Catriona's Dress

Last summer I had the opportunity to make Catriona's beautiful dress and also design the lace bolero that was to be created from the vintage lace of her Grandmother Wedding dress, below is the result.

1950's Style Dress

100% Silk Taffeta for the dress main fabric
100% Silk Habotai for the dress lining fabric
100% Silk Habotai for the underskirt upper fabric
100% Silk Organza for the underskirt lower fabric
 Vintage Ivory Lace for the Bolero
Handmade Freshwater Pearl & Sterling Silver Buttons

All the above materials challenging yet blissful to work with :-) 

1950's Style Wedding Dress

Handmade Buttons

Vintage Lace Balero

Button Detail

1950's Style Under Slip

Catriona looking lovely :-)

 Thank you Catriona for the opportunity to create something beautiful for your very special day you were an Angel to work for :-)

Winter Wedding Coat

As promised the Wedding Coat I designed for Tracey who got married 28th December 2011

Idea for Design Brief

The brief was a Victorian Riding Jacket with a hood and that would also keep her warm. We were not sure what the weather would be like on the day, December isn't known for it's scorching sunshine up north in the UK :-), after 3 design developments here is my creation,

Photography by Picture U, Carlisle

Back Pleat

Back

Side with Hood Up

Side View

I used diamonte shell clasps on the rear pleat detail and for the side closure which were purchased from Josy Rose Haberdashery, they are beautiful and really work with the deep Bordeuax Red Velvet,

The fur trim used were purchased scarf's and though not ideal I had great difficulty sourcing the right colour fur trim and these worked really well for colour match.

I am so happy how the overall design worked and very proud of the finished garment.

Creations like this are what makes all the hard work worth while :-

Harley Quinn Costume

Last summer a lady enquired if I knew someone who made costumes, being an adventurous sort I put my name forward ;-),

As it turned out she was going to be involved in a Flash Mob Dance in the centre of Carlisle and required a Harley Quinn Costume for the event.



Never one to shy away from a challenge, I accepted the mission to complete the said costume from a roughly dissected then hand stitched pair of lycra onesies, 1 black 1 red and 1 metre of white lycra.





I did my research, good old Google images, and set to work.

All in all when I completed the outfit I was fairly chuffed with my creation :-), picture below is the finished garment

Thank You Natasha for giving me the opportunity to create the costume for you.

Happy 2013

2012 has been quite a busy year all round.

 
I've spent more time on my blog,
I hope to publish more of my achievements during 2013

I've been a very busy grandma, spending time with my very cute grand-daughter Ella, she's now 15 months old and coming along in leaps & bounds,
 and spent time with my wonderful family, Danielle my beautiful daughter & Scott my wonderful hubby, pictured below at Ella's 1st Birthday

Ella , Danielle & Scott, on Ella's 1st Birthday

I've began to put more thought into my creative idea's & skills,
I'm learning new skills constantly
while simultaneously nurturing and perfecting the skills I already possess,

Yes 2012 has been a wonderful year filled with achievements, happiness and Bliss
I hope to continue my Bliss in 2013

I would like to wish everyone a Blissfully Happy 2013 

filled with Happiness and Success 

Atonement Green Silk Dress Inspired Pattern

Original Green Silk Dress

Jacqueline Durran Sketch

Here are my dress creations (pictured below) that were inspired by Keira Knightley's Green Silk Skirt & Top (pictured above) that she wore for the film Atonement. 

Suzannah's Dress

Lyndsey's Dress

I intend to take the pattern pieces for both versions of the dress that I have created inspired by the Green Silk Skirt & Top from the film Atonement and draft up different size pattern pieces for both creations so I can then re-create these dresses in a selection of sizes & styles. 

As I have further developed the dress I feel the pattern pieces and construction methods are now unique to each dress.

So even though, and this is the confusing bit :-), the 1st toile which I created on my original teal version of the dress, I used some of the pattern pieces from Vogue pattern 7365 to create the gore panel on the back and the bust/neckline. Once the 1st toile had been created it was then dissected to create the 2nd Toile, which in turn was altered and finally adjusted to construct the 3rd toile. 

It was from the 3rd toile I made actual pattern pieces to cut and construct the finished version of the silk dress in teal.

For the 2nd corset top version of the dress I used my own pattern pieces that I had created from the 1st dress and a basic corset top and re-sized them to developed this version of the dress, I created 2 toiles for this version before finally cutting the dress from the silk.

Atonement Inspired Dress with Corset Top

My next creation for the Atonement inspired dress was the garment I designed for bridesmaid Lyndsey for her Sister's wedding last Christmas.

Front & Back

Back Detail

I designed the corset top, that was laced at the back with satin ribbon, to be attached to the adapted the lower dress, a side slit was added to the front on the left with the hip wrap knotted on the left above the slit, again the dress is made using 100% silk, Habotai Silk for the lining and 16 mommy Crepe De Chine for the main fabric.

The silk was purchased from Beckford Silk as always, who are absolutely wonderful. On this occasion the fabric I ordered had to be specially dyed to match a velvet fabric I was using for the Jacket I was designing for the Bride. The match was wonderful.

I would now say this garment and the Brides Velvet Jacket are currently my signature pieces,I am very proud of them.

Blue Peter inspired CD Rack Update

Here's my Blue Peter inspired CD rack in use, CD collection in alphabetical order to appease my OCD, it does remind me of my student days :-)

My lovely Hubby Scott pointed out with much mirth that Organise CD's has the same initials as OCD, eek scary lady lol :-)

It make's me happy alphabetizing my music lol

Oh the little things

Atonement Green Silk Dress

Last year (2011) a friend of mine asked me if I would create a dress for his daughter for her end of school evening dance, the dress she wanted me to make was an interpretation of the Green Silk Dress designed by Jacqueline Durran as worn by Keira Knightly in Atonement.


I started by doing the usual research, I hit Google lol, below are some of the links I found;

Sunday Couture - This is a really good explanation of the construction of the dress, a "must read" for anyone who wants to have a go at making a dress for themselves
Famous Formal Wear
Costumer's Guide
As I Said...Blog

Vogue 7365

I also had very little time and only a couple of fittings so I used Vogue pattern 7365, I would have liked to of started from an original block but as fittings and time were quite limited I found it easier using the pattern initially to get started on the basic shape and develop my own pattern from there.

Firstly I used Susannah's measurements and altered the pattern to include a waist band and allow the straps to come down the back.

In the original design custom-dyed emerald featherweight silk satin  was used to create a dress with very fluid movement in the garment, it also allowed for the detailing around the neck line to be produced by laser cutting, I obviously didn't have the luxury of time and budget ;-) one can only dream lol. If you ever read my humble blog Jacqueline the dress you created was truly beautiful and my version is in homage.

In my version I used 100% silk satin for the outer fabric and 100% habotai silk for the lining, the dress was fully lined, gathered at the back zip, plus I created a sash that was also gathered and attached at the back zip and tied at the front. Three fresh water pearls were used as buttons for the waist closure.

Vogue 7365 has no waistband so a tracing was taken from the original pattern this was then cut and adjusted so to incorporate the waistband.

I made 2 toiles before I made the final dress the first to get a general feel for the design the second to make adjustments for Susannah, each time altering the pattern so as to capture the essence of the original dress. I should have taken photos of the work in progress but hindsight is a wonderful thing, instead I have included pictures of the finished garment.

Though a lesson I've learnt from this project is to take photo's that I think I might use on the Internet without loads going on in the background, ie without showing my messy workroom and having to spend a couple of hours blurring the background lol.

Upper Back Detail

Lower Back detail

Back

Side

Front

Susannah