July 2013
I’d several occasions this year requiring dresses and not enough budget to buy the few I actually liked – so I decided to make my own. I set a max Ebay bid on a few plain silk dresses of good makes that I knew fitted (mainly Monsoon) and refused to look until after each auction ended. I won 2 – both under £25 for dresses that had cost over £100 new, as each had a small stain that wouldn’t dry clean out.
As an experiment it seemed worth it!
I pinned the dress to a large cardboard box and began slowly outlining then silk-painting an abstract plant design with dandelions in my favourite colours. This took days and killed my bad wrist!
I was a bit annoyed that the intensity of the paints washed out even after fixing – I had to wash it to remove the clear gutta outliner.
But it still looked fab! Its first outing was to Nic & Petes’ wedding, my face body- painter & model combo.
I drove down to my mum’s in Bristol and Laurence collected me on Sat a.m. For the drive down to Falmouth. Traffic (and rain) was so slow we dashed into a supermarket toilet to change (I was fastest!) and made it to the sunning church on the cliff on time.
Without knowing it, Jennie, Helen and myself all matched the bridesmaids colours!
Fab shots by Anthony Greenwood
I didn’t hurl on the reception boat (yay all those years living on one in Hong Kong worked? Though I was queasy in dock). Amazing weekend and congrats to the very happy couple.
The dress I’m still loving – its done my brother in laws wedding and the Gogogorilla’s launch so far!
Body Painting by Cat 