Dress design for Shabby Apple dresses

Another design for the Shabby Apple dress design contest...

I thought I would design a black and white dress - (I'm calling Diana). A black and white dress is now almost as important to a modern wardrobe as the classic LBD, so I couldn't help but add one into the mix.
Specifications for the Diana:

• The neckline/shawl piece of the dress would be a white cotton cady
• The body of the dress would be a black cotton cady
• My inspiration for this dress was remembering designs I used to love when I was a little girl (we're talking 6 years old). For some reason, as a 6-year old I was enthralled with dresses with shawl-like collars. I wanted to re-work the look into something modern, and the Diana dress was what I came up with.

Here is a dress that I really am not entering, as it isn't a dress that would appeal to many women, but thought it would be a fun party dress for a preteen - the Amy dress:

Specifications for the Amy dress:

• The skirt would be layers of icy pink, peach, and cream tulle
• The waist would be a pale pink satin - like from a ballet slipper. In the back it would be tied into a sash
• The shoulder fabric that is tucked into the satin bodice would be the same layers of tulle from the skirt
• The inset of lace at the neckline would be an off-white/cream color
• My inspiration is from my childhood neighbor friend, Amy. When Amy and I were little girls we would dream of being ballerinas one day. We both moved away when we were about 8 years old, and just recently found each other on Facebook. Much to my surprise, I found out that Amy really had become a ballerina! This dress is in honor of her.

Dress design for Shabby Apple dresses

I have been putting off announcing the Dare to Design Shabby Apple contest until I could produce a design of my own, that is until I found out that every contestant is not limited to submitting just one dress! Now that the pressure is off to design just one amazing dress, I am feeling free to announce the contest to all my competitors along with the first three designs I've created.

So here is the announcement:

How exciting is that??? I'm stoked, but I REALLY want to win. In fact, I want to win so much that I really am hoping none of you enter! LOL! Just kidding!

So on to my first design, which I'm calling the "Matilda Dress":

Specifications for the Matilda:

• I picture this dress in a variety of spring colors such as cherry red, salmon pink, candy apple green, and cream
• The fabric should be a soft jersey with the draping on top to be the same fabric you would see in a Herve Leger bandage dress
• I don't have a picture of the back of the dress (will get to that soon), but I'd like the "bandage" work to mirror the front, but flip flopped...in other words, the bandage look would continue around the dress
• My inspiration was from watching old 1940's and 1950's movies. I wanted to combine a vintage look with something modern - (modern being the bandage look Herve Leger created)

My second submission will be called the Florence:

Specifications of the Florence dress:

• This dress should be made with a gauzy feeling silk or a light chiffon
• I want it to be a print - something watercolor in either light pastels or neutrals
• I want the belt to be a cognac colored leather belt
• My inspiration for this dress was the spring wind. I wanted to create something with movement. The dress flows with the wind, but is then anchored by a stiff hard belt - just like the wind in spring usually carries with it some leftover stiff hard winter

My third submission for the day I will call the Charlie dress:

The specifications for the Charlie dress are:

• The material should be an opaque, heavy silk
• The colors should be either a geometric print in yellow and gray or be a bright pink (a very trendy color this year)
• The line at the hips is only a seam
• Since it is a scoop neck, I don't want any zippers on the dress
• My design inspiration was from a Project Runway episode. I was inspired by all the new modern lines the contestant designers were using for their dresses and wanted to incorporate a new, modern seam into a design of my own

So that's it for now. I'll hopefully get some more designs up later!

Good luck on designing your own dress!