FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
The Mother of Nature
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
God is Nature.
That is always my answer when asked if I'm a believer. To me, the natural world and everything surrounding us are watching over us and protecting us. Every flower, tree, rain drop or even insect are part of something bigger than us. So naturally (no pun intended) when I learned that the theme of this year’s competition was “The Natural World” I decided I would create my own goddess of nature, a mother nature of sorts.
When it comes to religion, I was raised as a christian and as such my perception of god was always tainted with medieval iconography.
Images for the Virgin Mary began flooding my brain and I knew what I needed to do.
I searched for inspiration in Medieval France and I was drawn to 14th century garments.
The full look is not fully historically accurate but more of my own 21st century version of a 14th century garment. I created a kirtle, a sideless kirtle, a cape, and a veil all made out of natural fibers ( wool, silk velvet and plain silk). I chose to only use different types of green, to create contrast. I also handsewn everything with this project.
I've always struggled with meeting deadlines and finishing projects. This was the perfect opportunity for me to create something from scratch to finish. It took me a year to create and I really felt like giving up a few times but I’m really proud and happy of what I created.
Outline the construction…
The first element I designed was the kirtle. I used Morgan Donner’s youtube tutorial to draft my own pattern. What took the longest with this part was making the finger looped braid and the eyelets. I learned from Daisy Viktoria’s channel how to do fingerloop braiding and it took me quite a few tries to get it right.
Then I made the sideless kirtle. Once again I drafted my own pattern because I wanted to get the right curve for the open side of the dress. The embroidery was the longest part of the whole project. I’ve only embroidered once before so my experience was very limited. At first, I had a lot of ideas as to what I wanted to embroider but in the end, I just let my imagination run wild while looking at aerial pictures of mountains and forests from the French Alps.
The cape was self drafted as well. It’s made out of silk velvet for dramatic effect. This was really expensive fabric but I just love the way it flows. I then added a blue tablet woven trim bought online.
The two veils are circles cut out in silk. The first veil was left blank but I wanted to decorate the second one. Thankfully, I had recently discovered a new instagram account “Wild_fire_Water” that creates patterns using fresh flowers. The patterns on the veil were made using that technique. The veils were left untrimmed as I broke two fingers 2 weeks before the deadline.
<3
Amazing work !!! This is a fairy dress with a medieval touch. Love it 😀 Keep the hard work !
Ahhh, you have seen Jessica! She is brilliant! My cousin knows her, I think!
Anyway, sorry about your fingers! You did wonderfully! I really love this!!