FOUNDATIONS REVEALED COMPETITION ENTRY
Yvaine’s dress
(click images to to enlarge)
Outline the story …
The inspiration is from Neil Gaiman's novel "Stardust". Tristran is a boy who lives in a village bordering the magical world of Faerie. He promises the beautiful Victoria to bring her a fallen star if she will kiss him. He ventures to Faerie where the star has fallen, but unbeknownst to him the star is actually a young woman named Yvaine. She is not happy at all with his plans and refuses to go along with them, but the end, of course, is a happy one.
Yvaine is described only as wearing a blue dress (and as having light blonde hair). I imagine her siting in a cloud in the heavens, her golden hair aglow, and looking curiously down to the humans and their world. As she looks upon all of Earth I decided that perhaps her dress took elements from many cultures. The entry I made is a wrap dress inspired by a modernized version of Korean hanbok and overlapping left over right like a Japanese kimono. The upper part of the dress is blue like the book describes. I initially wanted flutter sleeves but didn't have enough fabric. The white gathered skirt of the dress is supposed to be reminiscent of a cloud. Underneath I'm wearing a slip I made, as the gauzy skirt fabric was quite transparent even after gathering it. I added some earrings I made using the Japanese tsumami zaiku technique for making fabric flowers. They have blue crystals to sort of complete the look.
Outline the construction…
I used the Amy dress pattern from sewmag co uk for a basis I lengthened the sleeves and made a collar similar to a kimono one, but tapered The skirt I also changed to a gathered one After sewing the darts I attempted to flatline the outer layer and the lining, sewed the bodice together, attached the collar and the sleeves, attached the four ribbons used for closing the front. This type of closing is similar to the one in Japanese samue. Most of the stitches are done by hand, with the exception of the skirt hem which is machine stitched. I finished almost all the edges by fell stitch, except the waist seam and the sleeve seams which I decided to cover with a piece of fabric. Probably the most difficult thing was attaching the sleeves and adding elastic bands as I'd never done it before. I also had difficulty working with the blue fabric as it was quite slippery and frayed easily. The slip I made this winter following a pattern from Burda magazine. I stitched together the inner and outer layers of the cups, attached them to the skirt and added vintage string for shoulder straps. My mother gave me the fabric from her stash and quite honestly I have no idea what it is. The blue satin fabric seems to be a polyester-cotton blend. The white fabric for the lining and the slip is a very thin cotton. The skirt seems to be polyester.
Your dress with its sky blue top and cloud-like skirt is so pretty! Your handmade earrings are a lovely finishing touch.
Your stitching is incredible, and the feeling of being in the sky with a puffy cloud comes through very well.
Your piece is lovely! The insides look very neat, you did a great job❤
Love the shape – I share your love for kimono and had originally tried to find a way to integrate something Japanese in my own entry. The earrings are so cute, I‘d never heard of tsumami zaiku before and am already looking at tutorials 😮
Your finishing is impeccable.I admire your patience with all the hand stitching.The blue colour is heavenly.
Dress looks very elegant. Yvaine would approve!
I’m a big fan of the shape of the bodice, loving your idea to incorporate the kimono-inspiration into it, and blue and white combo look beautiful together! The earrings are really lovely too, I also hadn’t heard of that technique before, but I’m intrigued! Beautiful work, well done!
Memories were fine but you couldn’t touch them, smell them or hold them. They were never exactly as the moment was, and they faded with time.