GOLD! (Posted 31st October 2012)

I sprayed them with this dirty gold stuff which was naff so I've now used a shiny gold :)

Spray painting (Posted 31st October 2012)

I gave them a coat of matte black before I sprayed them gold.

First time I tried it on! (Posted 31st October 2012)

I tied it at the back with leather cord :)

Lasercut acrylic (Posted 31st October 2012)

I drew the design and scanned it into a computer and made it into a black and white image on photoshop then sent it to a lasercutter guy and he sent me back the pieces (top right). Unfortunately he cut the shoulders a tad too big and the belt a tad too small. OH WELL.
I heated the shapes with a heat gun over a shaped piece of metal.

Painted fabric (Posted 19th October 2012)

I TOOK THE PHOTO LIKE THIS COZ I THOUGHT IT WAS COOL.

(This isn't my house, I was staying at a fancy pancy cottage for a weekend :P check out that beam!?)

More experimenting (Posted 20th July 2012)

OKAY. I decided that the foiling was tooooo shiny. So I've gone for gold fabric paint. I just sponged it on. I think this looks more like the original. (It's more gold than this in real life, this kinda looks brown, but it's not I SWEAR!)
PS- I will make the pattern better. This was just messy playing around.

More experimenting (Posted 20th July 2012)

(left) I used my finger to rub on the glue instead of a brush. Problem with this was some of the glue didn't pick up the foil so I was left with dark patches where the glue had dried but didn't hold any foil...
(right) Squirted some blobs of the glue in places and went to town with a brush, smearing it all around etc. I reeeeeeeally don't like this one :S

Testing different techniques of foiling (Posted 20th July 2012)

(top) I stippled on the glue with a small brush and then used my hairdryer on full heat half power to dry the glue until it was tacky. I then stuck the foil to the glue (facing upwards), rubbed it a bit then peeled it off.
(bottom) same thing except smaller dots.

The gold foil! (Posted 20th July 2012)

I bought some gold textile foil and Plexi Glue to do the gold pattern on the dress. I'm going to hand foil it.

final colour I think maybeeee (?) (Posted 18th July 2012)

I had it in that lightening solution for AGES. But this was the lightest it wanted to go :/ weirdly, it kinda went back to blue instead of turquoise. Oh well. It's more green than it was :p
When it's a single layer and over my skin the colour is lighter, so I SUPPOSE it's alright. But ideally I'd have it lighter than this...

MORE colour adjustments. (Posted 18th July 2012)

OKAY SO. I dyed the fabric turquoise AGAIN. Then lightened it again. (the colour of the turquoise in the photo isn't right, it was SO turquoise and dark and horrible, it wasn't right AT ALL.)

Btw: the purple is just what happens when I lighten it, it's so cool! When you take it out of the solution you can see it turning blue. Wooooooooo!

The dyed fabric (Posted 15th July 2012)

I thiiiiink this is a good enough colour, but I'm might do some more turquoise, I think it needs it..

I forgot to say: because of the metallic thread in the fabric I had to dye it in cold water. Hot water would've ruined the fabric.

By the wayyyyyyy, I am going to try to smooth out those wrinkles and give it some sort of pleating or fold lines like the original has.

Lightening the fabric (Posted 15th July 2012)

OK. it was farrrrrrr too dark a blue so I popped it in some pre-dye fabric lightening solution to make it a lighter blue. I think it's come out quite well! I'll know for sure when it's dried and I can get ON with this outfit finally :D

Dyeing the fabric (Posted 9th July 2012)

first I dyed it Bahama Blue and then gave it a quick dip in the Ocean Blue dye to take that slightly greeny colour out.

when I did test pieces it came out the perfect colour but at the moment it looks too purpley D: I hope that when it dries it will be okay. WE'LL SEE.

Silk chiffon with metallic thread (Posted 16th June 2012)

The same fabric used for the real dress, except in a neutral colour instead of blue (I will dye it myself).
Amazing story actually, I bought this from the same shop that Michele Clapton bought it from! A fabric shop in London called The Berwick Street Cloth Shop, they often sell fabrics to TV shows and films. I walked in with my reference photo and asked if they had anything similar and the man behind the counter was like "oh yeh Michele came in and bought the last of the blue, but we still have the neutral colour left if you want?" MIND. BLOWN. I almost died from excitement :D

(this is quite a close up photo of the fabric by the way)