Part 1 here :https://dancingseamstress.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/queen-of-the-summer-seas-part-1/
So the last post ended with the construction. Next, the decorating!
I did some research and found that Octopi are quite the avid little hoarders. They seem to love shiny things. I wanted to reflect that in the dress. I began collecting all sorts of bits and bobs to decorate the corset. Old crystals that I had floating around my room, pearls, suitable beads, etc. And then Michaels had a fantastic sale and I scored some shell beads!
To add a little extra sparkle, I purchased a gross of Swarovski in Scarabeus Green, which is a greenish blue. In retrospect, I probably should have picked a different color as these blend right in to the dress, but oh well, they sparkle!
Playing around pinning a few decorations here and there. I wanted it to feel somewhat organic and to capture the idea of the sea, so I cut out some ‘seaweed’ to tack to the bodice.
The skirt also got the sparkly treatment. I hand sewed dozens of sequins along the hem. Also, can we take a moment to appreciate the color of this two tone organza?!?!?
It was about here that I was reaching the finish line and stopped taking progress pictures. Honestly, I’m impressed I manged to take this many! So after all this I whipped up two black velvet arm covers (Handless gloves? What do you call them?) and a little shrug made out of fish netting (Michaels, if anyone needs to know) . I decorated the shrug with yet more pearls, sequins and crystals and added a few more drapes of sea weed to hang gracefully.
Well, that’s how I put it together, are you ready to see the finished product?
Of course you are.
(Forgive the mess, busy sewing and all that!)
This is the only picture I have of it on Sue, it doesn’t really show off the tentacles. It does, however, show off its awesomness (She said humbly).
The necklace was handmade out of clay, painted and decorated with swarovski and a ‘fairy’ stone. Pearls connect it.
I am unabashedly proud of this dress. I’ve been dreaming of it for years and it’s finally a reality. A few days after completion my friend and I packed up and drove to Jupiter for a photo shoot. We got some simply AMAZING pictures that I can’t wait to share with you in the next post!
So, how much goes into a dress like this? Well, let’s see.
MATERIALS
Blue/green two tone Organza-3 yards
Lime Crinkle Organza-3 yards
Black shimmer Organza-Bought 3 yards, used 1 1/2
Purple Shimmer Organza: -2 yards (FREE!)
Black and purple cotton scraped together from stash for non-sheer underskirt, -3 yards
Two tone Avocado Green Taffeta-2 yards.
Black Crushed Velvet- 2 1/2 yards
Bag and a half of Stuffing
Duck canvas for Corset lining- From stash, plus muslin lining for velvet.
Steel Boning
Fish netting
Sea Shell Beads/sequins/swarovski/pearls/various gewgaws.
Rubber tentacle finer puppets. (yes, I’m serious, but wait till you see what I used them for.)
That totals up to about 16 yards of fabric used in the dress.
For a total cost of approximately: $113.
Not bad! Luckily some things were in my stash (boning, lining, etc.) and I’m an extremely frugal shopper who hates to waste a penny, so the cost of this dress remained reasonable. (not that I’ll be dropping 100 bucks on materials for one dress again any time soon). The true cost was time!
Next, the photo shoot! Let’s see this thing in action!
The Dancing Seamstress 