American Gothic

This dress had been several years in the making. I designed the print late in the summer of 2012 after I returned from my studies and travels abroad. I used photos of the stained glass from the cathedral in Avallon France, bits from photos I took of floral oil paintings in the National Gallery in London and the Louvre in Paris. I layered individual flowers and spent hours playing with the colors and contrasts. The resulting image was then mirrored and printed onto cotton sateen from Spoonflower. I made a pencil skirt for my senior collection and then lovingly folded the rest of the fabric away for a rainy day.

Well I finally pulled out the fabric, determined to make a dress out of what I had left. This normally easy task was made difficult by my desire to match/mirror the design on both the front and back of the dress. The yardage I had leftover was an odd shape from being cut into for the skirt, and there was even a spot right in the middle where I had cut out one of the skirt backs in the center of the fabric. The skirt I'd originally made for my senior collection had the design perfectly mirrored and symmetrical and just how I wanted the flowers to be placed, this dress on the other hand required a lot of puzzling out where to place my pattern pieces! I also wanted to have some sort of control over where the flowers would fall as I didn't want anything to look awkward in the end (large flowers centered on the bust for example could have come out looking quite odd). Though it took me two hours to figure out how to cut everything out, I think in the end it was time well spent as I love the resulting dress!

It felt so wonderful to finally wear the print I had designed! The clothes from my senior collection (I spoke about said collection here and here) were sized for models (size 2/4) and therefore I have never been able to even try them on. Now I finally have something out of this fun print I can wear myself!

These photos were taken near Glen Eyrie castle in Colorado Springs. Sadly they are a very stingy place and don't even allow visitors to walk around the castle unless you have reserved a spot on one of their tours. Seeing as they don't even let people wander around, I was quite worried they would be swiftly kicking me out for getting photos near their little on-sight souvenir shop, but luckily I somehow avoided notice. So much for exploring! There is nothing I detest more than a monument/building/museum that doesn't allow photos! It looks like I'll be sticking with my more local castle-like location as at least they allow photos outside. Much more blogger friendly :)

I still dream of visiting real castle again someday (dreaming of England always). For any of you reading who happen to live in England or Europe, be thankful for your castles and history! I am jealous indeed.

Dress: Made by me
Shoes: Modcloth
Necklace and Earrings: Made by me
Bracelet: Vintage