Christmas & Steampunk!!

One of the best things about being a seamstress is the variety of things I get involved in.  At the beginning of the month I was asked to make some Elf costumes for The Goodwood Actors Guild - the costumes had to be smart as it was for one of the Christmas Parties at Goodwood House.  I used cotton velvet and a bit of tartan for trimming - very smart elves :)

Later in the month I was invited to the Goodwood staff party, the Goodwood Actors Guild were welcoming the guests and we had to dress up in Steampunk costumes - it was great to get a chance to were the corset I made a while ago, I love corsetry and will be making more and running more workshops in it soon.

Workshops for the end of the year included making a tie (not as easy as you might think!) and bra making - this is alway a great workshop and students work with lovely fabrics and are always amazed when it all comes together and they create beautiful bras

Christmas is nearly here and then I am off to New York to visit my daughter - looking forward to a bit of fabric shopping in Mood Fabrics :)

Harrogate & Tailoring

Harrogate is a lovely town and the show was amazing - I met some lovely people on my workshops and bought some beautiful wool/cashmere fabric from M Rosenberg & Son, perfect for the new skirt workshop I am planning for next year here is a sneak preview :)

I also bought some lovely tweed and my daughter Amy bought a vintage pattern from Til The Sun Goes Down - I always have to stop myself buying more of the fabulous silk from this company - my students love it and I will put up some pictures of their work asap.

Back at The Textile Space workshops this month have included Jeans & Trousers and The Chanel Style Jacket - great work by all students

The jacket above was made using fabric from Mood Fabrics in New York - lots of my students talk about this fabric shop - I am going to New York in January to visit my youngest daughter Alice who is at Columbia University - I will definitely be paying Mood Fabrics a visit :)

I have been doing lots of alterations this month so not many pictures of my work at the moment, I will be making samples for new workshops soon so lots of sewing coming up :)

October - Ally Pally

October sees the Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace - a great show where you can find everything you need for sewing, from patterns to fabrics, haberdashery & gadgets

There is also a workshop area and I was teaching 3 different workshops this year, Lacey Knickers, a padded zipped bag and a simple shoulder bag - here I am teaching students in the Learning Curve Workshops

I also ran lots of workshops at The Textile Space this month, students made elegant skirts  with beautiful linings and Hong Kong binding on the facing

Silk Lingerie with lovely lace edging

I also ran a workshop called Copy It, Make It - on this workshop students bring a favorite garment and I show them how to take a pattern from it and make a calico toille - here are a couple examples of their work 

On our Half Term Sewing School Students made a Chanel Style Jacket and a jacket from a Marcy Tilton pattern V9035 in a fabric that the student ordered from Marcy Tilton too

Lots more sewing and workshops next month and I will be teaching at The Knitting & Stitching Show in Harrogate :)

September - Goodwood Revival

This month has been mostly taken up with Goodwood Revival - this great event is a mix of vintage cars and fashion.  Part of the event are the Goodwood Actors Guild who provide entertainment during the three days of the Revival.  My job is to help with costumes for the 200 actors - some need alteration or repair (many of them are original vintage) and some are made from scratch.  

On the Saturday night there is a Gala Ball, each year is a different theme - this year it was 'Atlantis' 

These are some of the costumes we made - these dresses were originally white, we painted them with fabric spray paint and re-fashioned the skirt by cutting slits and finishing the raw edges with a rolled hem on the overlocker.

At the Drivers Club there was a full scale model of Stone Henge - we made Druid costumes for the actors who stayed in charecter for the whole event!

Finished costumes on the actors who have been made up to be Sirens - drawing the guests at the charity ball into the Atlantis dining area

Me with my daughter Amy, I made both the outfits from vintage Vogue Patterns - my suit (V1019) is in a Matka silk with Bremsilk lining, both from Macculloch & Wallis and Amy's (V8788) in a tulip patterned cotton print from Fabricland

The end of a fabulous, if long, weekend as wardrobe mistress for the Goodwood Actors Guild, all pictured below

Lady March wearing a suit I made for her to wear at the event 

Some of the 250 tunics we made for the waiters at the Gala Ball

I did manage to teach some dressmaking workshops at The Textile Space as well this month, students learnt how to put in zips, tailoring techniques and how to use an overlocker - looking forward to next month as I am teaching at The Knitting & Stitching show at Alexandra Palace :)

All Things Vintage

Things have certainly been busy since my holiday in Malta (which was lovely)

I have run 3 weeks of Summer School at The Textile Space with students making everything from a coat to a Chanel style jacket, Summer Dresses to 1950's Dress and petticoat.  Everyone did really well and were very proud of their finished garments. - Here are just a few happy students :)

 

 

My sewing has been mainly School Uniforms as it is nearly time for the children to go back to school - I have had trousers to shorten and lot of Blazers to alter too. I did get to make a nice silk waistcoat this month too - the buckle is from MacCulloch & Wallis, they are definitely the best quality I have found.  I sent the buttons to DM Buttons in London to be covered, they always do such a good job.

 

This week I will be busy helping the Goodwood Actors Guild get ready for The Revival.  Hundreds of actors take part in this event and all need vintage costumes.  As well as the 3 days of the Revival there is also a charity ball on the Saturday night with over 250 waiting staff who all need costumes.  This year the theme is Atlantis, we have been making tunics, belts and headresses.

When they are all done it will be pirates and druids!! A busy couple of weeks but great fun - and as long as I am sewing I am happy :)

Pressing or Ironing?

Last week was my birthday and my wonderful family clubbed together to by me the most fantastic present - an iron!! You may thing that this doesn't sound very exciting but this iron is the Phillips Perfectcare Aqua and has a 2litre tank for the water.  The idea is to remove creases with lower temperatures and plenty of steam. It makes all pressing so much better and quicker, particularly on this skirt I am making for a client - 8 panels with godets so lots of pressing!!  Here I am still playing with it at 11.30pm on my birthday :)

                       

As well as a lovely lunch with my family I spent the day making myself a dress - it doesn't happen so often at the moment as I am busy with clients projects but I really enjoyed making this.  I used Vogue pattern, I used black linen for the main dress and pink for the contrast and the top stitching is in pale pink too - really pleased with the finished dress and as it is a wrap style it is very flattering.  I also finished off two pretty bridesmaids dresses in pale pink silk dupion with a lace overlay on the bodice

                     

At the weekend I was teaching at The Textile Space in Charlton.  Saturday and Sunday it was 1950's dresses, using 2 different vintage Vogue patterns students chose there fabric and made up the dresses with fantastic results

On Monday a group of ladies who are all friends booked to learn how to use their overlockers for more than just finishing seams.  We made samples using wool, embroidery thread and even inserted fishing line for a curly edge - the ladies then went on to make these padded bags with zips - all with the overlocker!!

I am off on holiday on Saturday so hoping to get a white linen tunic finished off to take with me, and maybe an extra skirt or two - not enough hours in the day :)

New Website Coming Along

This week has been lots of late nights sorting photos and writing text for my updated website.  My lovely daughter Alice has been working hard doing all the technical stuff and teaching me how to use Flickr and start a blog but its coming along and will hopefully up and running this week :)

Prom season is nearly over and I will be able to clear the house of beads and sequins for a while, one of my clients sent this lovely picture of her daughter in a dress I altered, it was at least 2 sizes too big and I had to shorten it by 7" too - the dress arrived from China a week before the prom so it was a bit of a rush but really please with the outcome

I also received a picture from one of my students who came on my Men's Shirt making workshop - her husband was very pleased with the shirt she made - this is him wearing it on their holiday Mauritius

This week I will be helping Alice finish off the website and finishing off several projects for clients with events this weekend - pictures coming soon