faerie dress or something like that using tea bags

I’ve wanted to share this dress for ages, soon as I finished it really, but had to wait till after the art show. I’m doing it now with some hesitation… typing with one finger takes ages and seems to block my creative thinking.

However, here goes. I’ll give it a try.

So.

I wanted to make something special for the 2016 Hobart Art From Trash competition. I wanted to use lots of fabric scraps, lots of whites and natural colours. I wanted to use tea bags.

My dress was inspired by dresses like this:

and this:

in my frocks or art board on Pinterest. Aren’t the just FABULOUS? Wow. If I was younger and slimmer this is how I’d dress!

Anyway, I went through all my scrappy bits. I had tons of cotton fabric pieces in various shades of white so I began the dress by sewing together pieces and then sewing used tea bag fabric to the bodice.

Here’s a glimpse of the front before the tea bags. I dyed some of the lace, ribbons and fabric with tea to tie it all in together better.

Since I’m no seamstress, I had a few glitches along the way … mainly figuring how to fit the dress in such a way that it would be adjustable to different sizes… and to make it so it could be worn by a real person, not just a mannequin in an exhibition.

Lacing up didn’t work

A belt worked better, but still wasn’t quite right.

The armpits were too big and messy…

In the end I could avoid it no longer. The dress needed darts at the bust. That helped shape the bodice.

I also kept the lace-up idea – using it on each side of the front, under the breasts, and the back. Mismatched buttons and jute string are decorative but also useful in fitting the dress at the waist.

The dress itself has a few scrappy layers on the skirt, but in order to make it richer, I added an ‘overskirt’ using a thick, tea dyed satin ribbon. The ribbon adds an extra layer of fabric and ties at the front like a belt.