gathered piece, and a piece of a fake flower stem to hold the flowers in place behind the left shoulder
Above is the lining of the bodice. It's tacked down by hand along each seam. The fabric for the dress was a slightly stretchy synthetic silk, so the bodice had interfacing, a sturdy canvas layer, and a lining.
Above is the skirt of the dress, with the first four layers of tulle in place. The final dress skirt has a total of eleven layers of tulle. The tulle layers were dyed in pairs, with the final layer being an undyed glittery fabric that matched the sleeves. There were so many layers of fabric and stitching around the waist of the skirt that it was impossible to push a needle through. I bent several pins while pinning the last layers of tulle! I attached a strip of canvas to the waist and stitched that to the bodice, which also hid the raw edges of the skirt.
