Et Voila ,,, Une Toile

Finally !

After adding the last few sample flowers my first Toile is complete !


I continued to spiral the flowers under the best and round the right side of the dress.


I then put my dress on a mannequin to see how everything held in place and after tacking into place a few petals I'm really happy with the final outcome.

Another productive day

Yesterday was another successful day as far as my Toile is concerned.
The dress is really coming together now and I'm really excited so see it finished on Tuesday and even more looking forward to making the real thing ready for the Fashion show. !!

I've finished the dress by hemming the bottom just to give a smooth neat edge, for this final this will be done with binding and not hand stitch to give a much neater finish.

The basic dress is now finished, I am really happy with the shape, as it is very similar to one I would pick out myself in a shop such as French Connection.

I then started adding my rose detail.

To make these I took long strips of iridescent Dupion fabric and over-locked one edge using a industrial sewing machine. By over-locking one edge the fabric will fray a little less keeping everything tidy.


I then ran a gathering stitch just above the over-lock stitch and rouched the fabric along. By coiling this round and round and stitching closed the bottom you have your rose shape, you can then handle the layers (petals) into place.


I then tack stitched the roses into place on the dress, I think I will sample with different ways to attach the roses before making the real dress to come up with a more professional finish.

I have begun spiralling the flowers around the dress and adding the leaves I had sampled. With this only being a Toile I will not be adding detail to the entire dress but just enough to see how the design works, and so far so good, I'm really excited to see it finished and really glad I chose this design as part of my collection.

A Spiral of Petals

My first design

This is the first design I have chosen from initial my 100. It was taken from my couture section and therefore will have to fit well, have high standard finishing, hand embellishments and fabulous fabrics.

I want this garment to almost look as if the model is wearing nothing, yet has (strategically placed) flowers wrapped around her.


To do this I will be using a basic dress shape in power-netting, which is a flesh colour stretchy fabric, and then adding dupion silk flowers, which I will gather and wined by hand and attach in a spiral up the dress. I will also add quilted and hand embroider leafs to add for texture and a splash of contrasting colour.

Here are some images of my samples to give a clearer idea of the detailing on the dress.
All the images in this post have been edited using photo-shop, not only to make them more interesting and clear to look at ... but because blackberry cameras are Rubbish !