Remodelling my Wedding Dress

Upon my return from the Woodford Folk festival I was feeling very ready to let go of a lot of “things”. I had been contemplating my beautiful wedding dress for over 12 months. Should I sell it? No I wouldn’t really get that much for it and it is too pretty just to throw away, but seriously I’ll never wear it again. Should I dye it? Oh but what if I wreck it?

Earlier this year photographer friend, Nicky Jackson, wanted to do a “trash it” photo shoot of someone in a wedding gown… hmm wet and dirty in a $1200 wedding dress. This was the first step in “letting go of the preciousness” as Nic Hohn would say… So I went to the beach, sat in the water, sand, mud and rocks and had an absolute ball. I felt very liberated, not to mention incredibly beautiful and fulfilled. Note: I was married in 1999 and divorced in 2002, so it really is time to let go.

Decision…. To cut it short and dye it… um purple, yeah that sounds good, purple! So I got out the tape measure and cut 25 inches off of all three layers of the skirt and used the overlocker to create a rolled hem. Nice… but it was still white, so I grabbed the biggest saucepan I could find filled it with water and added the iDye Poly (violet) and boiled it for an hour… stirring and praying that it wouldn’t wreck the boning or melt any of the fabric…

I washed it out and to my delight… it looked awesome. I was particularly interested in the brocade fabric of the bodice. The embrodiary was originally the same colour as the satin background and it was edged with a gold tread and I was concerened that it wouldn't stand out. As you can see from the picture I was way off... I am going to asume that the embroidery was 100% cotton thread and the rest of the dress was made from non-natural materials as the dye I used states to use a differt type for natural fabrics... that being said I am very pleased with the results and am looking forward to having a "special occasion" to wear it to.

But not seeing a "special occasion" in the near future I decided just to test it out at the local pub... I felt amazing and got many compliments... overall a very worthwhile project and one that I am very proud of!

I am also impressed that after 10 years and 3 children, it actually fits me better now than it did when I got married.

Three Lots of Three

While I was at the Woodford Folk Festival I had the pleasure of attending a Multi-layered Images workshop with Sara Rumsey. The emphasis of the workshop was on drypoint etching and some relief printing techniques.
We etched our designs into heavy cardboard, inked them and ran them through a press. I was very pleased with how my flowers came out but I think that my three beautiful children were with me in spirit.

Woodford Folk Festival

I have just returned from The Woodford Folk Festival...and I truely feel like a new person. What an amazing and life changing experience it was.

I have been to the Festival twice, have enjoyed it each time but then I had someone to hide behind. This time I attended the festival ALONE...this is the first time I have ever attempted to do anything ALONE. So it was not an easy decision to make but one I am so glad that I made.

Being alone in a crowd of thousands was an interesting experience...

Angie Heart with guest Taasha Coates from The Audreys

Toni Childs singing "You are Beautiful"

The Children's Festival area was decorated with massive flowers...

Closing Ceremony Light Show

The Sun rising on 2010.... beautiful way to start the year

Merry and Christmas

To Celebrate the festive season... and just cause it was a great reason to get the machine out and stir up the creative sewing fire, Sarah and I decided to make costumes to wear out to the pub.

We were santa's helpers...Merry and Christmas...Puffy white shirts, red and green satin and lots of tulle later we were very impressed with the results... and so it seemed was everyone at the pub!

I am finding sewing a very rewarding past time... I love the feeling I get when I look in my cupboard and see the things I have created... it is very rewarding for my spirit.

Future Goal: I would really love to learn to draft my own patterns... then there'll be no stopping me!

Mad Hatter

My cousin Shannon has been invited to a party and asked me to help her make a mad hatters hat... so we got out my stash of material and picked through it to find all the materials she liked. Using some wadding I had left over from a patchwork quilt as a base we started to sew. Shannon cut out the patches and I sewed them on one by on with no forward planning....
Turned out so well, I made a bow tie to go with it... she was really happy and excited to be able to wear it to the party.

Dusting of the Machine….

I haven’t touched my sewing machine since early June last, when we made our costumes for Maryborough's Worlds Greatest Australian Pub Crawl 2009.

2009 Worlds Greatest Pub Crawl- Maryborough 

Going with the flow of the creative journey I’m on, I decided that Halloween was the perfect excuse to dust of my machine and get back into another of the creative activities that I enjoy... sewing!

This costume was inspired by the ideas we have had for next years pub crawl. I purchased the corset about 6 weeks ago, just cause I loved it and I could. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to wear it since then. So I had the top, I just needed a skirt!

I made the skirt out of satin and tulle. Well actually if you want to get technical it’s a pair of shorts with a 3 layer tulle skirt over top...

I was very impressed with how it turned out. The pattern I used for the shorts, I just left out the zip and pockets. Then of course…I added 3 gathered layers of tulle and put on an elastic waist band.

I quickly whipped up the tail, which is made out of 2 layers of material with some wadding in between, overlocked in the shape of an arrow. I tacked it on to the back of the shorts (so I can use the skirt for other purposes), got some horns which I painted pink to match and there you have it...… A sexy Devils costume.

My Devils Tail

I got a great response for this costume!

My Creative Foot Print

At the moment my life is all about trying new things and creating my own path forward. I have had a great start on my creative journey and attending my second creative journaling workshop with Nic Hohn has kept me looking forward and has allowed me to let go of “ideas” that I have held on to for a really long time. leading to my beginning to feel like I deserve to have every thing I could wish for...

Learning new techniques and renewing my love for all things messy was wonderful, I got to paint my own feet and throw paint covered sponges at my journal pages. I just want more, so I am saying welcome back to the CREATIVE KATE.

This is my Splat girl... I think she’s telling me something I already know and she know it! I deserve...

My Splat Girl