Inspiration Tuesday

We loved this little roof over a bay window in the little village of Box.
Great Texture.
I love the mixture of shapes and colours happening here.

For this... I have "Ideas"! What do you think?

One Two Five Gallery Exhibition

As I mentioned, on Saturday, 3 of us from the Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt group went to the Exhibition at the One Two Five Gallery near Bath. There was work by Carole Waller, Gary Wood, David Gates, Beata Host, Dail Behennah, and Peter Hayes.

Here are a few glimpses for you.



I seem to have been quite taken with the raku work by Peter Hayes. It has such a timeless quality. Gary Wood's work had a textile aspect to it, but I didn't photograph it. I liked the portals element of some of the work. I am interested in portals, too, but it hasn't come out in my work ...yet. The work from David Gates and Dail Behennah both had a form of stitching or weaving as part of the sculpture. One with wood and the other with small pebbles and dowels. Beata Host's silver jewellery had an ancient feel. (My Danish friend said it felt "Viking"...then we learned the artist is Norwegian!) Carole Waller's textile work caught between UV glass and sealed so it could be displayed outdoors created vivid sculpture which changed with the light. I am sure I could have stayed much longer.

And...well...someday, maybe I would be rich enough to have at least one of the raku pieces!

I will tell you more about Saturday later in the week. I am teaching Fabric Painting for Crafts @the Library at the Birch Hill Library tomorrow and at the Great Hollands library on Wednesday. (As well as finishing up the teaching course! Hurrah!)

Fashion Show

Well, here's a thing!

Yes, I am still here! As you know, I like to post everyday. But I was involved with the Fashion show nearly all day on Friday and got home quite late. On Saturday, I had already planned to go to a studio gallery event with some ladies from the Contemporary Quilt group. So, another day was taken up. But, I am back now.

The Fashion Show was exhausting but such a buzz! We had work from Students and tutors. Some had been beginner sewers and some were finishing up their City and Guilds Qualifications. We had vintage clothes that were being shown. Other categories were Contemporary, Day Wear, Golden Oldies (some of the lovely older ladies in the dressmaking class), Children's, Corsets, Evening Wear, Tudor/Restoration, and Bridal! Some of the vintage clothing was very small. There are several model size ladies who work for the Central offices of the college who could wear them, as well as some of the corsets and other small things. However, it meant that it got a bit frantic at times. They would go off in one thing, go up and down the catwalk, and then run back, some of us would be doing unzipping, pulling down or up and over. Often they would be stepping out of something at the bottom while pulling the next thing over their head at the same time! And it wasn't long before there wasn't even much fuss about getting out of bras and into the corsets then out of the corset back into the bra and an evening dress! We did try to keep the odd man from wandering in and out of the room, but it wasn't always easy! (We have one male student who had made his waistcoat, and he had purchased some vintage kneelength trousers that buckled at the knee, so he could show off his knitted socks!! Quite a few fancy patterns on them, too!)

We had proper themed music and the compere for the show was a man who presents the news show for BBC South Today. He has connections with the college because he took the British Sign Language course. We also were taught how to do the walk...which I think we all sort of managed in some fashion. It did quite help that the audience clapped ferociously as we came onto the stage. It did make you lift your head and strut forward! You really couldn't see much besides just what you were doing due to the lights shining on you!

I had my 2 Tudor costumes there which fit the 2 daughters of one of the students perfectly. So, besides wearing the lovely dresses their mum had made for them, they also wore the Tudor costumes. They loved it!

Here are some photos of the Tudor costumes from when I first made them.

This is from the Early Tudor Period - Henry VII... I made it when I worked with the children at a Primary School.
This is made after the Portrait of the Young Princess Elizabeth. It was made for my Formal Wear Project for City and Guilds.

Marianne asked me about showing more detail from the coat I made (and modeled!) which was inspired by Tudor fashion. You can read more about it here. But here are a couple closer looks at some of the embellishment. Some of the photos were taken during construction.

Tomorrow, I will tell you about our Day Out from Saturday.

Coat - Tudor Glows

While I am working on assignments, I will show you one of the garments that will be in the Fashion Show tomorrow night at the Novotel in Reading. You can still get tickets through any of the New Directions college centres.

I use the above photo for my profile. My friend Gill Gee was doing a photo shoot for me and I got in the way. I call it "me pfaffing about"...a British Term, perhaps not spelled that way, but I sew on a Pfaff!

Anyway, here is a better photo.

This is the coat I made for the Coat project for City and Guilds Part 2. Actually I was making it in similar weather to what we had last week! However, it is meant for winter and besides being velvet and brocade, it is interlined with domette. It is warm! I did wear it for a while in the winter. Now I am back to that size, I think I shall be wearing it this winter.

It is called Tudor Glows because it is inspired by the highly embellished velvet and brocade garments of Tudor times. I split each side - left and right, front and back into 6 parts. And then made a plan so that there are 6 embellishment techniques, but in different positions on each side. Also, the sleeves are made in one with the yoke.

Although it was warm work in the summer, I really enjoyed making this! It has been on exhibit at the Festival of Quilts and also shown in the -“Made To Wear” Fashion Show , Nov 2006, A Quilter’s Gathering, Nashua, NH, and featured with Student Work in the “Popular Patchwork Magazine”, October, 2005. Now it will have the chance to dazzle another audience tomorrow night!

Red Blouse

Today I spent time trying to find buttons for the red blouse. I decided I like the look of the blouse so well as it is, I would only do a hint of decoration with the buttons. I dug all the red buttons out of my tin and found 3 red and white and 3 red, white, and blue. (I had some other red and white ones, but the red was on the outside and blended in so well that it seemed you just had white buttons.) I decided to alternate the buttons and create a unique look. As you may have noticed, I am quite into unique!

I think I have managed to have a good mixture of a classic look with interesting feature. I can wear it with other things than the dragon jeans.

One thing that makes me excited about this blouse is that it fits so well. And with the shirt collar, looks very good on me. It will be much easier to make another blouse when I know I have a pattern that works straight away.

Inspiration Tuesday

This is my "magic bag I use when teaching. I put things in for students to pull out and discover.

However, at one stage of its life it held markers...one didn't get the lid on...and this is the result.

I never replaced the bag. I think the spot lends a bit of magic of its own. Do you?

Maybe one day I will do something like add sparkles, etc and make something more of the design made by the marker.

Red Blouse

Unfortunately, due to the batteries being recharged, I haven't got a photo for you today. But I will add it tomorrow.

I am working on a red linen blouse. Did I plan to work on a red linen blouse right now when I should be finishing college assignments? No.

However, I was convinced by my colleague and my boss that I should include something from the refashioned clothing into the fashion show. So, I decided the Dragon Jeans would make the best statement from a catwalk. And, since I am not totally happy with the t-shirt that I wear with the jeans and I keep meaning to make up this red linen into a blouse. I am making a red linen blouse.

This alone would not be such a problem, but for the fact that I decided I really like the purchased linen blouses I have that have shirt collars. Shirt collars suit me. So, I have had to draft a shirt collar. Oh well, I have got it to the stage of stitching the collar down on the inside. I have to hem the short sleeves and the blouse hem. And make buttonholes and do buttons. I can do those on Wed. I think. I have a tutor meeting tomorrow and will have to come back home to finish my assignment before going back up in the evening.

Oh, and I have bright ideas about some sort of embellishment. But if that happens at all, it will have to be Wed. ...or after the fashion show all together.

It looks pretty good. It is a good colour for me. But perhaps, just for once, I should have been happy with the t-shirt.

All I can say, is thank goodness for audio books! I am listening to Elderest from the dragon trilogy by Christopher Paolini.

Yes, it would be about a dragon, wouldn't it?

And here...the blouse so far.