Diary of a Chain Stitcher

Following on from my post at the weekend about the dress I made at the sewing bee to celebrate the 150th anniversary of John Lewis I thought I'd share some pics and info about what went on during the day. I don't want to speak for everyone but I'm pretty sure that we all had an awesome time! Thank you to the John Lewis team for looking after us so well and  Brian Doherty  for taking the majority of the beautiful photos included in this post. It's so lovely to have some photos of me and the girls sewing! On arrival at the Oxford Street store that morning we spent a bit of time deliberating over our fabric and pattern choices then set to cutting out straight away. Lots of ladies cutting full skirted dresses meant we took over the haberdashery department slightly! Once we were cut out and ready to sew we all settled down around one large table which was a really enjoyable set up. I was so engrossed in sewing and chit chat I almost forgot where we were at points! ...

Just a quick post today to let you all know that after a little twitter chat the other day myself and some of the London Spoolettes have arranged a bit of an impromptu meet up next weekend. The plan is for Saturday 18th January and involves some fabric shopping (or browsing for those who are on a strict 'no adding to the stash' diet!) on the wonderful Goldhawk Road and a chat over some coffee and/or lunch. Short notice I know but if any of you readers are in London and available it would be very lovely to see you there! If you haven't been to Goldhawk Road before you'll be in for a treat I promise. In my opinion it's one of the best, if not THE best place in London to buy fabrics. There's a huge variety and all for a great price! I once found the same fabric I'd seen the day before on Berwick Street at a tenth of the cost. No exaggeration. If you do fancy joining us let me know your email address in the comments and I'll send the details o...

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...

Just a quick post for any London based fabric lovers (which after the awesome meet up at the weekend I know is quite a few!). The Berwick Street Cloth Shop, The Silk Society and Broadwick Silks (all based on or just off Berwick Street) are currently having a remnant sale. This group of shops are normally way too pricey for my amateur dressmaking purposes but if there's a chance to get some gorgeous high quality fabric at bargain prices I'm there! I managed to bag a good sized piece of a beautiful emerald green wool crepe for £9 a metre instead of £35! The dangers of working around Berwick Street and spotting a sign... The address is 77 Berwick Street, London, W1F 8TH. You go in what looks like a door to a flat with a big sandwich board outside and upstairs to a teeny tiny room full of piles of fabric. It's on until 26th April. Have fun!

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...

The Textile Forum happens twice a year in Central London near Bond Street tube station. It's a chance for anyone to see a wide range of fabrics from cotton poplins to leathers and wool tweeds to embroidered modern blends from a number of companies all exhibited in one place as well as the chance to talk to the people who know their fabrics best in a space dedicated to just that. I went along mainly to help expand my understanding of fabric and knowledge of suppliers for professional purposes but had a fantastic time looking for my own home sewing projects too! The show is a exhibition purely for fashion fabrics so it was great to have all in one room hundreds of samples of fabrics all suitable for dressmaking rather than craft or upholstery. I did not go with the intention of making a purchase for personal uses as I expected prices to be fairly high as most of the exhibitors were big brand and high end fabric companies offering their latest creations. However after a bi...

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...

I hope you all enjoyed the Olympic experience as much as I did. Did any of you make it into the Olympic Park or any other venues? The Park is just fantastic and the atmosphere in that stadium like nothing else I've ever experienced. I felt incredibly privileged to be in there during rehearsals for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and got such a buzz just walking into work each day. I won't bore you all silly with stories but wanted to share just a couple of my highlights with you, I'm sure you all have your own! Setting up on the day of the Closing Ceremony My role was Assistant Costume Supervisor which is a job quite hard to describe! It involves a whole lot of different things but basically the Costume Supervisor's role is to supervise the realisation of the designer's ideas. This involves arranging and supervising the makers and construction process, sourcing fabrics, running fittings, arranging costume hires, buying footwear, accessories, underwe...

So I pre-epmted the fact that things might get a little quiet around the blog while I was working on the Olympic Ceremonies over the summer but I didn't predict almost 3 months of NOTHING! Working on the Olympics I think will remain one of the most incredible experience of my life, for the rest of my life but my oh my did it take over my life for those missing 3 months. Not that I'm complaining, I would not have changed a second of it and any time I wasn't there I was wishing I was! I'm planning a little follow up post so I can share with you some of my experiences of the games. I may have done a  little lap round the workshop with this after the picture! Anyway, back to stitching! I may have been forced to take a blogging and sewing sabbatical but that doesn't mean I missed out on the joy of seeing what all you have been up to. Thanks to the handy bloglovin' app on my phone I was able to make the most of my morning and evening (read night-time!) commute a...

I stole this little story from Pincushion Treats but I just had to share it! A new Banksy has popped up in Wood Green, London... Source: http://www.bowesandbounds.org/forum/topics/new-banksy-artwork-in-wood-green-high-road Appropriate for my life right now in so many ways! Set to become one his most recognised I think, along with the maid in Chalk Farm and the child with the red heart balloon on the South Bank.  Isn't it great?! P.S. Take a closer look. The bunting's real!