Archive Projects pt.1 - Goddess Dress

Hi,

This is the first post in a series of seven or eight called 'Archive Projects'
The premise of these posts are supposed to be:
1. About projects that have happened in the past - these are all dresses that I have already made and simply wish to share previous ideas and designs.
2. Only one post long - ongoing projects will be posted across several different posts along the stages of the dressmaking process, the Archive Projects posts will be longer posts with all these different stages included and therefore with less detail about each stage.

Goddess Dress

The Situation - Every year my town has a summer festival lasting a week. On the Saturday, at the conclusion of the festival a parade takes place in which multiple groups take part and wear themes costumes. As a member of Girlguiding, I have taken part in this parade for many years, through my time as a brownie, a guide and now a leader with a Rainbow unit. The first time I took part in the parade as a leader our theme was countries from around the world and this was my first attempt at dress making.
The country I chose was Greece and the idea that began to form in my mind was that of something relating to the marble statues of the Greek goddesses.

The research - Unfortunately the document I had the research pages on have been lost due to a faulty hard-drive. But I recall taking my time to thoroughly search Google images for ideas.
Here are some examples similar to those I examined then.

I began with looking at the Goddesses themselves. Admiring the long flowing skirts and
the way the material folds and falls.

                    ATHENA


                        APHRODITE

Next was looking at modern takes on the style, as that was what people are familiar with and would identify with.

Again I was seeing long skirts, layers and folds. A trend I was also noticing was that, as with these two examples above, was that gold was a staple colour for waistbands and trim.

The design - Next was taking my research and using it to put together a design of my own personal style.

In the end I had two designs, the first was slightly more elaborate, with 'wings' and a complicated strap.

However when it came to production of the dress, I decided this was too complicated for a beginner and redesigned.

This was the redesign - a much simpler silhouette, wings gone, trim removed from the neckline.

The gold crossed waistline was not intended to be sewn into the dress, but instead either, thin belts, crossing over or ribbon. Therefore, leaving only the main dress to be sewn together.





The production - My first mission was to collect material - as this was my first go, I knew nothing of the joys of going into a fabric shop, examining the walls of multicoloured fabric, feeling the textures of the materials and losing yourself to a world of dressmaking. Instead I settled for the lining of an old curtain as it was only a white dress and made do with what I had.

Again, as this was my first attempt I had no notion of patterns, and simply did my best, using my body and a tape measure to make guesses with, my mum assisting me as much as she could, barely knowledgeable in dressmaking herself - but her grandmother had made clothes for her and her brother when they were younger and she did her best with what she could remember.

Finally the dress was made, it wasn't good, it wasn't fancy, for the most part it could be described as a large pillowcase with holes for my arms, legs and neck, but for the purpose I wanted it for, it would do.
I couldn't find any belts in the high street shops and finally wandered into my local fabric shop for the first time in search of gold ribbon. It wasn't special or memorable or anything magical but looking back, as cheesy as it sounds, it was the beginning of an era. That day was the first time I knew what it meant to stand in front of shelf upon shelf of ribbon reels, admiring the different colours, materials, thicknesses and fighting with myself on which one I wanted.

In the end, this is the one I chose, gold and shimmery, a rough texture that adds to the golden shine and an inch in thickness.

Unfortunately all photos of the final design were also lost with the original research and the dress no longer exists to take new photos with. - The lining of the next dress in this series was actually made from the material used in this one and honestly, it was probably for the best.

Looking back - From a technical viewpoint it was a bad dress, it was badly constructed and I should have unquestionably used a pattern but it wasn't the worst to look at for a beginner. The ribbon probably should have been sewn on as I spend most of the parade sorting it back into place, but on the other hand I'm glad I didn't because I still have the ribbon, which I can use again in the future.

It hadn't turned out exactly the way I had imagined but I learnt from that first experience and the next dress was much more of a success. So look out for my next post which will be on it, the Skittle Dress.