This fun dress realized two of my ambitions: to make a turtleneck dress for a challenge and to do a collaboration in a challenge. When I fanned out the dollar bill skirt, it looked to me like a skirt worn to go ice skating. That gave me the opportunity to make the turtleneck sweater and warm leggings from pennies. (Note the paper clip ice skates!) Special thanks to my daughter-in-law Breana for the idea of making a money dress and to my daughter for assistance in overcoming the design difficulties of working with coins. Doesn't this outfit look nice and toasty and ready to tackle any ice rink?
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This delightful 3 x 3" square features a lovely handmade pink paper with specks of gold and silver throughout, as well as many delicate fibers which don't show in the photo. Trimmed with a glittery pink and with a silver striped stomacher, this dress would make any fairy happy. Pale pink is a color I've always admired from a distance, knowing that I can't wear it. But nothing can stop me from using it in my art. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I no longer will allow that fact to keep me from using it! If this challenge has done nothing else for me, it has at least opened my palette for the colors I've loved but stayed away from for so long.
I had no idea when I began this journey the myriad ways in which it would affect me. Indeed, even now I can't begin to list the things I've realized about myself and been able to appreciate or change because of that knowledge. Daily I am growing as an artist and opening parts of myself that have been long buried -- some since childhood. There is no way for me to express how grateful I am that I embarked on this yearlong challenge! All I can say is that I now look forward to each new day. Historical costumes have always been a thrill to me, and my favorite time period for fashion is the Georgian era. Why? Because even the men wore gorgeous clothes! I wrote a Georgian romance once (if you're interested, it can be found here), and it featured a mansion very much like Strawberry Hill, which is what this painting portrays. The beautiful and fashionable couple silhouetted in the foreground are (of course!) the couple from my saga. It tickles me when I can take elements from any of my stories and show them visually. This print is no exception. In fact, this turned out so well that I have a feeling I'll be coming back to the Georgian era again before this challenge is through. Now won't that be fun?!
I realize that it's 4:50 am and I already have today's dress posted, but I couldn't sleep. And since I deplore tossing and turning all night, I got up and was productive instead. However, I may want a nap this afternoon! The picture of this dress does not do it justice at all. Those tiny pearl onions were so cute, and the finished design so precious, that I didn't want to put them away afterward! I really like the lines of this dress. Even though it's cute, it has a lot of character. What there is of the sleeves are off the shoulder (very daring!), and the skirt flows out to a lot of fullness at the hem from a tiny waist (so delightful!) I can't say that this dress got eaten, because my daughter would kill me if I ate all her baby onions in one sitting. She uses them for cooking us wonderful meals. But it was fun to get to play with them a while. *grin*
I want to give away a special dress gift for Christmas. If you're interested in being the lucky recipient, here's what you need to do: just suggest something I can use to make a dress (like elbow macaroni or garbage bags, etc.). Just comment to the post on the Facebook page here with your suggestion, and I'll put all the names into a hat on the 15th. Whoever I pull out of the hat gets the prize! Please note that I will take all your suggestions seriously and do my best to execute them in the months ahead (and give you credit!), so look around your house or out your window and post me your idea! Thanks! This print, entitled "Effervescent Evening", was created using my Fireworks program and includes a space photo from the Hubble site that I downloaded a while back and an evening gown silhouette clipart. I wanted to express how a woman feels when she's wearing the perfect dress for the party and everyone notices it. It's more than being on top of the world. It's as though the stars themselves are shining just for you. If this print speaks to you as it does to me, reminding you of a special night, feel free to print a copy for yourself or post it as your wallpaper. (However, I'm sure the Hubble pic is copyrighted, so don't try selling it.)
I just started a Facebook page for this challenge to get the message out to the world. You can find it here: 365 Dresses . I tried adding a 'Like' button from there to this website, but it didn't take. So if you enjoy this site, feel free to go to the Facebook page and 'like' it there. This morning we woke up to a snowstorm. Since it's our first for the winter season, I thought it would be very apropos to make a snowflake to commemorate the occasion. This was my first attempt at a dress snowflake, but I had so much fun with it that there will probably be more of them before winter is over. Special thanks to skulladay.com for Azurafae's post of the skull snowflake, because it really helped me to visualize what I wanted the finished snowflake to look like before I made it.
For some time now, I've wanted to make a fairy dress montage for my wall. The biggest hold-up for me all this time was whether to have the dresses have bling or whether to make them look closer to nature. Finally tonight I made my decision. I want bling! This tiny outfit (3 x 3" square) is the first dress for the montage. I used a gorgeous wallpaper sample that I've been hoarding for years for the bodice and sleeves. The silver sheen to it decided the color of the flirty skirt and the iridescence of the wings. Silver glitter trims the neckline, and silver sequins serve as buttons. What fairy wouldn't want to wear this dress to a festival?
Originally, this montage was going to be set in squares with sashes between. But when I went to make the dress tonight, I realized that it wouldn't fit on the hanger in the 3" square -- unless it was put on the diagonal. So now I have an entirely different format for my dresses. I'll have to do the geometry to see how they'll work in my frame in this arrangement, but that's not something I have to worry about today. So I won't! This beautiful kaleidoscope portrait features two of my granddaughters in the pink eyelet prairie dresses I made for them a few years ago. I learned how to make kaleidoscope portraits several years ago when I got a great book on it. But I haven't made many of them, because the best ones require a certain kind of shot to work well. This particular shot was perfect! One of my granddaughters helped me print out the photos and their reverse images and otherwise encouraged me throughout the making of this 12 x 12" creation. She was such a boost for my ego that I may just have to hire her full time! *grin*
It's not easy for me to feature a dress that the resulting artwork makes difficult to see properly. I actually had another shot picked out, but as my granddaughter pointed out to me, this one worked better as a kaleidoscope. So it caused the age-old quandary of choosing between format and content, and in this instance format won the upper hand. I hope I can be forgiven the desire to present a pleasing portrait (which is quite complex) more than a clear photo of the dresses (which were a simple design.) Are you seeing a pattern here? *grin* There are just certain times of the month when the only thing that makes me smile is chocolate. I wanted to do a trash dress from the beginning of this challenge, but I'm a little leery of going through the trash bin for items to use in a dress. So I cheated. After Halloween, my granddaughters shared their chocolate candies with me whenever they got treats from their bags. (Such good girls!) So, I kept all my empty wrappers in a baggie, waiting until I had enough to attempt this dress. And didn't it turn out wonderful?! Simply yummy!
Okay, I know. I don't like to repeat myself, and I've done M & M's once. But the image of this dress in my head wouldn't go away, so I finally had to try it and see how it turned out. At first, I tried designing the blue dress with straps and no train, but it didn't quite turn out the way I had envisioned. But this second version worked! Electric blue, strapless, and slinky -- it takes chocolate to a whole new level!
The clothes I design for myself are all very conservative, even when they're flashy. And the clothes I design for kids are likewise. So it's been such a thrill for me to venture into new areas of fashion design with this challenge and create dresses that are extreme and/or provocative. It's an entirely uncharted part of my psyche, and it's been lots of fun to explore! |
Denise FeltI took this challenge in the hopes of expanding my creativity as an artist. Already I'm seeing art in a new light -- as something to do for fun and not just practicality! Archives
December 2015
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