Two ISU professors worked diligently over winter break to finish an inaugural gown for Iowa’s first lady, Christie Vilsack.

J.R. Campbell and Jean Parsons, assistant professors of textiles and clothing at Iowa State, designed a dress inspired by the stained glass windows of Terrace Hill, the governor’s mansion. The gown will be digitally printed onto silk fabric in a procedure that is part of Iowa State’s innovative technology in textile and apparel design techniques.

Vilsack said she hopes to send a message to Iowa’s youth about opportunities in the state by wearing the Iowa-made dress to the Jan. 17 inaugural ball in Des Moines.

“It’s an Iowa dress, made and designed from beginning to end in Iowa,” Vilsack said.

The process used to design the dress is not a simple one.

First, Parsons met with Vilsack to discuss possible design elements for the gown. She sketched five possibilities for the style of the gown. Meanwhile, Campbell collected digital photographs of the windows in Terrace Hill, Campbell said.

Parsons designed five different styles for the dress and after transferring them into the computer, Campbell was able to arrange elements of the windows into the pattern for the dress, he said.

“There were infinite possibilities [to choose from],” Vilsack said.

Once Vilsack decided on a style and design, Parsons made a mock-up of the dress out of muslin to create a pattern for the final dress. The pattern was then digitized into the computer, and the design was laid into the pieces of the pattern, Parsons said.

“The fun thing about digital printing is we can engineer a continuous pattern across seam-lines,” she said.

Next, the images are printed onto the fabric itself by a printer that is comparable to a regular ink jet model.

The fabric used is pre-treated to accept the dyes specific to the fabric type and backed with paper for stability, Campbell said.

After printing is completed, the garment pieces are steamed to set the dye and rinsed to wash out excess color, he said.

Parsons then takes the material, cuts the pattern pieces out, and begins the sewing process.

Bethany Angell, graduate student in textiles and clothing, will be assisting Parsons with sewing the dress parts together, Parsons said.

The dress should be finished Monday for the final fitting, she said.