'Carriage' Top

Inspired by a picture of a Victorian carriage, this could be worn as either a long top or a short dress. It is made up of black and white panels, fitted together to form the shape of the carriage when the wearer's arms are down by their sides. The top has wide, three quarter-length sleeves, and the wheel shapes are appliqued onto them. White ribbon is used to outline some of the panels, such as the rectangles that make up the carriage windows, and around the edge of the neckline and the sleeves. The top reaches to the upper thigh.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs Inspired by History' project. For more designs check back here on the 1st of November or visit my special-occasion-wear blog at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk 

Top Design and Image © Bronzedale Designs

'Nothing Gold Can Stay' Lingerie

This design is inspired by the poem 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' by Robert Frost, which I came across after hearing the beautiful song Stay Gold by First Aid Kit. It is a design I've had on my to do list for quite a while, so I was pleased to be able to get it done.

The bra and briefs are both pale green. The briefs are edged with gold, and the bra straps are also gold. Both the bra and the briefs feature leaves and tendrils as decoration. These could either be embroidered or printed on.

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 

Lingerie Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Rossetti' Trousers

I've had the picture that I've used for this, sat in my OneNote notebook for a while now, not knowing what I wanted to use it for. The picture is an ink drawing that I found on the Tate Gallery's website. It is by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and is titled Taurello's First Sight of Fortune.

The picture has five subjects (and the dog) but for this pair of trousers I have cut out three of the subjects, partly because they wouldn't have fit on the trousers and partly because that would have been a lot more sketching. So, the trousers only feature Taurello and the lady removing her glove. I have done my best to copy their faces accurately, but as I am not Rossetti, the faces are far from a perfect replica. The landscape behind is also not copied very faithfully, and is more or less completely invented in places to fill out the space.

For the picture I've drawn on the trousers I used Microsoft's FreshPaint programme because it gave more of a hand drawn feel than Serif Drawplus, the programme I normally use.

The trousers themselves are wide-legged and made of a parchment coloured linen. The image would be printed on them. The trousers would fasten by a zip at the side. The belt panel of the trousers has a bow and arrow motif embroidered on it, taken from the bow and arrow in the original picture.

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 

Trousers Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Wren' Dress

This is a design that has taken me quite a while to perfect. I knew I wanted to use a wren motif on it, but found it really difficult to draw something that looked nice and suited the dress style I wanted to use. In the end I came up with this repeated motif pattern going down each of the side panels of the dress. There is also embroidery around the sleeves, neckline and waist of the dress. All of the embroidery is in white. The dress has short sleeves and a knee-length skirt.

Embroidery on the dress

Wren motif used on 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 Images © Bronzedale Designs