Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Welcome and Inspiration

Welcome to my blog, where I will be posting about the 1880s butterfly gown I am creating for the Foundations Revealed 2018 Competition.

The competition theme this year is insects. I have always been inspired by butterflies for many reasons, so decided on a butterfly gown. When browsing for inspiration, I came across photos of the blue morpho butterfly, and knew this was what I wanted to shoot for.




I wanted to do a late 1880s trained gown. I was inspired by one of the many beautiful Worth gowns out there, but couldn't find suitable fabric to attempt a reproduction, and it didn't fit the theme for the competition. I also wanted to make a ball gown for a local winter ball coming up this fall, so thought I could kill two birds with one stone.

My vision for the gown is an under skirt and evening bodice in a sort of lime/apple green, which is the color of the chrysalis form of the morpho butterfly. I haven't yet found the right color fabric but I will get there. I want to do sleeves and trim on the upper part of the bodice in a silk chiffon, that I plan to bead. The bodice pattern is Ageless Patterns #1442. The under skirt and trained over skirt are from Ageless Patterns #1213. The trained skirt is going to be bright blue on the outside, with black ruffled trim, to look like the butterfly. The underside of the trained skirt (lining layer) is going to look like the brown underside of the butterfly. I plan to sew ribbon around the edges and use fabric paint for the eye spots. I bought moire fabric in bright blue and brown.


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