There are some available on Ebay, here's one for less than £30 including postage.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Fem-Wht-Dress-For ... 240%3A1318

That's a bargain for £30 but if your serious about making a few dresses then an adjustable one is a must so that you can adjust to the size of each individual model that may be wearing your dress rather than having a guesstamate

I agree with Thelma - I really like your first idea and guess you could come up with a very unique dress !

Well if both Sabina & Thelma tell me they like the first idea I'd better have another go of making it work.
Perhaps if I construct the main dress part first & then add the edge trimmings afterwards.

This morning the dress really came on, twisting the balloons after putting back to black on the balloons worked really well & it wasn't till the 5th row of pink down from the waist that I had the first pop. The balloons seem to slide over each other really nicely & the feel to the balloons is fabulous, a real joy to work with although when I got to two rows from the end the 260's started to stick to one another so perhaps when I was halfway down the dress I should have re applied the back to black as when I kept handling the balloons perhaps I was wearing off the protective coating.

The last two rows were very difficult to work with so much so that I changed what I had in mind for the bottom of the dress.

This is the dress after an hour of twisting this morning.

So why did the bottom two rows cause me problems, either as I said I should have re applied the back to black to make the ballloons slide across each other or it may well have been the effect of the back to black as I've only ever used it before after I've twisted something & wanted to put a shine on the model/outfit. I ned to speak with others who have more knowledge of this product to see what the best application for it is.

When the balloons popped they seemed to be sealing themselves together over the top of each other, it was very odd.

Twisting the top half of the dress I found most comfortable to stand & then today it was easier to sit on the floor while weaving the lower half, although it did cross my mind to put the manequinn onto a table so that I could carry on twisting standing up as if I'm sitting down I dont feel comfortable when I twist.

I think the total time it took to twist the dress was approx 10 hours.

very nice graham 10 hours well spent what you going to do with it now?
I think you should try and sell it or try and raise money some how it would be a shame to see it just go down.

The last row of 260's around the bottom of the dress I added ina pink 160 as well. After twisting in about a quatre ot the way around I noticed the bottom was turing in & under the dress so to rectify this I twisted two 260's around the bottom which kept it straight & the pink 160 sat nicelt in the middle of the two 260's.

Picture 2/3 may help although it's difficult to photograph black with any clarity.

The first picture is what happened when the balloon popped after using back to black, perhaps the balloon pops with such force that when the two sticky surfaces touch together you end up with a welding effect like when you use super glue & you have to force the two surfaces together to get rid of the air in between.

P.S  Picture 3 looks good as it looks like my feet at the other end of the dress, it's actually the shoulder straps :lol:

Fab Graham. Will it fit you so you can model it at the twisting party!!
Kev

So it was interesting attempting the dress & I'm definitely wiser & older :lol: from the experience.

Overall I'm fairly happy, I love the overall look of the dress & it's definitely the best one I've made that has shape to it. Not sure if it would have moved much if someone was wearing it.

It was very difficult to take off the mannequin & the only disappointing thing is that my daughter who is really thin couldn't get it on as I'd have loved to have got a few pictures with her wearing it in a nice pose

Last couple of artistic? pictures showing the inside constuction for the dress

Well I'm very impressed Graham, Thanks for talking us through it stage by stage, its answered lots of questions on how its done.

Although i thought is was you who had made the dress on your sempertex pull up banner.

Cheers Adie

very good Graham, i cant wait to have a go. Do you think using metallic balloons would have made any difference? they are a bit tougher.

Nice work Graham but....................................I see you have been on your back again looking up dresses.  You PERV!!!!!

Quote from: "Thelma Levett"Nice work Graham but....................................I see you have been on your back again looking up dresses.  You PERV!!!!!

Nothing new there!!!!

Wow Graham, I really love your dress.  It is a great design and I like how you changed things as you went.   I hope to see more dresses from you.

When will you be making some un-inflated dresses?   Alayna said you got a nice close up look at how I did mine. In Florida I just learned that Melissa sews her on a machine.   I don't want to risk breaking my machine, oh, I don't have a sewing machine. :lol: Anyway, I think hand sewing them works best for me, but it just takes a heck of a lot of time. :!: