Ghosts

Many of you who have visited me for appointments and fittings will more than likely have received a greeting from, or had your departure acknowledged by Dolly. Among other 'hobbies', she liked to stare at, miaow at, purr loudly to and generally be a bit of a flirt with all manner of bridal customers, whether they were interested or not.

After a swift decline, Dolly died last week and we are very, very sad; to say she was loved is an understatement. If that wasn't sad enough, it felt compounded by the fact that our other cat, Bruno (equally adored), died two days before Christmas. They came to us together as rescue cats and it seems they have gone together as well.

Although they weren't allowed in my workroom, Dolly especially was a faithful 'waiter' outside the door, always ready to greet me or a client everytime one of us went in or out the door. Perhaps it was because she was a girl :) Bruno preferred getting up to no good in the barns that surround us, and was less interested in bridalwear as a rule.



Dolly

Bruno

Working from home, they were part of my working day as well as our home life. They were good companions and their ghosts haunt me at the edge of my vision.

Distraction

Just a few bits to see, on what for me is an emotionally tough day. More soon.

New Year's Day - a few days ago

Happy New Year!

Almost every New Year's day, my husband and I go for a walk. This year we went to Anglesey Abbey. If you've not been before, now is a fabulous time to go because there is the most amazing garden there. For anyone who feels that winter is dull in the garden, I urge you to go and look now, its amazing.

We thought it a good place to go to try out the new camera lens that Father Christmas gave me. These pics were taken by my husband while I was creative director, which is often the best outcome for all on a walk ;) I love these pictures and there are far more than I want to show here, so perhaps I'll post more another time or put them elsewhere.

I find plants very inspirational, especially in the bare, sculptural winter state. When I say inspirational, I don't mean I would try and translate them exactly into a wearable garment (unless I was asked to), more that they visually please me and that affects what I design. Perhaps that's another post...

twiggy buds

I enjoy the time just after Christmas and into the New Year, as a quiet (I hope) time for reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next. I'm not one for 'resolutions' - statements of things I will or won't do, but rather, what I'd like to put in motion - gently - in the months to come. That feels softer somehow, and not as dictatorial, and I can feel a bit bereft if I don't think about these things.

One of my 'areas for improvement' is to find a new rhythm to my blog. Since I started it, its felt good when I've managed to post, but I'm aware as I write that I'm not the best at regular postings. Making wedding gowns is hugely labour intensive and naturally my clients come first. As weddings are immoveable deadlines, often I forget to take pictures or to think of anything to say other than "Phew! Cross that off. What's next?"



twisted willow

That said, I really enjoy the blog when I actually get a chance to sit down and concentrate on it. More often than not, I am working alone which I enjoy, but on many occasions it would be great to chat about what I'm up to as one might with work colleagues and a blog can go some way towards a substitute for that.

birch eyeballs

birches en-masse

So alongside finished wedding stuff, I hope to show some simpler work in progress, some clearer photography, some inspirational stuff, and perhaps general creative musings. I'll stop the list there and see what happens.

For now, I'd like to thank everyone who chose me to make their wedding gown last year, infact everyone who enquired. I look forward to seeing your photos ;) and to the outfits and gowns to come in 2012.

Best wishes for 2012.





This week

On the practical side, this week has been spent:

pattern cutting,

altering toiles,

layering and sewing lace dress pieces and removing the beads from the seam allowances,

snapping needles on the beads in the seam allowances that escaped removal,

admiring the motifs. All while listening to (and occasionally getting slightly irritated by) Stephen Fry, but I think he'd understand.

A '70's inspired country wedding

I've wanted to show you this dress for ages, because I really enjoyed making it! It felt like a real  creative collaboration between myself and the bride Sarah's family - especially her mum, who deserves a medal for going over and above the call of duty in the crochet department!

I only have pictures of the later stages of the dress manufacture and the wedding, but the dress idea started from Sarah's mother's wedding dress which was from the 1970's and very of its time; it had quite a vintage hippy vibe to it, very free-flowing and made of cotton with embroidered areas, sleeves and flowery trim. I wish I had a picture to show you.

Anyway, Sarah wanted to emulate the feel of that dress but with a modern feel which was more 'her'.



This picture (above) of Sarah in an early fitting, shows her wearing the calico toile, which is perhaps closest in feel and look to her mother's dress, but without the embellishment. (That's my hand poking out from her back, I think I may have been hiding.)

During the early stages we discussed embellishment for the dress and Sarah spotted some crochet flowers on one of my existing dresses:



You can spot one of them at the base of one of the straps above and others behind and hanging off the corsage. I gave Sarah's mother the pattern for these flowers and she came up with these:

Aren't they great? So tiny and neat. I was impressed, and so was Sarah who decided to have a band of them around her dress under the bust line.

Here she is nearing the end of manufacture. The dress was made of a light silk satin backed crepe and several layers of silk Georgette, all in a lovely creamy, vanilla ice-cream colour. One of Sarah's main words for the original brief was 'comfort'.

So there's no boning, just lots of lovely fabric to relax and waft about in. The head-dress was her mother's original.

Back to the flowers, here they are on the actual dress. As the overall look was very matt, we decided to add some pearls to the centre of the crochet flowers, which helped hi-light them. And that frayed edge of Georgette above the flowers wasn't planned, we just liked the look of it during the fittings and decided to keep it that way.

That's me grovelling around with hem layers. You can see some of the multi layered feel of the dress as Sarah holds it during the fitting.

I'll show you the pictures of the wedding next time.

Short dress

Here's one of my recent brides getting married this summer in California.

Here she is in her final fitting. The dress was made from layers of silk organza over silk dupion, with button fastening and little bow details at the back.

The simplicity of the design speaks for itself I think, - an easy to wear knee (or just below) length dress with fabulous contrasting shoes.

I enjoy it when the shoes make a contrast to the dress. Perhaps I'll collate some other images of funky shoe contrast for future viewing...

Smile : wearing

Remember this wedding from my last post?

I wanted to show you some of the actual day and the dress being worn. As there were so many pictures, I thought I'd divide them up into separate posts.

Off to the woods...

Love these pictures of the bride Tash, having a waft :)

She looks great in that late summer sun with the seedheads behind her and the flowers in her hair. A really laid-back feel for a chilled-out wedding.

I'll show you a few more at a later date.