Thank you so much for bringing me back for one more week! I was so excited about this week so I'm happy I get to share it with you all.
Art has always been so inspiring to me, and one artist in particular I have always been drawn to: Vincent Van Gogh. So much so, that we got a puppy earlier this year and named him Vincent. So when I saw this week's theme I instantly knew I was going to choose something to do with Van Gogh. After a little narrowing down I settled on the idea of doing Van Gogh's Flowers. Of course, he has many more flower paintings than this, but these are the ones that inspired me most.
The first design I worked on was based off of Van Gogh's Almond Blossom painting. I'm no artist, but when I was younger I enjoyed drawing trees and branches so I got the crazy idea to attempt to recreate this beautiful painting on the dress.
I worked for 6 hours on free hand painting this skirt. I didn't trace it out or practice beforehand, I just started painting and hoped for the best! Originally I wanted to paint the entire skirt but after painting for three hours and only doing a quarter of the skirt I abandoned the plan and settled on it being a focal point of the dress and not an overall design of the fabric. Hey, I only have a week, right?!? Once I competed painting the skirt, I hand sewed 60 chiffon flowers onto the branches to mimc the blossoms in the painting. The skirt turned out more beautiful than I imagined it would and while it doesn't look exactly like Van Gogh's painting, its clearly inspired by it and I've never attempted anything like before so I'm proud of the 8 hours of painting and hand sewing I put into this skirt. I used CKC Everlee's for the bodice and CKC Adileen's for the skirt. I love the modern look that this combo created; it was perfect for my tween!
I worked for 6 hours on free hand painting this skirt. I didn't trace it out or practice beforehand, I just started painting and hoped for the best! Originally I wanted to paint the entire skirt but after painting for three hours and only doing a quarter of the skirt I abandoned the plan and settled on it being a focal point of the dress and not an overall design of the fabric. Hey, I only have a week, right?!? Once I competed painting the skirt, I hand sewed 60 chiffon flowers onto the branches to mimc the blossoms in the painting. The skirt turned out more beautiful than I imagined it would and while it doesn't look exactly like Van Gogh's painting, its clearly inspired by it and I've never attempted anything like before so I'm proud of the 8 hours of painting and hand sewing I put into this skirt. I used CKC Everlee's for the bodice and CKC Adileen's for the skirt. I love the modern look that this combo created; it was perfect for my tween!
The second design I chose to work on was based off of one of Van Gogh's most recognizable series of paintings: Sunflowers. Sunflowers have always been a favorite of mine because the colors are so bold and just a beautiful golden yellow-orange hue. I was lucky enough to find the perfect color of fabric for the sunflower--I am limited to what colors my local Joann has in stock since I am not ahead of schedule for this competition so "lucky" is not an exaggeration!
I decided to make a one shoulder color blocked romper to mimic the painting and instead of adding lots of sunflowers, I made one bold flower. I also hand beaded the center of the sunflower to further draw attention to the sunflower--not that it needed any help because that flower is bold, but it really topped off the look! For the romper I used CKC Aria's bodice and CKC Honey's romper bottom.
I decided to make a one shoulder color blocked romper to mimic the painting and instead of adding lots of sunflowers, I made one bold flower. I also hand beaded the center of the sunflower to further draw attention to the sunflower--not that it needed any help because that flower is bold, but it really topped off the look! For the romper I used CKC Aria's bodice and CKC Honey's romper bottom.
The final design was one that I really decided to make last minute...as in Friday night before our photoshoot on Saturday. I somehow convinced myself that these two pieces I had completed couldn't be a flower "collection". I think I'm really just a glutton for punishment. lol. I had no idea what I was going to make but I just knew I wanted it to look like an gorgeous ruffled iris--another favorite flower of mine.
After digging through my patterns I couldn't find anything that gave the look I was trying to achieve so I self-drafted this dress I envisioned and prayed for the best. It was a relief when I completed it and it both worked out and looked exactly like what I wanted; the model looks like a beautiful iris!
After digging through my patterns I couldn't find anything that gave the look I was trying to achieve so I self-drafted this dress I envisioned and prayed for the best. It was a relief when I completed it and it both worked out and looked exactly like what I wanted; the model looks like a beautiful iris!
I feel like I was super reckless this week with my creating. I didn't draw anything out, I didn't practice anything before hand, I bought just *enough* fabric for no mistakes, I threw all cautions to the wind and just created! I wasn't even worried or anxious hoping that things turned out! I somehow just knew it would work. Project Run and Play is changing the way I create and for that alone I am grateful for this opportunity! I am not scared to try new things anymore--like painting on fabric when you by the end of the bolt and have no extra in case you ruin it or sewing 50 yards of tulle when I've never really worked with tulle like that before. I really hope that you guys love my designs and I make it through to the final week even though I still don't know what my week 4 is going to be--but I'm not worried! Even if I don't make it though, I am thrilled with my creations and had so much fun proving to myself that I am worthy of competing with all of these phenomenal designers!
Happy Sewing!
Shannon
Shannon
