A journey deeper into costuming than I ever imagined: the dryad of my dreams December 16 2013
It began with a simple fabric store I never went into but always meant to check out. They had many lovely fabrics but one remnant of beautifully stylized embroidered fabric touched my eyes. Vertical trees with birds perched on staggering limbs. With this fabric I could make the dryad of my dreams come alive. No longer restricted to any type of medium I am permitted to look at every material as an art piece while developing my artisan skills. As it is one of my goals as an artist to master as many techniques as possible so that I may create whatever I want how ever I want all on my own. And so thy DRYAD BALL GOWN began
The sewing machine, a new technological frontier for this seamstress. Over the past two years I was determined to learn how to use the machine again as I did in middle school. Back in those days it was a little more complex and a little more touchy. I have mastered hand sewing all materials. I take great pride in my seamstress abilities with hand sewing, its a huge source of pride for me as well as joyful to me. To make this gown in time for Faeriecon East 2013 i needed to use the sewing machine. Istill had a great deal of hand sewing involved in the gown. The sewing machine allowed me to move through the basic seams and really let me concentrate on couture construction.
I didn't want to use a pattern on this gown. Most couture gowns involve draping and shaping. I used one continuous piece of fabric. I I had to the fabric told the story of my dryad. I have always been inspired by the Art Nuevu era as that era harkened in a mythical aesthetic and natural inspirations. It involved a beautiful display of materials in an elegant organic form. Gowns from that era and a few decades later reflected that aesthetic. No one really makes dresses that way anymore unless they are designers or artists. I did some visual research looking for gowns that had the similar shapes I was creating on my dress form. Unfortunately I only had enough fabric to make some thing four sizes smaller than myself. Equally the gown needed to be adjustable for a variety of sizes 5-10. This was one shot the fabric was discontinued.
Machine sewing turned out to be much less difficult than I remembered with the instruction form an experienced seamstress before my attempt. Many details went into the gown. Lace beaded shoulder straps and a back strap tp hude bra lines. The front of the dress told the story with the tree and the birds the back of the dress showed the transcend existence of the dryad free to dance in the forest to show he very human very feminine skin. elegantly giving freedom. The head peace and wings were made magickaly in my studio with techniques I haven't seen anywhere yet. but I can't share all my secrets now can I?