Women Fashion power exhibition!

Hi,

I hope you are all doing fabulously :) 

A week or so ago me and my friend Grace from college went to see the Women, Fashion, Power exhibition at the Design Museum in London. It was a really cool exhibition- looking a the the clothing of some very influential women in the world throughout history and now in the modern day. And there were lo just examples of interesting womenwearclothing and shoes too.

From visiting I did manage to tick one thing off my bucket list!!- to see a garment worn by Lady Gaga with my own eyes in person!! Look, I saw this black plastic bag dress worn by Miss Gaga herself!:

One of my other favourite pieces was this strappy black bolero type piece with these amazing metallic/almost holographic plastic pieces protruding from the sleeves:

Isn't it really intriguing? I mean you would definitely make an entrance in that!

And next up in my photo highlights tour- shoes! Here were my two favourite pairs. Wearing with attitude is a must :p they are pretty fierce. But what do you expect from an exhibition entitled women  fashion power...

And lastly these brilliant hats- by the one and only Phillip Tracey of course :) The one comes across as like transforming you into a mystical bird but I might have to go with the one in the middle if I could only have one as that looks soo warm and it is still very cold! :p

I would recommend a visit if you are near the design museum. There is tons more cool items to see that I couldn't possibly cover them all in this post :p

see you all again soon- with news of my show makes for college!  Yes I am now on my first show- which is why I have been so busy these last few weeks.  And I will also be bringing photos and news from Vodafone Fashion Weekend at Somerset House in london (as I visited in September) as I am heading there on Saturday!  :D

Bye till then! Xxxxx

Fascinator tutorial- Final part 3!

Hello everyone,

Once again sorry for the long delay between the parts of this tutorial! But here is the final part at last :)

So lets pick up where we left off then shall we? The last step covered was making up your lining, so now we can move on to sewing that inside your fascinator!

You want the right side fabric out of course- then place your lining inside your fascinator, making sure you line up the seams (of the darts) of the outer fabric of your hat and your lining- for a really neat and professional finish. Then pin up your seam allowance of your lining so you get a clean edge all the way around and slip stitch (invisibly) your lining in place all the way around the edge of your fascinator.

Hopefully that was easy to follow but here are some pictures as usual to help :):

Here you can see I have slipstitched almost all the way round and can see how the lining sits nice and smoothly inside :)

 

Here is a close up so you can see how the seam allowances tuck inside the fascinator and you get a nice clean edge:

 

And as it was really hard to try and photograph the stages of slip stitch for those who don't know I found the following tutorial which shows how to work invisible slipstitch really clearly :):

http://www.instructables.com/id/Hand-Sewing-Basic-Slip-Stitch-Blind-Stitch/

 

Then the final part of your fascinator- yes you are almost done, keep going! :) Is to add a way to fasten it to your head/hair.

 

There are many ways this can be done- by sewing in a comb (you can get these on eBay etc..), or a length on elastic (either end attached to either side of the fascinator)- the elastic should be long enough to securely hold the hat in place and stretch underneath your hair running against the back nape of your neck.

 

But one more method is to sew hair loops onto your fascinator, which you can then put hair pins through and into your hair to hold your hat down instead :)

 

This is really simple and just involves making a small length of chain stitch and sewing this into a loop. Repeat this in a few places around the brim of your fascinator (I just worked a loop either side :)

 

Here is a tutorial which explains chain/loop stitch well (the beeswax is optional though :): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n6hhZNinSM

 

And now you can be super proud of yourself as your fascinator is all done!!!

 

Get out to a fancy party/event and show of your creation right away! :-P

 

Well done! :)

 

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial and if you have followed it I hope you like your finished fascinator!

 

Again if you have any questions or don't quite get any sections don't hesitate to leave a comment in the box below and  I will reply and try to be as helpful as possible xxx

 

I hope you are all well and thank you for sticking with me despite the long delays recently :P

 

Speak again soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxXxX

 

 

Sorry for the delay!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well! Normal regular posting and the last part if the fascinator tutorial will resume soon just had quite a bit going on what with now being in shows at uni!  It's all go!

So do keep checking back and once again I hope you are all well xxx

See you soon!

Fascinator Tutorial- Part 2

Hi everyone,

Today I return with part 2 of the fascinator tutorial! (see previous post for part 1 :) Overall there will be three parts so watch out for the last post in this series coming soon after today!

Now the last part ended with coating your hat base in fabric, so the next stage which we will start today with is adding decoration to your hat :) This is one of the funnest parts for many people- and there really aren't many rules so be as crazy and wild and creative as you wish! My decoration was made from a couple of small peacock/peahen feathers and a little brooch I have had in my random finds box for a while :P But you can use lace, beads, other types of feathers, bits of old jewellery- anything you want really.

 

as I said there are fairly few rules- You can attach your decoration by sewing it on (go through both the buckram and outer fabric) or gluing it on- whatever seems most appropriate. Generally go for sewing feathers on and if their spines are wide enough sew through the spines to hold them down really securely :)

 

So play around- see what works well and then fasten it in place:

 

 

Once you have fully beautified your hat you can then move onto cutting out your lining.

So choose your lining fabric and then find your base hat pattern again, and in the same way you did for your outer hat fabric cut around your template- adding an extra 1.5cm seam allowance around the edge and again not cutting out the darts- just mark them with tailor tacks or chalk again:

 

Then sew up the darts in your lining:

 

Once again, and as you did for your outer hat fabric, press the darts towards the back.

 

And we will stop there for today! But just to check you should have your main hat base coated in fabric and decorated and your lining all made up :)

 

Next time we will cover sewing in your lining, adding hair loops, or a comb or elastic to allow you to wear you hat! and possibly some other random bits and bobs too!

 

See you again soon with all that!

 

Bye XxXxX