Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt

Vivienne Westwood Inspired Skirt - Orchids In May

Recently I’d been oogling Vivienne Westwood tartan skirts online. I had small section of wool tartan – about1-1.5m of it, so I thought why not give it a go & try to make one. This is what I ended up making. The wool tartan came from my husband’s grandmother’s collection. I’m not sure where she got it … Read more

Into the Archive: My Little Black Dress

Little Black Dress - Orchids in May

I guess I’ve been sewing for quite a while now, (since mid-2005). Every now & then one of my friends will ask me how I made something & then after I’ve explained it to them, they follow up with, ‘I could never do that’. To be fair, if you’ve never sewn before it would be … Read more

This dress was the fabric’s fault

Red & Navy Silk Brocade Dress - Orchids in May

I made this dress to wear to a friend’s wedding in March. The red & navy silk brocade was a new purchase, but everything else was made with scraps & remnants already in my stash. The side drape is made with the rayon wool blend that I used for my navy strapless dress, the silk … Read more

A Fabric Obsession

BrocadeFabric01

Have you ever walked past a fabric store & seen the most amazing fabric OF ALL TIME? Have you walked in to take a closer look, spent a good 5 mins looking at it, before walking around the store pretending to look at other things while really all your thinking is, ‘I don’t need that … Read more

A new dress just for the sake of it.

Grey, Brown and Cream Silky Dress - Orchids in May

So I wrote this post 13 months ago. For a dress I made about 14-16 months ago. I don’t know when exactly I made it, but it was sometime during the summer of 2011-2012. But I never got around to taking photos of the dress to go with the post. This probably gives you some … Read more

Side Projects

LoungeDress1

When working on something like my Valentino copy dress, I often end up completing quite a few smaller side projects at the same time. This is just because sometimes I want to sew something that can be finished quickly & isn’t too much of a challenge. Some times it works out quite well, for a … Read more

Blue Chiffon Dress: Draping & Drafting the Overlay

IMG_8452

The pattern for the chiffon overlay for this dress was simple & complicated at the same time. To be honest it was beyond my basic flat pattern making skills, so I decided to use a combination of drafting & draping to create the top section. First I cut out a piece of fabric (that based … Read more

Blue Chiffon Dress: Yes, there’s actually been some progress

Gown-Almost Done02

The last month has been a bit manic, but in between all of the festive fun I’ve managed to squeeze in some work on my Valentino Copy Dress, in fact so much that it’s almost finished! OK so the photo was taken at night & the lighting isn’t that great, AND the overlay is in … Read more

Blue Chiffon Dress: Progress Update

GownSash08

So here’s the progress update: I’m exhausted. This dress is killing me. I spent almost all day today making teeny tiny hems all over the dress. I added it up, I had to do over 25m of teeny tiny hems. This dress uses a deceptively large amount of chiffon and it requires SO MANY HEMS. … Read more

Blue Chiffon Dress: The ‘Under Dress’

Underdress01

I’ve been working away on my Valentino copy dress & it’s coming along quite nicely – I’ve finished the under dress & have started work on the chiffon overlay. This is the under dress on the dress form. I haven’t hemmed it yet (waiting for my new gold shoes to arrive in the mail), but … Read more

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 65 other followers