First a look at my ideas book. The one I like most is the middle one on the first page and that's what I've been basing my design on (hereafter known as the McQueen dress)
Realising that to keep this in my budget I'd be looking at plain coloured tassles (probably black) I decided to bring colour in by putting them on a coloured dress. I originally went for a pale gold in my mind, but when I drew it out I found I had to make that darker to get the effect I wanted.
Today my very lovely father in law offered to take me to Southampton to go to the fabric land shop there and I played around with the fringe and the colours I'd picked. I wanted something satiny and shiny, but the colours didn't fit with my imagination and even when I found something darker, laying the fringe on it just looked wrong.
I went back to my ideas book and decided that something a lot darker with a pale panel at the top would still give the effect I was after so I ended up with a choice between a dark wine and a dark green. Almost everything I wear is red so I decided on the green.
I laid out the fabrics just now to look at them and here's a photo of that
I think I may run a trial on this before making it as it's so much more complicated (in my mind) than anything I've ever tried before. I really want to do a similar line on the front as the McQueen dress and I'm pretty sure I've worked out how to do it, but I think I want to try it out first. I've got some blue tartan fabric left over from making kilts for a friend's 21st a few years ago and I think I could make a funky dress with that (I can't face making a practice one and not using it)
