Patchwork denim maxi corset cocktail dress. The concept behind this dress was to utilize all of my remnant pieces of denim I saved. Normally these scrap pieces would be discarded and end up in a landfill. I put all of mine into bags and save them; organizing them by color. Eventually that ends up taking up a lot of space in my studio. I figured, I could create my own textile using these small cuts of denim. I also didn’t wanted to make something using a pattern. I wanted the piece to tell me what it wanted to be as I was working on it. It was a win win for me. I got to to declutter my space using all the material in my studio and keep it out of the landfill. The dress can accomodate for a number of different women’s body types, up to a certain range. Overall I would say that the dress is a size small.

The entire back is comprised of 60 grommets. Laced up with a bright orange cord 12’ long. The cord matches the neon orange stitching. There were many different colored threads used for this project. I used burnt orange, neon orange, pale yellow and then finally a Renaissance gold.

The process of sewing was quite interesting. Slowly building up the layers of denim. Fusing them together with different spools of thread. During the sewing process the different types of denim fabric stretch and pull. causing the textile that I am creating to warp and twist. Some of the denim is thick and rigid. While other types are thin and stretchy. Competing and fighting against each other. This causes great tension on my machine. Which in turn needs constant maintenance. So in a way I am slowly destroying my machine lol. The textile needs great care. Constantly ironing and flattening out the fabric. During the ironing process I push the surplus fabric together and cut off the excess. Then I come back to my machine and fuse the cut back together and blend it the seam with more fabric. It is quite a lengthy process but worth the effort.

Eventually the fabric got large enough I felt comfortable to start playing with it on the mannequin. The first draping around the mannequin felt perfect. I stuck with that position. I had to cut the excess from the back. Carefully lining up the center point of the mannequin. I had to sew part of the cut off pieces back onto the dress to give the dress enough of an extension to adequately match both sides of the bottom. I purposely left the bottom and top of the dress raw. I wanted to give the dress a more contemporary feel. Considering the approach to making the dress was pretty punk rock and in your face. All the exposed stitching and raw cuts of denim needed to have a matching hem.