I can't be near you, the light just radiates.

I mentioned in this post that I would post pictures of my sketchbook pages from that project. It has taken me a while to get around to taking them, but here they are!

Applique & reverse applique samples (little bit tricky to see as they are made with netting and gauze!) with images from Louis Vuitton S/S 12 catwalk show. This project was called "Multiples", and we had to take inspiration from repeated shapes that appeared either in nature or manmade objects (ie trees or piping), and you can just about see the little diamond shapes on the ice cream cone in the corner which inspired these samples. 

These are images from a little further on in my sketchbook where I started taking my inspiration from cobwebs.

Clockwise from top left: photocopy of a sample made with feathers, modelling on the stand with samples, backstage photograph from Meadham Kirchhoff's S/S 12 show, applique cobweb sample (which you can't really see that well), modelling on the stand, Meadham Kirchhoff details & an illustration of a final idea.

Pictures of my favourite Meadham Kirchhoff dress, princess pleating sample and a little knitted bow. I was really inspired by Meadham Kirchhoff in this project, as you can probably tell!

These are my favourite pages from this sketchbook. In Textiles, we are encouraged to really think about the way our pages are set out, and think in terms of positive/negative space - basically not cluttering the page with too much unnecessary information and letting things stand out. In one of the crits we had, one of my tutors suggested I took my colour palette inspiration from the Marie Antoinette film (which I was totally fine with, it being one of my favourite films ever!), so these pages are a colour story based on that film & featuring photocopies of my collar samples and swatches of the trims I used. We were actually only supposed to use neutral colours for this project, haha! That didn't really last long with me, I just cannot comprehend neutral colours! Pastels all the way.

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In the bottom right corner of this page, there's a photograph of the shoes Manolo Blahnik designed for the film which I have a really, really cool story about! I've kind of spoken about my mum's job on here to some extent, but to sum it up she's a Fashion & Textiles Historian & she is/was involved in helping put together exhibitions along those lines. When I was about thirteen, she was working on an exhibition about shoes, and part of that involved some correspondence with Manolo Blahnik (via his PA mind, sadly!). He was working on the designs for the shoes at the time, and he asked from some pictures of shoes from the era, which my mum duly sent him! So, my mum kind of helped Mr Blahnik design those shoes! That to me is so, so cool.

Detail of the double spread page.

Clockwise from left: modelling on the stand, sample of some knitted pompom wool, a colour board from the Color Collective (one of my favourite inspirationy type blogs), illustration of the collar on the stand, image from Marie Antoinette, another colour board from the Color Collective, lace swatch.

I don't know if you've heard*, but pastel is a massive trend for this summer (although personally I am always and have always been wearing pastels!) so I used some images from Vogue's collection edit to relate my project to that trend.

Clockwise from top: modelling on the stand, inspirational image of a cobweb in pastels, page from Vogue, image of Meadham Kirchoff as featured in Vogue, photocopy of a knitting sample with feathers on acetate.

There you are! Hope you enjoyed my little sketchbook tour, I quite liked writing this post actually so I may do more like this! Would that be something you'd like to see more of? See you soon darlings!

*Just kidding guys! Really amusing myself, as ever.

Very cherry

Hello! Please excuse the slightly scatterbrained appearance of my blog at the moment, I started to move things around & change things but then I realised I actually have no time and decided to move things back, but couldn't work out how. Technology fail! So yes, please bear with me.

A few things I bought in the local charity shop last weekend! Two lipstick holders (one more than the number of lipsticks I own, paha! But that shall soon be rectified), a blank picture frame which I am going to paint lilac & use when I do craft fairs, a David Bowie picture and the prettiest summer dress ever. The grand total for all of these lovely things came to £2.50 (although it actually should have been £2.40, but I wasn't going to quibble)! The dress is so lovely and has the most beautiful cherry print! It has a really cute 1950s-ish shape which brings out my inner pin up girl, I can't wait to wear it over summer!

Just a little mini post today I'm afraid! This week seems to have absolutely flown by, I've been so so unbelievably busy with Textiles work I just completely forgot to post, or that I hadn't posted. Sorry! It's my interim crit on Monday (basically when we get given an assessment grade halfway through our project) and I am stressing out, but hopefully when that's over and done with I will be back to more regular posting. Goodbye for now lovelies! (:

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PS. I am having a pretty big sale over in my shop, making space for some new stock which will be coming soon! I would be so grateful if you could take a little look here (:

This, Madame, is Versailles.

Hello! I just wanted to show you my favourite dress ever!

I bought it from ebay in February (well, technically my dad gave me the money for it as a birthday present!), and I've been waiting to post about it for a while because it felt almost too beautiful to wear. Like I should frame it and put it on the wall or something.

But, clothes are for wearing and that is what I shall do. (I think I may have unintentionally bastardised a Nancy Sinatra song there.)

Ahhh. I am just in love with this dress. Too lovely for words. The Marie Antoinette-esque toile de jouy print is so darling! I love the pastoral scenes and the architectural style details and the pretty pink exotic birds. I just love everything about the dress haha!

This dress just makes me want to float around a summer garden making daisy chains and twirling a paper parasol. The full skirted, 1950s shape makes it perfect for swishing about in a feminine manner.

dress - vintage via ebay, headscarf (I know, I know, I wear this too much!) - vintage, petticoat - charity shop, tights - dorothy perkins, necklace - car boot sale.

Back detail of the print.

Sorry for the lack of wordage in this post, but I'd rather let the dress speak for itself this time.

Victory

Hello!

Today I managed to get my hair into a victory roll for the first time ever! The name has never been more appropriate. I've tried countless times before but never really been able to do it. Weirdly, I had so little time this morning to do anything (forever ignoring the clock) that I didn't think about it at all, so it was really simple!

Top view.

Unfortunately you can't see it that well because my hair is quite dark here.

Side view.

Front view.

It isn't perfect, but I'm really pleased I actually managed to do it & it stayed in all day! I think I have too much hair on the other side to be able to do one there, so next time I will part my hair in a less extreme side parting - having said that, I don't actually part my hair it just falls that way because of my silly cowlick fringe!

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I'm so nervous every time I look through my emails now, really worried that I'll get something from UCAS (and also worried I won't get anything!). Really hoping that Edinburgh will give me an offer, I keep shaking when I think about it actually! I found out today that two of my friends from college got rejected by their first choices (Edinburgh and Central St Martins), which is so crazy as they're both amazing and have offers from other brilliant places. This whole thing is so stressful! Hopefully I will be less stressed out and more able to write a coherent blog post next time we meet.

To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

Hiya! It's been a week since I last posted, oh no! I am so rubbish, but I'll explain why later!

Bit of an impromptu outfit post today! I went out for afternoon tea to celebrate a friend's birthday, and I originally planned to wear something else entirely (my vintage ebay dress which I will post about soon, I promise!) but it was really cold & windy today so I quickly threw this on instead. Nothing fancy really, this dress has become my can't-be-bothered wardrobe staple. I've worn it so many times recently! Also, sorry for the umpteenth appearance of this headscarf on this blog, sorry! What can I say, I'm a creature of habit.

dress - dorothy perkins, cardigan - charity shop, belt - free with a pair of trousers, brooch - gift, necklace - vintage, headcarf - vintage.

Really don't know what I'm doing with my arm here! Awkward pose is awkward. My hair is very funny looking here, it's become almost a magenta colour. Very strange. 

I also did a bit of cat eye eyeliner today, for the first time in a blue moon. I really love the look, just need to get some more practice and a less wobbly arm so I can do it more often.

I've been feeling so down lately. Just out of ideas and inspiration for everything. I got rejected by Durham on Wednesday as well, which didn't help. Hopefully I will get out of this mist soon.

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PS. I'm having a sale over in my shop, almost half of my stock is 10% or 20% off, so please have a little look if you have the time.

I want to be the girl with the most cake.

Okay, so I don't want to be melodramatic or anything, but today I think I made the best charity shop purchases of my life. Honestly. I think it's because this time I went with things in mind and actually worked systematically through each shop I went into. Also, Rookie Mag's thrifting tips totally made a difference (how much do you wish charity shops/thrift shops were that big in the UK?!)

On Tuesday, I went to a huge crafting warehouse with my mum, and I saw some unbelievably cute/kitschy/adorable teddy bear trims. I made a mental note to look for cardigans in pastel hues to adorn with these sugary sweet, erm, adornments, and I was so happy when I found this baby blue one today! I am so looking forward to going back to that warehouse and buying up all the trims!

I am so in love with the patterned knit cardigan. Like, waiting-for-marriage-between-people-and-garments in love. Our eyes met across the crowded, cluttered room and I knew that it was the one for me. I'm actually going to stop this now because it's worrying even for me. The pattern and the pastel colours are just absolutely perfect. I know for a fact that cardigans like this sell in places like Topshop and Urban Outfitters for upwards of £40, and I got this one for under 10% of that price. *high fives self*

Sizewise, they are both a size 12/14 and, to be honest, I love that. I tried on a couple of size 8s and they were so tight! Ugh, really hate tight fitting cardies.

The pink in the knit matches perfectly with my swallow brooch.

The blue cardigan has the sweetest little flower buttons! They remind me of the buttons on some of the cardigans my gran wears, obviously a reason to make a purchase.

I also bought some sweet little handkerchieves for 10p each (so cheap!), which I am going to attempt to make little collars out of. Hopefully. My mum, sewing extraordinaire, looked very sceptical when i told her I was going to do this.

I didn't really get much today, but oh how I love each piece! (Anyway, coming home with lots of things is lovely, but I think having just one or two pieces you love is much, much lovelier.)

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PS. I decided the light was too bad today to take pictures of my sketchbook like I talked about in my last post, so hopefully I can take some tomorrow and have them up mid-week some time! Photographing an A2 sketchbook is way harder than I thought.

ho hum

Hello dears! I've been humming and hawing over this post for the past few days, I've been really unconfident about it which is really weird actually! That probably sounds a little bit strange, so I shall explain! In my second to last Textiles project, we could make either an accessory or a garment as our final outcome (I chose to make five accessories!), and then all the pieces we made would be photographed in a little photoshoot held in college. My tutor asked me to model my pieces and I did, and I was going to use them for my shop, but I'm really not sure now! I'm just really self-conscious about how the photos look, probably because I'm so used to taking my own pictures for this blog and choosing the ones where I look least like a goat. Oh, this is getting so rambly, but I was hoping that if I put them up here you guys could give me your opinion on them? (The overall photos, not just how passing my resemblance to a goat is.) I would so, so appreciate your feedback! (:

I made a few more pieces than there are in the photos, but some of the pictures didn't quite work so I haven't included them. My hair was lilac at the time, but it's such a weird colour here!

(There are two collars layered up in this photo)

The photoshoot was kind of based on these two lookbooks;

Everlasting Sprout - whose work is so pretty and amazing and awe-inspiring! Their website is in Japanese though so it's ridiculously hard to find things.

Charlotte Taylor - her prints are so cute and unusual!

Hopefully that explains why I look so serious! I was actually meant to look like that, but, I don't know, I think I just look really moody and miserable! Anyway, please let me know what you think.

I also pinned some of my jewellery to the stand, and I love love love these photos! I really need to get myself a mannequin - or steal this one!

I was going to put some pictures up of the sketchbook I did for this project, but the light was really bad today so I'll post them another time!

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PS. My giveaway winner is pupoyuki! Congratulations lovely, I have sent you an email to ask for your address. I feel so bad that everyone can't win, but that defeats the point I guess! I'd also like to say thank you thank you thank you so much to everyone that entered, everyone who follows me and all the new followers who have arrived over the past few weeks! It really does mean so, so much to me that people like to see into my little corner of the world (:

PPS. The collars will be up in my shop soon for anyone who would like to purchase them, and they will be available in a few more colours too.