My bedroom is a disaster. I have piles and piles of clothes I don't wear anymore and don't know what to do with because there is no more space in my closet. I'm sure many a girl, especially ones who like me do a lot of thrift shopping, understand what I mean exactly by disaster - don't you?
This didn't stop me however from doing a little inspiration hunting on eBay of course. I am looking for the perfect dress. I don't know what it is, but it's big and comfy and stylish and well, perfect. In my investigation I saw a patchwork dress.
In the 90s I like many of my peers dressed "grunge". I had multiple pairs of Doc Martens in an array of colours, lots of flannel shirts that I paired with distressed "air conditioned" jeans, and this one patchwork dress (it was from Express) that I adored. It had a patch with a shade of green that matched my 8 hole DMs. I wore it as often as I could until finally a few years later my boobs came in and the bodice was too tight.
I'm back to wearing DMs again. This is partly a fashion decision and partly because they're so damn comfy once you break them in.
TIP: Take them on vacation with you to Amsterdam and forget you put them on the terrace. When it rains that night, as it probably will, put them on not realising they are wet and be forced to wear them anyways because for once you swore you were not going to bring 11 pairs of shoes when you will only end up wearing 1. Then walk for hours in a city most people zip around on bicycles in. They were broken in before dinner.
Seeing patchwork dresses made me want one, but search as I might I couldn't find the one I wanted. The patchwork dress I bought at Express when my mother was stupid enough to give me her credit card to do my school shopping unaccompanied (we wore uniforms at my school). Problem is, if any ever made it to the year 2012 I can't seem to find it.
So I decided to make my own. Old clothes = lots of patch fabric possibilities. Plus I could stitch the patches directly on to an old dress I like the shape of, but for whatever reason don't wear anymore. I even went so far as to think if I couldn't find an old dress to stitch the patches on, I could make a patchwork ensemble. I almost like the idea better. I could do a blouse, jacket, and skirt. I love skirt suits.
Since it's 3 in the morning and I can't go digging through my bedroom, I wanted to get some inspiration. I drew a sketch for a dress and a sash and decided to scour the Internet to see what Patchwork Project 2012 should be inspired by.
I typed in patchwork runway and got lots of results to drool over.
Junky Styling
No mention of patchwork would be complete without mentioning a little about its history in fashion. Patchwork has been around in "modern fashion since the 50's (The technique of making clothes and using a patchwork style has been around a lot longer. Long enough to play a part in the traditional and national fashions of Austria, Germany, and a few other countries.) and primarily, like quilting, born of frugality. This was the era of the circle skirt and the poodle skirt, which were shortened loop skirts similar to the Southern Belle dresses worn in the Civil War era. The amount of fabric needed to make a circle skirt could be expensive, so some crafty women bought up smaller scraps of fabrics and stitched them together.
Here's a beautiful example on sale via Etsy:
It doesn't have a petticoat underneath it to show the volume of the skirt, but the thick pleats hint at how much fabric was used to make this dress, though it looks as if the fabric design itself is patchwork.
Despite making an appearance in 60s fashion, patchwork really had it's heyday in the 70s.
And I'll end this post here. Stayed tuned for The Patchwork Project Part II where I'll go through my clothes, sort them into ones I'll use, and be able to see my bedroom floor again.
This didn't stop me however from doing a little inspiration hunting on eBay of course. I am looking for the perfect dress. I don't know what it is, but it's big and comfy and stylish and well, perfect. In my investigation I saw a patchwork dress.
In the 90s I like many of my peers dressed "grunge". I had multiple pairs of Doc Martens in an array of colours, lots of flannel shirts that I paired with distressed "air conditioned" jeans, and this one patchwork dress (it was from Express) that I adored. It had a patch with a shade of green that matched my 8 hole DMs. I wore it as often as I could until finally a few years later my boobs came in and the bodice was too tight.
I'm back to wearing DMs again. This is partly a fashion decision and partly because they're so damn comfy once you break them in.
TIP: Take them on vacation with you to Amsterdam and forget you put them on the terrace. When it rains that night, as it probably will, put them on not realising they are wet and be forced to wear them anyways because for once you swore you were not going to bring 11 pairs of shoes when you will only end up wearing 1. Then walk for hours in a city most people zip around on bicycles in. They were broken in before dinner.
Seeing patchwork dresses made me want one, but search as I might I couldn't find the one I wanted. The patchwork dress I bought at Express when my mother was stupid enough to give me her credit card to do my school shopping unaccompanied (we wore uniforms at my school). Problem is, if any ever made it to the year 2012 I can't seem to find it.
So I decided to make my own. Old clothes = lots of patch fabric possibilities. Plus I could stitch the patches directly on to an old dress I like the shape of, but for whatever reason don't wear anymore. I even went so far as to think if I couldn't find an old dress to stitch the patches on, I could make a patchwork ensemble. I almost like the idea better. I could do a blouse, jacket, and skirt. I love skirt suits.
Since it's 3 in the morning and I can't go digging through my bedroom, I wanted to get some inspiration. I drew a sketch for a dress and a sash and decided to scour the Internet to see what Patchwork Project 2012 should be inspired by.
I typed in patchwork runway and got lots of results to drool over.
Louise Goldin, Balenciaga, Missoni, Kenzo
Basso and Brooke
Chloe
Missoni
Dries van Noten
James Andrew
(I like the left dress better. The right side dress is just boring.)
Basso and Brooke
Jenny Postle
Not sure who designed this dress, but I really like something about it's geometric-ness.
No mention of patchwork would be complete without mentioning a little about its history in fashion. Patchwork has been around in "modern fashion since the 50's (The technique of making clothes and using a patchwork style has been around a lot longer. Long enough to play a part in the traditional and national fashions of Austria, Germany, and a few other countries.) and primarily, like quilting, born of frugality. This was the era of the circle skirt and the poodle skirt, which were shortened loop skirts similar to the Southern Belle dresses worn in the Civil War era. The amount of fabric needed to make a circle skirt could be expensive, so some crafty women bought up smaller scraps of fabrics and stitched them together.
Here's a beautiful example on sale via Etsy:
It doesn't have a petticoat underneath it to show the volume of the skirt, but the thick pleats hint at how much fabric was used to make this dress, though it looks as if the fabric design itself is patchwork.
Despite making an appearance in 60s fashion, patchwork really had it's heyday in the 70s.
And I'll end this post here. Stayed tuned for The Patchwork Project Part II where I'll go through my clothes, sort them into ones I'll use, and be able to see my bedroom floor again.
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