Jennifer's wedding dress and the 1930's heirloom lace

When Jennifer and I had our first meeting, all was going well. Jennifer wanted a 'non-wedding dress' made from 100% Silk Dupion using a 1950's inspired pattern. "And I would like to incorporate this piece of lace that belonged to my great grandmother, it's been in our family for years and it's very, very old".

I instantly got stage fright and I must admit, went into a little panic. As I composed Jen's quote I worked out the best way that we could get the most out of the piece and after the quote was approved, Jen set out to have the lace professionally cleaned and dated.

The National Gallery dated the lace as early 1930's, which made me feel a little more relaxed as I would have felt a little nervous cutting anything that was from the year 18-something.

We agreed to a simple design and let the lace be the main focus of the dress. The silk was purchased at Tessuti in Melbourne and I wish that you could see the true colour of it in the photo, it is divine! I bought the 100% Viscose lining from Harvey's in the Nicolas building and used a heavier lightweight woven interfacing (that sounds strange, I know) for the bodice.

I gathered a rectangle piece of the lace onto the midriff to ensure that we got the maximum use of the piece, the invisible zip was inserted into the side seam.

Jen wore a very cool pair of black and gold metallic snakeskin stilettos and accessorised the dress with an antique brooch.

To see the backview of the dress click here.

Thank you so much for making me a part of your special day Jen! x

Pretty in Pink Angelique

My latest creation is a one of a kind 'Angelique' dress made from Pink and White check in Poly/Viscose.

The skirt is full circle and is photographed with an underskirt underneath. This dress is unlined with just a top facing and has an invisible zip in the side seam.

As with my other 'Angelique' dresses, the shoulder straps are made from velvet ribbon and the dress comes with a 2" wide fabric covered belt.

This dress is a size 10 and is available from Thread Den in North Melbourne.

Stray Cats are coming!

If you are going to see Stray Cats play on their farewell tour in 2009 and live in or a visiting Melbourne, drop in to Thread Den and treat yourself to something new to wear!

Over the next month or two, I will be doing weekly shipments of new dresses, skirts and shirts so drop in and say hi to the wonderful team there.

All the details are on the poster.

Thank you to Nicole Reed of ashotaway.com for photographing and creating this beautiful flyer!

Poodle skirt inspired Tote Bag for a Kutie

I have been super busy sewing sweet new dresses and skirts since my last post. I just wish I had photos of all of them!

I am part of the Melbourne stitching group, the Kaotic Kraft Kuties and for our first meeting we were asked to bring a handmade totebag. We presented our own bag to the group and then 'pulled a name from a hat', that person got my tote bag and in return repeated the process.

This is the tote that I made, inspired by the famous 1950's Poodle skirt.

It is made from heavy cotton drill, I used a store bought applique and lined it using some white with pink spotted cotton. The pom poms finish off this sweet bag.

This tote was "won" by the lovely Anita.

A beautiful dress for a beautiful Artist

My friend Samantha Sultana and I have done a collaboration and this is the finished product.

I have made the dress from vintage-look Polyester Taffetta, flocked with black spots. I love how the full circle skirt makes that sound as the fabric moves. The straps are made from velvet ribbon and I have made a 2" black, fabric covered belt to accentuate the small waist.

Samantha is a vintage inspired sleepwear and accessories designer, the brooch that she has created for this dress finishes off the outfit perfectly. I hope this colab is not going to be a one off thing!