The leftover dress...

...well it's a dress made from leftovers. I started to alter this mannequin about a year ago and got as far as painting it in fresco french roast, covering it with book pages and stamping and embossing on tissue paper before cutting them into circles.....and that's as far as I got until I saw Sue Carrington's wonderful altered mannequin here. Now I know this doesn't look like Sue's but the point is it inspired me to go back to it with some ideas around the tattered florals die.

Bare with me now...I recently had a sort out in the room where I craft and one of the things I did was sort out my boxes of bits and put them out in a tray so I can see what I've got because if I can't see it in front of me I won't go looking and will just keep creating more bits. You can see a space there now!...I know, it won't stay empty for long.

Anyway this is probably one of the best things to do if you are stuck for inspiration; it feels great when you find something in that box that is perfect for your project or can be altered very easily....and that's how the leftover dress got made.

I'd originally had some idea about using circles of tissue to build up a dress but it wasn't working just in white even with the gold stamping and embossing. I had a piece of brown toned gelli print deli paper which I painted the back of in blue/ green shade before cutting into circles.

Crumple them up, we are going for a distressed look.

The bodice is metal tattered floral pieces which I embossed and then sanded to distress, I then cut the flower into petals and layered them. I still needed something for the rest of the skirt. When I saw the challenge and wonderful inspirational creations over at A Vintage Journey for All Sewn Up  I remembered I had some eclectic elements fabric and one of the pieces was a perfect colour choice.

I cut the fabric with the tattered florals die and cut the petals out fraying the edges slightly. It just needed something to lift it so I used some of the same gold embossing powder I'd already used and some vintage photo distress glitter.

Some close  up details of the layers

To finish the back I found exactly 3 circles of scrunched up and gilded pieces of glassine paper to which I added some more distress glitter and beads before securing. I also added an ideaology charm.

The paper images at the base were left over from making the tiny tins from a few months back secured along with the metal embellishments.

Recently I've not been able to enter any challenges or post as regularly as I'd have liked to so I've really enjoyed just creating this for no particular reason....and it's a bonus to be able to enter it in a challenge.
I'm entering it in The Sunday stamper challenge which is 'Sewing and Stitches' and I'm also entering it in A Vintage Journey 'All Sewn Up' (link in above post).
The stamped images and dies are Tims and I've gone for a distressed shabby feel to this sewing themed entry, hope it fits the travelling instructions.
 I've really enjoyed making it and that's the most important thing. Hope you enjoyed your visit, I really appreciate all your wonderful comments and hope to visit your blogs a bit more often. Thanks so much for dropping by.