Supayana at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris!

A few months ago I entered Lenzing's design competition. The object was to create a garment using the same white fabric that they supplied to all of the contestants. Five people were chosen (out of 60) to win a free booth at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. I was one of the lucky winners! Woo hoo! The show is happening from September 1-4. Unfortunately, I can't be there in person, but Janie and Andre are holding down the fort for me!

I'll start with a pic of the finished dress (taken from Lenzing's blog).

I'll take you through the process of creating the dress. The fabric was bright white....a real blank canvas! I stared at it for days...a blank canvas can be so intimidating!

I wanted to change the color but I wanted to do it with as little environmental impact as possible, especially since the contest was to win a booth at the Ethical Fashion Show. So I dyed the fabric with tea, making it a creamy yellow color.

Here's the hot tea bath! I swirled the fabric around in the water for about 20 minutes.

Here's the white fabric side-by-side with the tea dyed fabric.

Then, I took the fabric over to my studio and took out all of my vintage trims that I've been hoarding for years.

I picked out some black pom pom trim and some super soft black vintage lace.

Since I was creating a one-of-a-kind piece, I didn't need to make a pattern for it. (I HATE making patterns, by the way) So I kind of free-hand sculpted it on the dressform...I made darts as I went. I guess that's not the "real" way to do it but it's so much more fun.

Here the dress is almost finished. Needs something. Hmmm how about some pom-poms and lace sleeves?

Here's the finished dress!