Pretty little lights!

Hi,

 

Today I went on a course at the V&A museum in London to do with 'Soft circuits'- incorporating electrics into sewing :)

 

 

It was very interesting and gave me loads of ideas to try at home once I buy myself some conductive thread and some more LEDs and stuff. You literally just sew the path of the circuit, here is mine- I went for a really crazy up-down-across-and-everywhere circuit! As long as your threads didn't cross and you joined the LEDs on in parallel you were fine:



 

 

When you pull the drawstring the lights come on (as the little pieces of conductive fabric at the top get pulled together and complete the circuit). I had four lights in total- 2 on the back and two on the front:

 

The battery is tucked away inside secretly :P The tutors were really lovely and let you be really free and creative which was nice- here is their website in case you fancy learning more or seeing some of their cool projects- http://codasign.com/

 

Maybe I will do a tiny tutorial on making something with lights- a little thing I had an idea for while I was making my bag today, when I pick up some of the stuff :)

 

Another good thing about the course was that I met some cool new people including a lady called Janine who makes these really cool pop/geek style headbands which were super fab! I really may have to treat myself to them one day! Here is her Etsy shop if you want to look at it(which I recommend you should if you like kawaii, cool and fun things :P): https://www.etsy.com/shop/JanineBasil

 

Hehe, in other news I am coming to the end of my 16th century corset and foundation wear project at college (the last week is next week). I have now finished my farthingale!:

 

I am getting there- just a bit more written work and my petticoat and bum roll to complete- I can do it!

 

I hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend :D

 

Speak soon,

 

Byee! xxx

 

Vintage couture sewing techniques- day 3, 4 and 5

Hi,

 

Today I bring you some pictures of what I learnt on the rest of my Vintage couture sewing techniques course :) I can't believe that today was the last day, it went so quickly, probably because I was having so much fun!

 

On day 3 (Wednesday) we spent the whole day- over 4 hours (!!!!!) just making this special curved seam pocket. There were so many stages involving different types of hand sewing due to it being couture. The outcome was worth it though, it is the most lovely pocket I have yet seen :P

 

Here is a work in progress picture:

 

And here is the finished project- the pattern lines up all over once constructed, that is another reason it takes so much care and time:

 

 

Day 4 we did this decorative technique sampler including trapunto quilting (the very padded one- padding is inserted after sewing), normal quilting, roleau, different types of applique, openwork and encrusting (the dark blue one- inserting and patch/shape of fabric into the background fabric):

 

And today- the last day, we did some scalloping:

You can use it around hems or cuffs or down the front of fancy garment :)

 

 

And we did some lace applique, hand tucks, machine tucks, a French seam and hand rolled and pin tuck hems:

 

Hehee, yes all of those things are on the piece of fabric above. It is surprising how many techniques you can try on one piece of fabric :0)

 

And finally we tried some different couture finishings/fastenings:

 

It will be so weird not getting up and going to learn more tomorrow, though I only have to wait a couple of weeks and then I am going on my millinery course :D And next week I am going to practice some more techniques at home.

 

I made this pincushion for the course tutor as he was really nice to us all :)

 

I put a T on it for his name, he really liked it so I was pleased, he even started using it today! :o)

 

Just in case any one is interested he runs quite a few courses in different places here is his website- http://www.vonnordheim.co.uk/

 

I hope you all had a good week too,

 

See you soon,

 

Byeeee XXX

Vintage couture sewing techniques- day 1 and 2

Hi,

I hope everyone had a good day :) For the whole of this week I am on a sewing course learning about Vintage Couture (one off, personally fitted/tailored garments) Sewing Techniques! I have learnt so much already- and I still have three days left :0D

 

Day one we mainly talked about what vintage and couture actually mean and we looked inside and analysed a couture Givenchy jacket- It was so interesting to actually get to see all the inside construction and techniques involved (like secret padding to help improve the couture clients shape :P).

 

Then today we did samples of loads of different seams- curved, lapped, welted, square/corner, bound- I have done some of them before on a previous course I went on but this time I learnt how to do them the full, professional tailor couture way which was super cool- time consuming but with great results!

 

Here are some shots of my work in progress and finished pictures of a couple of the seams (I won't bore you with them all! :P):

 

This is the curved lapped one.

 

And this one is the special lapped corner one.

 

Hhehehe, I am already super excited for tomorrow which I think might be on decorative techniques. I will keep you all updated on what I get up to this week :D

 

See you soon,

 

Bye XXX