I am T-Rex Girl, Hear Me RRROOOAAARRR!

I came up with my first dino dress last summer and have been meaning to make a T-Rex dress ever since, but things just keep coming along to distract me. Anyway, I finally just got the kick in the pants that I needed when a custom order came in last week through my Etsy shop for a pink T-Rex dress. Aha!

So, the early stage of sketching has been documented (below). I'm often asked if I use clip art for my appliques, and the answer is, "Nope." My handbag is loaded with pieces of paper on which I have sketched out designs and everything is always done in freehand by moi. After scoping out books, signage, the zoo, and wherever, I have an idea of how I want something to look. With the T-Rex, a fierce stance was needed that I could soften up by going with a super-girlie print. I use tracing paper so that I can keep parts of an image that I like and edit by sketching in new areas on the parts that don't work.

This T-Rex image was a little tricky for me because the tail was hard to get right, considering it had to be positioned on an A-line dress. Should the tail be up? Down made it look too droopy. As you can can see from the finished applique below, I went with a happy medium!

Here she is in all of her hot pink glory. Photographing the dress was a whole other challenge that I will save for another post. Getting my little model to tolerate a thousand different angles, backgrounds, etc. is not easy, but she kept at it for me. Just don't ask me to reveal how many gummy bears I owed her when we were done!