Ossie Clark: British Fashion Genius?

This post has been moved to my new blog Should Be Sewing, check out all the fab photos here!

Artist Textiles at the Fashion and Textile Museum

This post has now been moved to my new blog Should Be Sewing. Check out all the gorgeous photos here!

Back in the Swing of Things

After a month long immersion in the theatre world, followed by my sister's wedding and then a stinking cold, I have emerged on the other side, ploughing ahead with new work. Coming back to a studio with nothing but Christmas decorations in stock and having gotten to the end of all my 'good' fabrics (by no means the end of all my fabrics, that will take a few years yet) was more than a little disconcerting. It reminded me of Phillip Pullman's writing habits;

"I write three pages every day (one side of the paper only). That's about 1100 words. Then I stop, having made sure to write the first sentence on the next page, so I never have a blank page facing me in the morning."

I had come home to the BIGGEST blank page, and it took me bloody ages to write anything on it. For the first week I was just scribbling pictures in the margin and underlining the title 4 or 5 times, and the week after that I'd lost the page under a pile of snotty tissues. Thankfully I had some non-design tasks to get on with over the weekend, workshop planning and so on, which has given me a bit of momentum to get my act together today.

One useful thing I did achieve in my first week back was to choose a palette and shortlist some new prints to choose from for my A/W collection. I started with the colour trend report from Pantone, just so I wasn't trying to narrow down from an infinite selection of colours.

I have a feeling Etsy might reference the Pantone colour reports when they set the front page treasuries so it's a handy thing to keep an eye on. The other source I was working from is a still from a fantastic film by Wes Anderson.

If you haven't seen Moonrise Kingdom yet you really must, and if you have you should go and watch it again! Somewhere between these two things I have found my palette, and after much trawling of the site where I get my Tana Lawn I have chosen my prints.

 This first one is Tatum, a classic Liberty design that I haven't used before, the contrast between the dark purple ground and the acid yellow leaves is nice and fresh without being too summery.

I've been desperate to use Capel for a while now, I thought it would be good to have something a bit more solid in the mix and I think it'll really show off the detail in the knot jewellery.

 

This is a Betsy Ann, a smaller, less brash version of Betsy, full of nice stormy, autumnal tones.

This is a Claire Aude, another Liberty classic, but in a colour way I haven't used before, it's a bit softer than the other prints with some nice orangey leaf tones in it, I'd agree with my friend JM that it's a bit 1930's, no bad thing!

This last print is Nina Taylor, it's a seasonal design from the A/W 13 collection and was a last minute pick as I was searching for something with a bit more orange in it to tie the whole collection together, which this does perfectly. You should search the Nina Taylor print as there are some other beautiful colour ways available.

So now I'm waiting for everything to arrive before I can get making again, but if you are interested in ordering a piece of jewellery in any of these prints I am now taking orders over on my Facebook page at slightly discounted prices for the next two weeks. Just message my on FB with your contact details, the print you'd like and the style of necklace or bracelet and I can get started on it as soon as everything arrives, and it'll arrive in it's own Handmade by Bunny Bosworth gift box!

Snippets

I'm back in that hut at the bottom of a garden in Oxfordshire again, this time for a production of Great Expectations. I'm going to share a few of the costume highlights so far (a trip to Bristol Costume Services is on the cards for next week, I LOVE hire companies).

 First up, fabulous military jacket covered in braid, mmmmmmmm braid.

Next, a couple of delicate embroidered blouses. The first one is commercially made (as opposed to being made for theatre or by a costume company).

The embroidery is really fine, in a pale blue variegated thread on the latte colour silk crepe.

I haven't got round to doing the ironing yet.

The second blouse is possibly a one off, there are no labels to be seen, so I don't know if it was a theatre make or a home make that has made it's way into the costume store.

The scallop detailing on the cuff is incredible, but what had me most intrigued was the embroidery on the body of the blouse.

It looks like a simple running stitch outline, with a trellis pattern in the flower centres, but the leaves and petals look more opaque than the surrounding area. At first I thought it was an incredibly small and neat applique, but closer inspection of the reverse shows that this is not the case.

It's not very easy to see in the photo, but the running stitch on the outside is actually the back of a herringbone stitch that has been worked over all the petals and leaves, which is what's making those areas more opaque. I've never seen this technique before, does anyone know if there's a particular name for it? Clearly it's only effective with sheer or semi-sheer fabrics, but it's so clever!

Finally it's this late Regency velvet and damask gown. There are so many details in this dress that I love.

Narrow braid over the curved bodice seam.

Pleated front section, gold piping and a crepe chiffon contrast.

MASSIVE puff over sleeves.

I fully expect to see more of this kind of thing next Friday as I'll be in Bath to see the Laura Ashley exhibition at the Assembly Rooms, expect many photos.

Tutorial: Caped Crusader

We’ve been in our flat since the beginning of December but until Tuesday had been keeping all our clothes in a suitcase on the floor, not very convenient. Having finally got a wardrobe up to our second floor flat I had a mini purge of my clothes before putting them away, and culled a few plaid skirts for fabric and filled a bag for Oxfam. Amongst my soon to be shredded skirts was this wool blend half-circle (dreams of Mad Men office chic but just too frumpy).

 My initial plan was to hack a bit off to make myself a muff, but having opened the side seam I thought the shape leant itself very well to a little cape-coat. So, I am going to share with you how I made a dowdy skirt into a swish little cover up!

 First up, I removed the zip and the waistband (both worth keeping, never throw anything away!) When you lay the skirt out flat you can see how the shape would work for a cape. In an ideal world I’d have used a full circle skirt, lots of extra volume for swooshing and more room for arm movement, a half circle works just fine though.

 I folded the skirt down the centre and marked the middle on the waist edge, then pinned the skirt onto my mannequin with that centre point lined up at the centre back of the neck. If you’re doing this yourself and don’t have a mannequin I’d advise using yourself instead and having a reliable friend there to help.

 Then, I brought the edge I unpicked round to the front, keeping the grain running straight across (made easier by the check pattern) and pinned to the centre front. Doing this with both edges, lining up the squares, gave me an overlap that was equal on both sides (but a hem that was not, ho hum).

Once this was all pinned in place I had extra fullness around the neck area, easily fixed by putting a dart in each shoulder.

Because I matched the squares, which left me with an uneven hem, I also had an uneven neckline at the front so I copied the curve from the left side and trimmed the right side down to match. I also cut across the line of the darts leaving a 1.5cm allowance.

Next, I unpinned the cape from the mannequin, leaving marker pins in to show CF’s and CB. I used this as a pattern piece to cut my lining. Because the skirt is already hemmed I cut the lining to the same length, so that once the lining is hemmed it will sit shorter than the outer.

These two helped.

 

Next up, I hemmed the lining then stitched my shoulder darts in lining and outer. In the picture they are sewn straight across, but I later altered this to a slight downward curve at the shoulder end to stop it being too pointy. If you fancy you could hand tack some shoulder pads in too.

 At this point it might be an idea to interface the centre front edges of the outer cape, just so far as they overlap, to give a crisper shape and a bit more stability for whatever fastenings you use. I didn’t have any interfacing so I didn’t bother.

The front edges I sewed right sides together, then to stop the lining rolling to the outside I understitched the seams to the lining edge (fold the seams over to the lining side and stitch through all three layers close to the edge from the right side).

Back on the mannequin I pinned the CF and CB back in place and measured the neckline circumference. I could have drawn up my own collar pattern, or just seamed the neck edge and left it collarless. Piping or some other sort of trim would have made a nice finish too, but I had a collar I’d removed from another jacket (also cannibalised for fabric) and luckily it was the exact right size so I sewed that straight in, matching the CB of the cape to the centre of the collar, and understitching the lining as with the front edges.

 

 I decided to just put a fastening at the top of the opening, and used two press studs with a couple of big vintage buttons on top for detail.  At this point you could stop and you’d have a very nice cape, but I wanted to belt mine in for shape so I used the leftover waistband (you see!) and made a simple belt loop for the centre back, using the mannequin to find the right level for the waist.

The next step is possibly the trickiest, but it makes all the difference. To get that cape-coat effect you need to belt around the front and back but leave the ‘arms’ free, so I made little faced windows, two on the front waist, and two at the back, to thread my belt through.  The method I used is a shortened version of the Bound Buttonhole Tutorial on the Coletterie blog (full of incredibly useful dressmaking tips and techniques, as well as the wonderful patterns they produce).