Fashion Studio Part 1

Inspiration

Lilly has been occupied on and off this summer drawing fashion designs in a few different design studio coloring books. On our shelf we also have a couple books with instructions for making paper dresses. Lilly has been very interested in these books, so we decided to try our hand at making our own paper dress.

Cardboard Mannequin

To make things easier I decided to build a mannequin to assemble to dress on. First I traced a general outline of Lilly’s body onto a large piece of cardboard and cut it out. Then I made wings for the front and back which I attached with cardboard brackets and screws (hot glue would also work well). We then taped the mannequin shape onto some PVC pipe which was secured into a couple cardboard boxes, we covered these in tissue paper for a studio effect. We tried out using a plastic bag filled with packing peanuts to give the mannequin a complete 3D feel, but weren’t complete happy with this results. Instead we tried wrapping thick yarn around the mannequin with a satisfying result. Here is our version of a cardboard mannequin.

Paper Dress

With our mannequin complete, we undertook to create our first paper dress. Lilly cut out a bodice design traced from one of our books and I helped her glue glittery tissue paper over the regular paper. To make the dress capable of being taken on and off, instead of taping the back together we used magnets along the back like a zipper. Lilly picked out a light green tissue paper to create the sleeves and cut slits down each square piece. Some gathering of each end, then taping in place created beautiful puffed sleeves. Then Lilly picked out blue and red tissue paper to create an accent around the neck line. She had fun trying out making cuts and holes as details on this accent piece. Last, a rainbow skirt was added by taping strips of colorful tissue paper all along the bottom of the bodice.

And so Lilly’s Fashion Studio has its first masterpiece. Hopefully more to follow.