Zenith

Introduction

The Zenith project was the change for ultimate creative freedom, and I’ve had so much fun exploring new passions. The dictionary definition of Zenith is “the time at which something is most powerful or successful.” After two years at Freestyle of acquiring a multitude of skills, I believe that this name perfectly represents was the Zenith project is.

For my own Zenith project, I decided to make my own prom dress. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time sewing, but I haven’t had much time in the past few years. I saw the Zenith project as the perfect opportunity to spend more time on this passion. After working on this project and brushed up on my skills, I’m excited to put them to use even more in the future.

Although the core of my project utilized skills that weren’t necessarily taught in any of my classes at Freestyle, the background and abilities that I’ve gained over the past two years were very helpful during my production.

Process

Sketches

I used Adobe Illustrator to create the initial sketches and plan for my project. Although this was just a first step, I had a lot of fun drawing out how I wanted my designing to look and researching the actual process of assembling each piece. Surprisingly, I did end up following these steps fairly exactly, with a minimal changes that came up during production.

Production

Completed Project

Reflection

When I was younger, I loved to sew. My grandmother, an experienced quilter, introduced me to the craft when I was young and I would always enjoy experimenting with her whenever she visited. However, as I got older, I found that I had significantly less time to spend on my artistic endeavors and I stopped sewing. 

Then, out of the blue, I suddenly had much more time on hand and nothing to do.

Although the 2020 pandemic was an incredibly difficult time, I was very grateful that it allowed me to return to my old love of making art. A few months into quarantine, a neighbor happened to be getting rid of an old sewing machine that she had no use for anymore, and my love was reignited. However, I was held up by one significant obstacle; I didn’t have any fabric. I was forced to turn toward innovation to solve my problems. Utilizing the surplus of single-use plastic shopping bags that seemed to come along with the pandemic, I made my first sewing project in a long time: a dress made solely out of plastic bags. After getting actual fabric, I made a few fairly simple projects but didn’t end up making a full-fledged dress, and when life started to return to normal after the pandemic, I once again lost the time to work on artistic projects.

At the end of my junior year, when the Freestyle seniors each presented their own Zenith projects to my Design class, I was instantly struck with inspiration. I realized that the project was due in mid-May, and each year also around that time, was Prom. From that moment on, I was determined that for my own senior Zenith project, I would make my own prom dress.

Although I’ve been into sewing for a long time, I’d never taken on such a large-scale project. My pandemic plastic bag dress was fairly simple and didn’t use many of the more complex strategies that it would take to make an actual prom dress. Despite this, I went into the project with an open mind and a willingness to learn.

Before starting, I found several inspiration photos and video tutorials that described the process of making different parts of the dress. My plan was to make a corset-style top with a flowy, glittery skirt. Based on this preliminary research, I drafted some initial patterns. Using these patterns, I made a mockup of the bodice and skirt of my dress using cheap muslin fabric. After some experimentation and modification, I made new patterns that reflected the changes I made to my mockup. I then began to work with my actual fabric: satin and tulle. To create the corset appearance, I learned how to make boning channels and inserted plastic boning so that the top would be structured. I also worked with grommets to make the lace-up back of the dress. This project really forced me to learn by doing, and through this, I ended up gaining a lot of new knowledge and skills.

My choice to do this project was definitely a risk. I knew that it would be a challenge, but I was willing to put in the work that it would take to create something that I was genuinely proud of. I’ve gained so much more confidence in my abilities and I’m so excited to continue to learn even more as I apply these skills in the future. Looking back on my process, I can confidently say that I’m really happy with the work that I did and the quality of the final product. Not everything went exactly as planned, but each hiccup and mistake only helped to reinforce my understanding of what I was doing and force me to find creative solutions to any problems that arose. My time at Freestyle has allowed me so much creative freedom to grow as an artist and creator. I’m so grateful for the many opportunities and I can’t wait to continue this journey in the future.