Forms

Recently I received an invitation to show my Bernina Fashion ensembles again. I will tell you more later because it was really an invitation to enter them. So, I won't know if they want them till a later date.

Anyway, the other day Kathy Loomis did a bit of a rant on filling out entry forms. Tonight I feel like joining her! Phew!

It is a good thing I saved just about everything about the gowns from the initial designs to the documents with descriptions and everything. It has taken me hours and hours to enter the 2. This includes resizing photos and many other nitty gritty things.
How would it be for those who had taken part for years? You can submit up to 9 ensembles. They must need days! Oh yeah, but it is online, so you have to be able to have all those details to hand for every single one.

So, while I have the photos to hand, you may as well see one from each. I will show you more if they are accepted.

The Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness - 2007

Midnight Dance by Moonlight - 2008

Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness

Some photos from the Fashion Show at the Festival of Quilts.

I was invited to enter my ensemble ' The Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness' which they proceeded to call the Dragon Coat and The Dragon Gown. oh well.

Difficult to get photos because they moved so fast. But I tried out the 'Burst' on my camera and got some pretty good shots of my gown at least.

I did have the most beautiful girl to model it!

She was meant to take the coat off to show the gown, but I guess they had so many gowns to get through, they only had one chance to twirl.

But she did have it off for the final line up.

This was originally shown at the Bernina Fashion Show in Houston. Nice to give it an airing out of the cupboard!

There were small photos of some of the garments on the front of the catalogue. Both the gown and the coat for mine were on there.

A few other ladies I know - I think all from SAQA actually - also had garments in the show. As did the people from Lady Sew and Sew - the children modelled them.

Student Fashion Show

Apart from a few mini fashion shows, we also had the main fashion show this year on the 15th July. We do it every 2 years. As I said the other day, I was helping with the dressing and organising people to get out there on time, so I didn't see much of it.

However, I did pop out for the final twirl round and got a few quick photos. not stellar as for actually seeing anything, but here they are. If you can make them out, you can see that I was able to put the 2 Bernina ensembles in the show this time. 2 years ago they were still on tour. Luckily we had 2 ladies thin enough to wear them! mind you they were in high demand for quite a few of the outfits.

Region 7 - Wearable Art talk

Thanks to Steph, a fine young lady, I have some photos of my talk today in Old Welwyn, Hertfordshire. Basically imagine me babbling on. But they all seemed to really enjoy it!

The line up

 Tudor Glows coat

rust skirt - 2006 winner Student category FOQ

Epic Quest "book" coat

Last Dragoness - Lightning Dragon!

moon silver shoon!

secrets inside the coat

Midnight Dance gown - man/lady dancing

Steph kindly took loads more, which was really helpful with finding the right ones to show what it was actually like.

I also showed off my ribbon.

and got them busy making a bog coat pattern! This is me demoing with a piece of paper. The jacket I was wearing is my adaptation of a bog coat.

Talking fashion

If you wonder where I have been...
painting the room the fashion department is moving into at college...
and preparing for the September meeting of the Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt Group.
Also besides being the co-ordinator of the TVCQ group and all that was involved with that, I did a talk about my wearable art and show garments.

I will show you a few more photos of the day later.

Tomorrow we are off to York for the 90th birthday celebration of my special Mother-in-law.
I will get back to the regular schedule next week.

more leaf and 600!

Interestingly enough, yesterday was my 600th post! I really enjoy using this blog as a way to record my sewing projects, art work and other things that inspire me.

Here is the leaf postcard for the SAQA event on Friday. It will be interesting to see how they work the swap and whose postcard I come home with.

Tomorrow evening I am going to a dinner with a bit of a fashion show. One of my friends, Ferret, and several other quilt artists were invited to make garments for an event where there work will be shown against work from Russian artists. Should be fun!

I do wish I had known about it! I would have loved to be involved. I do know though that it would have been the one thing too many in my life this year though. Maybe it can become a regular event? I hope so!

Bernina Fashion Garments are Home!

Yesterday, Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness and Midnight Dance By Moonlight came home!

The Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness

Besides being shown at the International Quilt Market and Festival in Houston, Chicago, and Long Beach, the Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness also went to a few other places including Brisbane Australia!! How cool is that? Now I can say I have exhibited work world wide!

I was very pleased to see the condition of the garments. We had been warned that they might have a few wear and tear problems because of the speed the models have to change into the next garment. After doing the fashion show at the college, I can understand that! I opened the very carefully packed pieces (it was just like Christmas) and carefully looked, and they all seem to be very lovely!

Midnight Dance by Moonlight

I have already been asked to come do a talk about being a Bernina Fashion Designer for a group...but in October 2010! If you would like to get a group of people together who want to see the garments and hear about the process of making them, please contact me. Just click on my profile in the sidebar and you should be able to access my email address.

doodle 4 and a bit of a trick

Today was a migraine day. So you get photos I put on other blogs.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the Doodle Day blog. You get a prompt every week, and you can do a doodle and then upload it to the blog. This week's prompt was paisley. The lady who runs it started it from a blog with prompts for a variety of art. It is called Today's Title is... I heard about it by having a look at other Doodle day member blogs. So, I had a look and decided to go with that, too.
This week's prompt is "Slice of Reality".

So, I played with Paint Shop Pro to put the reality with the vision. Me with my Bernina girls. I should have placed them quite a bit taller, but it will do for the experiment. Each photo was taken in different years!
Now I get the idea how they can make the tricky photography of celebs with other celebs they shouldn't be with. 'Course they are better at it. but it isn't all that hard.

Special parcels!

Today a received a parcel with a lovely handmade book in it. I love blank books. This one is special because I won it on a give away at Amy Nelson's blog, An Li Na Designs .

Amy has been posting tutorials of how she makes her books. She is also one of the organisers for the Stretching Art exhibition, and has been posting step-by-step photos of one of the dolls (A Dragon!) she is making for the exhibition. Go over and have a look.

Amy and I actually met...well, nearly. We were both in Hollis Chatelaine's dye painting class in Houston. I "knew" her from the Stretching Art list, but we didn't find out we were in the same class til we were back home!

Also, Louise, who was one of the winners from the give away I had, left me a message that she posted a message to her blog about receiving her squishy parcel. I started reading the blog and discovered I may have met her at Houston as well. She was demoing in the Misty Fuse booth. I stopped by there a couple of times to blather on about my Bernina Garment, since I had used Misty Fuse in a few different ways in constructing it.

I wonder how many other blog followers I have just about met?

UPDATE: Hey! Sue B is a Misty Fuse girl, too!

Here is a bit of a mention of how I used the Misty Fuse with the mystery fabric.

The Mystery fabric works well when fused with Misty Fuse over a print or a too bright fabric to knock it back. I used it in red on the backing for Lady Sew-Forth, and I am using it in beige on Zoom:Letter, to "age" the brocade pattern which will be the border. I also used it in the ancient document print to pull the features of Zoom:Language together. These are all fused with Misty Fuse.

The ancient document mystery fabric and the beige and some of the brown are all part of the Endless Possibilities triptych, but not fused.

Featured Blog

Today I will do the Featured Blog, since yesterday was about the 100th post. Don't forget to leave a comment on "Posy for You" to be eligible for a give away.

One of the blogs I check out frequently is Pins And Needles by Summerset Banks. Summerset does very detailed posts about her projects. She is an excellent technician making garments with a vintage feel, sometimes from vintage patterns but using modern embellishment techniques. She gives step by step explanations of how to make a pattern work for you, whether for fitting or for aesthetics.

Summerset has won awards in various wearable art categories in shows across America. She was in hopes of being invited to be a Bernina Fashion Designer, but they have stopped doing shows now. Like me, Summerset likes to develop garments with a theme in mind. I am sure her garments would have been stunning...well the ones she already makes are!

Summerset also makes clothing for her family and does community related projects. At present, she is doing the Peter Rabbit Characters! Reminds me of all those days I spent using the "Chop-Chop-Sew-Sew" method to do storybook and Nursery Rhyme Characters. Here are some examples of a few I did.

More of my costumes are at my old website: http://www.craftycostume.com/ But, before you go there, check Summerset's blog out! http://scpbanks.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: February 27, 2009 Summerset just won Best of Show at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show 2009, Hampton,VA with her recent ensemble "Bluebird of Happiness"!!! Well Done!

Two Years On

Although these photos are from this past summer, I finally remembered to ask my friend Gabrielle for a copy. So, now you get a chance to have a look ,too!

Two years ago I was a winner for my entry in the Student Category at the Festival of Quilts. It was an A2 design board showing a skirt design called
"Distressed and Deconstructed" made of rust dyed fabric to suit the theme Environment: Erosion and Decay. Last year, I made this up and entered it into the Quilts Creations category, which includes 3D and wearables. Following that, I was given the privilege of having a gallery booth at this years show. You can see photos and read about it here.

Although I have been working on many different things in the past 2 years, I decided to concentrate on things connected with the ideas I was exploring at the time I won the award. The techniques included rust dyeing, twin needle cording and channel cording, and hand stitch embellishment. In the photos above, you see experiments with cording on fancy fabrics, including a gown created by draping on the stand, a quilt, and photos of the 2007 Bernina Gown "Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness". There are also examples of twin needle cording on printed bamboo look fabric and striped fabric, as well as calico and muslin. there are 2 child size corsets of the Tudor style. You can also see some of the textile art with rust dyed fabrics.

It was a wonderful chance to connect with so many people!I really appreciate the opportunity Andrew Salmon and Twisted Threads gave me.

I wanted to mention what I did to plan the layout. First of all I looked through my work to see what fit into those categories of what I was exploring at the time. Then I thought about one or two things I had intended to explore but hadn't. I spent a day or so laying out possible pieces which to cover those areas.

Next, I made a simple scale drawing using graph paper to visualise the size of the gallery booth better. Then I cut little rectangles of graph paper to represent each of the pieces I had and some for the ones I hoped to make. I coloured them slightly so I could see at a glance what they represented and also get a feel for pieces might work well together. I started to stick them to the scale drawing with blue tack, trying this and repositioning that. I wanted people to be drawn in by something as they approached from either side of the opening and then to be able to follow the thought process. On the back wall, I tried to have pieces that led from the rustic looking work to the more fancy work. As I did this, I also took note of any gaps I might need to fill. One main one being a fancy piece that represented my fashion work "in the flesh" so to speak. This is because the 2007 Bernina Garment is still on tour.

After planning, I went to work to make up the ideas pieces and the fancy piece...the draped gown. In the final days, I typed up labels to go with the work for people to discover the meaning if all they wanted to do was view. My son helped me to set up the booth, and at first, I was rather intimidated, as I hadn't been able to visualise the 3D size aspect still even with the 2D plan. However, once we got started, it really worked well. Everything ended up in the same general place as the plan, only slight adjustments to distance, etc.

The experience at the show was fabulous. I talked nearly non-stop...mostly to people wanting to know about rust dyeing. My friend had suggested I have a leaflet with instructions for how I do the rust dyeing. So I had done about 150 and ran out on the Sunday morning. some visitors were bringing friends back to have me go throught the spiel again! I also demonstrated twin-needle cording to visitors who were more attracted to traditional types of quilting. I was also asked about doing workshops for quilt groups, which is why I have been working on developing talks and workshops, hopefully for the coming year.

If you know of any group that is interested. Do let me know!

Official photos - Midnight Dance by Moonlight

The official photos of the 2008 Bernina show "Rendevous" came recently, courtesy of Bernina and Quilts, Inc. I thought they might be putting them up on the Bernina site as they have done before. I asked about it on the blog they have set up, and received a reply from Jo this week. "Management decided not to post photos this year, but all of the garments are shown in the current issue of Bernina of America's Through The Needle magazine (Issue #28). Also included is the commentary from the Fashion Show. Jo"

Since the photo in the magazine only has one view where they have tried to show the coat and the inner garments all at once, you now have the pleasure of seeing other views here. The photos are by Kim Coffman. As you can see if you compare the skirt photo with the ones I took when my friend modelled it, they got the skirt idea wrong, and have put the straight skirt part round in back. So, the bit of wit has gone awry, but it still looks nice.

detail of beading on silver moonbeam on coat back

Midnight Dance by Moonlight - detail

Seeing that I haven't worked any more on the jeans from the workshop last week, I thought I would post some close-ups of the Bernina Garment. Some of you have asked for a bit more detail. Some of the details were hard to photograph since the light shone off all the sparkley bits.

Coat collar and star sequins - these are sharp! the coat is very heavy and when I tried to lift it up to Mademoiselle's shoulders I kept getting stabbed!
(Mademoiselle is the thin dummy's name; she is adjusted to suit the Bernina model shape. Curvy, thin, and tall...the other is M'Lady; she is adjusted for me and we won't go any further with that description!)Beaded tassels at ends of release darts.
Darts covered by line of blue bugle beads whipped with silver beads.
Beaded stars on "Shoon" moonbeam edged with silver metalic cord whipped with blue bugle beads. Some detail of the paterning for the beaded moonbeams.
Detail showing two of the beaded moonbeam patterns on the lower part of the coat.
Even closer detail of one of the six beaded moonbeams. I used the diamond pattern of the coat to guide me with the pattern. I only used one or two beads or sequins in more than one pattern.
Fuzzy view of one of the foiled moons on the skirt. I used circles of Misty Fuse which I fused to the skirt and then foiled with holographic silver foil.

Close-up of the front jacket where the man and lady sides met. The lady's bodice was done with another fused technique, stitched and then zapped with a heat gun and embellished with sequins and beads. The vintage brooch at the waist was a charity shop find. I knew it needed something so I went out on a mission and found just the right thing!!Detail of the boa before I overlocked the edges with royal blue thread from Sulky.

Midnight Dance by Moonlight

Well, here I am back again. Exhausted, but a brain full of ideas and memories.

Here are some "unofficial" photos of my Bernina Fashion Ensemble. The theme was Rendevous, so I wanted to depict lovers dancing by moonlight. The model is my friend Aimee. She just had time to try it on before I sent it off in June and before she moved off to Dubai. Although she isn't as tall as the models, she has been very helpful, since the gowns fit her in the torso area.

First is the hat and coat. The inspiration is Walter de la Mare's poem Silver. The hat, of course, is the moon. The coat is inspired by medieval design and sparkles with moonbeams of crystals, beads and sequins.

Down the back of the coat is a large silver moonbeam train of silver tissue metallic organza. For me this is the "moon's silver shoon" as from the poem. Just the beading on the coat took 7 weeks (sort of 9:00/10:00 AM to 10:00 PM every weekday!) and 7 reels of Nymo beading thread!!

Inside the coat on the lining is the scene of the couple dancing by moonlight.

Here is the gown.

It is realy a bodice section and a skirt.

I wanted to realistically show the man and lady dancing. So, one side is the "man" with a "tuxedo" - tailcoat, waistcoat, and straight skirt/trousers. The lady's side is a bustier and full circle skirt with circular ruffles on the hem and a circlular ruffle boa.

The moon shapes on the skirt are cut from Misty Fuse and then foiled. I like the etherial effect the Misty fuse gives. It is more web-like so doesn't give a solid "spot".

Here is part of the commentary on the gown.

Perhaps this ensemble would inspire de la Mare to add yet one more scene to his silvery landscape!

And, lo, beneath Moon’s silvery light,
Hidden almost out of sight,
Lovers lost in their delight
Whirl and dance throughout the night.

When the "official" photos come, don't be surprised if the skirt is round wrong! They didn't seem to read the label saying BACK or to look at the photos I sent. (Both these things we were asked to do.)

I have a head full of things I could say about this project. but if you want to know more, please leave a comment and I will respond. Just click on comments and it should take you to a screen where you can fill in what you wish to say. If you haven't got a google account, you can comment as a guest. If you put your email addy, I can reply to you privately if you wish.

Posh Wrap

So, this week I have been sorting out what events I will be attending in Houston and what clothes I should bring or wear for each event. I realised that although Houston has better weather than we do at present, they also like to crank up the air conditioning! So, when I wear my posh skirt at the Bernina Show and reception, I know I will be nervous and I may feel chilly if the air conditioning is on freeze. I don't have time for some posh jacket, and besides I don't want to swealter. I could wear a cardigan, but suddenly, it wouldn't be posh any more. So, I decided to take scraps from the skirt and make a wrap. (I mean these are really scraps. Especially for the tafffeta. I had already used that fabric for the lining of last year's Bernina ensemble skirt, so the posh skirt for me was made from the leftovers.)

Posh Wrap using the "Chop, Chop, Sew, Sew" method. Basically I just took a length of the white synthetic organza, and a length of the taffeta. I chopped the taffeta in half lengthwise and gathered it a bit with a long stitch on the sewing machine. Then I overlocked it onto the white with my overlocker (US term=serger). I just stuck it on, not fussing...they didn't even have properly straight edges!

The first strip didn't keep the gathering as much, so I just carried the extra round to the end. Then the other side actually worked. So, I needed a bit for the other end. I discovered I had a shaped piece that was cut on the bias so I just thought I would put it on there and then trim it. But I decided to leave it the way it was! Okay I was pretending to be a designer...Oh yeah, I am. (Smile!) So then I overlocked all round the outside edge. Then I made beaded tassle bits like I did for the skirt which makes it all work with the handbag.

Tassle Detail

Voila! One posh wrap.

I like the idea of having one side more ruffled than the other, as I will wear that side against my neck and the frill won't get annoying. Did I say I don't normally do the scarf/shawl/ wrap thing. I will see how I get on with this. If I like it, I may change my ways.