Fabric Haul

 Hello! I hope you all had a good week and have a good weekend coming up! I wanted to do a slightly different post today (something which may not appeal to anyone i.e. probably no-one) so if you have no interest in fabric/sewing/design then feel free to skip this post! I've taken the idea of the famous clothes haul and instead I'm going to show you some of the fabrics I've collected recently or are ready and waiting to be used. I buy a lot of my fabric from Southall where there's a lot of really nice choices at cheaper prices than the average fabric shop. They also bring a lot of new fabrics in regularly so there's always something different to choose from. My mum chooses quite a few of my fabrics when she's passing the market so it's always quite exciting seeing what she picked out (luckily she has a very similar taste to me). I love the fact that with a length of fabric there are so many possibilities - making a dress, a top, a skirt.... you get the idea. Anyway, enough of my ramblings.... here is just a few from my big pile of material.... Let me know if you have any ideas of things to make!....

Felicity Brown

This designer I've actually known about for a while (unusual, I know!). Her designs are so inspiring with the use of fabrics and structure. Part of my textiles coursework was to do a critical study response on one of her designs so I really do understand how hard it is to create these amazing dresses! The designer, herself, is based in London and is running the label with her brother. Have a look at the collections...

Autumn/Winter 10

The stunning photography in this collection really draws out the overall feeling and mood of these designs. I love the simplicity they have and the movement the fabric gives to the pieces. All of Felicity Brown's collections are quite small and she tends to only have around about 15 looks (sometimes less or more) for each season but I think this really makes each design incredibly well-made and amazing quality. 

Spring/Summer 11

Who could not love that texture? This was the collection from which I attempted to do a critical study - it's a lot harder than it looks!

 Autumn/Winter 11

Incredible collection. The actual discovery of this designer for me dates back to when I went to the Ballgown Exhibition at the V&A museum. The dress at the top right was one of the pieces there and it was incredible to see it in real-life. It really gives you the chance to see the amount of time and effort that goes into creating a dress like that.

Spring/Summer 12

A bit more toned down here but I love the the string-like pieces in these designs. I was reminded of this collection when I went to the Valentino exhibition. One of his main techniques was to use strings of fabrics, just like above, to create wonderful dresses. Perhaps Felicity Brown took inspiration from him, who knows?

Autumn/Winter 13

 I was rather disappointed to see this collection. The one thing that I loved about this designer was her unique take on the fabric that she used and the unusual structures she created. Although these designs are still great, compared to here previous designs I feel they are rather lacking. Sorry to end on a rather low note! Anyway, it's not just my opinion - what do you think of Felicity Brown's collections?

P.S. Giveaway coming soon!

Something a bit out there...

I believe this is my first post in 2013, so Happy (a bit late) New Year! I'm hoping to start making a few more things this year (that's if I stick to my New Years Resolutions) so should be doing some more posts like this, as well as some more outfit posts. I've added a couple of new pages to the site - an About Me section (feel free to read it if you want) and a page called 'An outfit a day'. This is more for my personal use to look back on but feel free to check it out every now and again. 

Back to today, and I've made something! This is actually for part of my textiles coursework at school but I thought I'd show you to see what you all think of it. I had to do a critical response based on Alexander McQueen. The photos below show the designs which I used as inspiration for my response. I made the dress using some old skirt fabric as a lining (not sure where this came from - it was on my bedroom floor!), and some lace which originally came from an old curtain. I then created ruffles and gathers to create the final dress. I'm also wearing a wide black belt I've had for years. 

                 
            

               

                                       

What do you all think?

What did I get for Xmas?.....Fabric!

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and Happy Boxing Day! One present I got (as you can probably tell from the title) was fabric. My parents tend to give me fabric rather than actual clothes due to the risk of me not liking what they get me, although I don't think I'm actually that fussy (Ok that's a lie). Anyway, I haven't made anything in a while (the last proper thing I made was probably my prom dress) since it's hard to find the time as well as the motivation to actually start the project. I'd say that's one of my biggest flaws - I always have trouble actually starting big projects. I made the following skirt actually on Christmas day. I know, I know, it seems crazy to spend time making something on Christmas but I find it's one of the few days I have the chance to make something, plus I enjoy it (and there's no-one bugging you because they're all downstairs playing with their presents!). It took me about 2 hours so I'm quite pleased with it. It's not bad for a couple of hours work. I really like the style of it and the way that the fabric folds over at the front. It's a bit like a wrap skirt. I used two types of fabric for this - some plain black fabric for the lining and this really nice silver, stretchy fabric for the outside. I was actually really surprised when I finished it because nothing went drastically wrong. There was one point where the zip broke (I was so lucky I actually had a zip spare) but with a bit of effort and unpicking I managed to fix it. Obviously there are things I don't like about it - the stitching and the shape, but overall I'm fairly happy with it.

In the photos below, I'm wearing my skirt with a shirt from Topshop (a Christmas present) and a necklace (another Christmas present).

Panel skirt

I had an Inset Day today so I had some free time to create something new. I found this skirt on the Topshop website and I love it! However, it's £70, so I decided to make my own version.

I found some old black trousers (as you can see below) and used these as the base of the skirt.

I unpicked the seams so that I could sew the legs together to create a skirt. I also adjusted it to make sure it was the right size.

Then in order to create the panel I created a pattern (using newspaper) and used this to cut out some fabric and to cut it out of the trousers.

I then sewed the fabric onto the trouser fabric and joined the pieces together (as below).

Finally I had to hem the edges and create the panelled effect. The final skirt is below. As always there are many improvements I could have made (I'm a real perfectionist and there's always something I don't like about what I make!) such as the stitching and the panels but I'd say it was a pretty good job for 1/2 a day's work! (and it was free!)