Sunday Best
This miniature 18th century dress celebrates the ingenuity of working-class women who created beauty from whatever came to hand. The bodice, constructed from vintage sewing pattern paper, is laced with hand-sewn paper string and decorated with dozens of tiny petals - each one individually cut from naturally dyed pattern paper and carefully glued into place. The golden skirt, its paper aged to warm honey tones, falls in simple tiered panels still marked with pattern notations and seam lines.
For peasant women whose weeks were filled with hard work, Sunday called for something special. Without money for fine trimmings, they became masters of transformation - a carefully saved scrap of fabric, wildflowers pressed between book pages, decorative stitching worked by candlelight. These small acts of creativity turned everyday work clothes into Sunday best, something that brought joy and marked the day as different, as theirs.
The patient application of each tiny petal echoes that same spirit - the pleasure of making something lovely, the satisfaction of decorating what you've made with your own hands. Housed in a vintage frame discovered in a secondhand store, the dress honours women who understood that beauty doesn't require wealth, just determination and a bit of creativity.
Sunday Best
This miniature 18th century dress celebrates the ingenuity of working-class women who created beauty from whatever came to hand. The bodice, constructed from vintage sewing pattern paper, is laced with hand-sewn paper string and decorated with dozens of tiny petals - each one individually cut from naturally dyed pattern paper and carefully glued into place. The golden skirt, its paper aged to warm honey tones, falls in simple tiered panels still marked with pattern notations and seam lines.
For peasant women whose weeks were filled with hard work, Sunday called for something special. Without money for fine trimmings, they became masters of transformation - a carefully saved scrap of fabric, wildflowers pressed between book pages, decorative stitching worked by candlelight. These small acts of creativity turned everyday work clothes into Sunday best, something that brought joy and marked the day as different, as theirs.
The patient application of each tiny petal echoes that same spirit - the pleasure of making something lovely, the satisfaction of decorating what you've made with your own hands. Housed in a vintage frame discovered in a secondhand store, the dress honours women who understood that beauty doesn't require wealth, just determination and a bit of creativity.
Dimensions: 30cm x 40 cm x 6cm
Materials: Vintage sewing pattern paper, natural dyes, board, velvet
Frame: Fibreboard, Polystyrene plastic
Care: Keep away from direct sunlight to preserve the colours
