I have long admired the work of Kayla Kennington and have collected her patterns with dreams of some day incorporating a little of her genius into my own art.  In July of this year I had the perfect excuse, my cousin was getting married in a small ceremony on the beach in Carmel, CA. and she wanted all of the guests to wear 'Ocean' blues.

I decided to make "Fantasia" - A beautiful jacket pattern that is really quite simple when made as drafted, composed of mainly rectangles and triangles.  Of course, my brain just can't comprehend things like 'simple' or 'easy' nooo...that would be, well, too easy ;-) and apparently I must prefer my life a little more complicated.

The examples of finished garments made from this pattern on Kayla's site are truly astounding and inspiring! The one that really got my creative juices flowing was the floral silk georgette summer dress. Perfect! Except that the dress is not a draft that is included in the pattern. I did say that "Fantasia" is a jacket pattern, didn't I? But after seeing that summer dress, I had my heart set on making Fantasia into a dress for the wedding!

Since this pattern is comprised of mainly rectangles, it should be a fairly simple thing to just lengthen them all and make a dress. Right? Wrong! There are also triangles. Lots of triangles. And when you add triangles, you go from simple math to geometry. When I said my brain didn't like simple, this was NOT what I was talking about!

After much redrafting (and phone calls to the Designer) I am pleased with the end result.  The combination of two different silk charmeuese fabrics, cross-dyed silk chiffon and a heavy 4-ply silk for the lapel, all came together for a beautiful "Beach Fantasy Dress"!  I hope you like my creation.

~ heidi lynn