Prom Dress

Firstly I'm sorry for not posting for three weeks now. Things have been very busy in the studio with weekends of weddings and festivals and a huge private commission which has taken all my time away. 

This dress was one of my favourites recently and I have been dying to show this for a while. A really quite perfect, a gorgeous customer wanted a proper 1950s debutant prom dress for her end of school prom and I was very, very happy to accept. 

I've been lucky to have intelligent, individual prom girls who are wonderful to work with and I am even even more grateful after I read an article on 'Promzillas' and saw what most girls don for their end of school prom. It sure must give the boys a fright being escorted by brightly coloured, full length polyester and hot fix gems complete with tiara and curls.

My prom girls have been amazing with their own sense of style and have had  ideas for their dresses. 

This is the latest..........................

The dress was made just like our other classic fifties prom with the hand pleated and stitched bodice, gathered bust and its layered full skirt. The difference here was the blue hem which needed to be layered to an uneven graduated hem which required pinning and stitching in place ribbons of the blue tulle to each layer of the skirt and adding a gathered hem to the underskirt to ensure is was vibrant at the base.

You can see our classic prom dress here which is made to order

 And here is our debutant in her dress.

Blue Wedding Dress

 

This little blue lace, fifties inspired wedding dress was just gorgeous, gorgeous, and more gorgeous to work on. Designed and created for a customer who took one look in a bridal shop and was immediately terrified and put off by the overwhelming nature of such places. Me thinks this may have been an all you can eat wedding dress factory style store where they get you all worked up with their hundred of options on big big dresses, satin shoes, tiaras and the whole shebang! It can be a little too much sometimes. 

So she sent me some lovely pictures of herself, had colours in mind and a clear sense of styles that suited her best. I did a few sketches, sourced fabrics and laces and we came up with this beauty of a dress complete with optional covered buttons for the back. I chose slightly larger buttons than usual to give the dress a slightly less delicate look with a bit more punch to the back of required. The underskirt was removable so that it could be worn to parties afterwards getting more use from the dress instead of it staying hidden in the wardrobe to gather dust as so many do.

I know I say this about all of my dresses but this really is a favourite. I am always happy to work on bespoke dresses and if you would like more info on ordering please take a look at our ordering page.

Lady Sings The Blues

This was another fantastic commission which has just been completed.
The brief: A 50's inspired, Etta James, blues wiggle dress in a striking blue, designed to make a lady's curves pop!
 This dress has to be one of my favourites, when I packed it away in it's tissue paper those pleats felt as though it had been made 60 years ago and I really hope it makes it's lovely owner feel wonderful. I think you call it a labour of love when your fingertips have so many holes in,  Anyone who knows of a thimble that works please let me know.

The Illusionist and the Blue Dress

We took a trip to the watershed last night to watch the Illusionist by Sylvain Chomet. I give it complete 10 out of 10, it really was as near to perfect as you would want a film to be and was spine tingling charming the whole way through.

There is a gorgeous scene in the film where the girl stops to admire a dress in the window display at Jenner's department store. The dress is blue and it sparked up memories of the classic Disney films featuring the female characters in blue dresses, maybe this is a nod to the old masters of hand drawn animation?

I can't remember the last time I stopped in front of a shop window and really longed for a dress (unless it was  vintage or I was in New York in the perfect setting outside Bergdorf Goodman's). Some dresses seem to be able to hold that aspirational feature, a shape, style and presence that you don't usually get with many dresses today. Certainly not on the high street.
We are now such heavy consumers that if we like a dress, we buy it, it gets bundled into the carrier bag and off we go without too much care. The dress will then be worn, spilled on, end up on the bedroom floor, in the washing machine, hang around and then off to the rag man or land fill.

I want to make the dress in the shop window, the one you stop and long for, the one that makes you feel wonderful, that's beautiful to touch, the one that will still be with you in twenty years time, that a girl finds in your wardrobe and then makes her feel special. It may be asking for a lot but I can at least try!

I love the way that the Illusionist perfectly demonstrates how old fashioned skills should be treasured. The film is about the end of an era, the way the magician no longer amazes his audience over modern amusements is heartbreaking. In ending with 'Magicians don't exist' sent me into a blubbering mess.

The one noticable part of cgi whirling round Edinburgh for two seconds, looked cheap and I hope this was there to make a point. It hit home in a big way and knocked most cgi animations to the ugly pavement next to Tesco's.  

Old skills rule! xxx

12th May Blue Dress

Not moaning about the election anymore. We must be positive and wish them all well, the best that can happen is that they will be wonderful together, for everyone. In true spirit I have made a blue dress with a little yellow and flowers.

Here is today's dress, made from a gorgeous vintage piece of cotton stored away and as usual inspired by the 1950's. I'm very pleased today, it worked out beautifully and I even had just enough time to add a net underskirt and darling pink floral buttons.

Julie & Julia motivational movie

OK, I know this is very obvious, watch Julie and Julia and you'll want to write a blog about doing something everyday. 

Instead of eating like a maniac, I do need to make more dresses and become a lot more focused.www.makemeadress.com

The solution will be to commit publicly to making a dress every day, a whole finished dress. I'm not allowed to include Anna's dresses as she has put the hard work into making them but I can diversify into a bag or two when I'm a little more stretched and I may also include dresses that have taken weeks, as they are special orders.

I will also tell you all about them and hopefully improve my writing skills!

Here is the first one for Monday, it is also a cheat to get me going as Anna made it last week. Sorry this is terrible! 

I can't quite remember where this incredible fabric came from but it is wonderful and  had been hoarded for a while. The cotton is vintage printed by Warner's and named 'Staffordshire Figures' by Jill Owen. 

It's super kitsch and applies itself perfectly to a 50's style design with a full gathered skirt and sweeping neckline. I imagined summer picnics with ladies singing, maybe Hayley Mills in a Disney song! 

Have listed it in our etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/46577477/the-printed-picnic-dress-ooak

 

Blue Floral Opulence

The blue floral avant garde party dress with fabulous petal corsages in a vintage 60's polkadot fabric.

I really love blue when it's vibrant. It can sometimes look plain which is why the decadent details are needed to bring it up to full volume and that little hint of the pink finishes the dress perfectly. 

This dress is designed to be a statement piece with impact, whilst retaining a pretty femininity with all the petals ruffled around you. As always this is another one off piece available in our Etsy Shop.