When Jazida launched Flazeda Hub, a social enterprise alternative performing arts venue, at the end of January, we came up with a very last minute idea that she should be wearing something that fitted in with the Flazeda branding and colours for the launch event.
Somewhere, Jazida had also come across a set of bedding with the same flower and flamingo print on it and had bought it and stashed it just in case!
Our original idea was to use the printed fabric of the duvet cover to create a dramatic, removable long over skirt, but the print was just too large to make it work. Any cutting or seaming would have lost large parts of the print. The two pillowcases had a smaller print, so we decided to incorporate these into the design instead.
Given the tight timeline, we decided to use one of my sample dresses as a base to alter and create the new dress from as these simply wasn't time to make something from scratch. This pink sequin dress was the perfect starting point.
The dress just needed some minor alterations. I cut the silk chiffon ties from the waist and changed the zip up back to lace up back, taking it in at the centre back as it was a little too large for Jazida. We also decided to shorten the skirt a little by adding pickups which created some gorgeous shapes and movement. I also added a strap made from pink satin which I elasticated at the back because there was no time for a fitting!
Once the alteration we done, it was time to add the flower and flamingo embellishments. To turn the pillowcases into appliques I cut the patterned side of the pillowcase from the plain back and ironed bond-a-web onto the back of the printed fabric. I then cut out the shapes of the flowers and the flamingo and pinned them onto the dress.
To attach the appliques, I covered the dress with a silk organza cloth and used an iron (with steam on) to gently press each applique and melt the bond-a-web. I'd never used bond-a-web on sequin fabric before and it held better than I thought it would, but I did end up using fabri-fuse to hold down a couple of the edges that either didn't get pressed properly or were on parts of the dress that were hard to press.
I chose to use bond-a-web rather than sewing the appliques on for a few reasons. Firstly, this method was a lot faster than hand sewing and I could get a lot more appliques onto the dress in the limited time that we had. Secondly, the bond-a-web helps stop the edges of the fabric fraying when you cut the appliques out, and thirdly, it gives a really clean finish not having stitches showing on the edges.
Next, I added rhinestones to all the appliques for even more sparkle!
Using E6000 fabri-fuse and a wax pencil, I scattered rhinestones across the appliques, matching the rhinestone colours to the colours of the appliques where I could, and using transparent and transparent ab rhinestones for the other areas. I used mainly sizes ss16 and ss20.
This is the finished effect, with the sparkle from the rhinestones and sequins.
The final touch was a soft blue tulle drape at the back of the shoulder. For this I cut a half circle from the tulle and stitched the centre of the straight edge to the shoulder strap, leaving the sides to drape downwards.
I'm so pleased with how this dress turned out, considering how little time we had to do it and that we used things we already had!
Keep scrolling for some pictures of the Flazeda launch event. I'm excited to be part of this new Canberra hub for performers and I'll be teaching my first embellishment workshop there starting in March! Congratulations on your new venture Jazida <3
Launch photos by MeThinks Photography