Green Fairy

Well, it's actually been a very long while since I finished this dress, and longer still since I blogged about anything! In my defense I've been rather busy this summer, but really there's no excuse beyond my being not quite used to blogging yet.

So, it's time for the big reveal about the Top Secret Project™ ...

A Fairy Dress for my friend Parker's Art Exchange!

So, what is the Art Exchange? And why all the secrecy? Why must it be so mysterious?

The Art Exchange was created by my fabulous friend, Parker, as a way to bring together various artists and inspire new work. Each artist creates an original work in their medium of choice, then these works are anonymously distributed to other artists, who must then create a new work inspired by what they received. These derived pieces are then exchanged again and so on and so forth in what is essentially one big game of artistic Telephone.

For the first two rounds of the exchange I wrote, but the piece I received for Round #3 was a song that immediately put the idea of fairies in my head. It was light and frolicky and titled "Green", hence the color scheme of this dress.

Since anonymity and secrecy are essential to the integrity of the Art Exchange, Parker informed me that I could not post about my piece online until after the exchange was over. I informed him that I would do it anyway and just be very vague so that no one would make the connection. Being as no one actually reads this blog, Parker acquiesced. 

The gallery was actually in early June, but I left for Germany just a few days later so posting about this really slipped my mind! Anyway, here we go.

The base of the dress is a simple a-line frankensteined job made from some old green canvas-type stuff that I got at Tuesday Morning ages ago. Frankly, it's pretty ugly, but being as it was getting covered up anyway I figured this was okay, as long as it was functional!

The edges were finished with Fraycheck, which left a nasty mark and smell, but again, short on time and going to be covered up!

I decided to do most of the sewing with large stitches of green embroidery floss; this was not actually done as a way of making things go faster (though it did speed the process up considerably!), but rather because it made me feel like a proper Fairy tailor stitching things up with big messy stitches and thick thread. I don't know, it just kind of felt like something you'd see in a Disney movie. In the end, almost none of the stitches were visible, but I knew they were there, and somehow this added to the magic.

I started with the skirt, adding on one layer of cheesecloth at a time and cutting the edges into nice rounded shapes.

Each layer was draped to a different length to add visual interest and uneven edges and all that jazz; there was no real science to it - just draping and stitching till it looked pretty!

Adding some cross-the-chest drapes that hang down into the skirt ...

And more layers ...

And more layers ...

Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and didn't get any pictures as I draped the top! It was more deliberate than the skirt, but still pretty loose ... just stitching and draping and stitching some more!

I honestly love draping things on a dress form; as much as I try to measure and cut and plan, I always find that my best results happen from working in 3D!

The final touch was a wooden button that I purchased in Finland with the idea that it'd come in handy some day! I think it really brings it all together. :)

And the finished product ...

The lighting in these photos is frankly awful; I'd like to take some outside in our yard (perhaps with the dress on someone?) in order to really capture the frolicking fairy vibe ... but that's a project for another time. 

 Close up of the bottom edge ... seriously, these photos make it look blue! :(

(Also the back has a kind of bustle-y feel from all the layers and bows and I kind of love it.)

(The picture on the right was taken at the gallery and is much more true to color!)

I ended up deciding against the cape and embroidery that were part of the original design ... I like this simpler version of the dress much better!

Over all I'm very pleased how it turned out, and I'm sorry that it was the last round in the Art Exchange, as no one got to interpret it.

I'm not sure what my next sewing project will be ... I won't have much free time for the next few weeks, so for now it's just looking at Pinterest and dreaming about the next project! Hmm, Halloween will be here before you know it ... maybe this will be the year that I finally have my costume done ahead of time!

In the meantime I've still got a pile of extra cheesecloth ... any ideas?