What you see here is about thirty-five hours of work. It is a dress for the character Vivicean Ferret in my play. Emily Carr pays me $60 to teach, so this dress, with another twenty hours of work remaining, will be "worth" $3,000 when it is done.
There is a bustle and four layers in the back, and six layers in the front. And all the pieces of all the layers are hemmed and the whole thing—every fucking stitch—is done by hand. (I have a sewing machine I just bought for this project, but so far I have not used it.) Tonight, I did the ruffles down one front panel of the dress, It took slightly over an hour for just that fringe.
The best design element: You can put this dress on in about 30 seconds. It is made for quick changes and I think this fact is its greatest success. The whole dress is built on two aprons: one for the back (the bustle) that ties in the front, and a second apron that goes on the front (and is everything you see in the photo) that ties in the back. Two velcro-bearing shoulder straps complete the harness that holds the costume in place. The sleeves are my next challenge, but with the sleeves and wig, the whole change will be able to be done in one minute or less.
Seriously, making this dress is an activity closer to "me at my best/happiest" than anything else I do.
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