If I could paint a picture...

What handsome couple... they are in fact my two amazing fur babies Floyd and Isla painted by the very talented Rins Dekker. This painting was commissioned by my dear friend and collaborator on the Light Dress, Karen Curley as a gift to me for my graduation and I LOVE IT to pieces.

I love the costumes, the nessie in the background the colour and falling blossoms from the trees. I have never meet Rins but just through some images of the dogs and my blog for reference she created the perfect painting for me. I am a very, very. very lucky lady. I gave such a belly laugh of glee and contentment when I received it and unwrapped it from its wonderful wrapping paper, also by Rins!

Thank you! xx

So just to finish of my major work pictures here is the final one with a link to my workbook (in which the fabric samples are empty, I printed the journal out then added actual samples).


Click on the PDF icon to download and view my journal for my major work. Leave a comment if you have any problems.

xx

Image heavy... but not in a bad way

Hiya... well I am still no longer a student and I have just been on my first holiday for ages! My parents are here from Scotland so I went on a bit of a road trip with them round the north island of NZ. It was great and I feel a little more relaxed.

Apart from giving my house a good spring clean (which includes my sewing room, yikes) I have been looking at my list of Bubbledust post ideas and its loooooong! But that means there is lots to post, yippeee. So lets start with the last promise of more pictures of my major work... well what about those after some pictures of my fellow costumiers work... yes that sounds good.

Sorry but you may have to scroll for a bit as I want to make the images as big as I can. There are 6 fellow costumiers works to get through! You can click the images and they should load up bigger!

First up Helle's work.

Helle created a witch, but not any ole witch she created Baba Yaga, the witch of Russsian origins. The witch transforms on stage with the inner beauty of Baba the final exit.

Now Miss Tara's bad ass bride.


Tara was inspired by Christian Dior and the myth of the runaway bride... smokin!

Next up Jane's work.

Jane hand screen printed every singe fan, the print on the skirt and gown. A masquerade dress inspired by Japanese patterns.

Now for Eliza's beautiful Edwardian gown.


Quite simply her character's name of Florence says it all. Inspired by Charles Fredrick Worth and of a sublime green this dress had some fabulous undies too!

Now for Liz or as I like to call her Luz who has a love affair for Erte.

Oh those feathers! Oh those painstakingly hand sewn beaded chains and gem encrusted everything. I salute all things Luz :)

Lastly, Kellys work, my 18th century man!

The hand quilted waistcoat (click the image for more detail), the self fabric covered buttons, the pleated stock the wonderful detail and skill, amazing!

And finally another two images of my work from the photo shoot. In my next post I will post the final image and upload my work book of my major work for anybody that may be interested in my research etc. See you soon.


xx

Major Work

I return to the pages of this blog no longer a student... I graduated. Whooo! I have a few things to show you that I have made but the first thing has to be my major work. Remember my post about my inspiration all those moths ago... well here is the final dress that I made.

I am very lucky to have had my dress used in a photo shoot by Derek Elvy, director of Buoy Hairdressing and for the king avant-garde to create the wig to go with my major work for costume showcase.

In the photo shoot Derek used the dress as the backdrop to his wonderful hair sculptures and the photography was taken by Yoshi Su. My model Kathryn was amazing as ever, she graduates herself in a few weeks from The New Zealand School of Dance. The photographs are so opulent and I could not of wished for a better end to a long project.

I am so pleased with my work and will pop up more pictures from the photo shoot when I get a chance... along with pictures of my fellow costumiers work.

xx

Its love!

Oh golly gosh perfection does exist after all... I love this dress from the colours, to the modern lace work, to the shape, the graphic quality, yum, yum, yum! It is from Alexander McQeen's 2010 resort collection.

I am busy, busy finishing costumes for the graduation show, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and tailoring, then waiting for graduation... which means making my grad dress... but hey I may find a couple of thousand hiding in an old shoe under our house and be able to get the dress above *sigh*

I will be finished school this week so expect some bumper updates in the next couple of weeks. Until then make a date and check out CRAFT 2.0 this Saturday, 24th of October and make room for Fabric-a-brac, Saturday 14th of November.

xx

Fringe benefits

I needed to make something for my night out at World of Wearable arts... WOW in another word. The dates for the show are half way over and I can't think why I have never mentioned it before for in a Make a Date post! I went on awards night and the array of costumes or really works of art are quite amazing. But I needed some thing quick to go with my Graphic Ruffle skirt and black shirt (from my $20 bag) that I was going to wear... accessory time.


I saw a similar necklace on online magazine N.E.E.T via a post from Sally Jane Vintage and I thought I would attempt to make one. Here is what I did.


1. I got my supplies together. Some upholstery fringing in different colours and lengths. Length of gold chain and links from the bead shop (but you could reuse and existing chain) and got out and needle and thread and jewelry tools!




2. I arranged the fringing the way I wanted it for the finally placement and sewed them all together... with invisible stitches. I then made up my chain but forgot to take pictures, sorry.




3. The next step was to attach the fringing to the chain. To do this I doubled up a thread in a colour as close to the blue fringing (the one at the back) as I could find. Then I whip stitched it to the chain.


It worked and looked really good with my skirt and I think it will work well the a white tee and jeans too. Now for the finally hat installment, it is Make do and Mend, yippeee!








Click to download the pages from my workbook for my Make Do and Mend Hat. Just leave a comment if you have problems.

xx

In the pink

I do have another hat file for you to look at but its short so I thought I would update you with some of my recent-ish opshop finds. In Wellington it is raining... as I type... and what could be more delicious than banishing rainy days in the pink. I found this raincoat in an opshop and apart from the lining having seen better days and no matching belt it is GReaT. I adore the little hood at the back with its button to keep it in place when not in use, or you can just take it off.

The little woven bag was another steal, it is made in Italy and will be perfect for summer days with floral dresses. It had a rather ugly plastic cord on it but I swapped it with a chain from another bag I have.


I bought a skirt via an auction site not that long ago and I think its the perfect companion for these two lovely items.

Mmmmm, well, well as I promised here is another hat installment. We all had to make a straw hat. I saw a lovely picture of a Lanvin hat c1910, in the amazing Lanvin book and decided to recreate it. The book as also inspired my graduation dress along with fellow Scot, Christopher Kane but that's another post altogether :)



Click the PDF icon to download my workbook page for my Lanvin-esque straw hat. Any problems just leave a comment.

xx

First up... felt

I did promise, so I shall deliver. I have taken photos of my visual diary for the felt hat and then placed them in to a PDF. I typed in all my notes as I don't expect anybody to read my hand writing :)


Find out what the door above has to do with my hat and more insightful insights. I have just put up my design process so this is not a 'how to', sorry. I hope it will be interesting enough to peek into the inner working of my mind.



Click the PDF icon to start download of the felt hat file. Is 8.86MB, post a comment if you have trouble downloading and I will sort it out pronto.

xx