Secret Garden Party Dress

The pannier dress form made a perfect canvas for a deliciously colored secret garden dress. The colors remind me of Frida Kahlo. I’m getting my time periods mixed up, but isn’t that the fun of imagination?

The gown is jeweled tone, made up of purple and green ribbon and hand dyed velvet of rich turquoise blues and greens. There is a gold trim lining hiding a secret garden underneath.  The green and orange flower provides a pretty leaf collar and a contrast to her glittery blue hair.

The colors remind me of deep summer, gardens, Frida and Mexico, all of which serves to provide a welcome diversion from the cold grey weather outside. 

METHOD

• Assemble the form. TIP: For the pannier dress assembly, it’s easier to turn the form upside down when you are putting the skirt part together.
• Paint the form to match the cloth you’ll be using. I used light colors for the face and arms to match the printed face and metallic green for the skirt base.
• Make a skirt from a rectangular piece of cloth and a long ribbon. I don’t sew from patterns myself, so I made up the easiest way I could think of to make a skirt. See photo above.
• Use a large piece of trim for an underskirt. A piece of gauzy, ethereal material would do well here too. You could also leave it open and display something inside the piece. If you do that, you will need to be sure your skirt is longer than the one I have here.
• To make the sleeves I used a long ribbon. Cross it over the torso and continue wrapping it along the arms to make the sleeves. It was so long that I liked having the ends hang down beside her but it could also be cut after tying it at the wrists. See photo above to see how it started.
• Paint the headdress with color, then glitter.
• Print out the face and the flowers you will use.
• I assembled the garden inside the skirt first, then the torso with the ribbon sleeves, the skirt, and the face with flower headdress.

 MATERIALS USED