Doily Dress Base is Finished

I love being old and creative at the same time. As an oldster I am more aware of my process. After I did my reading for the morning, still in my sweat pants and t-shirt from yesterday I wandered into the kitchen where my doily dress was sitting — the papier mâché seams that joined the skirt sections having dried overnight.

I looked at the bare bodice of the mannequin wondering how I was going to build a base. I had no plan. And out of nowhere came this idea to do it in papier mâché so I wrapped the bodice in saran wrap and built the shape I wanted. It worked perfectly.

Then I coated it in flat black tissue paper and, while it was drying, I started playing with the tissue. I crumpled it up into a ball and then unfurled it and patted it flat. I liked that texture but doubted it would sustain application to the base, so I crumpled it again and got an even better texture that I will dry mount onto the base.

After the crumpled black tissue is added, I’ll start adding the doilies but most of that work has to wait until the fancier doilies I ordered arrive.

I am really excited about how this dress is going to look. Each dress is such a challenge. I approach each one with doubts and questions and I get positively high from solving the problems and achieving my goals. That may be why I love doing this: the high of solving problems.