I always seem to have quite the adventure when I embark on a dressmaking project and this latest was no exception. This one in particular combined two of my favorite things: sewing and shark biology. Though the impetus is usually different, in general my dresses go from some sort of idea that’s been tickling at the back of my head for awhile until the perfect opportunity arises…
Warning: Photo heavy post ahead!
As many of you know, I’m a marine biologist by day and my research focuses on the central nervous system of sharks (Yep, you heard me right. Shark brains). So, much of my daily life involves thinking about, writing about, and/or interacting with sharks. Given my love of fashion and sewing, I suppose it was only a matter of time before I would make a shark dress. I posted the finished product on my instagram at the end of last year, but thought it would be fun to take you through the process of making the Shark Dress a reality.
The Challenge
If you read this post, you know that I think that arts and sciences are constantly colliding. You can imagine my joy when the Animal Biology Department at my University announced the first annual Biological Arts Competition. We were all encouraged to flex our creative muscles and create a piece that artistically illustrated a biological process, behaviour or principle. As far as what form this art would take, the sky was the limit.
My instant vision for my art/science collision was to create “wearable science,” where fashion and important conservation messages would intersect. Although I knew there would be a lot of entries of photographs, I wanted to take it a step further and incorporate some incredible shark imagery into favorite art form of mine: dressmaking.
The Photos
Earlier in 2014, myself and several members of our lab attended a conference in South Africa and then spent up to 4 weeks in the field conducting experiments with the populations of great white sharks off the coast. In general, my experiences tend to be restricted to the lab or working with the smaller sharks that we’re able to maintain in our on-campus aquaria. Needless to say, being able to interact with great white sharks in the wild was mind blowing. Seriously, my mind was officially blown from the excitement of it all. And, despite their fearsome reputation, the greatest feeling I had while out there on the water was how peaceful it was. How gracefully the animals would glide through the water and how fortunate I was to get to see them in their natural habitat.
Once back on dry land, when the Biological Arts challenge was announced, I knew there was a way to take this incredible experience and translate it into something I quite literally live my daily life in – dresses! So, I teamed up with close friend and colleague, Support Our Sharks (SOS), to use this competition as a platform to bring my design idea to life. SOS is an amazing organization whose mission is to support healthy oceans by promoting better protection for sharks and their close relatives the rays and skates and educating the public about the importance of these fishes to our ocean’s ecosystem.
One known characteristic of these awesome creatures is the fact that they are ambush predators. In other words, they see silhouettes of seals or sea lions on the surface of the water and engage in breaching behavior, whereby they fully leap out of the water at great speeds, in an attempt to catch their prey unaware.
The very talented SOS managed to capture this breaching behavior on film. I don’t think it’s possible to explain how quickly this behavior happens – if I was looking on the opposite side of the boat, an animal could breach and disappear by the time I turned my head to the excited shouts of those on board. The fact that these photos were captured at all is incredible.
The Design
The next step was to take these amazing photos and somehow transfer them to a fabric I could work with. Oftentimes for scientific conferences, we print our research posters on fabric for ease of transport to the far-flung destination the conference is being held at. So, I blew up the photos and had several iterations printed as a fabric poster, which feels like a thin synthetic canvas. Truthfully, if time was not of the essence, I would have opted to print the photos on a more trusted cotton at Spoonflower – I can’t speak to the durability of the poster fabric, but will likely re-do it as some stage to ensure the longevity of the dress.
For the base fabric, I knew I wanted some sort of cloud print. My vision for the design was to show a great white shark breaching against the blue sky. Luckily, cloud fabrics abound in the quilting section! I settled on a reasonably simple dress pattern (Butterick 6582, Dress C) with an interesting neckline detail, which wouldn’t detract from the level of shark awesome I planned to incorporate into the dress.
I then came up with a sketch for where and how I wanted to sharks to be overlaid on the base dress, with the intention of creating shapes that resembled shark fins and trying to create motion by having the shark dive down in some areas and shoot up from the water in others.
The Sewing
Thankfully, the base dress ended up being relatively simple to construct and I found the pattern true to size for the most part (though I had to take in the waist, as per usual). I absolutely love working with cotton – I try to push myself to try other things now and then and I usually end up wrestling with the fabric for ages. But cotton, she’s such a loyal friend…
Then, I took a white pencil to outline the shape I wanted around the shark print and used a tight zigzag stitch along the pencil lines to finish off the edges and prevent fraying of the shark overlays. I carefully cut around the outer edge of the zigzag stitch and started to test placement on the base dress.
Once I was happy with print placement, I pinned it in place on my dress form and, using the edge of the zigzag stitch as a guide, stitched the overlays onto the base dress with a standard straight stitch.
The Styling
Then came the fun part…as this was a shark dress and I have no problem dressing in themes (as you can see here), I dug into my closet for every last bit of sharky goodness I could find and got to work styling her in Dressed. Now, who else in this world would have so many of these shark themed items ALREADY IN HER CLOSET? The girl who’s loved sharks since she was 5, that’s who!
It’s as if the Shoe Goddesses used their powers of footwear goodness to devise a pair of heels just for me… Even the INSIDES of these puppies sparkle!
The Finished Product
There really is no better feeling than wearing something you created, particularly something that has great meaning to you. For this photoshoot, we knew we were beach bound and had an amazing day celebrating the sharks and playing in the waves (and don’t worry, I was very concerned about my shoes on the sand and had towels at the ready!)
In the end, it was amazing to find a way to combine my Science Brain and my Artist Brain once again. And although I didn’t win the Biological Arts prize with this entry, I had a BLAST making it! I’ve had more than a few people asking if I’d make one for them (and a few rather adamant people who reallllly wanted my shoes. No dice.)
As a scientist and conservationist, this latest dress design represents a critical ecological issue. The assumed threat of interactions with sharks has become a part of our daily lives, to the point where we can let fear often overrule rationality. However, our best weapon isn’t eradication – it’s education. It’s vital that we can learn to coexist with these ecologically important animals, which can only be achieved by bringing good science and accurate information to the forefront of media and public attention. Like a handmade garment, management of our coastlines and the animals who reside there must be treated with care and respect and carefully curated so as to ensure their longevity.
If you’d like to know more about Support our Sharks and get involved in shark conservation efforts, check out their Facebook page and website and log any shark sightings on their incredible global encounter database.
And as usual, if you have any questions or want additional details on a particular technique used to make this garment, feel free to ask away in the comments section.
Happy Sewing!
xoxo
Construction Details:
Base Fabric & Notions: Textile Traders
Pattern: Butterick 6582, Dress C (available here)
Breaching Photo Credit: Support Our Sharks
Sewing Marchine: Bernina Activa 220
Outfit Details
Handbag: Gift (similar here and here)
Shoes: Irregular Choice via Modcloth
Necklace: Gift (similar)
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