Petals

Making the petals or leaves!

For our decoration we each got given a colour mine being a dark green and were to make petals that look a though they have been blown across the front of the bodice and down the tutu. As mine were green they look a lot like leaves so my costume will look like a woodland creature when finished.

Using the template and the excess net cut out 64 petals making sure they are neat as the edges will show.

I then had to dye the net with silk paint, i used Seta Silk Paint in Moss Green and Meadow Green mixed together to get the right colour.  The petals needed to fade towards the middle so layers of paint was applied.  I applied five the fifth being on the very outer edge.

This i found rather tricky as when laid out on a plastic sheet they were impossible to see!  Therefore not easy to paint once the first few layers were on it became easier.  i didn't notice the change in colour at first but towards the edge i can.

I painted them on newspaper then transferred them to kitchen towel as the silk paint is runny and pools on the paper leaving blotches on the net.  This worked well and on the last layer of paint i left it on the kitchen towel for it to pick up a bit more colour. 

I'm really happy with the colour of them and think that it is quite near to the colour  wanted. (see design here)

I have just started pinning them onto the bodice now as you can see in the picture below. They do go down the straps which i have yet to attach as the ones i had were not very strong and snapped.  As said it is meant to look as though a breeze has blown them across the front.