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!

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. Been busy working on some fall ideas, house hunting, and showing my sister around town. She came to visit Montreal for a few days with her friend Vera and just left today. We ate lots of delicious food, walked around, and took a day trip to Mont St. Hilaire. She took lots of pictures, so I'll steal one from her later and post it.

I did manage to list some new things on Etsy today. One of my favorite new items is this top, which I called the "Petit Dejeuner" top. It means "breakfast" in French, btw. The vintage deadstock fabric is so cute!

You may wonder why a lot of my recent shirts have a French ring to them. Well, I have French on the brain! I found out last week that I'm going to Paris (!!!!) in late September for the Ethical Fashion Show! I was sooo lucky to get a round trip ticket for free, thanks to the OFQJ. The grant is intended for French speaking Quebecers, so I had to fill out all of the paperwork in French, answer lots of questions in French, and talk to people on the phone in French, which usually makes me pee my pants, but I freaking did it and I'm really proud of myself. I just need to keep practicing and be more assertive. Le sigh.

So yeah, that's good news! :-) Are you guys going on any trips this fall?