Today I will be sending out a cutom order for a pair of velvet spats .
They are made of a light grey velvet and a darker grey satin ruffle. It took me longer to locate the velvet then it did to construct them .
I was pretty satisfied with the outcome. They do look lovely!
Velvet from the UK, satin and everything else from Italy, and off they go to the USA!
Lately I have not been able to update (sorry I usually do twice a week). I have been working on several projects, two of which I am excited to almost have finished!
Just wanted to let everyone know that I am adding a new post (beginning next week) every Thursday entitled "The Cycles of Fashion" !
I will be showcasing artisans from the Etsy community. The wonderful community of Esty contains so many talented drapers, tailors, pattern makers, stitchers, and milliners. My goal is to expose and showcase those fashion creators!
My main focus will be how the history of costume transcends though time and is presented in modern fashion. Whether we acknowledge it or not, the fashion industry is an important aspect in our everyday lives.
More to come very soon!
Thanks!
Recently I found some bamboo in the house. My husband had purchased it for some piece or something he had done and I found it lying around. (My husband has been creating art pieces for as long as I have known him.) 
Lately I have been thinking about getting some outdoors furniture for or wonderful Italian home. This morning I stumbled upon this beauty!
It is produced by an Italian furniture company. Wow, they have some amazing pieces!
B&B Italia is a company made of various designers, and architects. Take a look at their website, they have some one of a kind pieces!!
The pictured chair is from their most recent collection entitled, Crinoline.
So my first blouse is now completed and delivered to the client!
For the first blouse I chose to place one embroidery design on the front right side, the second is on the back right side. I wanted to attain a movement of the two decorative pieces.
Again because the decorative pieces were so close to the selvage I had to alter my pattern. For this project it was simpler to flat-pattern the blouse, and I took it from there.
The front contains two center-front piece at breast level, one containing the decorative piece with a front closure of one button. Below the breast-line I had to break up the front pattern piece for the placement of the decorative piece.
For the collar I thought it would be nice to use a mandarin collar . Being that the fabric is from Vietnam, I wanted to give the over all design a nice fresh feel! The back contains a center-back seam and the other decorative piece on the right back shoulder.
One project completed, one more to go!!
This wonderful creation just caught my eye.
I find it intriguing!
This wonderful piece is by a designer named Tamae Hirokawa’s who's fashion label is SOMARTA. Formerly she was in charge of the collection line of Issey Miyake men and Issey Miyake.
Her conceptual approach to fashion design uses lace, masks, macramé, and advanced Japanese textile technology.
Take a look at more SOMARTA creations - Womenswear- Autumn Winter 2009-2010- Tokyo.
Picture courtesy FashionMag.com - Autumn-Winter 2009-2010 collection.
On April the 26, 2009, this amazing exhibit closed at the Palais Galliera Fashion Museum, in Paris. The exhibition covered the period of the Second Empire in France (1852-1870) when the crinoline was vastly in use.
More than 300 garments were on display. Also on display were dance cards, fans, jewelry, accessories, flower-holders, headdresses -- some even belonging to the Empress Eugenie and Princess Mathilde
This was the period that was later said to give birth to haute couture, when the House of Charles Worth made its debut among other fashion firms and jewelers. With the arrival of chemicals, textiles contained prints and stripes of clashing colors. Dresses contained an overload of ornaments, fringes, wreaths of flowers, lace, and ribbon. It was normal for a women to change her outfit up to five times in one day. She had to keep up with the pace of social life and dinners, concerts, receptions, opera and theater.
Wow! What a period of history!
I was given two pieces of fabric from a client, she requested two different styles of blouse be made for her. Each piece, one yellow pictured above and one pink, which contains the same design she had received as a gift from a friend who is from Vietnam. Her only request was that both blouses contain short sleeves.
Two very important points I had to work with were:
1. There was not much fabric, a little less than a yard, if not exactly a yard.
2. Each piece contained two embroidered pieces, but as you can see from the picture, they are situated inches from the selvage edge.
I had previously worked with this client so I pretty much had a feel for her style. After coming up with the two designs I patterned them out.
I was kind of hesitant to actually cut the fabric, but I went ahead and had two mock-ups to try on.
*Note- I did leave seam allowance and I did not finish any of my edges.
They were both perfect fits! She was very excited and happy with her blouses. I was very satisfied as well, both designs are completely different!
Later this week I will post a picture of the two completed blouses.
I love to work on projects that are a challenge, it keeps it exciting!
