Jungle Fever

So, in nerdy anticiation of the release of "Tomorrow, When the War Began" on Thrusday 2nd September, I'm feeling the "jungle guerilla" vibe; bold animal prints, green, yellow and brown and warm grey are all lovely transition colours from winter to spring, as the weather finally gets sunny!

Wool tweedster pinny in pale grey.

Made to measure for A.Chambers.

This is one amazing piece from the new collection by Amanda Assad Mounser.

Her collection uses semi-precious stones, chain, spikes and crystal to create bold, rock and roll pieces that have strong organic forms.

Assad Mounser describes her new collection on her site: The collection's aesthetic maintains a 1970's wild bohemian luxe feeling, which was typical of this lavish time of excess and indulgence. References are also drawn from editorial imagery featuring the popular 1970's model Veruschka as well as the films Cleopatra Jones and Mahogany.

I think it just radiates jungle glam!

These are the kinds of organic textures that I love right now: combining the neutrals trend with a vigorous texture like snakeskin or leopard creates some much needed diversion from the "flesh-on-flesh" look. Bold prints provide interest and are great for layering with plain colours or denim.

All these amazing prints are from Tessuti on Flinders Lane.

As a side comment: I'm over the 1950's.

Mad Men makes me angry: yes the dresses are great, but the men are chauvanists and the women are bait, and I'm so tired of people asking "can you make me something like those dresses from Mad Men?"

So jungle-chic is my solution. Although it brings to mind images of Beyonce on a sandy shore singing about being a "Survivour", I love the potential for this style to shake up the conservative-ness of current trends.

HOW CAN THEY BE WRONG?

So much animal hide, it must be right.

Cant wait for Tomorrow When the War Began!

Linen Jacket

As promised, here is the Linen-silk jacket that I've been working on for a while.

Its finally finished, and I think it's turned out to be quite interesting..

I still haven't been able to confirm the fibre content of the fabric, which is really frustrating!

Possible combinations might be silk, rayon or linen.

It crushes very easily, but also holds its shape beautifully.

Above are details of the cuff and front pleating. I decided to bind the edges of the collar to refine the overall impression of the garment. Because the fabric is so floaty, I think the binding really centres the design, and the client loves that kind of detail.

The cuff are gathered up and stitched, and close with a button and roule loop.

The front fastens with a set of 3 large hook and bar, across the front of the jacket.

All the hems are just over-locked, turned once and topstitched. The fabric is so light that anything more would really change the way the hems sit.

I added small shoulder pads to support the shoulders and tops of the sleeves.

This garment was made for K. Elkins.

Hope you all like it!

Custom dressmaking

Well today i thought I'd chart the process that goes into a made to measure dress for a client, at Lissom Yarn.

I start by talking to the client about her hopes and fears (!) about the dress and what it should be like.. if she has some ideas... or is open to interpretation.

This example job was for a client with a very clear idea of what she wanted, so there was little need to go over the design.

Her brief was a simple, elegant black stretch dress she could wear to after-5 events. Her specifications where:

Knee-length

Black stetch jersey "tube" dress, with 3/4 sleeves

A cowl on the back neckline and a gentle scoop/v-neck on the front.

She also specified bra - strap keepers on the shoulder to stop the bra and dress going south at odd occasions.

I began by taking her measurements, bust, waist, hip, arm circumference and length, and drafting a pattern.

When I got to the cowl neck, I had to do a bit of reasearch, as I couldn't remember ever drafting one or even using one from a commmercial pattern: what does a cowl look like flattened out, and how do you get that bias drape when you are cutting on the fold and trying to create a deep scoop??

My answer came in part from The Coracle, where Pat Loughery described re-using an old tee shirt by turning it into a cowl neck tank. Her pattern instructions where simple and (to me) rational. I could elaborate as much as I needed to: the secret is in pivoting the shoulder point out from the under- arm, thereby extending the back neckline as much as necessary to create the bias folds that drop down the back when you right the shoulder line to meet the front shoulder. Ingenious!

So this was my first whole toile, which also had a single sleeve to check the fit on the client. Sleeves are my... love/hate feature. They can be amazing and also so very depressing when they are wrong. The cowl wasn't deep or elegant enough for me or the client, but it was a good start for fitting purposes.

So I toile-d again,

this time creating a really wide swing on the shoulder point and got a nice deep cowl.

Then I had to consider facings or lining, or using a double layer of the jersey over the whole garment, to give it extra weight.

I opted for a front facing, with fusing, and back cowl facing without fusing, to maintain that drape and stop it looking like a hood.

So then I cut out the real garment from the black jersey, (Poly-Spandex from Clegs), and started on the proper dress.

I'm finishing the sleeves with little folded cuffs to give the sleeves some definition and form.

Its not quite finished yet, but im happy with the overall design and shape. Next I will just be finishing the hem, adding the bra keepers and have one last fitting to check all the details are right.

Recent Commissions

These are some of my more recently completed jobs of particular interest.

This Edwardian skirt (left) was bought to me by a friend who had found in on Ebay for $10. The lace on the outside was mostly intact, but the entire lining, a silk acetate I think, had disintegrated into barely connected strips of fabric. And there were also massive tears all through the georgette lining under the lace.

So we decided to try a rescue mission and see if we could salvage this beautiful garment.

I copied the skirt pattern and cut a silk georgette lining in softest pale pink, which creates most of the colour you can see in the skirt.

I then re-constructed a lining skirt, or petticoat, on the same 5-gore pattern, with all the extra volume gathered at the back to create the (small) bustle shape. The hem of the petticoat was constructed with concentric strips of bias taffeta to give fullness at the hem, and edged with a large ruffle for good measure.

I used a blue-shot pink polyester-spandex taffeta for the petticoat that gave the skirt some depth of colour under the lace and georgette. The same fabric is used for the waistband/sash, and is washable: hooray!

This cocktail dress was commissioned by a

client to wear at several black tie events,

over the coming months.

She wanted a flattering and easy-to-wear dress that she could bundle up in a suitcase of necessary. She loved the midnight blue colours, and also like the idea of velvet. She definately didn't want "another black dress".

The design challenge with this dress was to create an after-five dress that wasn't too frilly, but would enhance the client's femininity, as well as making her feel special.

Softness and drape were a special part of her requirements. I ended up using a blue polyester jersey as the "lining", over- laid with rayon velvet patterned with devore roses. It was a challenging fabric combination to use though, and I would definitely re-consider such a choice in the future, although I love the final look of the fabrics together.

Lastly is a fantastic linen/silk jacket/blouse that's in-progress at the moment.

This has been a long-running commission for a client who sews herself, but was seeking a variation in her wardrobe, and something interesting for her larger size.

She found the fabric online, and bought a whole roll.

I have to say its one of the most amazing fabrics I have ever used. It has a twill pattern, but is extremely light and as open as a linen weave. It hangs beautifully and shines in the daylight. Its kind of like what I imagine they made the Hobbit's Elven cloaks out of for Lord of the Rings. Hows that for a nerdy reference?

Anyway, I am using pleating, sewn almost flat across the from to create texture, and rolled bias strips as a collar, that will overlap across the front.

Final photos to follow!

Despite the pervasive grey of July in Melbourne, I keep coming across lovely vignettes of natural beauty all across the city. Texture, colour, and the cold, almost European light in Melbourne brings a clarity that's really refreshing.

I also love the rhythm and form of the many succulent plants that are grown in botanical gardens, in borders and massed as vast ground covers. The colours and shapes are really interesting. I would love to have the time to transform these into the basis of a collection.

And then there are just the pretty flowers..

Lovely things

An excellent source of American cool, Flavorwire has this beautiful image featured, and other works in their "Best of Art Chicago".


Lillian Bassman, Fantasy on The Dance Floor, Barbara Mullen, 1949. Gelatin silver print, 24 x 20 inch. Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery, Santa Monica.

This image shows the model, Barbara Mullen, in a 1949 Christan Dior gown, of course.
The New Look silhouette is shown at its most exaggerated in this spiraling silk ruffled ballgown. Its hard to believe the war and rations had only finished four years before.

Lillian Bassman is one of many women I am discovering lately; trailblazers and more modest women of accomplishment whom I find inspiring. Lillain was born in 1917 and had a remarkable career in fashion, but she came to fame later in the 20th century when her work was "re-discovered".

Bassman's (predominently) black and white works show to me a world of fashion that is not so dominated by the male viewpoint. The fashion items are of course consistent with their respective periods, but I find her work conveys an altogether different tone to that imbued in the dominant male photographer's perspectives. The subjects are calm and in control, relaxed, even when active. There feels to me to be a liberation from the"capturing" and "being captured" paradigm that guides other fashion photographers.

Anyway, check them out at..Lillian Bassman on Flicker

Winter Thralls

Well, here we are again, in the thrall of Melbourne's winter. And my studio is so cold!

Despite this, some excellent far-sighted clients have had me sewing away on some lovely little projects that really show what winter dressing is about!

This boiled wool cape is lined with black cotton voile and has a rink collar. It buttons down the centre front, on the inside. Made to order.

I love it particularly because its such a good example of a client wanting an old-fashioned garment, but with such a modern feel to the aesthetic.
Credit must also go to my colleague Jaimi Kark, for her inspiration to the client from her eponymous label, and the collection, the Interview, from which this concept was derived.

Also happening a lot this winter are requests for"pinny dresses". These kinds of garments fall into the "new utility" trend that's taking off in Europe; they are stylish and simple to wear. Pinnies are excellent for layering, and if made in cotton, they are transferable to one's summer wardrobe.

Geometric print cotton pinny, high-waisted with invisible front patch pockets. Made to order.

Also happening this season is the ever-comfortable knit.
As a dress, long top, leggings or layered cardigans, the wonderful range of softest merino and other good quality knits is really exciting. My favourites are at the Fabric Store on Brunswick Street,
because it has a huge range and good prices.

Lissom Yarn will shortly be stocking a range of knitted dresses-slash-tops made for winter layering, as right, in the black merino herringbone knitted dress. Also available in khaki, charcoal and gray marle.










Stretch rayon knit wrap dress with black and white printed cotton collar. Made to order.



Merino knits are also great because they are a natural, sustainable and far superior (in my opinion) fabric to many other knits that tend to pill and look tatty
quickly.

Stay tuned for more winter ideas, and with spring on the way, I'm hearing wedding bells and other indicators that brides are out and looking for gowns!
We'll be looking at the origins of "the wedding gown" and why our bridal stereotype is culturally a little bit strange. Yay!