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

Waistcoat all done!

Hi,

I hope you are all having a good week :)

My waistcoat that I was making in college is now all complete! As I mentioned a post or so ago, for our first project we had to make a men's waistcoat in any style we wanted, it also had to be decorated in some way.

Here was my design, which was inspired by comic book villains and gangsters:

The front sections interlock.

And then here is the back, my decoration was inspired by the glamorous girlfriends gangsters and villains often seem to have in the movies :p:

And now, after a few weeks work, here is my finished waistcoat, front and back:

   

Then here are some close ups/different angles:

 My machine and hand appliquéd hand motifs (the little xxx are hand embroidered):

Satin stitch hand embroidered kiss :):

It was hard to get the lapels so sharp (and the pocket flap points too!):

It was a fun and challenging project. I learnt so much as this was my first ever piece of menswear.  I am really proud of the result though :-) please do leave me any comments below- I would love to know what you think.

See you all again soon, when I will be announcing a special giveaway........!

Bye xxx

P.s. All images in this post are copyright to me (Jordan Norrington)

Symposium! (and stuff :)

Hi,

 

Last week was a really good week for me as it was 'Symposium week' at my college. What this means is basically a week off of timetabled lectures with loads of fun and interesting workshops, talks and performances going on instead :D

 

I booked myself onto loads of the workshops including zumba (which was really enjoyable), dream catcher making, sword fighting (super fun!!!!!) and I did quite a few costume related ones, including 3 morning workshops about Kimonos :0)

The lady was really nice and knowledgeable and bought in tons of the kimonos from her collection from martial arts related ones to bridal.

 

Here are a couple of her most extravagant kimono over-robes:

 

 

And here is me (from behind so you can see my freestyle- tied

 obi which hangs down) dressed as a Geisha :) It was cool being dressed up- I learnt a lot about how it actually feels to wear the kimono as well as how to put it on properly:

 

The obi is done up so much more tightly than I imagined it was and there is a lot more padding than I thought there was underneath too :P Brian who is next to me was dressed up like a shogun (military warrior). The lady who ran the workshops also rents out her kimonos etc... and has a website- where there are more pictures of all the kimonos we all tried on at symposium: here!

 

Another workshop I did was trauma makeup. Hahaha, a lot of fake blood was used! and some cornflakes mixed with coffee, golden syrup and red food colouring to make stuff that resembled blood clots.

 

I warn all those who are faint hearted to LOOK AWAY NOW!

 

As the following picture of my work I did in the workshop although FAKE (of course! :) is very gory:

 

 

I think I actually did get it quite realistic looking thanks to the techniques of the tutor :-)

 

Another thing that made my week really good apart from symposium was finding out that I was the special winner of a free Royal School of Needlework day course from the draw I entered at the creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at the excel :D I am soo excited and have chosen to do a course on 17th century design inspired metal/gold work button brooches- It sounds so interesting- that is in November so kind of like a great early Christmas present!

 

And if all that wasn't enough for one week me and my mum went to the John Paul Gaultier fashion exhibition at the Barbican Arts centre/Theatre in London which was fabulous.

 

It was really different to other exhibitions I have been to as they gave some of the mannequins faces using digital projection- they even talked! I thought this really brought the whole exhibition and the clothes to life a bit more.

 

Look at the amazingness of these dresses!:

 

 

Another thing that was cool and different was that they actually had a moving catwalk! All these mannequins were dressed and on stands that moved around the catwalk, again this brought so much more life and excitement to the clothes making them look even more spectacular than they already are:

 

Well, that's just about it for the catch up of my week...

 

.....No.... Wait! I have one more fabulous thing to tell you about :P The Chocolate festival I went to on Sunday with a friend from college at the London Business and Design centre  (I really did have a crazy fun week :oD)

 

There were quite a few different samples of yummy chocolate to try and lots of baked goods on sale. As a treat I went for this brownie:

 

 

It was sooooo delicious, it was called a 'buckeye' brownie. It was a normal chocolate brownie topped with Oreo cookie frosting and a layer of milk chocolate ganache mmmm... I want another one!

 

My brownie was from Batch bakery: http://batchbakery.co.uk/

 

My friend had a peanut butter brownie which she said was amazing from the Brownie Bar: http://www.browniebar.co.uk/

 

They do a really good price online delivery of brownies so I think I may have to get some of those sent to me in the near future as they looked good too but I couldn't fit a second brownies in after my Oreo- sugar overload one :P

 

I hope you are all well, and now I promise my post is officially finished :)

 

Don't forget to enter my Spring/Easter giveaway if you haven't already as as I found out last week you never know your luck!

 

Speak to you all again very soon,

 

Bye XxXxXxX

Happy holiday

Hello,

I hope you are all having a lovely week! I am in the IOW with my family, it is nice to get to spend some extended time with them rather than just the weekend :)

 

As usual in the IOW I have found some very cool stuff- I got a personalised rice keyring!!!!! In Arreton Barns (this little craft village and farm shop) there was a artist there who wrote whatever words you wanted on a grain of rice and then you could choose any pretty keyring or necklace to have it preserved in, I was like 'WOW, I have got to get one of those!' :P He was very nice, he usually makes these pretty clay angel statues and had just started rice writing. I got 'Jordan' written on one side and 'Costumier' written on the other as that is the career I am training for and what I love. Heheh it was quite difficult to try and get a good picture of due to it's tininess but I did try:

 

 

he guy told me which type of pen you needed to write small enough so I may try and get one so I can write little messages on rice- it feels so fun and special :)

 

In the time I am not munching on yummy flapjack in the Chocolate Apothecary (a lovely café) or looking around the little shops I have been working on outfits for my lalaloopsy doll, here is my first finished article:

 

I added lots of trim, a big ribbon and some lace applique to make it super pretty and cute! I also went with black and white as my theme to give a more gothic cut style ready for Halloween.

 

My next outfit I have started is a sleeveless jumpsuit in green donut fabric- my pattern drafting skills must be getting better as I managed to draft some tapered trousers for the bottom part of the jumpsuit from lalaloopsy's measurements that actually fit right first time! Hahaha- that is a first :P here is a work in progress picture of them- they still need hemming and some serious pressing and of course the addition of the sleeveless top half:

 

 

I am of now to do some more work on it an maybe even get it finished!

 

See you all soon,

 

Bye XXX

 

 

Calling from Copenhagen!

Hi everybody,

 

Haha, yes I am actually in Copenhagen, in Denmark doing this post :P As the last part of our family summer holidays me and my family booked to come to Denmark for four days- none of us had ever been before so it has been cool discovering stuff alltogether. Today is our last day and I think we are going to the Guiness World Record Museum, which looks cool as I think there is some Marylin Monroe style dresses there for me to stare at :P

 

Yesterday we went to Tivoli Gardens- the theme park in the centre of Copenhagen that inspired Walt Disney to build Disneyland and that Also inspired some of Hans Christian Andersons Stories. Hans Christian Anderson lived in Copenhgen and was born in Denmark so we went to the mini Museum about him too, it had a series of pieces of paper which he had actually written on of his stories on, which apparently cost millions of Danish Kroner for them to buy!

 

Anyway, back to Tivoli :oP

 

There was a lot less ques than there are in places like Disneyland which was good as it meant you could pretty much get on anything you wanted in one day. I went on tons of rides with my brother and my parents came on a few- but I was the only one brave (MAD!) enough to go on star flyer- basically an extremely tall chairoplane:

 

 

I still don't know how I managed to get myself on to it, I suppose it was my curiosity of what it woud be like to be flying high in a little chair!? I am the one in the middle of the picture, some how my dad managed to get a picture of me all the way up there:

 

Haha, I was holding on Verrrrryyyy tightly but I was having fun, and the view was amazing, I think I could see the whole of Copenhagen :P I could see all of the park and quite a lot outside it too. I felt quite refreshed after I got off too- it must have been all of the fresh air up there, it was so windy!

 

Tivoli was very pretty, I could see why it had inspired so many people:

 

I'm off now because me and my family are off for breakfast so we can get on and get out :) But one more funny thing before I go- Over here Strawberries are called Jordabaer, which has mde me laugh because it is so close to my name (Jordan :), I am a little strawberry! :P

 

See you all soon, I hope you are having a lovely weekend,

 

Bye! xxx

P.S. I will bring you the last few pictures from my holiday when I get home, and don't forget if you haven't already to vote for the name in the fuzzy Llama giveaway as there isn't long left now :0) xxx

Bye xoxoxx

Sunday Style

Hello,

 

As you will probably know I have been back of holiday for a few days now. My parents have been offering for ages now to do my room up but with all my studying for A levels and stuff I hadn't got round to it- but now it's the summer holidays and I am free! :D so me and my parents have been painting and decorating since we got back and it is almost done. I am sooo excited, I have new craft storage boxes and a sewing area and a funky fire place me and my dad decorated. I will post pictures when it is fully completed, which should be by the end of the week :-)

 

But in other news today I bring you another Sunday style, which I actually wore to family barbecue before I went on holiday:

 

 

I made the pattern myself by draping on the stand :) It was a little tight, but that will teach me to drape a bit more loosely next time :-P

 

I did diagonal underarm darts and straight back waist darts- the darts being the main design features as I thought the fabric was so pretty that I didn't want to take away from it by adding too much to the dress. I think it is a print of forests and lakes and old fashioned ladies:

 

To me it reminded me slightly of Japanese traditional gardens :)

 

I'm off now to get in bed so I am ready in the morning to finish off the tidying of my room :P And in the afternoon me and my family are going to see Charlie And the Chocolate Factory in the theatre in the west end so I mustn't be too tired for that either!

 

See you soon,

 

Byeee xxx

 

P.S. Thank you to Steph for sending me the lovely parcel of incense after reading on my blog that I have been using some it :) They all smell so nice!

 

Bye OXXXOXXXOO

Happy holiday happenings

Hello,

 

I hope you are all having fun in the summery sun, well, when it is not hidden by the clouds :oP

 

I am having a great time in the Isle Of Wight (as usual :) and thought I would bring you an update of what I have been up too.

 

First up- the tale of the giant cucumber! Me and my family went to 'Farmer Jacks' farm shop to get some stuff for tea and in the vegetable baskets we found some HUGE cucumbers so we picked up one (the biggest one :-)

 

Here it is, it is absolutely massive!!!:

 

 

It tasted nice too, the lady in the shop said they aren't usually so big but what with all the sun and then the downpours of rain they had thrived. (the small slice in the picture is a slice from a normal sized cucumber!- not a tiny one or anything)

 

Hahaha, from giant cucumbers to cool one-man band music machines it is all here in the IOW, yes one man band music machines..... you did not read wrong :P

 

At Quay Arts- the mini art gallery and shop on the island, there latest exhibit was of this music machine :) Just turn the handle and the wheel rotates and plays a happy little tune on the piano, the drum bangs and the umbrella attached at the

 side spins too!:

 

Quay Arts is always fun to visit as you never know what will be there but it is always something that makes you smile or makes you think :0)

 

Here is just a cool picture of the hovercraft coming into the dock/beach that my dad took when we were watching them today:

 

We did get a lot of sand in our faces though when one of them turned to go on its way and its propellers blew a gust of it straight at us! ahh well it was still fun watching them :)

 

In the evenings I have been working on this little craft kit my mum got me before we went away- I have sewn the body and arms and ears so far, pictures will of course come when my little bunny is finished ^o^:

 

And here is a picture of the great bag my dad generously treated me to in a fair-trade shop:

 

I loved it at first sight-All the little details and pretty colours. It was handmade in India and due to different pieces of scrap fabric being used to make it each one is completely individual. I am saving it to use a little rucksack for when I go to Uni  (:

 

We are almost at the end of my update now but I have got to mention the Vintage antiques fair we stopped off at this morning. I wasn't sure how much I would find when I walked in but on one table there was a whole stack of old sewing, craft and cross stitch books- all at only £1 each! I looked through all of them and found 6 I really couldn't put down. I can't wait to read all of them cover to cover, I have just got to finish off the two books (about sewing too :) I am reading at the moment first.

 

Hehehe, sorry, you can all go and give your eyes a rest now, I am done!

 

See you soon with more updates (if you can all face anymore :P),

 

Byee xxxxxxxx

Back from holiday- an update :)

Hello everyone,

 

I am back from holiday now, I just got home today :-) I had a super holiday and still have a week of my easter break left so can't wait to enjoy this week too.

 

In the evenings in the IOW I had quite alot of time to sit in front of the telly and do some crafting :) Here is one of the things I made:

 

 

Hehehe, it's a troll bow hairclip :0) I found some little trolls in my room so I thought I would put them to good use and this was my first idea!

 

I also started some other accessories too but they are not quite finished yet, I will post pics of them when they are done :) (one is another cute hairlip in the shape of a heart with pleated ribbon edging, I've just got to add the finishing decoration.)

 

Another thing I did in the IOW is lots of shopping! (as usual I bought quite a bit of the fresh handmade fudge they have in the sweetshops as it is super tasty) I have a very cool thing I got to show you know though..... It is..... a fancy dog bag......!:

 

Yes it is a bag!!! I know, amazing isn't it! a fabric- stitched bag that looks soo much like a cool dog :D I really loved it and my mum very generously treated me to it. I can't wait to use it when I go to the shops- I wonder how many funny looks I will get, lol :P

 

There are also other types of dog available, I found the website of the company who makes them online: Fuzzy Nation  Some of the bags really look like they could just run off barking! :0)

 

I'm off to bed now as I'm pretty tired after the journey home and need to get a good rest before I head off to my tailoring/dress making/clothing alterations work experience I normally do on saturdays again :) I had to have 2 weeks off due to the trains and then being away, I can't wait to get back, it is soo fun! I am bringing a handmade cake I got in the isle of Wight as gift so hopefully they like it :-D

 

See you all again soon, I hope you have a lovely weekend!

 

Bye xxxx

Space swap parcel! *o*

Hola!

The swap theme this month in the Cute and Quirky swap was 'Super space!' and today when I came home my parcel was waiting for me :D I was so happy because I wasn't expecting it to come today. It was such a great parcel, look at all these cool goodies:

Everything is soo cool, I love the crocheted alien, he has been added to my ami collection :) The little star is also sooo sweet :3 And I can't wait to stick up the glow in the dark stars in my room!

As well as everything above, 0dds0cks also sent me this really cool dress she stitched for my Blythes, here is Etty modelling:

I think it is so gorgeous and so does Etty!

 Thank you to my generous swap partner 0dds0cks :-)

Hehehe, I love getting swap parcels <3 I will put up pictures of what I made for the swap when I have posted my parcel and my swap partner has received it.

See you all soon,

Bye xxx