FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
The Scavenger
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
My inspiration was a vulture. The chosen colours were on theme with a turkey vulture. Black, red and off-white. I saw a parallel between them living off of other’s scraps and a lot of people situations following the pandemic. I went through my stash for the black fabric. I wanted to have as little leftovers as possible with my design. All the cuttings went back into my stash, even the tiny pieces were put away for future stuffing.
I had an almost toddler like voluminous dress in mind. It was important for me to make a garment I could wear for years, no matter my size or with proper undergarments no matter the season. In my creating I am often driven by variability, so with the addition of the belt I could make the dress feel more adult and add a little pop of colour. The dress sleeves were supposed to be longer, but after a miscalculation on my part, I have decided to embrace them being shorter. In the end it worked out towards the practicality.
For the collar I consulted my amazing lace teacher, Jitka Hartova. I also went to my bird loving fiancé to make the feathers accurate, because I will be damned if he looked at my creation and said it looks like a chicken! With all this I wanted to capture the two sides of a vulture. An avaricious scavenger and an innocent animal simply navigating its way through life.
Outline the construction…
I have based the design off of traditional Slavic folk patterns. The dress is made up of different size rectangles and squares gathered for greater movement and less waste. I modified a blouse from Burda Style 04/20 for the top part, as I have already worked with it before. I really liked the hidden buttons on it. The underpants were a bigger challenge as I had no pattern... I made multiple mock-ups, combining tracing my shorts, playing with the length and plain old educated guessing. The pants are open in the crotch as I primarily wear skirts and dresses and wanted to use the restroom in peace. For extra volume, the pants are made of half circles with shaping to the crotch area. The belt is one of my older creations that complimented the design too much not to use it. It is made from left over upholstery fabric with cotton lining. It was shaped to fit my corseted waist, so I just altered it with a cotton ribbon at the back. The biggest challenge however was the collar. I started learning bobbin lace only a year ago as part of my schooling course. Due to my lack of experience, the lace took about 30 hours, not including the prep work. But with the support and supervision of my lovely teacher I pressed on. And I really worked my brain with this one! Finally, the ruffles were finished with a bias tape, so they could hold their shape better.
I love the collar details with the ruffle and the lace!! What a cute ensemble