Rachel Lamb Bridal Design

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 wi...

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 ...

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 wo...

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 :-)

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.