Skirt in Progress

So I’ve started construction for the Irish Dance skirt. I’m a pretty visual person when it comes to sewing. I can picture things in my head pretty well when it comes to how things get made, how they should look in the end, and most of the steps along the way. When it comes to color and fabric, sometimes funny things can happen. When you put different fabrics together, many times the colors can change. Not only can they create all new colors by being combined, they can also completely change color! Sometimes the light can make them reflect differently, and distance also plays a part. I like to put my fabrics together and take lots of photos to see just how they will look once I start the construction process. Sometimes I start with pinning them, sometimes I actually sew to check out the hang factor as well. Here are some of the photos I’ve taken for this dancing skirt. They are mostly to check color and hang.

These first two photos are all about color. The gold in each of these fabrics is slightly different, the shine is also slightly different. I really needed to see how it would look, and I am really happy with the final result. I think the pictures both with and without the flash give a nice idea of how well they are blending. There is a nice sparkle which will look great under the lights, but not so much that it will distract.

This is a gold plisse fabric that the dancer specifically requested. This is a view from the backside of the front just after I have pleated that section. The lengths are not correct yet. That will come soon. I am working out how each will function with the other….what is light, what is heavy, what will pull, and how much room there will be for kicking. It’s coming along!

These are the top layer of fabrics. Since the lengths are not accurate it does look like the gold and black mesh is really weighting the other layers down…but once that one is cut to it’s proper length I think it will have a nice shape. The colors look nice and that is right what I was hoping for. The bottom and longest layer will be black and that should tie this all together very nicely!

Keep checking back, there is lots more to come.