Under the Sea Dress and Crop Jacket
The dress is Vogue 2931. A full length mermaid dress with a bodice fitted to the thigh, flaring out to a train at the back.
Alterations made to the pattern included
- the fullness of the skirt was reduced because of a limited amount of sequin fabric available.
- the built in corset was extended to sit on the hips and provide more support.
- the bust bow wasn't included
The sequin fabric consisted sequins in black navy and blue, sewn in undulating lines up and down the fabric.
The sequin fabric is a navy stretch mesh with undulating lines of blue, navy and black sequins in two sizes, stitched onto the surface. The lines run in both directions up and down the grain line to catch the light from any angle.
The watery ripple effect could only be captured by cutting the fabric into long sections following the lines. If the pattern pieces were cut out of fabric as a single piece the directionality would have been lost.
By applying the strips of sequin mesh to dress pattern pieces cut from navy bridal tulle, the flow of the water could follow the curves of the body. Each strip was hand cut, pinned and then machine sewn with lines of straight stitch, sewn in the ditches between the lines of sequins. It was a long and fiddely process but the results were well worth it. The seam allowance was left as free of sequins as possible.
There was slight shrinkage to the shape of the sequinned tulle pattern pieces which was expected.
The dress was also cut from a medium weight delustered satin in turquoise. The tulle was sewn to each pattern piece cut from the delustered satin and the edge overlocked.
The dress was then constructed as per the pattern except for the built in corset.
The length of the corset was changed to give more sculpting to the body and support the bust. The corset has a heavy duty zip to close it while the dress uses a normal dress zip. I don’t like to use invisible zips in this kind of dress as they are unreliable when under stress in fitted garments.
Crop Jacket
I have, over the years of hemming dresses, collected a lot of assorted fabric off cuts in many colours, patterns and textures. I used these to make all the coral, creatures and texture on the jacket. The background fabrics included blue net used to store fruit, organza fabric, foil sequin fabric and the textured fabric they make one size fits all tops from.
Laying out the embellishments
Plastic that had melted to the walls of an industrial dryer was used for texture and a comment on the pollution of the oceans.
Originally the coral was pinned to the jacket with out any backing fabric but this just didn't look right.
Textured fabrics create a swirling background of colour and pattern. this gives the look of coral outcropping in the ocean.
Individual coral, frustrations and other creatures were attached to the jacket.
Beading, shells and glass fish and starfish were added to give depth and layering to look like a coral reef.
This starfish is made by sewing a freehand machine embroidery starfish shape on water-soluble fabric then washing it.
Crochet tubes, padded with wadding and beaded.
A continious line of pattern freehand machine embroidery stitched onto water-soluble fabric.
The fabric has been washed away leaving only the stitching.
The embroidery has been coiled into an anemone shape.
The sequin fabric came from The Remnant Warehouse in Melbourne.
The satin came from DK Fabrics in Adelaide.