GOLDEN BIRTHDAY DRESS

 I just recently learned what a "golden birthday" is, and promptly went into creative mode when I learned that my daughter was hoping I could make her a dress for her golden birthday.  She had told me she wanted a gold dress, and sent me some pictures of dresses that were loaded with all sorts of "bling".  

Now that I knew what she was looking for, she went to work purchasing all sorts of jewels, chains, etc., and I went to work looking for some flashy gold fabrics....sequins, laces, etc. 

The whole project was very different than how I usually work......first thing, my daughter kept stressing that this dress was strictly for her birthday.  Because of that, the approach I/we used was very foreign.  I normally would have made a pattern, working hard on the fit....Constructed it the way I usually would a strapless dress, with good foundational techniques included.  But I didn't do any of that.  I actually began with by creating a strapless tube dress in nude spandex.  From there I began layering various fabrics and trims we found to create the final product.   

                  

I found this super cool fabric which was a heavily embroidered nude mesh fabric with what I referred to as "fish scale" sequins. I also found some gold lace thread appliques that I felt would make some nice accents.  While my daughter found some beading, and gold rhinestone chains for some added embellishments.  I chose to add a side zipper knowing that the two non-stretch fabrics were going to make it difficult to get into.  I layered the fish scale fabric on top of the spandex, only catching it in the zipper.  Then I began adding on the appliques....cutting them and pinning them to appear as if they were part of the original fabric.  

I cut off many of the fish scale sequins so they would lay around the appliques, all of which were hand sewn  to the "fish scale" fabric only.  

The picture to the left is after the first fitting.  The appliques are just pinned in place.   At the hemline you can see we had decided to add some gold faux rhinestone strands around the hemline.  

The beads I glued on using E6000 glue.  I was aware of that technique having sewn a few dresses for a competitive dancer friend of mine.  After I did created her gown, hundreds of beads were glued on. 

So that's my part sewing, part arts and crafts project that took me out of my comfort zone and turned out pretty darn good!