Sustainable Fashion

That's me, modeling my silk tie dress on the runway at the first Wave Ontario Wardrobe challenge, Parry Sound airport, July 13th. Even my shoes are vintage. They are from the 40s, and were donated to my kindergarten dress-up trunk when I was a teacher. 

Wave Fibre is a new woolen mill, set up to help small Ontario sheep farmers process their wool. You can read all about it on Wave's website.

The challenge put forward by Wave was to create clothing using only materials sourced in Ontario. We had to submit photos a few months ago, and they were judged by five people in the fashion industry, based on sustainability, creativity and quality of work. Finalists were selected, and winners were announced at the show. My dress came in third place!

Most of the entries were created of local wool, spun, and then woven or knitted. Mine was very different, because it was created of old silk ties I had collected at local thrift shops. Each tie is a work of art, and of course the work of the silk worms is incredible. As I collected the ties, I knew I would eventually make something special, but I wasn't sure what. 

I experimented with silk tie phone pouches, and then cushion covers. Finally I decided to try to make a dress, a sort of Tinkerbell dress, just for fun. 

I spent a couple of days laying out the ties according to colour and pattern. 

Next I did a lot of math calculations to figure out how many wide parts needed to point down to accommodate my hips, and how many up for my bust. Then I carefully pinned them to my dressmaker's form, making a few changes along the way. Then I started sewing.

I had to try the partly sewn, partly pinned project on after each tie was added. The dress got heavier and heavier, and more and more difficult to put over my head. I actually injured my shoulder doing that!

I knew I wanted to have a swishy, pointy bottom edge, but I wasn't sure about the bodice edge. At first I kept those points intact, but when it was all sewn together I decided to smooth out the top edge. I kept four long ends to tie as shoulder straps, placed carefully to cover my bra straps. 

Ta dah!