Finished Project - The Sirona Gown

This has been one of those projects where everything fell blissfully into place. There were no major difficulties to navigate, everything fit where it should and I didn't pull a single hair out!!!

The completed dress squeezed onto Claudia!

Dress from the front and a swooooosh of train.


With the lining all done and the hems all sorted, the best bit of all still remained - decoration.

I made loads of flowers (a biscuit tin full) from satin, organza and any other fabrics in shades of gold and cream I had in my stash.

I also payed a visted to Primark and bought a couple of pieces of jewellry which I cut up to utilise the beads.  This is a great way of buying beads on a budget.

 Pinning flowers in place.

More flowers arranged over the shoulder.

Flowers on the waistline.

Another shot of the front.

Space is a bit tight to get decent photographs of the entire dress so when the weather dries up a bit I'm planning to drag Claudia into the garden and get some better photos.

Draping with chiffon - the Sirona Gown.

I don't do a lot of draping, I'm much more confident when it comes to flat pattern cutting but for this dress it was simply the best option so I plunged into unknown territory.  I  bought eight metres of cream chiffon for this dress and in the end I used about seven.





















 I started with the front and back of the dress pinned onto Claudia and worked from right to left gradually pleating and pinning the width of the chiffon in place along the neckline. Working like this there was enough chiffon to take me just past the centre front so I used the other end of the 8 metres to continue.




















Taking the other end of chiffon I draped down the strap and back towards the centre front where they overlap.







































Chiffon puddles!

At this point I had a good look at how it was going overall and felt safe enough to start cutting the hem.  Once I had chopped the fabric at the hem I started pinning the chiffon in the same manner onto the back, working from right to left - towards the strap.  When I ran out of width I used the other end of the length of chiffon once again to work down the strap towards the centre back.





















The back!

The train taking shape.

From here I had the arduous task of removing the two parts of the dress from Claudia and inserting the concealed zip oh-so carefully into the side seam whilst trying to keep everything in place.  Once that was done I sewed up the other side seam and finished the draping of the underarm panels.

This is the final shot I took of the chiffon pinned in place before I hand sewed all the little tucks, gathers, and pleats down.

The Sirona gown in gold satin.

That familiar feeling of slight trepidation always strikes just as I'm about to start cutting out in fabric.  It's like a little voice in my subconscious 'Are you sure you want to take those very sharp scissors to this beautiful fabric?!' 

Crepe back satin or satin back crepe, depending on how you look at it, cuts and sews beautifully.  It has a lovely weight that makes it easier to work with than a limper satin and it's pretty robust - generally speaking pins won't mark the fabric. I sewed the whole thing together, keeping one side seam open so I could wriggle into it just to be absolutely sure of fit before progressing any further.  Only when i was certain that the dress was exactly right did I unpick the other side seam and shoulder seam thus separating the front from the back.

The gown cut out in gold satin before I unpicked it again.. 

I couldn't help but think when I got to this point how great this could be if it was cut out on the bias. 

  

The train.

 

                                                                

            

 

A view of the side.

From here the fun can really begin.  The next step is to drape the chiffon directly onto the gown.  Yay!!!

Image Spark

I thought I'd tell you about a fantastic website called Image Spark.  I have been using it for several months and I find it an invaluable tool when I'm creating.  It's basically an image library which allows you to upload and store thousands of images, as you find them, in one place.  Creating an account with Image Spark is currently free and each account gives you 1GB of space plus two mood boards.

Image Spark homepage.

The mood board feature is my favourite - in fact it's how I found Image Spark in the first place.  I was hunting high and low all over the internet for any sort of software or website that resembled some kind of virtual, interactive pinboard.  I wanted somewhere I could stick images, make notes and bring together ideas and inspiration thus eliminating the need to print, saving paper and ink in the process.













My mood board which became my inspiration for the Sirona Gown.  The speech bubble notes are not a feature of Image Spark, they are 'Float Notes' - a Firefox addon.

You can tag images as you go, these are from my 'ethereal' album.

Good things:

• It's simple and sleek, ideal for use by designers and creative individuals.
• It's free!!!!!!!
• 1 GB upload space for images -  I currently have just over one hundred images which is only using 1% of that allowance so there is plenty of space for an archive of thousands of images
• You can keep your image library private - this was a big bonus for me, my own little space to play around in.

Not so good things:

•  It works best through Firefox, which, if it's not your current browser of choice could be a nuisance.
• Currently allows only two mood boards - however Image Spark is still a work in progress and that might change in the future.

It's such a handy tool and if you love hoarding beautiful images as much as I do then you will love it too!