Commissioned dress for Reed’s #1 girl
This is the very first and only piece of work I’ve ever been paid to make. And hopefully not the last. He wanted a dress, something that hearkened to the countryside, possibly with wind turbines and most definitely with prancing goats and patchwork. I was going to make a pattern from this existing dress:
Here was the initial concept (ghastly I know):
It turns out the dress I picked was possibly the most complex in my wardrobe. It was a very fine material with lining inside, and was gathered at EVERY seam, making it very difficult to figure out how large to actually cut the pieces. After much hand-wringing I asked Reed if he would let me use a pattern I dug up. It was an apron dress with a very charming, milk-maid appeal. He was all for it.
I decided on a thick grey cotton fabric. I wanted the top of the dress to have a blue sky with clouds fading to the grey. And on the skirt, prancing goats and wind turbines. I’ve been practicing with my dyes and can apply fairly fine designs to fabric, so I asked Reed to send his own drawings of goats (should be a nice touch for a personalized gift.) I put the goats on cut-out, goat-shaped pieces of a contrasting fabric and applied them to the skirt by hand. I frayed the edges around the double-stitching. This dress has nice big pockets (I love dresses/skirts with pockets.) I picked an orange zipper for a little eye-popping contrast. I think the oversized turquoise buttons were a good choice. Here’s some pictures of the final product:
And a close-up of the goat appliques:
