Caitlin has always been interested in textiles, but this was the first time she ventured into silk-painted materials. She said the idea came about after searching through a fashion magazine, which featured a tutorial on beautiful silk-painted fabrics.
"I love to make my own clothes because it allows me to create pieces that are one of a kind," Caitlin said.
With the support of her technology teacher, Pam Knight, Caitlin began the intricate, 20-hour process of painting silk.
"Mrs Knight has a lot of knowledge in silk painting and taught me a lot during the process of constructing this dress," she said.
"I used gutta to freehand outlines of all my designs. The gutta dries into a hard layer that blocks the paint from touching the outlines, leaving them white when washed out."
She then mixed several paints together to create the gorgeous peach colour.
"Once I had covered all the material in peach paint, I filled the designs with bright colours. I then heat-set the paint by ironing over them before hand washing the gutta out."
Just like Caitlin's personality, the dress is bright, bold and uplifting.
"My final silk-painting designs were original, but I used Henna designs to inspire their outlines and traditional Mexican material colours to make them bright and summery."
Judge Cheryl Downie, and lecturer at EIT, said it was unusual for one garment to win so many awards.
"Caitlin's dress scored highly in the pre-judging process, which was based on construction techniques," Downie said.
"For judging on the catwalk, we were required to look at the fit of the garment, the suitability to the wearer and the overall look. We felt that she scored very highly in those areas, hence beating the others on points in the senior section."
"The hand-painted silk fabric gave it an individual, one-of-a-kind look. It fitted like a glove and she modelled it very well."
