I made a hand painted dress with flamingos on it to wear to the Melbourne Cup. For those of you who have never been, the Melbourne Cup is a major day on the Australian fashion calendar. There are horses racing somewhere at Flemington Racecourse, but the racing fashion enthusiasts are all at the Fashions on the Field! It’s a time to wear something bold, colourful and of course with a hat! What better excuse to make a hand painted dress!     Preparing to paint the dress: I began with some watercolour and ink studies using reference photos I’d taken of flamingos in Hong Kong at Kowloon Park. This helped me become familiar with their shapes and personalities.     I then used these studies to create ‘life size’ sketches on calico as you can see in the image below. My dressmaker Svetlana Khmelevskaya (1st Lady Dressmaking) created the dress sewing pattern. I pinned my calico flamingos to the toile. This was a very important step in deciding on the placement of the birds.   I wanted the flamingos to wrap around the dress, uninterrupted by the seams at the bust darts, the waist and the back of the dress. … Continue reading My Hand Painted Dress with Pink Flamingos