So, I stumbled across images of that Alexander McQueen butterfly dress again the other day. You know the one, from the Spring/Summer 2011 collection, I think? Utterly stunning. Just floods of monarch butterflies, looking like they just landed on the model. It’s one of those designs that just burrows into your brain and stays there.
Seeing it got me thinking. Not about making the actual dress, obviously. That’s couture, way beyond anything I could pull off with my sewing machine in the corner and a pile of fabric scraps. But the idea of it. The texture, the dense layering of wings. I just wanted to see if I could capture a tiny bit of that feeling myself, you know, as a hands-on thing.
Getting Started
First thing, I needed butterflies. Lots of them. Forget real ones, that’s just not practical or right. I looked around online for feather butterflies, the kind you might use for crafts or decorations. Found a bunch, ordered a couple of bags in those orange and black monarch colours. They weren’t perfect, a bit flimsy, but they’d have to do.
Then I needed a base. I wasn’t making a whole garment. I thought maybe just a panel? Like a piece of art or something. Found a scrap piece of black cotton drill fabric I had lying around from another project. Sturdy enough, dark enough to make the orange pop.
The Process – Getting Messy
Okay, so I had my fabric piece, maybe about two feet square, and a bag full of feather butterflies. Now what? My initial plan was simple: glue them on. Get some good fabric glue and just start sticking them down, overlapping them like on the real dress.
- Layout attempt one: I started placing them carefully, trying to mimic the flow. It looked… okay, but really sparse. Not that dense, almost overwhelming look of the original.
- More butterflies needed: Realised pretty quickly I didn’t order nearly enough. The sheer density is key. Put in another order, waited for them to arrive.
- The gluing saga: Once the reinforcements arrived, I started gluing properly. This was fiddly work. The feathers are delicate, the glue gets everywhere. My fingers got sticky, some butterflies got squashed. It wasn’t glamorous. Just me, hunched over this black fabric square, meticulously (or not so meticulously) attaching fake butterflies one by one.
- Layering issues: Getting the overlap right was tricky. You want it dense, but not just a messy clump. I tried to angle the wings slightly, give it some dimension. Some worked, some looked flat. It was a lot of trial and error.
Honestly, there were moments I nearly gave up. It looked kind of tacky up close. The butterflies weren’t quite the right shade, the feathers shed a bit. It wasn’t McQueen, that’s for sure. It was my messy craft project version.
Finishing Up (Sort Of)
I kept at it for a few evenings. Layering, gluing, adjusting. Stepping back to look, then diving back in. Eventually, I covered most of the panel. It was dense. It did have that visual texture I was sort of aiming for, even if the materials were cheap.
The final piece? It’s… interesting. From a distance, you get the idea. Up close, you see the glue spots and the slightly raggedy feathers. It’s definitely handmade. It doesn’t have the ethereal quality of the original, lacks the movement and the perfect construction.
But sticking all those butterflies down, figuring out the placement, wrestling with the glue – it gave me a much deeper appreciation for the real thing. The skill, the vision, the sheer amount of work that must have gone into the actual McQueen dress is just mind-boggling when you try even a tiny, simplified part of it. Mine’s just a clumsy tribute pinned up on my wall, but the process of making it was pretty absorbing. Made me look at that dress in a whole new way.
