Galaxies out the window

The bodice panel patterns were made by draping one piece after another on my body and making mock-ups out of calico and the final fabric. Every piece is unique due to my asymmetrical body. The straps flowing into a front and back panel without seams are a personal point of pride. The pieces of sturdy light blue cotton dyed a warmer blue were cut, hand basted, and sewn together by machine. The inside seams were whip stitched. The seam allowances of the neckline and armscyes were folded over and basted down with running stiches that were covered with black silk ribbon whip stitched on by hand.
All the skirts were made by sewing pieces of black cotton voile together selvage to selvage by machine with French seams. The three layers of the underskirt were each pleated onto strips of cotton twill tape sewn together. For the overskirt, I used bleach in a sink and a spray bottle to lighten patches of the fabric with the spattered effect that I coloured using combinations of red, blue, and pink fabric dye. The ‘stars’ in and around the galaxies, like the double spiral, are glass beads sewn on individually by hand. For the waistband, the fabric was gathered using two rows of machine gathering stitches and sewn by hand to a strip of twill tape. A strip of voile was sewn to the back of the tape, folded over the gathered edges, and whip stitched down on the bottom row of gathering stitches.