Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I've got a slightly different post lined up for you today. I've been a bit slow about it but I'm finally catching up with the writing process blog hop that's been doing the rounds! The ever so cool Nicole Needles nominated me for it a few weeks back, sorry that it's taken me so long Nicole! I've got to answer four questions to give you guys an insight into why and how I write my blog so here it goes: What am I working on? Despite taking a couple of 'sew-cation' days last week and blitzing through a few UFOs and projects that were cut out and waiting for me as always I've got more sewing ideas buzzing around my head than I've got time to sew! I'm part way through a pair of Sew Over It Ultimate Trousers which I'm having a few fitting issues with as they are my very first pair of trousers! I've made some alterations already which has made a vast improvement but I think I might be posting some pictures for advice soon as I've ...

On Tuesday I popped along to the new exhibition at the V&A and as it was clothing related I thought it was worth a little mention on here! The fashions exhibited are all at the more extreme exhibitionist end of 1980s fashion so there weren't many ideas to take away sewing wise (at least not unless I'm going to attempt something of a Vivienne Westwood level of construction, which let face it as much as I'd like to be that good, I''m not) but it was still a very interesting and worthwhile visit. Image Source The exhibition is in the centre and upstairs level of the fashion gallery (where the ball-gown exhibition was if any of you made it to that) and as always at the V&A is laid out in a logical and thoughtful manner. The only thing that irked me about the layout was the placement of the placards describing each item on the upstairs level. Here you could walk all the way around the mannequins as they weren't behind glass and positioned in the centre...

Credit: uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com Last week I visited the Valentino: Master of Couture exhibition at Somerset House (half price ticket offer available on Groupon if anyone is interested!). I really enjoyed the visit and was overall impressed with the way such a large quantity and variety of garments were displayed. The first part of the exhibition was about Valentino's career and included many artefacts from throughout his life. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to see some of his sketches from the 1960s/70s in this section. The main bulk of the exhibition is in one long room and is were almost all the garments are on show. There is a lovely neutral tone to the whole exhibition space which I think worked to make the dresses the feature of the room (although it would be hard to detract from them!) and also to give the whole room a feeling of elegance and glamour. I really enjoyed the fact that there was a range of dressing spanning the whole of his long career and that th...

Yesterday I bounded out of the house bright and early to the long awaited exhibition on Hollywood costume design which has (after 5 long years) just opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum. I booked my ticket months ago when dates were first announced as I think even then I knew I was going to love it and boy did I! Curated by Deborah Nadoolman Landis, an esteemed Hollywood costume designer herself, the press releases beforehand had suggested that this was to be an exhibition not just about beautiful dresses and extravagant designs but about the process of costume design and the importance of what it can communicate to the viewer. I was wondering how this might be put across in an exhibition when the attention would probably easily be drawn to the beauty of the finished article but I was really impressed! I trained in costume design so probably was keener than most to learn about the designers' processes and the story behind each item and therefore spent more time looking at...

There's a few of events advertised at the moment which I'm quite excited about and thought some other bloggers may find interesting too. First of all are the Creative Stitches exhibitions which this year include an exhibit of the actual Downton Abbey costumes (which the above picture is of). Until I wrote this blog post I thought I'd missed the exhibitions at my end of the UK but I've just discovered there's one scheduled in Brighton for the 10th-12th May. Woohoo! It's also on from 26th-28th April in Liverpool so if that's your neck of the woods get on over there because I'm sure it'll be a real treat! There is also the Antiques for Everyone antiques fair which is held three times a year at the NEC in Birmingham. The next one is from the 12th-15th April. I've never been to one and you may also think 'this is a sewing blog what have antiques got to do with it?!' but the main feature of the exhibition this time around is Downton Ab...