Dress Dolls and Car Projects

We're home after a perfect vacation week.

Below is my "Golden Girl" modeling the skirt project I was working on in the car. It's similar to the "Eyelet Skirt" from Alabama Chanin's second stitch book. Her designs are spectacular, inspiring and very, very time intense. Often I make a simpler version that works just fine for me, like you see in the picture. For this one, I used a big recycled jersey dress and made a double layered skirt for fall. The skirt can be worn immediately after the basic construction, but it's fun to add some detail to make it unique. It's often easier to finish decorative detail before assembling the skirt, but most of the time I'm too impatient and prefer to struggle with adding details to the garment later.

My "Golden Girl" was found in the streets of NY (in a dumpster to be precise), a place she didn't belong so I brought her home. She's quite glamorous and hangs out in different rooms of my house. She adds instant zing to our home, so if one added zing, I thought more would add more zing, but let me tell you, they are quite expensive. So why not make a copy of the original in paper mache?

I did and it worked. This one is covered with the pages of an 1920's women's magazine found at a garage sale. (Note to self: next time make a copy of the magazine instead of using the original.) And then I made a third one, just because I became obsessed, but it's not finished yet. Oh, and there's one more. You've seen her before, a raggedy "bigger" girl with lots of personality. She was found at a store closing sale. 

I often try clothing combinations on them to see what looks good together, but the dress forms unfortunately are not my size. Now it's time for a dress form with my measurements to avoid the awkward contortions done in front of a mirror to see myself from all angles. I've none of Madeleine Vionnet's skills and that includes architecting clothes on a 2 foot doll.

This week a dress form in my size will be started. This could be fun! Once it's done,  I could play dress up and put outfits together just like the Iris Apfel paper dolls. There is a technique with duct tape. Maybe I'll let my daughter assist me. She surely would have fun to wrap mom up in tape. ("Honey, what did you do during your summer vacation?") Be prepared to see how it goes.