Challenge 3 - Silkstone Barbie



  The Little Black Dress plus one challenge

I had a fairly good idea of the sort of outfit I wanted to create for this challenge but I started with fear and trepidation of working with this tiny doll. I needed to reduce the size of my fingers and my sewing machine :-)


Silk dupion was my fabric choice with satin trim on the dress straps and the jacket and lime green for the trim. At least it didn't take too much fabric so I had plenty when it was time to remake the jacket because my sewing was less than perfect. :-(

As I progressed into the challenge I found I was quite enjoying the way the silhouette was progressing. She has an excellent shape for dressing, no lumps and bumps and her curves are in all the right places :-)

I lined the dress in white which I would not normally do but because of staining issues I thought this was a better option.










The dress came together quite smoothly compared to the jacket, which was incredibly fiddly to do. The tiny sleeves had to overlap at the shoulder in a scallop and be set into the satin running round the arm. After a few attempts at this I was happy with the result. I like to play with jewellery along the way and as you can see from the working pictures this changed with the final outfit.
Overall I enjoyed this challenge when the fear of this size doll subsided and I realized she was a great model for any designer.

My notes are below with my reasoning behind the design and my photos of the finished outfit.


 

 



                                                                                                   



 





   Here are some of the details





I have made my notes in point form for this challenge


  • I wanted a body hugging silhouette for this outfit that was obvious from all angles
  • I used a crop jacket so that the silhouette was still intact when it was worn
  • I made the jacket off the shoulder to leave the elegance of the bare shoulders unaltered
  • I decided on no headwear to make the outfit more contemporary
  • Leaf green was used as the secondary color because I wanted a more unusual contrast color but still bold
  • The satin and beaded trim was used to give the outfit texture without complicating the design and structure
  • I used the contrast in the lining of the jacket to add glimpses of colour with movement - not a static contrast
  • The main contrast used is contained in the accessories and shoes with the jewellery in a more transluscent shade to avoid an overwhelming effect on the outfit as a whole

There you have it. My Little Black Dress Plus One. Here are the pictures
Judith