The red silk dress project. Inspired by the French designer Schiaparelli

I am working (almost finished) on a dress inspired by the French designer Schiaparelli, himself largely inspired by a dress created by Edward Stevenson for Ginger Rogers in the movie "Carefree"(1938). If you want to see the dress in the movie (extract) it's here : CAREFREE

Edward Stevenson's dress on the left and Schiaparelli on the right

I wanted to created something very different, just keeping the idea of the red heart and arrow. Red if my favorite color, so I chose a red dress, in fact a Miu Miu vintage red silk dress. Gorgeous fabric.
I draw a sketch first. On the sketch there is lace on the bottom of the dress, but I finally decided not to add it, a bit too much for my taste!

My original sketch

The dress before the transformation (Miu Miu red silk dress)

For the heart I found a beautiful red velvet fabric, excellent quality, very thick

Things I will use or not for the embellishment 

For the head of the arrow goldwork embroidery (raised embroidery)

Close-up on the arrow head

First try on the dress

I added rays of red organza to highlight the heart and give a sort of movement 

I hand sewn a part of the work and used my sewing machine for the rest

Sewing the heart on the dress, like this the seams of the embroidery at the back of the heart are hidden between the heart and the dress

Not finished! I have to do the rest of the arrow, add beads and make the back of the dress.

You will have to wait a little bit to see the finished dress!!