'Holes' Top

This design is inspired by the book Holes by Louis Sachar. It's a very clever book, and is a really enjoyable read, which is quite surprising when most of the book is about digging holes.

Because of this, I've used a spade motif across one side of the top. The top is intended to be fastened where the green panel joins the orange and blue panels. Snaps would be used under each of the spade shapes to fasten the top. The other part of the top is split into an orange panel, and a blue panel, with a lizard appliqued in yellow, imitating the book's cover. The edges of the top, around the neck, arms and hem are bound in the same colour yellow as the lizard and the spades.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by Literature' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Devon Moths' Waistcoat

I can't make up my mind about this design, I'm not sure whether I like it or not. I've walked away from the computer and come back to it a few times to try and see if I can decide, but I still can't, so in the end I decided to post it anyway, because I haven't got another design that I can post instead this week.

The inspiration behind it is from a leaflet I got a little while back for 'Devon Moths.' Small, very detailed sculptures of moths, made from fallen trees. They were such an unusual idea that they really caught my eye and so I decided to do a design based around them.

This design uses the colours of one of the moths and also loosely uses the moth's shape in the shapes of the coloured areas on the waistcoat. The waistcoat has a black collar and is fastened with a row of black covered buttons. There is embroidery in a rust colour, following the shapes of the orange areas.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by Art' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Waistcoat Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Seashell' Summer Dress

Perhaps a slightly melodramatic design, but I've been wanting to design a dress that uses a seashell shape for a while now, and as it's summer, it seemed appropriate.

The dress itself is fairly plain, there are very subtle colour changes on the seashell ruffle, but there is no embellishment and the ruffles are the only decorative element. There is one ruffle on the front making the seashell shape, which then forms the skirt. This joins with an identical ruffle on the back. The dress would fasten at the side using an invisible zip.

The whole dress is intended to be made out of cotton and there would be a cotton underskirt, as to create the seashell shape, the skirt edges come up very high. The underskirt would reach to a few inches above the lowest point of the dress.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by Nature' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Dress Design and Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Roman Wing' Top

This post is late because I've only just finished the design. I've been procrastinating doing it all week, because I didn't have a clue what I was going to do. I'd run out of ideas and couldn't find anything to base my design on. After quite a while of looking for ideas I ended up on a BBC news article published yesterday about a piece from a roman statue that was found in Gloucester. The wing piece is thought to be from a statue to Victoria, the Roman Goddess of victory.

This design uses the wing shape as decoration on the top. The wing shapes are embroidered onto the top, the shapes are backed with a slightly heavier fabric so that they retain their shapes. The fabric of the top is loosely gathered at the edge of the wing shapes and also at the cuffs. The cuffs are made in the same way as the wing shapes are, and are embroidered in the same colour. A small button would be used on each of the cuffs so that they can be loosened. The top fastens by two buttons at the back of the top, because the way that the wing shapes overlap would make it impractical to fasten at the front.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by History' project. For more designs check back here next week or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs