Decorating Princess Colour's Bodice

When it came time to decorate the bodice I can admit I was lost. I really felt like this is where I want a designer to help me decide what to do. The illustration is both clear and un-clear on how the bodice should look. It is very clear that it has pink decoration on the front and a rounded neckline with some kind of black decoration. It also vaguely shows that it is layered with multiple colours evoking more of the grey and brownish tones of the skirt.

Gibb, S. and Jones, U. (2009). The Princess Who Had No Kingdom. London: Orchard Books.

I thought that mixing the fabrics for the bodice would help the layered look come together, but once I started draping I can see that it might make it more difficult. This was my first attempt at just doing some basic draping:

 It is clear that the rouched fabric doesn't really work. It is too dense and not light enough. I also don't think it evokes enough colour and texture. In talks with my tutor she also agreed it wasn't really working and suggested that I focus on the skirt a little more and then let that inform my bodice decoration.

After I've been working and developing the skirt I was ready to give it another go. I thought that it would be clever to use scraps from all the fabrics on the skirt and piece together a bodice covering from those scraps. I thought that this would really bring everything together. I did stitch together a little sample but it looked awful, it was clear that not all the fabrics looked right over the fabrics of the bodice and that they didn't go well enough together. And the machine stitching was too heavy and visible. I scrapped that idea without a second thought. Instead I began to piece on scraps with the bodice on the stand, being a little more careful about what fabrics I used and where the went. I thought that maybe I could just hand-sew them on which would eliminate the heavy machine stitching. I was undecided about this technique and decided I needed to try something else to compare it to. I've realised throughout this project that I like uniform things, I like having a pattern to follow or at least a system. So instead of piecing things on randomly I decided to play to my strengths and creating a pattern type system. I chose three fabrics that I really felt looked good over the bodice base and cut them into 2 inch strips using my pinking shears and then layered them on in a diagonal across the bodice. Here are the two techniques side by side:

I think it is extremely clear which one is better. The strips on the right are more uniform and more purposeful. They show off the under fabric a lot better than just the random pieces. I shouldn't have worried about using every single fabric that was on the skirt; there is going to be plenty of other decoration on the bodice that will certainly help tie everything together. By having just the three essential fabrics it tones it down without looking too busy. I also think this will be easier to attach. I can do straight lines of prick-stitches instead of having to go around different size pieces.