Thursday, August 14, 2014

Painswick Fashion Competition 2014

In January I decided to enter the Painswick Fashion Competition. It is a competition in which entrants must design there own costume within a certain theme and parade through Painswick wearing it. I entered with absolutely no clue what I was going to create. I chose the theme Legends. After not much thinking it through I decided to just get on with it and ordered a few bits off eBay and began. I was aiming to create a dress based of Mother Earth, I had several different plans but none of them seemed to work when i came to actually making it. I used natural felts for the base of the skirt which was very useful because the felt gave it a nice meadowy look. I handmade little flowers and sewed them on, i also purchased a few to fill in the small gaps. It was very time consuming and at times I really felt like giving up. On the day you get there at 9am and leave at 5pm, which is a very tiring day if your walking up and down the streets the whole time. Luckily I had alot of support from friends otherwise I doubt I would've lasted the whole day. Towards the end of the day they have the catwalk. This is where all the contestants walk down the catwalk showing of there outfits to the judges and the huge crowd of over 500 people. It was very nerve-racking for everyone and my main tip to everyone was to not fall over. After being so nervous all day about the catwalk I came off having enjoyed it so much and actually wanting to do it again! The day was so much fun and there was stalls and plenty of Cotswold style gifts and food. I definitely hope to enter again next year and well done to all the winners it was a very tough competition but they definitely deserved it! If you are thinking of entering next year my tips to you are to: Plan everything through before you begin making anything, i definitely regret not planning it enough as I had to start again a couple of times! If I had planned it would have saved me alot more time. Start early, as soon as you can! This gives you more time so you wont have to rush at the end Make sure you have alot of support from your friends and family because its a very long day! And finally make sure you do it for fun and remember winning is a bonus! It's not easy, but well worth it! Thank you for reading and sorry I havent posted for a while but I have more posts coming up :)