I thought you might enjoy looking behind the scenes a little and seeing part of the creative process. Sometimes I get inspired by a style or pattern, sometimes by a piece of fabric, or sometimes by a piece of artwork.

In this case it was a piece of artwork created by a dear friend of mine Mary France Millet.

Mary Frances is a gifted artist. She has her art displayed and sold at local galleries, art shows and store fronts. She is a watercolor artist and instructor. If you are interested in seeing more of her artwork and classes  check out her website http://maryfrancesmillet.com/. I love collaborating with her and we are planning on more projects in the future so stay tune for updates.

mermaid hand painted panel

So back to the project.  For this project  I decided to start with the artwork panel by Mary Frances Millet and build it from there.

What to choose?

The next step is to decide which fabrics I wanted to pair with the panel. Sometimes this offers the most difficult challenges. So many choices.

Mermaid Kimono pieces pinned to mannequin.

And now how to construct it with a mixture of laces, sheers and embroidery fabrics. I try out several combinations by pinning it to the mannequin.

finished Mermaid Kimono

Finally the finished kimono.