FO: Dress

Dima · September 22, 2012, 1:50pm

Hi there, I found this site and thought I’d like to share some of the stuff that my mother has made. This is only one of the dresses and I’d like to see what you guys think of it.

If you guys have any questions, I’ll reply ASAP.

This is a preview image.

HD photos, click the links since the images are too big.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83133641/Dress/DSC00302_1.jpg
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83133641/Dress/DSC00306_1.jpg
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https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83133641/Dress/DSC00331_1.jpg
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Antares · September 22, 2012, 2:37pm

Absolutely amazingly gorgeous! A dress fit for a queen.

I love all the Irish crochet, and even the pearls look nice even though I’m not one for “crudding” up a dress (no offense meant to you or your mom–[I]crud[/I] is what I call all the pearls and sparklies on a dress; it’s my catch-all code word for the bling long before [I]bling[/I] was a word)!

So who is this dress for? And you say, this is ONE of them–so there are more?

Thanks for sharing!

justplaincharlotte · September 22, 2012, 2:52pm

Stunningly beautiful! The Irish Crochet motifs are meticulously worked - your Mom is quite the artisan!

Do you know if she threaded the pearls onto her crochet thread to crochet them in, or if she sewed them on? Either way it’s an amazing labor of love…

GrumpyGramma · September 22, 2012, 3:12pm

Amazing! :notworthy:

Wanda_Witch · September 22, 2012, 3:25pm

WOW! Amazing work. Did she also make the fabric part of the dress too? I used to be an excellent seamstress but never got into embroidery or beading work. Beautiful dress.

Dima · September 22, 2012, 6:24pm

Thank you very much. She was going for the 18th century look and it really does look like it, and yes there are a few more, I’ll post them up a little bit later. She also currently wants to showcase them somewhere, but no clue where.

Thanks. She sewed them later on after all the parts were done.

She did everything what you see in the photos, including all the fabrics.

I’ll post more pictures of the other ones she has made, stay tuned!

RochesterKnitter · September 23, 2012, 4:10am

First of all, let me say this dress is gorgeous. The time involved to make even one of these dresses, much less multiples of them is amazing.

Some suggestions:

Enter them into your local county’s or state’s fair competitions.
Contact local museums (historical, town, fiber arts, arts and crafts) which may be interested in displaying such items (and/or its citizens who make them). Even if they don’t have a current exhibit thay may want them for a display later, or may even get inspired to make an exhibit just for them.
Contact local stores (Bridal shops, knitting/crochet, sewing, crafts) which may be willing to display the items for awhile.
Contact the local craft/artisans guild. They may be able to provide a list of festivals, galleries and other places that would be interested in displaying such work (temporarily or permanently). They might also provide advice on insuring the items, should they be lost or damaged while on display somewhere.

Good luck.

salmonmac · September 23, 2012, 4:22am

Exquisite! Your mom’s work is breath-takingly beautiful. It was wonderful to open one picture after another. Thank you so much for posting each one.

Dima · September 23, 2012, 10:07am

RochesterKnitter:

First of all, let me say this dress is gorgeous. The time involved to make even one of these dresses, much less multiples of them is amazing.

Some suggestions:

Enter them into your local county’s or state fair’s competitions.

Contact local museums (historical, town, fiber arts, arts and crafts) which may be interested in displaying such items (and/or its citizens who make them). Even if they don’t have a current exhibit thay may want them for a display latter, or may even get inspired to make an exhibit just for them.

Contact local stores (Bridal shops, knitting/crochet, sewing, crafts) which may be willing to display the items for awhile.

Contact the local craft/artisans guild. They may be able to provide a list of festivals, galleries and other places that would be interested in displaying such work (temporarily or permanently). They might also provide advise on insuring the items, should they be lost or damaged while on display somewhere.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tips. I’ll look around at a local level and see what I can find.

Meanwhile, I’ll post all of the other ones she has made that have been photographed. There’s a lot of them, so I made them into sections.

moved the images to the first post

Hope you enjoyed them!

salmonmac · September 23, 2012, 12:26pm

Each one is more beautiful than the last. Those dresses make a gorgeous collection.

Olha · September 23, 2012, 8:05pm

Unbelievable. So beautiful and labour intensive. Are they for sale? I just wonder whether they were made as an artistic expression or with some commercial or practical purpose?

SandsLVT · September 24, 2012, 6:10am

Holy moly, those are beautiful! Your mom is very talented.

Antares · September 24, 2012, 9:36am

These are all just amazing. They definitely belong in a museum somewhere.

This reminds me of some of the intricate work you see in patterns from the early 1900s. You can see lots of these in the online Antique Pattern Library (http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/). You have to sort through their patterns to find the ones that are specifically for crochet (they also cover tatting, knitting, cross stitch, embroidery, and other types of antique crafts), but there are lots of crochet patterns–and some really gorgeous Irish crochet motifs that you and your mom might enjoy looking at.

Thanks so much for sharing all these pictures. It was so much fun to click through each of these and see what masterpiece your mom had created!

Dima · September 24, 2012, 7:02pm

She does indeed want to sell them somewhere, that’s always a plus.

Also, thank you for all the compliments. She really appreciates it.

JLonier · September 24, 2012, 7:04pm

Just breathtaking! Makes me tear up. I wish I could make something like that for my niece to wear on her wedding day someday. I have two boys so she’s the only one I have to make a veil or train for.

insanenewknitter · September 24, 2012, 7:34pm

Oh, my. Looks very similar to some of the dresses I’ve seen in museums. Beautiful work, completely takes my breath away.
I be scared to wear something so elegant.

ETA: I just realized you posted more pics.
Can someone please pinch me, or drop an anvil on my head, or throw me off a cliff or something? I am in utter amazement and awe.
:thud:

Wanda_Witch · September 25, 2012, 7:11am

These are truly works of art, each one so unique. Your mother is an artist.

ArtLady1981 · September 28, 2012, 5:46am

I’m assuming all the photos are different views of the same dress, yes?

This dress is phenomenal. It looks like a $10,000 ‘vintage’ wedding gown! Breath taking!

The detail work looks like tatting, is that correct?

Antares · September 28, 2012, 5:50am

ArtLady: Yes, the first link is a picture of the entire dress (from that picture, you can then click anywhere on the dress and get a close-up view).

[B]If you scroll down, though, you will see links to lots more dresses.[/B] And, again, the first link for all of these takes you to a picture of the entire dress.

I didn’t see any tatting. It looked like it’s all crocheted to me, but I could be wrong!

ArtLady1981 · September 28, 2012, 6:56am

Well, it’s been my understanding that tatting is a form of crochet, usually done with teensy crochet hooks. But I could be wrong.

Yeah, I clicked on ALL the links! Twice over. My eyes were bugging outa my head!

I’ve never seen anything lovelier!