Monthly Archives: February 2010

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Paint spattered ball gown

12/02/2010 5:17 am \ 19 Comments \

Since I mentioned my paint spattered ball gown yesterday, I thought I’d post pictures of it today, plus a picture of the dress that inspired me, to allay suspicions of “copying”.  (And just to clear up any misunderstandings, I am not a professional designer by any stretch of the imagination; I’m strictly an amateur who only sews for myself, and definitely not for money but for the love of it!)  And, new confession, I could have sworn my inspiration was a Dior gown, but I dug out my old Vogue magazine to check and it was actually a Dolce and Gabbana, so I’ll have to go back and correct yesterdays’ post…
So here is my gown….
There is a story behind the gown… the theme for the ball was “Happily Ever After”, so peoples’ costumes ran to fairy tales and nursery rhymes etc.  I wanted to do something a bit different as usual… In our marriage we have renovated several houses, and I have myself to date painted the interiors of a total of three houses now, top to bottom, so am pretty sick of house painting…  So for my “happily ever after” I’m dreaming of a world with the house finally painted and finished!!  What looks like a cigarette holder in my hand is actually a paint-brush, continuing the theme…
I used Butterick 4657, but altered the length to be a full length gown, and eliminated the sleeves and substituted the thinnest black satin ribbon straps I could find.  I laid out five metres of off-white satin on our lawn and literally spattered slightly thinned fabric paint (from Spotlight) directly onto the fabric and let it dry in the sun…then made the dress.  The separate petticoat is multi-layered black bridal tulle with triangular inserts sewn in around the bottom to get the puffiness required.
I hope I get another opportunity to wear this gown, it was a hit on the night and we laughed at my “happily ever after” as it was so relevant in our lives at the time…!

Details:
Gown; Butterick 4657 with minor variations, paint spattered satin
Petticoat; black bridal tulle, own design
Gloves; Dents, from David Jones
Shoes; Nina, from David Jones

Photos at left from Dolce and Gabbana, SpringRTW, 2008
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Design manifesto

11/02/2010 4:05 am \ 5 Comments \

I came across this on outsapop, and yeah, says it all really.
However, I’d just like to expound on my personal philosophy on the subtle differences between inspiration and copying, and a further explanation on my label “own design” that I use from time to time.
I am inspired all the time by so much around me, including the work of great and talented designers and am often moved to create something for myself based on someone else’s idea.  However, the end result is often, if not always, very different from my original source of inspiration, perhaps because of some design whim of my own, or a personal colour/length preference, or to fit a quirky design detail within the practical considerations of my life.  In this case I consider myself to be “inspired” by another’s work, rather than for me to be “copying” another’s work.  It’s very rare that I set out to reproduce a piece exactly, and I’ll always reference my inspirations! some small consideration to intellectual property!
I do use commercial patterns, for basic shaping and sizing, but a lot of the time will add my own twist to a pattern.  Altering a hemline, neckline or incorporating fitting features are just part and parcel of basic dressmaking variations; but anything more complicated than this and I will start to consider added features as my own design, and I’ll label it as such, even though I always display my original starter pattern for reference.
As for the self-imposed fear that the home seamstress often has of “ripping off” designer items….
Take a basic blazer.  Who invented the blazer?  Let’s even take it a step further and narrow it down to a military blazer.  It’s been around since Civil war era and I’m pretty sure no-one knows who actually invented the thing, but it definitely wasn’t Balmain and yet I see fashion editorials devoted to the horror of “Balmain copies”…. please, it’s a trend, not owned by anyone, and free for the home seamstress to play with as much as she/he fancies.
I say if you want to take a piece of cloth, make your own sharp shouldered jacket and put a few brass buttons and epaullettes on, then yay for you!  You made yourself a blazer!  You win!
On a related note, true story: a few years ago I made myself a ball dress that I spattered all over with fabric paint and told a friend that I got the idea from a Dolce and Gabbana gown.  He asked if I was worried about getting sued.  Seriously.
What are other’s opinions on this point?

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By the lake

10/02/2010 4:28 am \ 6 Comments \
Today the sky is grey and white; the sun is veiled behind an impenetrable smudgy mattress and there’s a cool sharp tang in the air; such a relief after a hot few days.  For those of us who like photography; we’re joyously bursting out of the shadows and into the open air with our cameras, as the lack of harsh direct sunlight means a return to our pictures of some focus, details and colour!  Yes, colour is the first victim in our strong Australian light, and as for details such as a pretty print or beautiful embroidery, well subtle contrasts just disappear into a general blob of indeterminate brightness.
Another cause for general celebration is the opportunity for me to don a cardigan; and I JUST LOVE cardigans!  They’re a wardrobe item I can’t get enough of….  Oh, yeah, apart from shoes.  And sandals…. and, er, ok then, lots of other stuff too… oh,  I’m such a fashion sucker.
I left my sunnies off for this photo, partly because I felt I was wearing them way too much in my photos and I wanted to mix it up a little, and partly because I thought I could get away without them in this more subdued light, but it’s actually still pretty bright out today.  I’m trying hard not to squint in this photo, not very successfully I can see now.  Well, it’s actually supposed to be about the fashion and not about my face, really.
I’ve worn this dress on and off over summer; this is the one with a too-short zip that entails much wriggling and tugging to actually get on and off, imagine a deranged lunatic struggling with a strait-jacket in a padded cell and you’re getting some idea.  I love the embroidery and appliqué on this fabric, and the odd subdued colours.  I think they’re set off well with this bright aqua silk scarf, and a little demure charcoal cardigan.
Details:
Dress; my own design variations on New Look 6699, using two cotton prints
Cardigan; Country Road
Scarf; aqua silk chiffon, made by me
Sandals; Micam by Joanne Mercer, bought from Hobbs
Nail varnish; my own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition
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Gelato colours

09/02/2010 3:05 am \ 5 Comments \

When wearing pastels, especially head-to-toe, one is in danger of looking sticky sickly sweet.  Additionally if the silhouette is too “safe” you may come across as grandmotherly or queen-motherish.  An outfit of this type needs some elements of hard-edge or rawness to save it; my ensemble here(worn yesterday) has a tweed skirt, a pink camisole and a little cardigan, all in safe pastel colours, so has all the sweet little old lady boxes ticked off right there.  Not my ideal look, obviously.  I think my normal style is aim for a little deconstruction, not too polished.  But I’m still liking this look here.
I think it’s the unfinished fringe on the edge of my skirt and the raw edges of my cardigan that save it from being too pretty and ordinary and give the outfit that little zing of deconstruction that is needed.  Although raw edges are seen everywhere now and hardly put you in the punk category anymore.  Perhaps it’s also my jade green pedicure that also adds that necessary unexpected note.  And my necklace, while composed of shades of pretty pink, has a kind of random twisty-ness quality to it.
So, “pretty in pink”?  Not what I’m aiming for, but chic enough to pass muster, hopefully.

Details;
Skirt; Vogue 7303, fabric handwoven by my Mum
Camisole; Country Road
Cardigan; own design, coffee and white net
Necklace; own design
Sunnies; RayBan
Shoes; op shop
Nail polish; own mix of BYS French White and Mint Condition

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Birthday girl

08/02/2010 3:19 am \ 9 Comments \
Today is my daughter’s birthday…. Happy birthday, sweets!  So I really wanted to feature her for today’s post.  Luckily she hasn’t started uni yet and she agreed to pose for me. 
She’s wearing a dress I made about three years ago, inspired again by Vivienne Westwood; this time a cocktail dress featured in her Spring/Summer 2006 collection.  I found a 1m remnant of silk at my favourite fabric store and with a bit of design magic managed to get this dress out of it!  I remember telling a friend about my 1m dress during the making and she inquired whether it was going to be backless, or possibly even frontless! but I think it’s turned out a very demure dress!  I used every last scrap of fabric, and there wasn’t even enough to use for the backing of the belt, I had to use a bit of lining fabric for that purpose.  So I joke that this is my $10 cocktail dress, and with the amount of use that both my daughter and I have got out of it brings it down to less than a dollar per wear, so it’s been a goodie.  Another little fact that makes me laugh about this dress is that the shade card was still attached to the remnant when I bought it, which revealed it to be a colour named “swamp”  Takes away from the glamour quotient somewhat, no?!  Still brings a smile to my face now…
But I love this colour, so does my daughter and we both look good in the dress, she considerably more so being gorgeous and young…
Details:
Dress; own design, green (swamp!) silk
Shoes; from Hobbs
Photo from Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2006
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Tea Cosy, specimen 11

07/02/2010 12:33 am \ 4 Comments \

This is the tea cosy I knitted for my friend A for her birthday.  It’s actually the very first tea cosy I made out of all of them and I love its little bobbles.  It’s made from Jo Sharp wool; and from memory.  I saw an example very like this one in a Jo Sharp knitting book and made this cosy pretty much from what I could remember of it.  On a side note here, something that really bugs me is how yarn manufacturers bring out these veeeery expensive pattern books for sale which usually, often, contain about fifteen or twenty patterns.  How ridiculous is that?  You might only want to make one, or possibly two of the patterns in the book (how much knitting is the average person capable of, really), and you have to pay $50 for a whole bunch of patterns you’re not even remotely interested in.  It would be so much more sensible if the patterns could be available singly, on a pamphlet and you could then just purchase the ones you want.  That’s my opinion, anyway.  What do others think?
Anyhow, getting back to this cosy; my friend A is a very classic and tasteful dresser and I’ve always thought of these subdued sophisticated shades as being her kind of colours.

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Khaki and lace

06/02/2010 4:54 am \ 4 Comments \
Today I look a little like I’m on safari.  Hilarious, considering the only wildlife around the beach here is birds, possums, the odd bobtail and Sienna.
I know I showcased this olive skirt only recently, paired with a rainbow of colours; but I just couldn’t resist pulling it out again.  Here it is in a neutral ensemble and complemented by all the soft subtle colouring that distinguishes the coastal palette.  Smudgy khaki and browns have always been my best neutrals I think.  I used to have a whole bunch of khaki clothes I took to Africa with me in the top of our wardrobe which have now inexplicably disappeared.  Surely I couldn’t have thrown them out?  That would be extremely idiotic, even for a forgetful airhead like me.  Not impossibly idiotic, though…
My cream lace top is another old favourite that is more interesting than it appears from a distance; having lace strips sewn randomly all over and lovely old buttons.
My nail varnish is a colour I mixed up myself, after seeing a similar shade in a magazine editorial and immediately thinking “want”.  Aiming for a light jade green I used mostly BYS French White with a little bit of BYS Mint Condition thrown in.  Does anyone else mix their own nail varnish at all?  I found it trickier than I thought.  I recommend mixing only enough for one coat, then mixing the second coat when you need it; as the varnish dries so quickly you’re faced with a gluggy difficult-to-apply sludge by the time your first coat dries… of course I could have just paid ten times as much for the designer colour already mixed and saved myself the hassle, but that’s just no challenge to a DIY-er like me….
Details:
Skirt; Vogue 7303, olive green corduroy
Top; Butterick 4985; cream broderie anglaise cheesecloth with cotton lace overlays and crotchet tie
Overshirt; bought from Tinga Game Lodge, South Africa (stolen from husband’s wardrobe)
Belt; stolen from husband
Shoes; op shop
Bag; made by my Mum
Nail varnish; self mixed, using BYS French White and Mint Condition
(David Attenborough-style whispered voiceover) “Here we have a dangerously cute specimen which may attack without warning, smothering its victim with excessive licking… may mercilessly flay an unprepared observer with its wildly whipping tail…  give this beast a wide berth”
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Wardrobe Refashion, project 5

05/02/2010 7:00 am \ 12 Comments \
Has anyone seen the Vivienne Westwood Spring/Summer 2010 collection, a parade which included what looks like Frankenstein-ed business shirts jammed together in magnificent artistic disarray, at left; sigh, pure gorgeousness incarnate, no?  I think Vivienne Westwood is a design genius, and this is not the first time I have sighed lustfully over her collection.  In a further enticement I also spotted and was mesmerised by this sculptural and beautiful shirt-monster, at right, which I found on outsapop.
Obviously for my own wardrobe I need to tone down the overall excessiveness of these extreme looks, as I live and operate in a fairly conservative little community where artistic fabulousness is likely to provoke tears of hilarity rather than admiration; but I felt so inspired by these examples I wanted to attempt my own version.
Enter; three old business shirts belonging to my husband, which had been put in my “fabric” trunk many years ago.  Don’t remember now exactly why I decided to hang onto these, but I must have had an inkling that they would come in handy one day…
I didn’t take any photos during the construction process this time.  However, the sleeves used for the top have been shortened to be ¾ length, which I think is a more feminine look and I used the collar of one shirt to make a partial attached belt to bring in the back of the top and give it a bit more shape and definition as well as to bring in this fabric colour to the top.  The skirt is comprised of two layers formed by the bodies of the two remaining shirts.  I made a bias binding of some of the leftover fabric to bind the waistband of the skirt which has a single button closure at the left waist, and saved the sleeves of the short-sleeved shirt to make the inserted pockets (see details below)  I really love the final outcome, satisfies my “waste-not-want-not” instincts whilst also looking kind of shabby/trendy and still undeniably unique all together…  I confess it did turn a few heads when I went grocery shopping in town this morning but I’m hoping it was in a good way.  Nobody was pointing and laughing and I take this as a good sign.
Details:
Skirt and top; re-fashioned from three old business shirts
Shoes; Country Road
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