'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

'Wheat' Shorts

I realised that I'd never posted a design for a pair of shorts on this blog, so I decided to design these shorts, after having found a picture of wheat from the internet.

These shorts are intended to be made out of a light blue cotton, with the wheat motifs embroidered across the legs of the shorts. Decorative lines of stitches in the wheat colour and in a darker blue are used around the pockets, and around the edges of the blue material. The shorts have a brown elasticated waistband (the two buttons on the front are only decorative) and matching brown cuffs.

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 

Shorts 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

'Ripples' Suit

I designed this only a few days ago. There'd been a lot of rain and I ended up in the middle of a very large puddle getting extremely wet, which was actually surprisingly good fun (though I was with my sister, who is very good at making just about anything fun.) Which is how I ended up choosing to design this suit based on ripples.

Detail of embroidery on the collar

The suit is a blue grey colour. The suit jacket has a wide collar, in a deeper colour, embroidered in ripple patterns with creamy-white thread. The jacket reaches to just below the hips and the edges of the jacket are embroidered with ripple patterns. The sleeves have several lines of stitching down them for decoration.

Detail of embroidery on the suit jacket

The skirt is a slightly flared A-line shape and reaches to the knees. It is the same blue grey as the main part of the jacket, and has darker embroidered lines down it. It has the same ripple design as the jacket embroidered along the hem.

Detail of embroidery on the skirt

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 

Suit Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Willow' Skirt

I realised recently that I'd never posted a design for a skirt, so here is a design I created last week for a skirt inspired by willow leaves. As it's spring and the leaves are all beginning to appear on the trees they seemed a good subject for a design, and I particularly like willow trees.

Detail of skirt embroidery

The skirt has a slight A-line shape, reaches to a little below the knee and is intended to be made of a fairly lightweight suede material. It has an embroidered belt panel and would fasten at the side of the skirt with a zip, though alternately it could use an elasticated panel at the back for a simpler fastening, as skirt zips can often catch in the lining and get stuck. The skirt is embroidered with downward facing willow leaves to create the shapes of hanging willow branches. The embroidery follows the loose gathers in the skirt.

 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 other blog, Bronzedale Bridal Designs at www.bronzedalebridaldesigns.blogspot.co.uk/

Skirt Design and Images © Bronzedale Designs

'Dew on Spider's Web' Poncho

I think dew on spider's webs is a case of finding the extraordinary within the ordinary. There is something absolutely stunning about them, they look like strings of beads or jewels on wires. I had made a long, long list of different things to inspire my next piece for my 'Designs inspired by Nature' project, but dew on spider's webs really stuck with me, this is the result.

The poncho is dark blue and is intended to be made from wool. I thought about creating a poncho out of a satiny material to be worn over evening wear, but in the end decided for this slightly more practical and conventional wool one. The decoration on it mimics the dewdrops on the spider's web. On this design they are intended to be embroidered on in white, though if I was creating the evening wear poncho I think I would have chosen to embroider the dew drops on in silver thread instead. The dew drops that I have drawn on this design are a little bigger and clumsier than I would like, but it wasn't until I had finished the design and zoomed out that I decided they would look better smaller. It's something for me to bear in mind when doing future designs, to zoom out and check how something looks overall as well as just looking at the details.

I hope you liked this design, it is part of my 'Designs inspired by Nature' project. For more designs, check back here next week.

Poncho image and design © Bronzedale Designs

'Black Tulip' Nightdress

It's nearly spring, so I thought that this design was appropriate. It's based on a black tulip, a flower that always looks stunning. I've never seen one that is actually a true black colour, they're always amazing shades of deep maroon or purple (hence the colour of this nightdress.) The particular variety that inspired this design was Queen of Night. I've grown it before and it never fails to disappoint, always looking incredibly striking, even in my straggly garden.

This design is intended to be worn as a nightdress. The top half particularly, mimics the shape of the tulip, but is also loose enough that it should be comfortable to wear as sleep and loungewear. The dress would use elastic to pull it in at the waist and along the top of the bodice to help keep it in place. This should also make it easy enough to put it on and take it off, as you don't want to fiddle about with fastenings when you're still half asleep in the morning.

The skirt of the nightdress is asymmetric, with one side longer than the other, slight poetic license as the tulip that it's inspired by is quite neat and precise, not one of those wild lopsided ones. The skirt wouldn't have to be asymmetric though, as I know a lot of people who aren't fond of uneven hemlines.

I hope you liked this design. It is part of my 'Clothing Designs Inspired by Nature' project. For more designs check back here soon.

Nightdress image and design © Bronzedale Designs