My Autumn Princess.

A few weeks ago I was offered the chance to enter a challenge that was being hosted by Fernli Designs ....the challenge was to Dress Up one of their 10 inch dress forms.
( each entrant was asked to pay a small refundable deposit ensuring that they honour the challenge after receiving their Fernli product. Such a good idea as sadly there are crafters who take the freebies and not enter the challenges )
After receiving my dress form I stood it on my work bench for a couple of weeks...at one point I was worried that I still hadn't come up with a definite idea of how I was going to dress it up.

I decided to go for a long walk one day last week, mainly to clear away the cobwebs and clear my head. I was in awe of all the wonderful colours of the trees,shrubs and leaves...this is one of the most favourite times of the year for me and as I was scuffling through the leaves I knew exactly how I was going to dress up my dress form.....and so Autumn Princess was born.

I decided to keep the form in its natural state and made an under dress for it, stitching it in place, then I added some pale green lace in a "v" around the neck, front and back.
I tore up an old scarf that I no longer used ( the dark colours made my neck dirty, no matter how many times I washed the scarf, lol )  finishing the bodice off with some pretty black lace.

For the skirt I used strips of silky materials that I had bought over a year ago from a craft fair...each strip was knotted to another, I think they get knitted or plaited, sorry to say I don't know exactly, I do remember loving the colours and just had to buy the bundle.
The colours are so much like the leaves and shrubs I saw on my walk, even down to the purple colour...
The strips were cut to the lengths that I needed for the skirt and along with some black feathers and some strips from my scarf and I glued them to the waist of the form.

Then from my broken jewellery stash I found some bits that I added a few charms to and added to the skirt...finishing that by winding a silky green fabric strip around the waist.
I also made a necklace, and....well I just couldn't resist adding the Princess crown.

I also fashioned a little bag from material from one of my old handbags, which I cross stitched along the sides with waxed cord, padded it out slightly with a piece of sponge..the fastener is a sparkly black brad.

I covered the stand in some cheese cloth and then some hessian....I found this sweet robin in my stash and a bundle of short willow sticks..I adhered them to the base..added some reindeer moss and also some tiny little fir cones I found on my walk...
I am so pleased at how this project turned out..it is exactly how I saw it in my head on my walk..but as all we crafters know, what we "see" in our heads dosen't always look like the finished product,lol...

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