ArtFire

Truly a one-of-a-kind technicolor Bohemian dress or top for a plus sized woman who wants to keep up with fashion trends, constructed from over 90 diverse brightly colored 100% cotton prints and solids.

Obviously not for the faint of heart, this can function as a trendy dress, bathing suit cover up, or can be paired with straight legged pants, and can go nearly everywhere in style. It would also make a marvelous maternity top.

Hundreds of fabric rectangles were cut and sewn together in random long lengths of fabric, then assembled with bands of black Kona cotton to separate color bands and give the eye a place to rest.

Fabric used include Laurel Burch cat prints, and Alexander Henry "Day of the Dead" prints, plus color blender fabrics and prints from a wide variety of well known fabric manufacturers. All fabrics are 100% cotton.


Dress Measurements are as follows:

Shoulder width (back) - 24.5"
Neckline width (front) - 12.25"
Neckline width (back) - 12"
Armhole depth - 12"
Sleeve length - 14" overarm
Sleeve length - 5.5" underarm
Length from shoulder to hem - 39"
Length from Cntr.Front to hem - 32"
Length from Cntr.Back to hem - 34.5"
Hem circumference - 114" (little over 3yd.)
Bust width - 72"


The construction of the fabric alone, took over 50 hours to complete! First the fabrics had to be gathered from my rather gigantic stash of quilting cottons, then arranged to compliment each other. The cutting of the various widths of fabric came next. These then were cut into a variety of rectangular shapes to create each individual band.
Individual bands were sewn together in long panels, and the horizontal seams overlocked. Assembly then began by laying out these bands side-by-side and arranging so that no duplicate fabrics were placed together or in close proximity.

Vertical seams were then sewn and overlocked forming actual
45"long X 32"wide segments of yardage from which the pieces of the dress were cut.

The last 4 photos above show my original rough sketch and the lengths of fabric before being sewn together vertically.

This was a labor of love, and an experiment to see if it could actually be accomplished in my lifetime, lol.

It was originally designed for a customer who loved bright Southwest colors, cats, and Day of the Dead themes, but due to circumstances beyond her control, could not complete the purchase.

cotton fabric, thread