FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
A cold winter’s night …
(click images to to enlarge)
Other Credits
photographer: Harald Peter (https://www.facebook.com/harald.peter.986)
Outline the story …
As a true winter’s child, born in a December night, I have always loved the cold and the darkness. So as soon as I read about this year’s theme, I knew I wanted to make an outfit representing a winter’s night. There is something so magical about the all-encompassing darkness and how the world slows down, burrows in on itself and goes to sleep. One year, I was lucky enough to spend my birthday in Finland. Up in the North close to the polar circle, even during the day the sun is never quite there, cloaking the world in dim light and making it feel as though the whole winter is just one precious, long night. And it is precisely this darkness, which makes the stars appear brighter and highlights even those typically too dim to be seen. A night like that puts the human life into perspective. It shows how rest and slowing down is needed for one to be able to appreciate all the beauty that is overlooked and outshone by our hectic city lives.
While the hat ornament shows the full moon, the cape represents the night sky, displaying the star constellations visible during my birthday night in Finland. The lining of the cape is a warm, orange fleece, shining through the arm slits when moving, like the flickering of a campfire providing warmth in a cold winter’s night. The black skirt references the darkness the whole world is shrouded in during that time of the year.
Outline the construction…
The biggest challenge with this outfit was the cape. Researching all the star constellations and piecing them together while preserving their relation within and to each other took such a long time and so many attempts, especially since I wanted it to reflect that one particular night. In addition, it was the first time I worked without a pre-existing pattern and with a stretchy fabric. I struggled with cutting it out properly and sewing it in a way that maintained the desired shape. Deciding on the style of embroidery for the constellations required some trials, but in the end, I settled on French knots keeping golden sequins in place with silvery grey running stitches connecting the stars into the known constellations.
The second big effort was the cording on the corset. While I did have a pattern, since I don’t have a zipper foot for my antique treadle sewing machine, the cording took a long time. After sewing all the channels, pushing the cord through was also quite taxing on my fingers and wrists.
As I had never done cross-stitching before, the start on the moon was quite slow. But even as I sped up a little with practise, it still took so many hours.
The skirt is based on the walking skirt pattern TV291 by Truly Victorian, the cross-stitching pattern for the moon was purchased from SamXstitch.
The whole outfit is made out of cotton fabrics and was sown either on my treadle machine or by hand.
beautiful!
Both the corset and the cape look beautiful. My favorite part are the constellations on the cape. Well done!
This is such a cute ensemble. I love it!!
Inspiration from starlight. I love this