I'm not all that good at this...

I honestly can't believe it's been over a month since my last post! As my title suggests; I don't think I'm very good at this...
In my defense, I've been pretty damn busy. First distraction was West End Eurovision. The show that I work for put forward an amazing entry. Costumes were designed by Amy Dixon, a fellow dresser and we studded and hot-stoned as if our lives depended on it...

Believe it or not it takes a lot of work to make them look that naked.

Second distraction, one which I had much more involvement with, was a little one-off show in London's West End called Jest End. Written and directed by the estimable Garry Lake and designed by another fellow dresser Katherine Watt it was the most fun I've had working on a sunday for a very very long time! I assisted Kat with the preparation, the making, the dress rehearsal and dressing the show. Brilliant fun. I also assisted with the after show drinking. A most important task.
And right now I'm doing a couple weeks worth of Maintainance calls for a couple of small shows. Not thrilling, copious amounts of ironing. Not fun, but paid. Unfortunately needs must. Ergh.


But moving on - I have a project! Not exactly mannequin-based and not entirely non-frivilous, it takes the form of The Blitz Party, D Day special, 4th June. Make my outfit you say? Well, go on then...
I love the 1940's style, my instinct (as always) was to make a dress, but I think I'm gonna take a different approach and go with trousers, blouse and perhaps a gorgeous little cardi. After a little research I realised that ladies in trousers werent all that common until 1944...

"In Britain during the Second World War, because of the rationing of clothing, many women took to wearing their husbands' civilian clothes, including their trousers, to work while their husbands were away from home serving in the armed forces... As this practice of wearing trousers became more widespread and as the men's clothing wore out, replacements were needed. By the summer of 1944, it was reported that sales of women's trousers were five times more than they had been in the previous year."

Good Ole' Wikipedia.

But I just love the look, so I'm going to do it. It's still technically correct... Uh huh...

Having just spontainiously having a section of my head shaved at my last trip to the hairdressers(!) I think Victory rolls might be a little out of my reach, but as per usual I'm hoping a book will come to my rescue. Style Me Vintage by Belinda Hay is a gorgeous looking book and is currently in my Amazon shopping basket awaiting purchase.

I drafted a basic trouser block in my "break" at work yesterday (ahem) so all that remains is to adapt and put together a toile. I'm undecided as to whether to make or buy a blouse, Camden market is beckoning... But maybe I'll make the blouse and buy the cardigan. Acceptable compromise?!
Next step is fabrics, for me the most stressful aspect as it usually entails fighting my way through hundreds of irritatingly slow walking people on the streets of London. However one perk of working the the evenings is everyone else is working in the day, so a trip to Shepherds Bush may be on the cards for the next few weeks.


Brilliant.

xxx

A fairly belated second entry...

Ok, so, it took me a month to part with the money. I think it's a sign of the times that a girl can't spend a few hundred quid on something she wants without the anxiety and near crippling feeling of wrong-ness as the sales assistant pokes your card into the machine and asks for your pin number. After all, it's only a small amount, little more that a weeks wage, and it's not like I bought something entirely frivolous like a pair of stupidly high shoes that i'll never wear... 

Can you hear the vague plea for approval in there? Yeah, me too, but bugger it, I love it and I don't care. 

I figure since the budget was announced this week and prices are flying sky-high with no sign of coming down again that I should equip myself with enough stuff to keep me entertained at home when in 6months time I cant afford to leave the house. Which brings me to recent purchase number two; Tomoko Nakamichi's 'Pattern Magic 2', a snip on Amazon at £12.97. I must admit I am more taken with the first book; it seems to me to have more practical applications, but there's still a few bits in the new one i'm looking forward to having a go at.

So the first question I need to ask myself is: where to start?! Do I start again at the beginning, basic bodice, dart manipulation, correct fit... or do I throw myself into something more advanced that i'm likely to get wrong, but will more than likely at least keep my attention through a whole project. I must admit I'm leaning toward the latter option. I guess first things first though, I should tidy my desk, dust off my machine and make room in my London-sized bedroom for my sparkly new purchase. I'm calling her Milly, Milly the mannequin and the box that she came in is almost the same size as me and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it.

x

In the beginning...

Ok, so. Firstly I'll start by stating how weirdly uncomfortable this is for me. I've never been one for talking in any great length about myself and addressing this to no-one in particular and the world in general feels so... pretentious?? Maybe a little pretentiousness is a good thing. Maybe not. But anyway, I figure this might be (or at least become) cathartic in a way, but mostly I want to use this space for logging my attempts at creating new things, practicing old techniques and learning new ones. I'm hoping it'll provide me with a stimulus to actually get me doing things with my spare time (because I've been known to waste my time. God forbid...). And so, we come to the first reason for all this...

I bought new books.

I love books, can't explain why, always have. The books in question are 'Draping for Apparel Design' by Helen Joseph-Armstrong, 'Pattern Magic' by Tomoko Nakamichi, and hopefully soon to be followed with 'Pattern Magic 2'. I have plenty of books about flat pattern cutting and although I sometimes struggle with the practicalities of drafting a pattern on paper I can cut and construct a decent enough garment, but there is something I love and miss about applying fabric onto a form and physically seeing how it falls and the possibilities it can create. And I love making beautiful things.

The second reason is I have finally saved enough money to buy myself a decent tailors mannequin and I couldn't be more excited! Because of the tax increase this January, it's now more than I had originally saved, and for some reason the resistance to parting with that amount of money for something not strictly necessary has prevented me from actually purchasing the damn thing. Until now. NOW. Ok, tomorrow... But the impulse I felt when I first decided I was going to buy it is back, and the twitching in my hands is telling me I should just go for it.

Aside from the materialistic reasons I figure it can only be a good thing to get my brain working again in a creative manner, it's so easy to get caught up with the mundane routine of everyday life and I'm sure I've heard creativity breeds creativity, right? Or practice makes perfect, or something. Maybe one day, if anyone actually reads this thing I'll get comments and advice on how to do things, improve on things; constructive criticism is the way forward.

x