This dress project is inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s autonomy drawings. I have taken inspirations from the map of veins and muscle groups in our bodies. All these lines contour our body and section our body in a very interesting way.
Playing with the irregular lines, I have designed a dress with fairly simple silhouette and placed the emphasis on the contour lines.
Pattern making the half-scale dress. I have drew out the basic silhouette of the whole dress then drew in the contour lines which I later separate to create individual pieces.
Patterns are cut in muslin to create a mini mock up dress.
Half of the mock up dress on half-scale mannequin.
After completing the of half-scale dress, I scanned in half-scale patterns and enlarge them into full scale patterns. I then cut them out in muslin again to make a full-scale mock up.
The back view of the mock up dress.
Making a sleeve mock up.
Once the patterns are corrected, I began cutting out the patterns on my final fabric. For this dress, I bought four yards of wool from Mood. I went from white denim to cotton shirting to batise then I eventually settled on this beige wool fleece. Though I preferred a lighter cream, pastel beige, this is the closet that I could find at Mood.
To piece the dress with curves like this is very difficult, so after a few experiments, I decided to use the overlaying method and top stitch close to the edge to keep these panels together.
Front view of the dress.
Back view of the dress
Making the sleeve. To create fullness in the quilted section, I have added badding.
Model fitting: side view.
Front view.
Back view.
The wool fleece weights heavier than medium weight muslin and that is why the dress is begin dragged down. To support the weight of the fabric, I have added taffeta lining and sewn in shoulder pads to lift the form up.
Photo Shoot
