The first step in the winter garment was painting swishes of purple, blue, and silver on gray wool (donated!) in acrylic paint. I ended up with some leftover color so rather than tossing it out, I placed a small piece of white polyester blend material in it and added a bit of water. I soaked this overnight, turned the fabric over and added swipes of color to the wet fabric (still crumpled in the original paint bowl). I blotted the fabric on newsprint overnight (the background paper for the couture seasons poster used this blotting paper) and then ironed it to dry and set the paint. This playful part of the painting process gave me the perfect fabric for the Winter top.
Since Winter presents itself as cold, the combination of a wool skirt and a camisole top was a bit of whimsy. Of course Winter would read as cold! I had gathered a collection of beads and tiny sequins (my first journey into "sequinsing") and I manipulated the fabric until the combination of shape and embellishment was pleasing and read as winter. Since the painted camisole was already rich with color and movement, I kept the beading to a minimum.
My original intent was to have an apron type garment in the front and a half skirt with a bustle in the back. I edited the bustle as I did not want it to distract from the motion and impact of the apron. The apron was made from strips of various weights and translucency of fabric in white, dusty lilac, and greys. These were scrunched into ruffles reminiscent of drifts of snow and secured with the random placement of beads and sequins.
Since Winter presents itself as cold, the combination of a wool skirt and a camisole top was a bit of whimsy. Of course Winter would read as cold! I had gathered a collection of beads and tiny sequins (my first journey into "sequinsing") and I manipulated the fabric until the combination of shape and embellishment was pleasing and read as winter. Since the painted camisole was already rich with color and movement, I kept the beading to a minimum.
My original intent was to have an apron type garment in the front and a half skirt with a bustle in the back. I edited the bustle as I did not want it to distract from the motion and impact of the apron. The apron was made from strips of various weights and translucency of fabric in white, dusty lilac, and greys. These were scrunched into ruffles reminiscent of drifts of snow and secured with the random placement of beads and sequins.