At the AFCI show, formerly Craft & Hobby Association, I was commissioned to create a Vintage Steampunk Inspired Dress made from Prima Marketing, Inc. products. This was a challenge as I had not made a full-size dress since 2012 for the Chicago CHA show. When you get a message from Pom Intra, the owner of Prima, asking you to create a full-size dress for the upcoming show...you don't say NO, you say Hell Yes! Especially since your entire 10 years crafting career, your dream has been to work with Prima.
With only months until the show, we got product ordered and delivered. Not knowing the exact plan but have some sketched ideas you start digging through what you got and start to get to work. About a third of the way in, I get another message. Pom wants it to be a wedding dress. Hmmm, well throws a whole other element into the piece but alas, I agree. This dress took a total of 375 hours. Now mind you I own a shipping store that I work at full time, so this was constructed in my store in between customers, nights and weekends in less than 3 months.
I had never shown or shared my process before, sure I post sneak peeks and bits and pieces to keep your interest, but honestly, it should not be shown in its entirety until the show., this give the show attendees the exclusive first look at it. However, I get asked a lot about the process and because this was going to be such an epic project we decided to share the process. It was fun to get feedback along the way. Now I am putting it into a full blog series so you can see the entire process from start to finish.
First things first, PAPER! You have to punch out paper, hours and hours of punching! This dress has approximately 1100 punched pieces and each piece must be inked all the way around the edges. Then adhered one at a time starting from the bottom and working your way up. Fiskars was a sponsor and provided scissors, mat and several punches including the flag punch used on the dress. We used a beautiful, expensive and real dressmakers dress form with wrought iron cage and stand with wheels.
Sponsored by Fiskars.
Once the dress is complete. Then we start the decoupaged corset. I cover a good portion of the dress form, this is because I am not quite sure how long I am going to make it yet.
Once I have done layers of the decoupaged layers, I use a pen to make the center line then cut it. Being very careful not to cut the actual dress form.
I start marking where I think I want to cut the corset down to.
I cut where I want it to be the final main shape of the corset.
Put it back on the mannequin to ensure a good fit.
MORE TO COME...