Many of you ask how I make my fairytale clothing, and I do my best to explain! It’s difficult because there’s a different process for every dress. Due to working with reclaimed fabrics, there are always patterns, embellishments and types of fabric that I use to its best advantage to make each garment unique and beautiful.
This time I began with a tunic from my stash of Indian clothes. The scalloped neckline and floral print was so pretty, I decided to make very little alteration to the top half. I added a strand of pink chiffon to each sleeve to cover the seam, and I also stitched on wider strands of matching fabric here and there across the front, leaving them to trail over the skirt. The skirt is where the main creativity happened.
I kept the tunic lining intact, but added triangles of fabric into the slits at the sides to expand the width in the hips and allow for a fairytale shape to the dress. Then it was a matter of adding swathes of fabric until I’d built enough layers to be happy with the overall effect. I used two pink chiffon scarves; a pair of silk trousers cut up and a few pieces of luxury fabrics that I had left over from previous projects all blending together in shade of pale pink to darker plum. There are also some gorgeous beaded and sequinned flowers dotted about.
This dress is perfect for princess flower fairies off to the ball or alternative brides who would like to wear a pink wedding dress. (Click on the photos to take you to the listing.)
A special dress needed a special location for the photo-shoot, so I packed it with us on a trip to Cornwall. Chris carried the mobile flash unit over the sand dunes and we found our perfect spot near the shoreline and where you can see the two iconic rocks, Gull Rocks, of Holywell Bay. (If you watch BBC’s Poldark, you’ll probably recognise this location is used for Nampara bay (and weirdly later, George Warleggan’s land.)) The sunset we’d hoped for didn’t quite deliver unfortunately, but we still captured colours in the sky peaking out between the dark clouds! And luckily, the tide was on its way out, so we had time to take plenty of photos to make sure we had a variety to choose from.
If you’re interested in the process of making the dress, but I didn’t explain it very well, then you may like to have a look at the video I filmed whilst making it: