Forgiving Fashions

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Brief notes from Bangkok.

Here is a street-side clothing alterations business. This was one of several I saw in the main shopping area of Bangkok.

Silk weaving equipment at Jim Thompson House in Bangkok. Jim Thompson is credited with revitalsing the Thai Silk industry after World War 2. He built his house (made of several traditional Thai houses) near to the area where the weavers lived.

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Drowning in Dressmaking

I have not been attending to my blog because I have been busy sewing up clothes for clients. Here are some of the things I have made in the past few weeks. These items are for my sale collection.

Mesh and crinkle cotton tunic.

Knit fabric tunic top.

Wool jacket with Aboriginal print fabric trim.

These items are for a client who had these fabulous fabrics from trips to Asia.

Border print cotton jacket

Silk shirt/jacket - love the colours.

Silk and rayon tunic top.

Sunday, 25 March 2012

More Wedding Dresses

Yesterday I attended a Wedding Expo at the historic Tomago House. Some old wedding dresses were on display including one from Miss Porter's House, a National Trust property where I do volunteer work. Mrs Porter's wedding dress, pictured here, is over 100 years old and is made from a fine cotton embellished with pintucks and lace.

Florence Porter's Wedding Dress 1910

Wedding Expo Tomago House

Saturday, 17 March 2012

The Beauty of the Blog

Early on in the year I created a post about covering enviro bags. My friend Lyn in Perth liked this idea and started covering bags. A couple of weeks ago she emailed me to say that she has now made over 100 bags. Some of these have provided funds for Arix (pictured) to go to University in Bali and become a doctor. Lyn says that her bags are walking out the door! She loves her new project.

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Online Buying

Yesterday I went to the barn-like chain fabric shop in the city. It has been reduced in size and has less fabrics. I was very disappointed but did manage to find some nice printed silk reduced from $30 per metre to $5 per metre. Luckily this week I received some fabrics ordered online. Here are the fabrics from two of my favourite online stores.

Australian KimoYES - vintage Japanese fabric for patchwork The yukata fabrics can be bought by the metre but are only 32 cms wide. I use them for skirts, trims on jackets, etc. The kimono pieces I use as panels in tunic tops, cuffs and collars on jackets, etc.

Cotton Yukata fabric

Silk vintage kimono piece

Vintage kimono remnant

Kimono fabric

Vintage kimono remnant

Vintage Kimono piece

Vintage kimono piece

Sew for U Alice Springs www.sewforu.com.au/ This is the shop from which I purchase Aboriginal print fabrics which are used for jackets, skirts, bags, etc.

Monday, 13 February 2012

The Punjabi Top

In the past year, thanks to my wonderful Indian dancing friends, I have learnt more about Indian clothing. I have recently done some alterations to some Punjabi tops. This is the longer length top worn over pants. The tops sometimes come sleeveless, as in the picture, but may have the sleeves as part of the package so that they can be attached if wanted. The sleeves are put in before any of the side seams. The sleeve and body side seams are sewn as one thus making alterations easier.

The beautiful colours of the Punjabi tops.

Sleeveless garment awaiting insertion of sleeves.

Top and sleeves.

Generous side seams.

Saturday, 4 February 2012

My Open House

Over the past few days I have had Open House so that friends and clients could come to look at some of my latest ready-made clothes. It is fun to see people trying the clothes on and to work out who will like which items. Here are some photos.