One of the fairies who frequents my garden studio asked me to make her a pretty party dress.

I think both of our inner girlie-ness is what attracted her to my studio, in the first place.
Since she has admired the painting I created that hangs over the window, I decided to make the bodice with paper made from prints of the painting.

 Here is a picture of the painting.

Forever Love, Acrylic on canvas, 20″ x 24″

To make the bodice, I shrunk a print of the painting in Photoshop to a couple of different sizes (2 to 5 inches in length) and printed out a sheet of them. Then I tore the pictures into a bunch of tiny pieces of paper that I modge-podged together to form the bodice.  (I used a $1 store doll covered in plastic wrap as a “pattern.”)  I glued about 3-4 layers, letting then dry completely in between and then added glitter to the last layer before it dried.

To get my bodice off the doll, I simply cut it in half up the back.  Then I did some trimming until I had the shape I wanted for the bodice.  I used one of my beading tools with a sharp point to punch holes along each side of the back opening so I could lace it up like a typical corset.  I then sewed all of the trim to the bodice with embroidery thread.

For the skirt, I dug around my fabric stash and found some sage green tulle and sewed it to the bodice as well.  Then I painted the tulle with some green and pink acrylics that I watered down a bit.  On the last layer of paint, I added in some glitter and some of the printed flowers from the painting.

To display the mini dress, I created a little stand by drilling a hole in a block of wood and gluing a small round wooden dowel into the hole.  I used wood glue to adhere the dowel to the block since it was wood to wood, but I used my trusty E6000 glue to adhere the top of the dowel to the inside of the dress.

For a finishing touch, I glued the block of wood to an inverted votive candle holder.  Then I glued some gold rhinestone strips as well as three of the flowers from my prints to the candle holder so it matched the dress.

I believe my little fairy friend is happy with the results…

Have a wonderful, creative, day, Janell