Titania

This dress was imagined during the first lockdown of 2020. Weddings were cancelled and I needed a project that would stimulate me during a difficult time. I had been given an old silk wedding dress from the 1980’s which contained yards of beautiful material so I decided to transform it into something completely different.

I kept the bodice fairly intact but removed the skirt, sleeves, frills, bows and buttons. I then re-attached parts of the original fabric to create a short, soft, asymmetric skirt. This was hand-dyed in shades of green to achieve an interesting textured effect.

Other parts of the material were shaped and dyed to make the leaves and flowers, I used those that were in flower in my garden as inspiration. These were positioned to accentuate the design and hand stitched into place. The embroidered insects were one of my earlier lockdown projects, I had stitched them directly onto a fine net fabric which enabled me to cut out each creature and position them individually for a more natural effect.