To the Fashion House!

This was another piece for The Women, when Sylvia accompanies Mary to the couture fashion house. This was such a fun piece to make because it was challenging and I felt like I was making something out of a Dior collection with the bow on this! While shopping in NY, Jaime fell in love with a purple striped fabric and decided to have me incorporate it into the back of the standing collar. With a little persuasion, he let me add a hint of it onto the bow, hat (which I also worked on) and the little shoe bows. Enjoy!

Jaime Samson's design:

A note on the collar: Jaime's inspiration on this was not only couture, but also dinosaur related - I was to mimic the dilophosaurus from Jurassic Park when making this.

Some mock-up images:

This is what the bodice looks like before the collar goes on. You can also see the fitted sleeves with the slightly exaggerated sleeve caps.



The underside of the collar, showing the layer of fusible tailor's canvas I put in before stitching on the boning channels. I found this added a lot of the stability I needed to make this thing stand up right.



The black lines are drawn onto this photo to show the placement lines for the boning. The boning channels have to continue part-way into the dress to maintain the upright position while wearing.


 The finished dress:

The crispness of the purple silk holds the bow shape beautifully. :)



A nice simple back with a wow factor on top.



A close-up of the sunburst collar. Has a very Art Deco feel in this pattern, doesn't it?



Here you can see some of the seam placement I did to create the sunburst design.



This altered square shape is what I used to create this bow. Each corner is pulled to the center and then "pinched" to the inside. You end up with little poufs which can then be arranged and tacked in place. The striped "knot" is just a strip that is tacked to the back of the bow and then looped and tacked to the inside of the pouf, where the square points are.



And of course, the complete ensemble on stage: 

Sylvia with Mary at the Fashion House. She does steal the stage, doesn't she?