It's all work and some play (eventually!)

Bringing to your attention.. perhaps too many times, some pieces I'm very glad to have taken up and finished to such a degree. These pieces saw me re-visiting them over and over again, revising some minor (perhaps almost invisible) mistakes, pleating and tearing open seams .. these pieces are proof of new levels of patience and endurance achieved in the last months. Strange, very strange, for a person this impatient with everything else.

 This is a Maid of Honour dress for the lovely Claire - easy to work with and for. She came forward with some drawings for her cousin's wedding and I sought to make something similar but with a twist. In practice, some ideas have to be done away with whilst others need to be introduced. Initially the dress was to be made in purple but now I'm glad the bride opted for champagne; the colour makes it all the more statuesque. Needless to say, that I really (honestly) enjoyed straining my eyes on the beading at the empire waistline. 

This is one of two tea-dresses my good friend, Sarah (of The Secret Rose) commissioned me to do. She purchased the floral material whilst on vacation in Dubai so we looked for a matching sturdy cotton to go with it for the top and the origami-inspired, modernized bow at the back. This neckline suits her so very much so we made sure to make the best of it by opening up the back all the way down to the waistline. *I love how her nail polish just happened to match the dress perfectly on the day she turned up for the last fitting! 

This, on the other hand is a collaboration with my other crafty friend Carla (of Rita Cholita). We decided to create a fuzzy wool cape, totally out of spirit with the impending summer, in hope it'll find a good life elsewhere where it's colder and more rudely so. The cape is lined with a flowery print I forgot to photograph (*sorry) and the cute round rosettes give it some extra 'vintage-y' appeal. I have a feeling we're going to have to reproduce it in a variety of colours for ourselves come winter!

And lastly.. a cute 50s inspired dress in the pipeline!

Before I forget.. Babettopolis' thoughts about 'vintage'  have been featured on sundaycircle.com just yesterday.

check it out here >> 'A Vintage Appeal' by Martina Said

YIPPIE **may I just say before I leave, that I'm really excited about visiting a good friend, the Leighton House, Walthamstow fabric market, Wilton's Music Hall and the Ballgowns exhibition at the V&A, all in the coming week** YIPPIE