Saturday is: Spring time project photos!

Me and Leroy

Yesterday was the first day of Spring, and for once Canberra lived up to it's seasons expectations. I also had a friend visiting me from Melbourne, so today was the perfect Saturday to walk around the lake (with a super cute dog) and take advantage of the company and beg them to take some photos for me! 

 This is the latest hat I have made while attending my Thursday night Millinery course. While it was actually made on the side of other assesment pieces, it has turned out to be one of my favorites so far!

Yes I do realised I havent really posted any of the others I have made yet, so you have no comparison, but I will eventually ok ok! 

I haven't really had anyone to take pictures lately, so a lot of things are piling up to be posted eventually!

Here are some of the lovely photos, it was quite windy, but it almost worked in our favour!

I haved dubbed this my 'Poet Hat' as I can whip out my quil and write my words in ink at any moment....If I so chose...
Or alternatively my gumdrop hat ~_^

 

Lovely friend walking his lovely dog

Here are some pictured of it on the stand....

Hood being blocked. I took it back off and used a tent pole that I found in another room  to accentuate the point at the top.

Dress Stress ">_<"

So I've started sewing a wedding dress for November. Working on the bodice at the present. It's all going well so far. Although at every new step I stress that somehow I will screw up without even knowing, and then I will go to fit it to her, and it suddenly won't fit anymore.....STRESSFUL



This is what hard work looks like....I swear

I guess I have to just build up some confidence and tell myself that I've done enough toiles and fittings that nothing (or only a tiny bit) can go wrong!



Coutil layer of corsetted bodice:
Boning, good... No Boning, badddddd
Need to add more anyway

The thing that I'm actually thinking a lot about is MY dress. I finally have a chance to make myself a beautiful garment, to wear to a botanical garden wedding! Could I be any more excited?
The problem is though.....what do I make? I mean, how often does a 21yr old do I get to wear a truly gorgeous dress? Never, pretty much. And I already have a few at home which have never seen the light of day.

I want to make something a bit more elegant and feminine than my normal style. Most dresses I make have full skirts that I guess are quite girly, but I think I want to go for a more draped elegant style.
But now the problem is what style and pattern? Well making one that is, because I really don't think I can be bothered buying patterns anymore and then fitting them to myself.
But what design? What features? What colour? What fabric?

I'm finding this dilemma very comparable to say, eating out somewhere expensive? As with someone my age, how often do I get to eat out and dine on something truly delectable? Close to never, as I am yet to find a gentleman with enough schmooze and cash to do so.

So of course, being a rarity, I don't want to go and sit down and order something sub-par, or something that doesn't fill my every fine dining desire. Normally I sit there for a very long time, seriously stressing thinking, 'What if I order the wrong thing?'
It has happened a few times when I used to go out with my boyfriend, and he would somehow always order the better dish, and I'd always be punching myself on the inside, thinking 'WHY, OH WHY DID I MAKE THE WRONG DECISION! WHEN WILL I EVER EAT LIKE THIS AGAIN?!' *Sigh* 


I want it to look elegant, but not overly simplistic, I want to be able to use a technique I've never gotten to use before, I want to make it out of a gorgeous fabric, and I want to be able to stand there and get to say 'Why yes, I did make Samantha's Wedding dress. Oh! And I also made my own.' Mwahahaha ^__^




I figured these Melissa's I already have will be perfect to wear to an outdoor garden wedding! No heal sinking issues, and no issues with them getting dirty! Win!

Essentially I'll be a walking advertisement for my work, and seeing as it will be a first, I don't want to get anything wrong.

 

There are a couple of dress's I've found online by some lovely sewers that have caught my eye.



The main on being 'The Dress' made by madalynne who has a very wonderful blog, and probably has my dream job! Her dress was based on this BHLDN gown. Seriously have a look through their website, some quite incredible dresses.

The Dress - madalynne

This colour combo looks great on us 'fair' types. I generally cant wear black because it's just far to harsh on me with my light hair as well.

After a lot of thinking, this is the dress design IIthink I'm going to go with, and a similar colour scheme. She choose great colours to match her (and my) fair complextion. I even went through a huge swatch card of colours, and I still came out with almost the same picks!

madalynne was even nice enough to send me through an email with some specs on how she made this lovely dress, and said that I could post her beautiful photo's on my blog ^__^

All I did was post a comment and she sent me an email directly!

 

Similarly she made this dress to attend a friends wedding.

I'm so glad I got into this blogging business, otherwise who knows if I would have come across her amazing blog! She has a huge catalogue of pattern making information with a lot of tips that you would probably never find anywhere else. Guess that's the advantage of being a technical designer, you know all the insiders tricks ;-)

 

 The Dress - madalynne

Below are some other designs that deserve a particular mention, as both have had some cconsiderable though put towards them.

So Sew Lovely posted her flip turn dress based on the pattern magic book about two weeks ago. She really gave life to this dress. I wasn't overly drawn the pattern by the pictures in Pattern Magic, so it's great to see it made up so wonderfully! Its a very versatille dress pattern now that I see it, and I think it could be done up really chic in a medium weight silk. I'd probably add a bit more fullness to the 'flip' area, so a few more folds fell through, and then maybe some length to the end that comes through.





Pattern Magic Flip turn Dress

Lastly, found this is a magazine a fair while back and really liked some of the feature's. Others are not quite to my taste, but essentially from the waist down, pretty stunning, reminds me of the shape dresses from the early 1900's created.

I really like the pleated zig zag feature, It would be a lot of work to get it right, but its gorgeous and screams couture!

I'm thinking I'll treat myself to some (very well researched and priced) 4 ply silk.



Two colours I think Ill use. Probably more the second, with highlights or accents of the first to match my shoes. However this fabric is $60 per YARD! Eeep! and without postage You can see above that I love the colour combination madalynne has used!

I've found another website which sells 4 ply silk for $35 per meter, but the colours aren't as nice from what I can tell, because it's a bit of a dodgy picture of a sample card! Oh oh wait I just found on Mood fabric it is $40 per yard and has a great colour range! ^__^ YAY....too bad they don't have an international postage option on their page!

Although I am very in love with the grey/purple above, I can't go anything more purple or lighter than that, as the bridesmaids are wearing lavender, and I don't want to come off as a bridesmaid wanna be! Oh gosh :/

Please leave your opinions/thoughts/ideas! I'd love to hear them! Or if you know a good fabric store on line for buying some beautiful 4 ply silk, hit us up!!

Also, just a general thing.....does anyone else find formatting their blog posts an absolutely b***!!?!?! Or maybe it's just the computers I use.... Also, anyone find it funny that in spell check, 'Blog' isn't considered a word....? hehe



An inspiring workplace

Laura Laine for  MUSE MAGAZINE

There are pro's and con's to the job I currently have. The con's being that I don't really find it interesting at all, that I'm pretty much constantly bored, even when i'm busy because all the work is just so dull, and worst of all, when I have clients in, it can actually be ridiculously stressful. Oh and the fact that there is never a thank you or any recognition because I sit alone all day and know one has any idea of what I do.

BUT. The upside. When there isn't anything to do. I can get a lot of personal stuff done....but you didn't hear this from me....

Examples of productive personal things I've accomplished:

- Printing and reading pretty much all of Suan Khalje's Bridal Couture and my order of assembly for my current wedding dress project

- Beading lace for one of my millinery projects

- Completeing units for my Advanced Diploma of Management

-Loads of online shopping.... *oops*

But the best bit is......drum roll please....

 

Blogging and reading blogs!!!

(=^-ω-^=)

  

Next week however I will be moving into the 'reworked' role of mine, which means I will be moving out of my iscolated office (yay) and moving to reception where I probably won't ever be able to cruise the interwebz (boo)

 

So I thought I would just share something I stumbled upon this morning, as I might not get many other chances to do so!

 

Laura Laine is a Helsinki based illustrator.

She has studied fashion design at University of Art and Design Helsinki, but during her studies focused on fashion illustration. After completing her studies she has been working full-time as a freelance illustrator and is also teaching fashion illustration at the university.

          

Her recent clients include Vogue Nippon, GAP, I.T. store, Elle, Zara, Telegraph, Rad Hourani, The New York Times T magazine, Tommy Hilfiger, Muse magazine, The Guardian, I.T. Post magazine, Iben Hoej, and Daniel Palillo. She has also exhibited in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

 

 

KITSUNE NOIR

  

WTF MAGAZINE

HIDE&CHIC

WUNDER 2 

 

 MELBOURNE’S GPO

 

I would seriously consider all of these for tattoos if I was ever game enough to really get one.

I especially enjoy the hair and all the individually drawn strands of hair. I'm pretty much a sucker for any well drawn girlies wearing pretty clothing in a whimsical style, but the attention to detail and the contrast Laura uses is pretty incredible. Oh the great things I find while im at work!

Also, id say that one of my favorite mediums is  monochromatic pen and pencil, so really her work just hits the spot for me.

How did I miss this amazing installation in Melbournes GPO??

Oh right....that's because I don't live there :(

 

  

On a completely related note. How can postage for one book cost $41.00 on Amazon? Whatever I'll just buy it from bookdepositry mwahahah