Saturday, August 08, 2015

Painting-Inspired Sewing



Painting: Off, by Edmund B. Leighton


A few years ago I gathered some paintings of the 1800's depicting ladies in pretty styles and posted them along with the dresses I made to match them.  I liked this one by Edmund B. Leighton.  Since I have been trying my hand at water color paintings of my own sewing and clothing designs, I have been interested in how Edmind Leighton was able to so intricately paint the little floral print on this dress.  I saw a fabric like this a few weeks ago and kept going back to look at it.  My thought was "I have seen this somewhere and I want this fabric but I cannot remember why I wanted it."  Now I see the painting again and I know what I was looking for.  I did make a facsimile of the dress in Keepsake Calico with a similar print but I like the stripe pattern on the Leighton.

It is Saturday and as I am all prepared for Sunday, I am enjoying the last few hours of the day. I was able to get some fabric called "Bed and Breakfast Floral."  If you see it at Joann.com it looks more orange, but in the light the flowers are a shell pink.  I will show the completed project in a future post.

2 comments:

Dawn said...

Very pretty fabric. I tend to really like the fabrics you choose for your dresses anyway. You've been quite the inspiration for my wanting to learn to sew my own dresses. I've made a couple of skirts in the past, basically tubes of fabric with elastic for the waist. Maybe I'll start off by sewing some tops. I imagine smaller pieces of fabric would be easier to work with.

I won't be even able to start till later in September. I've had a long-term guest for the past several months and just as that is ending, I will have another guest in two weeks who will stay for about a month. And all my sewing supplies and equipment are in the guest room.

Long story short, I want you to know that you sharing your gifts through this blog is greatly appreciated.

Anonymous said...

Edmund Leighton's painting is amazing. It looks like a photo. Such talent and skill. It is the painters who have been able to capture the true beauty of women and life from those times. Black and white photos just don't do them justice.

In my younger years, I was trapped in the habit of wearing "fashionable" black, and blue jeans or black pants. It had become a uniform. Slowly, I introduced colourful tops into my wardrobe. Then one year ago I got rid of my jeans and pants, and now I only dress in skirts and dresses. It is such a pleasure to get dressed in the mornings. The variety of materials, designs, patterns and styles are a true joy. And a daily celebration of being a woman.

I really like the material you have bought, and I look forward to seeing the new dress you'll be making soon.