Right Up My Street

Monique Lhuillier, you have a new fan. 

I have this new passion for print. I'm drawn to any form of it and immediately want to know the processes behind each piece I see. 

I'm assuming these are digitally printed, and they're gorgeous. The copper and gold pieces caught my eye but then I clicked through the collection and found the electric blues. Wow.

WWD hint at the collection being inspired by the cosmos, with glittering silver embellishments, if this is true then I think the prints stem from there too. Long exposure photography of the night sky shows similar patterns which look incredible. Having said that, my first thought when I saw the collection images, was of long exposure traffic shots. 

Talking of print, I have been experimenting with vinyl for my current project, which I will reveal more of at a later date.

Images from: WWD,com, petapixel.com and fretnoise,com

Two things to share this evening:

My first module results are in at college. I achieved a 1st!

Also, I took some photos of this railway bridge tonight in a very wet and miserable Newcastle. I love the shapes it creates at different angles. Plus, the colours look bright and cheery in any weather.

I am by no means a photographer, and I was really just testing out the camera on my new, Samsung Galaxy Note II yet I hope they prove to be interesting anyway.

Goodnight!

Its Christmas party season which can only mean one thing- the dreaded Morning After. Luckily, Warehouse have made light of such shameful situations in a video advertising their astounding 90 minute delivery service. 

Selected items only, but there are a wide range of destinations including my city of Newcastle. I wonder if they can quickly deliver wellies or a big winter coat to help me deal with all the snow that has fallen here. Brrrr

Garment make up- Day 15

I began my day by finishing the arm holes as I mentioned. Dorothy noticed the machine wasn’t stitching right and when we looked at what I had done so far it looked like the tension was off. I un-picked and re-sewed the top stitching to make sure everything looked just right. After this it was just the hem to sew, I thought about binding the bottom with black to match the collar and false pocket but I stuck with my original design and simply turned it under. I then marked where I wanted the button holes on the shirt and the back of the skirt. Lynn put them in and I hand sewed the buttons on to finish my collection completely. Before bagging the garments I made sure they were clean and used a lint roller to get any threads and fluff off them which had built up in the production process. Nearer the deadline for the garments I will give them another final press.

My shirt! 

I talked with Jill about hats today as she is offering a workshop for any of us who want to add to our collections with head pieces. I showed her some of my final illustrations which I have drawn with large turban like pieces on their heads.  She said it would be possible to construct something with hat wire so I might give it a go as I have a lot of time left and would like to do something interesting in my college hours.

Garment make up- Day 14

My aim for today was to get my shirt finished. I began by sewing on the false welt pocket to the left side of the shirt. In comparison with my toile, the piece that I had cut for the pocket ended up being a little too short once I had over locked it. I re cut it and asked Dorothy to check whether I was going about this stage in the right way. She suggested a different way to how I had made it on the toile but it turned out to be neater and more professional looking. I then added all of the fusing to the placket pieces and stitched the parts that were grown on. The printed placket piece was to be laid on top of the others but when I came to it the printed piece started to twist. I had to unpick it and re-sew while pulling and easing the layers. The next step was to do the shoulder and side seams which I then pressed. I usually have trouble with attaching collars but this one went on fine. I needed a little help reducing the bulk at the ends before folding the collar over to finish.  We discussed how the arm holes would be finished and came up with the solution to bind them in white cotton. Once I had done this I thought about folding the binding over and top stitching to make a better finish.

My little recycling project

Some pendants I have been working on, hopefully I'll be selling them soon!

All made with recycled belts and buckles, even my packaging will be made from recycled materials.

Angel of the North Shoot

My photographer from the last shoot wanted to use my dress in another location for his portfolio. I went along for the day to play photographers assistant for the day. It was a bit windy so holding the reflector was a difficult, but I had so much fun. Here's some photos I took on my phone while I wasn't needed.

My good friend Lilly was the model and did a lovely job. She also has a blog you should check out!