Rachel Lamb

Designing

2012-02-07T12:19:00.000Z

I mentioned in a previous post that I would be photographing hair accessories on my sister's head, well due to the snow at the weekend I've had no sister's head to photograph my hair accessories on, so those will have to wait until a suitable head comes along.

Instead I thought I'd show you a couple of designs I'm thinking of making as samples:

Given the recent weather, this top one might be a good idea for a winter wedding as it has long sleeves. I intend it to be a floppy dress, made of silk crepe. It could also work well made with an all over lace as well. I see it as quite a sophisticated dress suitable for multiple venues.

This one I've had in my files for ages, but not got around to making yet. Its quite a traditional look, and again has little cap sleeves which I like. I love the back. I see it as a church wedding dress, very feminine. A 'proper' wedding dress, but simple. Those are big pleats on the skirt, not gathers. The flower/corsage details are tbc and won't be worked out until its manufactured, but something can go in these areas of the design, I'm open to suggestion...

On re-reading the top of this post, I notice it looks like my sister may have met with an horrific accident in the snow - she is well and intact, but decided not to travel! ;)

This week

2012-02-01T11:53:00.000Z

Do you have hair that needs, or just would like, something pretty in it? Don't want a tiara or something that sticks up? Just something flattish and decorative? Something that could be good not only for bridal hair accessories, but also just general summer prettiness?

I've been playing about with lace and come up with these. They are wired underneath so you can curve them around the shape of your head or make some bits stick out if you desire. These ones are sewn onto a hair clip, but I'm going to put some on bands as well.

These pics don't show proportion as yet, but at the weekend I will photograph them on my sister's head (she doesn't know this yet) so you can see how big they are. The top one is ivory with some twinkles, and the lower one - which is bigger - is ivory with some fine gold thread and twinkles.

I shall be putting them in my long neglected Folksy shop for sale asap, or I can sell directly to you, if you fancy one just drop me an email.

Some work in progress. Lots of hand-sewing this week.

Ghosts

2012-01-26T16:38:00.001Z

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

2012-01-17T12:07:00.000Z

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

2012-01-03T16:54:00.000Z

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

2011-11-25T15:17:00.001Z

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

2011-11-18T12:55:00.001Z

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

2011-10-25T15:26:00.000+01:00

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

2011-10-07T15:38:00.000+01:00

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.

Smile : making

2011-09-28T10:15:00.000+01:00

The other day I received some photos from one of my recent brides, and they made me smile in a big way. They were just so her.

After I'd looked through them I remembered that I'd taken pictures of her wedding dress throughout the process and that I'd taken quite a few. So as there are many images relating to this wedding and I would like to show most of them, I thought I'd break it up into a few posts.

The shot above is of Tash, the bride and her new husband. I thought I'd put this one in first as, even though you can't see any detail, it has such a faded, atmospheric, summery charm to it. I love that they are in a wheat field :)

I thought it pleasant to show you a romantic and wedding-y picture before going back to the nitty-gritty reality shots about the process of making a bespoke bridal gown.

Ah, the glamour of calico, pen and pins. This is the under-layer toile of the dress - the basic shape made in calico.

This dress was a joint project and Tash had a lot of input into the dress. We kind of designed it as we went along. It started with an idea of shape and that it would be a strapless dress, but apart from that, it was more of a 'mood' than a concrete design to start.

Tash loved the gauzy look of tulle (fine net). The words: fairy, waft, dance, woodland, white witch, simple, textured, smooth, chilled-out were mentioned and discussed.

The look is very much of random textural pleating rather than a regular symmetry, the whole thing grew in an organic way.

One of the challenges about this type of work, and I imagine all creative commissioned work, is interpreting someones words; what do they actually mean? And is that meaning the same for me as it is for them? There is always a lot of checking and re-checking both verbal and practical in this type of work. Its also one of the areas I enjoy - I like finding out what makes people tick :)

Wanting lots of softness and 'waftiness', we decided that chiffon and tulle would be a good combination. The chiffon in random pleats and an overlay of tulle for the gauzy effect.

Tash wanted a slightly duller look to the dress colour tone, rather than a straight ivory colour, so the under-layer is a few tones darker than the overlayers.

These pictures show the very beginning with the layers of chiffon pinned onto the under-dress while Tash is actually wearing it. They are then hand sewn.

Back to the stand and the back is formed and attached. This part takes some time to do.

Below we jump forward a bit and the tulle over layer has been added over the top. At this stage the dress is almost finished. I loved how the sharp sunlight shows the gauzy tulle. That 'bunchiness' of tulle around the base was something Tash liked the look of a lot...

...and the challenge was retaining the bunchy texture of the tulle while keeping much of the rest of the dress smoother, and so that she could walk in it.

Once this was established, I was standing and staring at the dress and having a think, which is something I do a lot during these processes, and I wondered what it would look like with a bit of extra trim added... just as an experiment:

This lace trim is called 'eyelash' trim :)

As Tash didn't want buttons, I covered the back zip seam with it as well...

...and tied it in a bow at the base of the zip, just because.

These trims stayed as part of the overall design.

Almost finished. Not the best shot, but the above image shows some of the gauzy moire effect of the tulle over the chiffon, and below a full length, almost finished bar the odd tweak, front.

On reflection, this dress was made in a similar way to how I might approach a brand new design. In other words, it was more of an idea than a concrete, sketched design. It was very much about the look of the tulle and a 'feeling' that was Tash's vibe.

Next post I'll show you the shots from the actual wedding.

Purest Green

2011-09-21T17:18:00.002+01:00

Outside I can see so many lovely shades of green, more faded yellowy-green as befits early Autumn than the fresher blue-greens of spring, soon to be gone for a season or turned to brown by a plough. Brown is good too of course, it is the colour of chocolate after all, but green is such a relaxing and invigorating colour I think.

Last week I had an inspiring appointment with a potential client. Afterwards I was left with the impression that this was someone who was definitely doing 'her thing' for her wedding day.

Mentioning no names, she will be wearing green, possibly carrying a bouquet that includes mint.

That really caught my imagination and I was left with an impression of a zingy green theme, of invigorating green.

I've made several green dresses for weddings in the past, and I'm often unhelpfully reminded that green for weddings is often thought to be unlucky. Just so you know - I don't think this. Anyway, it prompted me to do some (light) research into why this should be so.

I found this poem here:

Married in White, you have chosen right,
Married in Blue, your love will always be true,
Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl,
Married in Brown, you will live in town,
Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead,
Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow,
Married in Green, ashamed to be seen,
Married in Pink, your spirit will sink,
Married in Grey, you will go far away,
Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.

So if you're into this sort of thing, then it looks like white and blue are the safest, and pearl - maybe - depending on what sort of 'whirl' it might be that you end up living in. Brown is good too, if you love towns.

After finding this ditty, I continued reading as you do, and noticed that it is also thought to be unlucky for the bride to make her own dress (check) and to hear a cockerel crow before the wedding (check), as well as marrying in May (check)...

Do any of you possess further information about these customs and/or superstitions? I'd be interested to know more about them if so.

Archive wedding

2011-09-15T17:19:00.000+01:00

Here's Karen from a few years back, wearing a silk Duchesse Satin gown with a random pleated effect across the body and a contrasting velvet shawl.

Karen is very petite, so the skirt width was especially important and was made to fit her proportionally with a bespoke made underskirt. I particularly like the wide square neck of this dress.

Archive weddings

2011-08-22T16:07:00.000+01:00

I don't know why I didn't think of this beforehand, but hey, I have now, and that's the main thing.

One of my 'issues' with blogging about my work is that it is mainly private, so although I'm often working on stuff a year before the event, it would be unthinkable to show it. Once the event is over it can take a while for pictures to come through, so often I'm very busy, but my hands are tied with visuals.

Until now.

I've made 100s of dresses and outfits over the years, so why not show them? Somehow, to me, the concept of blogging has always felt very much 'in the moment' rather than the past, but why I should think this way, I don't know, and I'm not now.

This is the wedding of Sabine. It was some years back now, but her picture has graced many of my adverts and publicity over the years (and no doubt will continue to do so), because I think she looks stunning in these pictures and the design kind of sums up my work 'look'.

The dress she is wearing is called Fleur. It is no longer in my collection, but a new version should appear sometime soon. This original version is a very slim A-line shape, but actually looks straight when she is walking down the stairs. People have often compared this image and 'look' to Audrey Hepburn, and there is something of the elfin about Sabine in this dress. I still love it and she looks so happy :)

Dear followers of this blog....

2011-08-19T17:33:00.000+01:00

....thank you so much for your interest - I love the fact that I have recently generated a new follower too - whoever you are!

There is, however, a problem with the 'Followers' part of my blog - I can't see you. I used to be able to, but now you've disappeared, hence my not knowing who my new follower is.

I've looked on Blogger Help and it seems there are about 1000 other people with the same problem (not joking - its widespread), and no real answers from the 'help' section. So, loyal followers, I'm going to delete you and try and reinstall you - at some point soon. I'm dragging my feet about it in the hope that you will just magically appear without me having to do anything.

So if you find yourself having disappeared from anything related to this blog, please don't 'unfollow' me, I will be frantically trying to reinstate you, no doubt in a blaze of rage against technology that I don't really understand.

Thanks for your patience and I'll be back soon with more weddingy type malarky.

Some nonsense!

2011-08-11T17:35:00.001+01:00

For your amusement and diversion while I plough through the summer weddings, trusty sewing machine smoking, back aching, fingers stabbed with pin pricks, eyeballs smarting and feeling like I could do with one of those chest magnifying glasses that my gran used to use! Its all glamour here people.

I hope to be able to show you some of these weddings soon :)

In the meantime...

Pippa's bum, if you're interested...which of course, I'm not.

Recent Wedding - Alice

2011-07-19T15:00:00.000+01:00

Here is one of my stunning spring brides to show you.

Alice came to see me last year, and more or less knew exactly what she wanted - wow - easy!

The first 3 images are her dress on the stand when it was almost finished. As you can see it was a full length, all-over lace dress, fitted...

...with shoulder straps and a fishtail shape.

Alice provided the brooch (which was actually a buckle that we adapted), and the shrug was something that was added towards the end, when thoughts of chilly weather were discussed.

Here she is with her father, pre-wedding.

...and there she goes - wedded with her chap!

Interview

2011-06-28T17:36:00.000+01:00

I was recently contacted by Local Secrets roving reporter Alice, who asked me all sorts of intriguing questions about weddings, design, inspiration and so on. If you're interested in my answers, you can have a look here, or just browse the site for things to see and do in the locality.

Busman's holiday

2011-06-24T14:18:00.000+01:00

I'm not altogether sure what that phrase really means, but I think it means that if you are a bus driver, you don't get much of a holiday because you'll be driving people (and yourself) around, while on said holiday...?

I often get asked if I make my own clothes, and usually disappoint by wistfully shaking my head and saying no. I just don't seem to have the time, and as I make more complicated outfits for a living, the idea of making my own clothes seems like less of a hobby and more like more work. Like a 'bus-woman's holiday'! But still, I do plan the clothes I'd like to make for myself (a personal capsule collection appears each year in my sketchbook) but invariably doesn't get made.

This is daft really, because one of my major gripes and one of the reasons why made to measure and bespoke clothes appeal so much to me, is that I can't find clothes to fit! Or, clothes that I want to wear - where is a simple garment when you need one??

Anyway. This year I felt spurred into action, I had an 'event' to attend and, after considering and rejecting the myriad maxi-dresses on offer in the shops, I thought - great...perfect excuse to make myself a dress to wear. So after much searching, I bought 2 lengths of different fabric (I couldn't decide which I liked best), measured myself, and.........did nothing.

I ended up in a panic 2 weeks prior to the event and bought a dress instead.

The fabric languished in my fabric box, and I guiltily pondered making a quilt with it 'in the winter, when I have more time.' Then, the other day, after a day of non-stop and super organised wedding pattern-cutting and sewing, I got the sewers equivalent of a runners 'high' and kept going. I made myself a top:

If only it were as simple as that. I made a pattern, then a toile, then altered the toile, then altered the pattern, then made a new toile to check the altered pattern, altered it a bit more, then adjusted the pattern a bit, then cut the fabric out and made the top. It didn't really take that long timewise, but in my head it should have taken 30 minutes, not 3 hours ;-) [Another reason why I don't make stuff for myself much - irrational mental timeframes!]

The fabric is by Amy Butler and I bought through Gone to Earth, which has a lovely simple website. It's a bit difficult to see in my pics, but the neckline has a little V-shape in the middle of the boat-shaped neckline.

This fabric was, to my mind, the most challenging pattern-wise, of the two fabrics I'd purchased. I love the '50's vibe, but didn't think I'd look too great in it head to toe. So a 'simple' top has been made. I thought it would look good with jeans or similar?

I found a solitary pink button in my stash, and voila, the back was completed:

I hope to make some more 'simple' daywear type garments for myself to wear at some point, so when I do, I'll post about them here, alongside my wedding dress and bridal stuff - more of that soon.

Des Dev

2011-06-16T14:33:00.000+01:00

Sketchbook stuff.

Or some design development.

Stuff I'm thinking about.

For future use perhaps.

Maybe not red - who knows?

Spot the difference

2011-05-26T12:48:00.000+01:00

This is the story of how an existing dress design from my collection can be personalised to suit individual tastes.

Meet the bride (I'll call her S) - and her fabulous red shoes! They really were ruby slippers just like Dorothy's but about twice as high! S came to me earlier in the year looking for something a bit different for her wedding. Initially it seemed that I might be making something completely bespoke for her, until she tried on this from the collection:

I call it ZigZag because of the panels and its also how my brain feels when I'm making the pattern for it!

Anyway, the dress is asymmetric in places, namely the panels themselves and the hip seam,

and although she liked the panels themselves, S preferred a more symmetrical look. No problem say I, and after a few fittings and lots of pen marks and pins (on the toile of course), managed to come up with an asymmetric-symmetrical bodice!

Aaah...sweet!

Can you see in the pic above how her hip seam is now straight across? This meant that some of the panels needed to be adjusted in width as well. And if you peer closely you can see a tiny bow on the side of the hip seam where we hooked the skirt section up slightly at the side seam for an added bit of interest.

She also decided that some twinkle on the dress would be nice, so we decided to put that where the tulle had originally been at the neckline. Now you see tulle...

...now twinkles.

This was a mix of crystals and pearls.

So there you go. The story of how your taste can change an existing style :)

No words...

2011-05-02T17:21:00.000+01:00

Predictions...

2011-04-28T09:38:00.000+01:00

Well, only one day to go before Kate and Will's big day.

If you're into history of costume or would like some historical Royal wedding dress inspiration, this is worth a look.

My predictions of Kate's dress: lace, sleeves, detachable train, fitted over the hips with a full skirt - kind of Mermaid style, but very simple. I think it will be a gown that looks very traditional for the ceremony, but I imagine that it will adapt to look quite sassy for later on. Who knows?!

Diversion

2011-04-12T11:38:00.000+01:00

Today I want to share something unrelated to weddings or my work (although not wholly unrelated). I found this and feel good about it. I hope that whatever your reaction, it brings good things to both you and those around you.

http://www.actionforhappiness.org/

I believe that happiness is not a right, but a skill that can be learned. Like all skills, it takes time.

Fabulous bride

2011-03-28T16:11:00.000+01:00

Just wanted to show you some shots of one of my recent weddings. The bride looks stunning.

The dress is made with silk dupion and an overlay of a very fine paisley lace, the removable lace top is trimmed with a different and slightly heavier corded lace.

These photos were generously sent to me (with permission of the bride) by Essex based photographers David and Sandra Islip. You can have a look at their website here.

11th hour info

2011-03-25T14:09:00.000Z

I shall be at Burwash Manor tomorrow, I have a stand at their Secret Garden Wedding Open Day.

If you're getting married, do come along and have a browse. See the Burwash website for further info.

The Rain it Raineth Every Day...

2011-03-02T11:49:00.000Z

...but we were cosy indoors with our cups of tea, chocolate biscuits and sewing machines.

A big thanks to everyone who came to the sewing workshop two weeks ago, it was very successful.

This was the first of these sewing days and it was aimed at complete beginners, although the group was a mixed bag of folk - some with experience and others with none at all, and it worked out really well.

There was opportunity to just get to know your sewing machine...sounds like an obvious thing, but very important for building confidence to just have a go at something.

And to share tips, encouragement, general gossip and frustrations about topstitching with the rest of the group!

I shall run this workshop again - it shall be called 'Workshop 1' until I can think of a more interesting title! 'Workshop 2' is also in embryo and I shall post details of that as soon as I've worked out what we will cover and the dates available. So if you're interested in learning to sew, or couldn't make the first workshop, please watch this space for further details. I shall also post details on my Facebook Page.

Oh, and I almost forgot: many thanks to whoever washed up the tea-cups at the end of the day, and to everyone who helped me load up my car! Much appreciated x

Piles...

2011-02-17T17:31:00.000Z

...of stuff in preparation for my 1st sewing workshop taking place this Saturday. Who knew cutting out approximately 500 rectangles of calico could be so relaxing? :) It really is! Probably because its such a repetitive task with very little chance of error...

Loads of stuff going on around here at the moment, some of which I can't share yet, so please forgive the long gaps between posts. I am still alive, still making and very busy! As anyone who actually makes things for a living knows, it takes 'real time' to do it; blogging about it afterwards is a luxury for me, but sadly one that has to wait until a gap in the proceedings to be done, so do keep checking back when the mood takes you.

Hello!

2011-01-24T16:49:00.000Z

Well, I thought I'd drop by to let you know I am still here! It's almost February! Amazing where the month has gone. I noticed this morning as I was out, that the day was 'bright dull', rather than 'dingy dull', which for me, is a step in the right direction towards Spring.

This year I have hit the ground running workwise so along with family stuff going on as well, I have been very busy and therefore neglectful of my postings. Usually things are quiet in January and build up as the months pass, but this year seems to be different, which is great, but means less time at the computer.

What I've decided to do when times are busy is to post simply - perhaps 1 picture and a short comment, just to keep things ticking over. This is what I'd intended to do today, but I seem unable to say just one thing, as my husband and family will testify!

Anyway, these flowers are part of a project 'on hold' that I'll come back to some time later in the year. I always have 'on hold' or 'pending' projects, which get sidelined in favour of the urgent, immovable wedding deadline stuff. Which is, of course, how it should be.

A while back I mentioned making things for a photoshoot, well, that's coming up soon and I'm looking forward to showing you the results of that. Also a big thanks to everyone who is coming to the sewing workshop - all places are taken, and I shall report on that after the event.

In the meantime, I shall pop back regularly with my work in progress.

New Year : New Skill

2011-01-11T18:38:00.000Z

Happy New Year!

Are you interested in learning to sew? Got a sewing machine somewhere gathering dust? Well look no further...

I shall be running a beginners sewing workshop in my local village hall on Feb 19th this year and I have 3 places left. The workshop is for adult beginners and will cover 8 different types of seams, 3 ways to insert a zip and 3 buttonholes (depending on your sewing machine). The cost will be £35 per person for the day.

I started teaching an adult sewing course at a local college last year and quickly realised from student feedback that some real ground-work would be useful. So this workshop is aiming towards the complete basics, but with a view to putting these techniques into practice in a garment or soft-furnishing later on. All being well, I aim to host additional workshops for further techniques and general crafting fun later on.

If you're interested in coming along and starting to learn how to sew, then drop me an email for further information (email address will be somewhere over on the right), or leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you over further info and equipment requirements.

Seasons Greetings...

2010-12-22T13:34:00.000Z

Happy Christmas everyone...

Wishing you peace and good wishes for 2011

Fairytale Wedding

2010-12-13T12:41:00.000Z

Did you dream of your wedding dress when you were small? Some do, some don't. Today I'm going to show you someone who did.

Perhaps you read the title and thought instantly of some sort of extremely fluffy 'princess' style fairytale look, well you're a tiny bit off the mark, for although she's very beautiful, this bride's dress is what I consider to be quite a modern and simple look, based on a modern fairy story.

I'll leave the story until the end to see if you recognise it.

Meet Zoe - here she is prior to the ceremony.

Here's a close up of the back of her dress.

Guessed the story yet?

We made a few changes to the fabrication and details within the dress, but essentially its very close to the original imagery.

All pictures of Zoe (apart from the last two) are taken by her photographer John Harris. A huge thanks to John for sending me these images and allowing me to use them. If you're looking for a wedding photographer, do have a look at John's site for more info.

I love this picture above - so atmospheric and autumnal.

Zoe's dress was made of a mix of white silk dupion for the main body of the dress and white satin for the collar, cuffs and bow. The skirt was overlaid with a white tulle.

Don't they look cosy? She shines like a jewel in the warm glow of the light.

As always, I like to show you a picture of the calico dress toile (prototype), so you can get an idea of how we started the project. This is the 2nd toile so alterations had already been made. You can see on this toile that I added a pointy cuff, which we then changed to a flatter version during the fittings.

Well, if you didn't guess the story, here it is...

...it was Edward Scissorhands!

If you could choose a dress or outfit from a story - what would it be? I'd love to know...

Amica

2010-11-27T14:42:00.000Z

This is the dress that I was beading in my last post. I've named it Amica. All my dresses are named because its easier to identify them (and in my opinion, more fun than numbers). Some are easy to name and at other times I find myself consulting baby names books, but that's another post...

Originally this was going to be a dress with cap sleeves, but as I was making the calico toile (see below), I couldn't decide.

This is a type of fishtail dress and is available to order as is, or with variations.

Here's a close up of the beading I showed you last week:

Amica is made from ivory Thai silk, which is nice and smooth and has more of a matt look than many other silks. I wanted this dress to look elegant and simple.

Eventually I compromised with the sleeves and made this sample dress with detachable sleeves so it can be ordered with or without and you can actually see how that might look. I think it would also look good as a strapless dress too.

With and without sleeves.

Interim...

2010-11-20T13:24:00.001Z

I'm in mid dress construction at present, so thought I'd take the opportunity for a break by showing you some beading.

I love beading. It's something to do with the repetitive nature of it and that it can take a long time to do. The feeling that 'this is what I shall be doing' for the next few days is quite comforting; probably something to do with the fact that I can sit still and don't need to pack up to start something else, which is often how my day runs when I'm working on other parts of gowns.

While I bead I like to listen to story tapes. While beading this dress I listened to The Clothes They Stood Up In by Alan Bennett, The Laying On Of Hands by Alan Bennett, By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie and several Just William stories - I am loving the impression of Violet Elizabeth as read by Martin Jarvis!

This beading is placed around the waist of the dress and when finished, the beaded section is about 10cm wide. The completed look is designed to look scattered, but believe me there is a rigid design in there that I'm following!

You may be able to see the tacking stitches which are the marker for the edge of the beaded section. As with all of my dresses, the beading is something that can be altered to suit the individual taste of the client, so pearls could be used or I could introduce a colour, for example.

It's difficult to see in my pictures, but the 2 main types of beads I'm using are crystals and sequins with a tiny glass bead to centre them down. Since photographing this progress, I've finished the whole dress, so I'll show you that shortly with some more close ups of the finished beaded detail.

Summer breeze

2010-11-13T11:18:00.000Z

Here are some fab pics to show you of one of my brides from this summer - Felicity, and her husband Julian. They got married locally on one of the hottest days and you can almost smell the hot sun and dry grass when you look at the pictures...

Here they are leaving the ceremony. Felicity's dress and shrug was made of ivory silk taffeta...

...with a sweetheart neckline. Here's Felicity's bridesmaid Jane assisting.

The dress was fitted to the hips and then gently flared out to the hem.

The bodice part of the dress was gently 'ruched' across the back and front. Taffeta works very well for ruching - its got that crunchy texture but lies very flat if pleated or ruched.

Here's a close up of the shrug.

I also made Felicity's flower-girl's outfit (see above), and instead of carrying flowers, we decided to make her a lavender heart (with a matching flower attached) to carry, you can see the heart on the pink paper next to her wand! We thought this worked well for little ones who understandably tend to lose their flowers somewhere at the earliest opportunity, whereas a padded heart can be flung all over the place with no ill effects!

Aah, don't they look good? It's hard to imagine that it was that hot isn't it?

Finally, Felicity asked me to embroider their names to the inside hem of her dress, so here we can see that, with hay attached! As well as being plain romantic, and a secret if you don't want anyone to see, it can also serve as your 'something blue' tradition, if you like.

Huge thanks to Felicity for allowing me to use these pics x

Shoe Sale

2010-11-04T15:56:00.002Z

At last I have got around to selling my remaining shoe stock on ebay! Wonderful, nay, excellent quality shoes, all in their original packaging and completely unworn. They are drastically reduced because a) They are no longer current designs, b) I want my spare room back.

Here's a taster of what's for sale

For those of you not in the market for wedding shoes - just shoes, all the shoes I will put on ebay can be dyed to a colour of your choice, so are great for posh dos, evening wear and so on.

Please do have a look :-)

More...

2010-11-01T18:10:00.001Z

Just added another portfolio page - Portfolio 2, over on the right.

Weirdly there appears to be a random green addition to some of my lists - this is Blogger playing up, but I quite like it.

Twilight Zone

2010-10-31T18:31:00.001Z

Just a quickie.

As I was about to draw the curtains this evening, I was side-tracked by this amazing sky:

What a perfect sky for the 1st day of winter

and halloween.

Que Michael Jackson's Thriller-style laughter....

Fasten your seatbelts...

2010-10-22T19:16:00.001+01:00

A few posts back I showed you some pics of Jo - one of my summer brides and her dress as it was being made. I want to quickly revisit Jo and show you some more of her pictures, purely because they make me smile - she looks so relaxed and happy *sigh* :o)

Before I forget, all the following pictures are courtesy of Kerpixel.

Here she is walking towards the ceremony with her Dad...

These next set of pictures are what I call the 'swishing series'!

All systems ready...

Preparing for take-off...

We have lift off!

Circling...

And rest...

A close up of the back detail

The happy couple!

I will visit this wedding one more time with some cute bridesmaid shots, but I'll save those for another day.

A dress and something for the chaps...

2010-10-14T12:24:00.001+01:00

Good morning! Today I'm going to tell you about the services of a previous client of mine, Peggy, and show you the dress I made for her to wear at her wedding a few years ago. Peggy is a textiles designer and trained at the RCA like me, although we weren't there at the same time and only met later on when she was searching for a wedding dress.

Here she is wearing the dress on the day with her new husband. I love this picture, (and my apologies in advance to the photographer for no acknowledgement - whoever you are, just let me know and I'll link you to the post).

Peggy will be launching her new collection of silk neckwear this month at Handmade in Britain at Chelsea Old Town Hall in London, from 28th - 30th Oct.

Silk neckwear means scarves for the ladies, and ties, scarves and cravats for the gentlemen. Here's some of Peggy's work for the chaps:

All work is designed, printed and made in Britain by Peggy and she takes commissions and bespoke orders too. Apart from being great for weddings, with Christmas fast approaching they make great gift ideas and there's a colour matching service as well!

These are from the womens range, the pink one is silk...

and this one is wool...

If you like wearing scarves, and love a man in a cravat, get yourself down to Chelsea to see Peggy and place an order! Incidentally, she's also showing at the Millenium Grandstand, Newmarket Race Course from 5th-7th Nov if you happen to be nearby.

Finally, back to Peggy's dress - these were taken while under construction, but almost finished. This dress was a bespoke design.

The dress was made in silk crepe with a silk georgette overlayer and hand beading, plus some tiny inserts of lace around the neckline.

That's all for now, back soon.

Season of lists and mellow fruitfulness...

2010-10-06T13:42:00.000+01:00

I love the classic poem by John Keats 'To Autumn'. Here's the first verse, in-case you're unfamiliar:

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For summer has o'er brimmed their clammy cells.

I can't help thinking of it each year when I open my curtains on an Autumnal scene. However, this year, the mists and mellow fruitfulness don't appear to be as forthcoming as what seems to me, the almost constant rain we've been having here.

There's something comforting and inspiring for me in this type of rainy weather though. I can't say I find it great to go out in, but for me, it's list making weather - lists of things to make!

Here's the 2nd completed item on my autumn list: (Please forgive the picture quality - I'm still learning.) Its a new gown for my new collection:

There's something about this dress that reminds me of cooler months - perhaps its the icey blue silk underlayer; the overlayer of twinkly oyster coloured lace? Or perhaps the multi-layered cobwebby tulle skirt layers? Who knows? It's a 3/4 length dress, and depending on your height, certain bits of the skirt hems may touch the floor in this particular sample, but they don't have to in real life folks as everything is made to fit! It is literally hot off the sewing machine, and is unnamed. As is my custom, I like to leave items 'resting' for a while while I decide what, if any, modifications are needed.

Here's the back:

Almost identical to the front. I'm pondering whether to put a bow on the back, or not. If you like the dress but not bows, it will be an optional feature. A brooch or a flower could work just as well, or just some covered buttons at the back...When its completed, I'll post another pic with full adornment.

Anyway, onto my next Autumn project, which I'll post about shortly.

From A to B

2010-09-30T16:58:00.000+01:00

It's been a busy month workwise, but today I have some time to show you the stages of making a dress for one of my recent clients. This is a staggered journey through the process, I'm not organised enough to take photos of every stage, but hopefully this gives an idea of what happened in this particular case.

When she first came to see me, this bride - Jo, wasn't too keen on the whole 'dress' thing and didn't want to look 'too bridal'. Words such as 'comfortable', 'relaxed', 'I want to be able to enjoy myself', were discussed, together with 'I want to look like me' and 'elegant'. Hmmmm....

After showing me some pics of what she did and didn't like and sketches of a theme produced, we established that something soft looking and flowing would be good, and decided on a silk crepe and silk georgette combination.

Above was the initial sketch. Jo wanted to be able to see and feel movement within the fabric of her dress.

After a couple of calico toile fittings, I started on the actual making of the garment. This shot shows the draping of the bust section. It looks like the garment has sleeves (which I quite like incidentally) but this is not the case; I've just not trimmed the excess fabric off yet...

This process is quite fiddly and not something that can be rushed. I often unpin and reposition many times before the result is acceptable to me, and then it needs to be accepted by the wearer.

As you can see, the Georgette (the lighter weight, sheer fabric) lends itself very well to the movement and flowing quality that was mentioned. The crepe underlayer is also very floppy and works well because it's an opaque backing to the sheer Georgette top layer.

I used the whole width of the fabric for parts of the skirt section of the gown. I'm a believer in letting the fabric do the hard work and 'going with the flow' quite literally in this case. In my opinion, trying to force a fabric to behave differently to its nature doesn't always work.

A bit like humans...but that's another story...

Of course, that doesn't mean that interesting effects are not achievable by 'forcing' the fabric and manipulating it into something other, just not particularly in this case...

Here we skip a bit and she's actually wearing it! - I think this was at the penultimate fitting. Note that there are still pins in the garment - I'm constantly repositioning ruching and pleats. The shoulders are not finished off either, this is to check that they sit well and are not too loose or tight, and the zip is only tacked in for the same reason.

I love those flowers - the edges of them are raw, which adds to their charm I think.

Aahhh!

You may have noticed that certain things are different from the original sketch? Namely, the ruching on the waist section is shorter and there are many more flowers positioned in different places. This often happens during fittings and is part of the design process. A sketch is a starting point and the actual garment is where the real designing happens.

Very soon I'll show you some pics of this bride at her wedding, where she really WORE her dress, rather than it wearing her!

Too soon for stocking fillers?

2010-08-31T20:31:00.000+01:00

I've been spending my evenings making stuff. Yes, stuff that's different from bridal wear; more gifty type daily-usage stuff - eyemasks to be precise.

I love making dresses, but this has made a nice change because they're quick to make and are colourful, so are satisfying on two levels, and...they're practical. What more could one want from a craft project?

I'm a fairly regular insomniac, but I've learned to embrace my sleepless hours by thinking up new ideas! I've test driven one of my earlier prototypes and I can safely say they're very comfortable and soft against the eyelids...I'm feeling sleepy just thinking about them!

I shall be offering these for sale in my new Folksy shop; I'll post on here as soon as I've stocked up. There will be more gift style stuff to follow shortly...

Feeling excited...

2010-08-19T11:00:00.000+01:00

...because around this time every year I get my act together and design new dresses for my collection. This year I'm more organised with the manufacture and they're already coming together. I really do enjoy this new creative bit of my work - it isn't just 'a job' for me, it truely is a labour of love. Being a small business, I am in the lucky position of choosing not to keep to the yearly fashion timetable and this means I can also add to my collection as and when I have time. However I do impose my own timetable on myself so I guess it amounts to the same thing. I will post some of the new dresses on here as soon as they're ready.

In the meantime, here's Kim, who was married this spring just gone. She wore an ankle length taffeta dress in the softest pink colour you can imagine - so soft that it almost wasn't pink, with a lace midriff and a tulle coat trimmed with the same lace as the dress. This was held together with a huge corsage (the detail of which isn't too great in this pic but I hope you get the overall idea).

Gorgeous Outdoor Wedding...

2010-08-10T17:56:00.000+01:00

I recently received an email from Beck, one of my lovely brides from 2009, to let me know that her wedding has been featured on the You and Your Wedding website! What excellent news. You can have a look at the wedding here. The pictures are taken by Crash Taylor.

Beck blogged about the lead up to her wedding and you can read about her pre and post wedding adventures here.

Contrast

2010-08-02T22:52:00.000+01:00

Here are some corsages I made for a recent wedding.

They were interesting because traditionally corsages on wedding dresses tend to blend in with the colour scheme rather than contrast with it.

They were good fun to make. I've since made several others and will show them at a later date - once they've been worn!

Looking back...

2010-07-20T09:51:00.000+01:00

Something that occurs to me as I think about this blog and what I will post, is that when one works with weddings, there is a huge element of privacy about the plans, and especially about the dress. Usually it is the bride and a few close friends or relatives who know what will be worn, and often it is only the bride.

Therefore in order to protect privacy, most of the bridal things I will show you are from the past.

Today I thought I could show you a sketch and the subsequent dress as worn on the day.

The idea for this dress came from one of the gowns in my collection. The bride decided that she liked the overall idea of the design and the fabrication, but wanted to change the skirt to an A-line shape and have straps with a V-neck. The original gown was strapless with a slightly gathered skirt.

Sometimes there are several changes between the sketch and the finished garment because so much of the design process can happen during the actual fittings and when the garment is in 3D. In this case there was only one minor change which was that we agreed that taffeta would be a better option than satin for the ruched bands and bow just under the bust and around the hips.

Although the detail is not clear, she clearly looks stunning!

Spring Bride

2010-07-15T13:29:00.001+01:00

Here is Laura, one of my super springtime brides.

The thing with weddings is that it's generally several months later that the images come through, after the honeymoon and all the sorting and getting back to 'real life' that goes on for the bride. It's always a lovely surprise, and I am very touched when I receive a pic.

Laura is very petite and didn't want to be swamped in her dress, so she's wearing a slim A-line/mermaid shape, fitted over her hips and then gently flaring out to the hem. You can't see it very well in the pics but she has ruching across the body from under the bust.

I think both she, and the setting, look lovely.

Wedding Open Day

2010-03-19T14:02:00.001Z

Alongside other independent traders, tomorrow I shall be showing some of my gowns at The Secret Garden Wedding Open Day at Burwash Manor in Barton just outside Cambridge. We shall all be in the marquee, no doubt praying for a beautiful spring day!

I realise it's a bit early for tulips, but they will be around soon and convey the feeling of spring that I hope will be around tomorrow at Burwash!

Fiddling

2010-03-17T15:29:00.001Z

I've been having a bit of a fiddle about with my fabrics and jotting some ideas down in my sketch book and decided to try making these little hearts scented with lavender:

And this little dress:

This is age 1 or thereabouts, and it still needs some modification, but I think I shall make some more and see what I come up with. I feel like making some simple dresses for little girls - there's a lot of cutesy, fluffy stuff about, which is great too, but I'm favouring the 'less is more' approach.

Gaia Dress

2010-03-03T16:44:00.001Z

I've added a new dress to my window display. Take a look over there to the right...see it?

This dress has been in my collection in various forms for a few years now. It's SO popular! I think what clinches it is it's so easy to wear, the little cap sleeves are very cute and feminine and the lace is lightweight and not too intense. I call it a 'skipping through the fields with daisies' dress! It can be made in various ways - as is, strapless, sleeveless or change the neckline shape if you like. I think this adaptability is what has also kept it such a popular design. It's wonderfully understated and comfortable, and has no boning, although if you fancy a bit of support, it can be adapted to include a boning layer.

A recent wedding...

2010-02-26T10:02:00.005Z

I'm delighted to receive these pictures from one of my clients who was married this Christmas just past, in New Zealand. I wanted to share the images because they show that dresses can be a mix of traditional and unusual. Robyn knew she didn't want a fluffy dress and chose the black guipure lace herself and brought it to me to use. The effect looks great! She looks both 'a bride' and totally herself!

Experiments

2010-02-22T17:14:00.004Z

Outside winter continues. Inside an experimental afternoon with a compass.

The shutters are open...

2010-02-18T15:50:00.005Z

...the windows are clean, I'm wearing my best frock and here I am - tentatively peering through. It's my first day in a new environment and although I'm slightly unsure, I'm hoping to quickly get a handle on how things work around here.