Roar!

One of my A-level textiles projects was based on the self-chosen theme "expressions" I veered off into a musical expression direction and ended up basing my large piece on The Lion King (the musical) but to be different I based my dress on a tiger.

It was actually really fun to make, basically I wrapped some hand-dyed scrim around a mannequin, then used thin strips of silk and other scraps of fabric to create the stripes (and give the wearer a subtle hint of dignity, as the scrim is see-through) These strips lead round to the back, where the dress does up on an off-centre lace up, and down over the orange skirt, which does up with four enevenly spaced, mismatched black buttons at the back.

I would definitely wear it... if ever I'm invited to a tiger party...

I made my sister model it, as I get quite particular about camera angles, otherwise I would have worn it myself. It was great I really got into the hair and makeup side of it backcombing her hair into a wild quiff and giving her a more mature version of the classic tiger face-paint.

Ok, maybe it was quite a standard, albeit sparkly, tiger face-paint.

The best thing was that she let me, she's usually quite particular about messing up her hair, or doing stupid makeup, so all in all I was very lucky.

Although that hair does make her head look weirdly big...

Anyway sorry that I haven't written in a while, my imaginary readers,

A Touch of Toga

I turned 18 on the 7th of July and, following in the footsteps of my brother, held a toga party in my garden.
A few weeks in advance I got stupidly excited one day and made my toga (even though you can easily make one on the day).
So I sat down in my sister's room, which I was sharing due to mine being surrendered to visitors, and I took 3 half sheets left over from my brother's toga party two years ago and fashioned a toga out of them using a Primark t-shirt as the base.
Yesterday, with the aid of my family and friends, I put up a marquee, blew up bunch-of-grapes-balloons, ate chili con carne, and generally got ready.
I seemed to be cheif toga-maker and made/fixed at least 7 people's togas, so it was really lucky that I made mine early in a weird fit of excitement.
The party was really nice, quite mellow compared to the usual parties I hold, but in a nice way.
I went for a full length toga (despite my lovely tanned legs from Tenerife) and wore the gorgeous shoes that my sister bought for my birthday. You can't see much of the toga but it has a pleated neckline and shoulder, a horizontally ruched bodice, overlapping panels on the skirt, and a diagonal hanging drape along the back falling into the skirt.

Toga II was definitely a success.

To the ball!

On Friday I went to my last ever Fullbrook party... the Leavers' Ball.

About 2 months ago I went to Bicester Village with my family and I came across the most gorgeous Amanda Wakeley dress. It was only £125 but I studied how it was made and decided I could totally make my own.
So with my brand new mannequin (now named Claudia), I began to fantasise about the dress I was about to make, I decided red silk opposed to the purple that the other dress had used.
In Tatters I found the perfect deep red satin (which luckily some scary-looking teens had decided was definitely the wrong colour for their superhero costume), some boning (Amanda Wakeley's dresses have built-in corsets for support), and some ribbon, costing me £20 altogether!
Once I had made the corset I decided that I liked it too much to hide it inside the dress and so I completely changed my design idea.
It didn't take me long to make it, afterall, it was the perfect way to avoid revising.

I used purple stitching to accent some seams... I love it, it fitted like a glove and I could actually breath in it.

I even made Chris a tie out of the same fabric!I had such an awesome night from champagne, to chicken, and clubbing, to yearbook signing.

Hats

The beautiful Audrey in her (almost as beautiful) ascot hat.

Our GCSE exam for textiles was probably the most exciting exam that I had back then, there were a few basic questions on the manufacture of textiles, then a section where you got to design (and colour) something along a predetermined theme.

The theme we were given was "hats" I thought this was a bit limited at first, with the mood board they had given us based around police hats, old fashioned hats etc.Instead I focused entirely on millinery, looking at the feathers, shapes and fabrics used to create stylish and timeless hats. I came up with my design before the exam so that I could translate it straight onto the page and not forget anything at all.

I left the exam quite disappointed that I would never get to make this, due to two reasons: time and money.

The bodice is supposed to be made from hand-dyed silk lined sinamay (the straw like fabric used for hats) And the skirts from stiffened calico with organza and silk underskirts dyed red. Then over the skirt there would be a layer of black widow's knotted veil, with various red feathers protruding from it. I originally designed it to have a zip, but now I look back I think a lcae-up back would be much more elegant.

Maybe I will make it one day.

(also you may notice that the colours match my room, which I had newly decorated, there is a strong red/black/cream theme in all my work)

And on the twelfth day of Christmas...

Two years ago, I was asked out by my lovely boyfriend, Chris.
Sixths months down the line and we were pretty serious, and Christmas was on it's way. I knew from Becky, our mutual friend, that he was doing something quite impressive, but I had very little money, so I tried to think of something original to do. I ended up getting him a calendar with a different photo of us for each week (yes there were enough photos of us, mainly thanks to Becky). And I decided that every month, from the 20th to the 29th, I would surprise him with a gift. With each gift was a note with "on the first day of Christmas" for Juanuary and so on, I got lots of different gifts from handmade chocolates to a bag, belts to books, and so many others that I can't remember now.
Anyway it worked out that the "twelfth day of Christmas" would fall on Christmas day one year later and I had decided quite a while before that I wanted to get Chris a guitar. We'd been shopping together before in a guitar shop so I knew he wanted a maple fretboard and that he thought Fenders were the best for their price so I bought him a black 2009 strat.

I had chosen my textiles project in Spetember to be "expressions" with the intent to explore "musical expressions" and use the guitar as inspiration for one of my pieces. To point my sketchbook in the right direction I did this wadded batik piece with musical notes: The way that the course is designed means that you need to have some artist influence and I found Lena Karpinsky, who did amazingly beautiful canvas paintings on musical themes.



I used her as my inspiration for one of my pieces, which was based on Chris's guitar, it is painted silk with stitching:
However, I still felt like I wanted to do more with this style and wanted to recreate the above piece in a dress form. I did this as my final piece. The whole thing is made of silk, with a separate 7-layer netting tutu. The bodice consists of four silk panels, with three netting panels, and three netting ties across the back. Down the front netting panel there are six "strings" made from wire and sequins to represent inlays. There is a ruched silk section showing the main body of the guitar.
Modelled by me, photography by my sister Nina. I am a touch photoshopped, I quite like red hair on me...
Around the side of the bodice is the headstock, sewn on to give it definition, and beaded to create the tuners.
I didn't quite get the same colours on this piece as I did on my flat version, but I still like it.


Oh and it turned out his impressive present for me included a Tiffany necklace! Which I have worn nearly every day since then :)
(sorry for the poor photo, we were having a balloon thrown at us while trying to get a photo, but it's the best to see the necklace)

Life is a garden

Wow, I can't believe how fast time has flown by, this was made over a year ago, and it seems like only yesterday.
I have a strong feeling this will always be my favourite creation.
I say creation because I just don't think dress sounds right with this one.

So my chosen theme was "gardens" and after building a sketchbook of textile-art pieces along this theme it was time to complete my final piece for the topic.

It was an inset day before a half term and I went into sixth form with hopes of getting most of my dress completed to minimize the amount of work I would have to do over my brief break from lessons. I went in at about 8am and set up in one of the textiles rooms (by myself because I was so early) and I just got started. As the other girls began to arrive, they all set up in the other room, I could hear them chatting, eating fish and chips, and listening to music. But I didn't stop. I carried on for 7 hours straight, not sitting down, eating, or even drinking. When I arrived home I literally collapsed in a giant heap of exhaustion, but at least my dress was nearly done. That was probably the most dedicated I have ever been.

Then, while watching some rom-com on TV, I managed to do all the finishing touches and sew the dress together in a further 3 hours.

I wanted to portray parts of a garden which were living, and parts that were not. So I used statues, bird-baths, and balustrades as inspiration for the colouring and the bodice, and draped the skirts to represent petals and used pink tones.

The corset consists of a mod-roc centre, a hand-made paper side, and a polyfilla on fabric side. Around the back are two tea stained panels, with matching laces. The skirts are a jumble of fabrics including a bit of silk. Around the neckline are lace "ivy" pieces with pearls strung around them. A felt and dissolved thread "ivy" strand is slung around the neck in a halter fashion. On the hip is a fabric rose and dissolved thread "wall-climbers".

The model is me, seriously photoshopped to have killer lips (ah i wish) and the camera was on self timer - I ended up with so many funny photos of me struggling to position in my very unwearable dress.

Rewind two years

So two years ago, I would have actually finished my GCSE's, so I guess rewind about 27 months, that's where this post belongs.
For my textiles GCSE coursework I had the choice to make whatever I wanted to, which was a dress of course, and due to cost and time restraints I settled on a child's dress.
My theme for this was ragdoll, again self chosen, due to a visit to my adorable younger cousin's house, where they each had a brand new ragdoll.

I was looking for a theme, which was original as well as girly, without crossing into the stereotypical "flowers", "sweets and cakes" or "animals".

My original idea was to have the dress with a matching rag doll to sell with it, but dress making is really my forte, and so I discarded my attempt at a doll.

I wanted to use pink (to keep the girliness present) so I went fabric shopping and successfully found some pink gingham with matching pink cotton for the dress, I also found a nice darker pink ribbon.

I knew that I wanted to have a doll or doll's face applique design on the dress and also had an idea of a pocket.

It took months to complete the dress along with all the paperwork required. Luckily my only faux pas was burning a hole through the lovely pink gingham and having to start the entire torso of the dress again.

Isn't she adorable! My mum works at my old primary school so I asked her to find a model for my dress.
I'm still pretty proud of this even if I can't show it off on myself,
maybe one day, when I'm old I'll shrink and be small enough to wear it?