Costume drama

A last minute panic phone call from a friend has meant that any other thoughts of artistic endeavour have been put aside this week.  A pantomime costume had to be made by Tuesday and the lady who had started the project had been taken ill - would I be able to finish it?  

I realised the enormity of the task when on Monday afternoon, I eventually assembled all the pieces that had been cut out and partially constructed.  Even with a pattern to follow, it was slow progress as my predecessor had made alterations and modifications.  I have to confess that whilst I'd made garments before, I'd never actually fitted a collar!

In the event, it all went fairly smoothly, the coat was assembled by 9pm and the final hand-finished details completed by 11am the next day just in the nick of time for the opening night.

Making the costume has prompted me to think about my own work and plans to extend my portfolio of Victorian inspired garments.  I'm going to start researching corsets and see where that leads me.

New Year, new challenge

Like all New Year resolutions, we rarely stick to them for very long, so I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself for completing my 50:50 project to do 50 new things in 2013.  I enjoyed the discipline of writing a blog post each week and I'm certain that it made me more creative and spontaneous. The down-side was that many of the pieces were one-offs and didn't result in a more thorough work.

Inspired by a trip to the Musee d'Orsay last week and a chance to see up-close-and-personal the work of the great French Impressionists, I was moved to work on my technical drawing skills.  I've invested in some lovely soft drawing pencils in shades of brown which seem so much less threatening than graphite.  Here is a sketch of the wonderful station clock that presides over the Musee d'Orsay.

I'm also hoping to do some more detailed pieces over several weeks, resulting in a more considered body of work.  

Number 50!

This year I set out to do 50 artful new things - roughly one per week. It's not always been easy but it has pushed me out of my comfort zone and given me a huge incentive to be more creative.

Whilst this week's offering is not strictly new, I have tried to be more adventurous.  I've been teaching my friends how to make devore scarves but never found time to make one myself.  In a last minute panic to find a special present (think 21st December) I borrowed a design of chilli peppers from my eldest daughter's A-level art project and got printing.

Working on silk-viscose velvet, I wanted the chilli peppers to appear in relief which meant burning away most of the viscose pile.  It dramatically altered the drape and handle of the fabric, changing it to a light and gauzy cloth.  I used an acid dye to colour the silk background whilst leaving the viscose relatively pale, giving a shimmer to the chilli peppers. 

I finished in the nick of time (final iron on Christmas Eve!) but it was much admired and I know it will be treasured.  I have vowed to me more dramatic  with my use of  devore paste in the future but hopefully not quite as last minute.

50:50 project complete :) 

Are you sitting comfortably?

Are you sitting comfortably?.......then I'll begin......

Here is the story of a tired old chair made in about 1950.  It was covered in a beige moquette fabric patterned with red stars. Some time in the early 80's it was rescued from a junk shop and given a new cover of Sanderson William Morris print fabric by my mother. It came to University with me, comforted my friends and supported me as I revised for exams. It has survived 6 house moves but for the last few years it has languished in a corner of my daughter's bedroom looking very sorry for itself.

Over the last six weeks I have stripped off some rather unattractive varnish and restored the lovely beech wood frame with oil.  I've repaired the springs and reupholstered the seat back.  A new cushion pad was needed to replace the crumbling foam and with it a new cover, complete with piped seams.  

I have dyed and printed the fabric and embellished it with some favourite pieces from my stash.  Without being too dramatic, this is my family tree to pass on to my children.  Just sit quietly in it and listen to the stories it has to tell.

Christmas Cheer

My favourite memories of childhood Christmas is making decorations for the house. It's still the nicest way to get in the mood for the festive season -  much more so than the angst of buying presents or the chore of writing cards.

A group of friends have been meeting in early December to share a meal and make something new for Christmas. We have been overly ambitious of late and there are several UFOs lying around our work baskets!  This time we wanted a less complicated task and so I came up with these wire tree decorations. Simple but effective and made fabulous with a selection of trinkets from Yum Yum Beads in Leeds. 

Stitching memories

With only two more sessions of my vintage upholstery course left, I am channeling all my energy into finishing my chair. I learned how to make piped seams, practising on some kitchen chair pads because the plain fabric I have chosen will not forgive any mistakes!

I've made a start on embellishing the back cover.  I'm adding small scraps using a machine appliqué technique.  The fabrics each have their own story to tell:  a piece of lace rescued from my Grand-mother's stash, silk brought back from a holiday in Thailand, some of the William Morris print that had been used to cover the chair by my Mother, wool tweed woven in Yorkshire.  

The wood has been brought to life with several coats of Danish oil and has now taken on a sensuous quality.  Again this is a slow process as each coat takes 24 hours to dry.  

I will look forward to sitting on my newly covered chair very soon! 

Colour/Discolour

When you buy a piece of fabric do you really think about what you have bought?  I choose by colour, by pattern or simply by the feel of the cloth but little else crosses my mind except what I'm going to make with it.  So it's come as quite a surprise that when you do all these processes yourself it's actually very time-consuming.

I'm reupholstering an old chair, one my mother bought from a junk shop and re-covered for me about 30 years ago.  It's a sentimental project with more than a passing nod to my ancestry in the furniture business.  I wanted to truly personalise the chair and what better way to do it than with fabric I had printed myself?  

Once I had settled on a colour (at least two weeks agonising over that) I then spent several hours dyeing a couple of metres of linen union.  Having spent all that time colouring I then proceeded to apply discharge paste to bleach out a pattern. Then it all had to be washed again.  It's taken around 6 hours so far and that's not including drying time.  It would have been so much easier to buy some lovely fabric off the shelf but not nearly as satisfying.  

There's more work to do before the fabric makes it onto the chair but that will have to wait until next week.