Meanwhile I am also sewing a great deal: most days I’ve had a good session of needlework - finishing off some pieces that were mostly done ( I do find it hard to do the refining work; it is much easier to work on the expansive initiation phases!) - and feeling again an upwards surge of confidence in what I can achieve.

The showstopper – I started to feel that it might not stop the show at all – it was pretty lumpy at the front, and not very conducive to making me feel like the carefree #slowfashion un-designer that I want to be! Putting it on for the first time, it looked very frumpy above the waist in front, and Vincent drew attention to this in a way that was very diplomatic, which really allowed me to focus in on the solution rather than the frump of it!

Playing around with the front of the dress, I decided that the bust needed some more structure – otherwise I’d have to put on some very specific underwear (or even design some myself!) before it’d sit correctly. I went rummaging in my boxes of white scraps and vintage linen, and came across a vest which has this very sweet embroidered motif on the front of it: it was a particular shape, which I thought might lend itself to both covering the lumpiness AND enhancing very much the front of this white dress.

The fixing in of the dress was quite lengthy, and it will be worked on later today. But I think it will be quite lovely!

As for the rest of the dress: hmmm, how to explain it?? I began with a small dress plus an old apron….and built a load of layers onto them… I had the idea/ feeling at first, of the front having this wide strip of frills/ layers falling down one upon the other, down from the chest to the ankle. At first actually, it felt like it might want to be a knee-length dress, but the activity of adding layers was such a nice challenge, I just wanted to keep going!

I used the greater part of an amazing handmade tablecloth which was purchased on a one euro stall at the last weekend market. Woohoo – such an inspiration for this dress! It was quite ruined as a whole piece, the tablecloth, but had these borders which I took advantage of for the edges.

So I added a wide final piece to the front frills, as well as the back skirt to balance the whole garment out – and then decided on a full lower border of the skirt, to pull it all together. This became quite complex too, as it required extending, and needed a wee panel – which was beautiful to work on in the end, as I had remnants from the tablecloth, and could cut out particular sections which were special: even some of the hidden elements have significance – a secret bird is inside underneath the bottom edge…

Building the dress spontaneously and without a pattern, I started feeling into how fulfilling it is for me to create such a special garment; not just a favourite fabric, but lots of favourite fabrics. Not just a fancy summer evening dress, but a showstopping extravaganza – even if such a thing here in a rural farming town is quite a few notches lower than what I’d create for a big city event! Not just one or two extra-precious pieces of fabric, but a box of them: this is my perfect dress, and I am very glad to be persevering with it.

Making one’s own special garment is so different (for me) than making a general garment for the public – and for a mystery customer whom I have not yet come into contact with. It is an even-more-organic process than usual of immersion in the making: a hyper-tuned-in focus, on the very specific detail and shape of the thing, that I know will balance and free me – so I can present myself fully in my confident creative maximum :-D

I will be revving up my (sewing machine and) creative engines over the next couple of weeks, sewing on the labels (I still have only 3 garments out of around 30 labelled!!), reinforcing clothing stands, and prepping the packages to carry up around to the other side of the medieval quarter…. Cannot wait to share the event with you all – and to show you the finished dress!