Embroidered Moto and Green Pleats; Plus Gold Wings Dress, Part I

Hello, my friends! Today, I have my outfit, which is not black and white at all, despite the picture. 

And I also started a new Art Project: the Gold Wings Dress, and I'll be sharing my materials and my initial set up on that. 

• Jacket - Frank Lyman; last worn here in February with bad stripes
• Blouse - Talbots, thrifted; last seen here in August with green lace and tweed
• Skirt - DaRue Petite for Draper's & Damon's, vintage 80s, thrifted; purchased here for $9.95
• Shoes - 5YMedia; last worn here in July with red leopard

This outfit started out as being based around my new YSL scarf but in the end, the scarf didn't work so I just rolled with what did. 

I based it around this new-to-me green pleated skirt. Oh, excuse me: it's pine. Such a Sears catalogue name for a colour. 

The faux leather moto jacket is embroidered and studded - you see how I love my embellishments! 

Oops, my slip is showing! I am wearing an orange vintage slip under all of this. 

Without the jacket - I was sweaty off and on as I lugged boxes around. Our office is going to a desk-booking system as we prepare to bring back some of our staff (gawd knows when), so guess who gets to clean out what's left? 

I have my new-to-me black and red bracelet on in these pictures, but I took it off before I left home in the morning, as it got in the way of the jacket sleeves. 

Masked up and zipped up. 

After work, I picked up a couple of items from Tammy that she wants me to customize for her, then swung by the grocery store after work. My mask was so wet from the rain that I could hardly breathe through it. 

Outerwear - despite the rain, it's still not that cold out. 

October is a changeable month. 

Accoutrements: 

The wool hat kept my hair completely dry. 

• Hat - Catawumpus, gift from Tammy
• Gloves - Parkhurst
• Silk scarf - Elaine Gold, vintage, Lazy Susan's
• Mask - Lazy Susan's

The stuff: 

These just seemed like the right shoes for the outfit. 

Minimal bling: 

The embroidered jacket does most of the heavy lifting. 

• Belt - Emmanuel, vintage 80s, thrifted
• Earrings - Tania Gleave, Granville Island
• Snake ring - BC Museum Gift Shop, c. 1986
• Spider ring - gift from Mom & Dad, c. 1986

Art Project: Gold Wings Dress

I picked this faux leather dress on sale at Dots (here) for $14.99, and I'm going to do some artsy stuff on it. 

It's a straight up-and-down piece, with fleece backing (cozy!) and ginormous sleeves. And pockets! 

I decided to do wings on the back, so I looked at a lot of pictures of tattooed angel wings to figure out what I wanted, and what I didn't. 

I like the feathers on the top image (lots of detail), the overall shape of the lower left ones, and the layers of feathers of the ones on the right. 

Then I looked at feathers, how to tattoo feathers, and some Zentangle designs. 

Good to have handy while I'm working. 

These are the pens I am using. 

I bought the bottom pen as it has a nice brush tip (like a paintbrush); the uncapped pen above that is an alcohol-based metallic gold ink, and the uncapped one above that is a calligraphy tip pen, for a wider line. I picked up extras of both of the Pilot pens. 

I tested them on the inside seam. 

It's all fine until you add moisture! 

The painty pen wiped right off. 

Then I took a picture of my back in the dress to see where wings would hit. No point in doing all that work if it won't sit right on my actual shape. 

"What are we looking at?"

Bonus: you get to see my striped socks, slippers and leggings (my football-watching outfit). 

Since the painty pen "erases" with water, I figured I'd be relatively safe in using it as my sketcher. 

Deep breath, here we go! 

Once I'd sketched out the basic lines, I went over it all with the Pilot calligraphy pen. 

A damp paper towel took off most of the sketch parts. 

I used a bunch of Q-Tips and a bit of soapy water to clean up the feathers. 

Even the permanent ink rubs off if you scrub at it. 

One side tidied up. 

Don't worry, I'm just removing the sketch lines. 

It always looks iffy at this point! 

Even these lines will be completely gone by the time I'm done. 

I filled in a little bit along the top, just to see how it looks like against the black, and gave all of the feathers an extra outline, cleaning up the shapes. 

I will likely darken up some of the black with a permanent fine-nib marker at the end. We shall see. 

And here are all of the feathers outlined, plus one that will be falling off at the bottom. 

That took about 2 hours and by that time, I was ready to crash on the couch. I'm working on top of a bookcase so that I can stand, instead of having this lumped in my lap, and so that I can ensure that the wings are nearly the same length, width and look. They don't match, but that's okay.