Summer

My next dress making project shall be the following pattern I bought from Etsy. I couldn't locate a pattern in the UK so I had it shipped from USA.

My aim is to make a nice summer dress for a wedding I am attending, however I am currently on the hunt for some nice fabric - watch this space.

 

Elasticated and Waisted

Inspired by a wardrobe of dresses, I wanted to make a simple dress with an elasticated dress. I found a great pattern idea through Craftster which was using just one piece of fabric and you essentially just sew up the sides!

I took a pattern for a bodice and a full skirt and created a pattern similar to this and cut out of some floral fabric. It took only a few hours to construct from a mock up to the finished article.

Also, this is the first dress that I worked on when I started dressmaking:

Fabric was bought from Fabric Land.

Knitted Slippers

In December I made some slippers as a Christmas present for a friend. I used a simple tutorial that someone passed onto me (here) and for a novice knitter it was perfect and so very easy!

Slippers

 Button detail

Colours

Links

Slipper Tutorial

Blouse

Finished in January 2013. Fabric was bought from Fabric Land

 The Original Pattern.

Feminism Is Dead.

The Guardian have published a great article, bringing four women together to discuss if feminism is still alive and relevant. The women above are (L-R):

Fiona Ranford, a leading member of UK Feminista.

Rehana Azan, senior trade union official.

Yvonne Roberts, Observer chief leader writer.

Melissa Kite. columnist.

The discussion was raised after Netmums said feminism was dead.

The article

Key points raised by the women, which I found interesting and highly relevant.

Melissa Kite
I sincerely hope feminism is alive. If younger women are rejecting it or saying it's irrelevant, it's only because the women who've gone before them have won so many battles that they now can't see what the problem is.

Rehana Azan:
I don't think feminism is dead. It depends what your interpretation of feminism is. My interpretation is all about having the freedom to choose.

Melissa Kite:

But if a sisterhood means anything, it's women standing together. So feminism shouldn't mean something strident, it should mean women standing together.

Fiona Ranford:

 I think that we need to switch attention away from the individual choices that women are making and turn attention on to the institutions that are restricting those choices – for example, the media that is pumping out images of women that define how women think about their bodies and force them to shape their lives around beauty norms.

Melissa Kite:

 ‘…Netmums survey women are saying that they no longer believe that being feminine or looking glamorous is a barrier to being taken seriously…So yes, we have choice. We can have children, we can work. But actually what's happened in practice is that we're having to do all of it. And that's no good for men, because they are becoming emasculated.’

Melissa raised some key points which I think need to be shared to young women who, as Melissa mentions, aren't aware of the battles that women before us fought. Only then may women realise the privileges and choices that they have.

Sketchbook Project Tour 2012

Earlier this week, I popped to London on my annual trip to London Film Festival, but more importantly The Sketchbook Project Tour 2012 at Canada Water Library.

 

I submitted my own book for the 2011 Tour(which you can see here), and was excited to see earlier this year that the American founders of SBP were bringing the project overseas to the UK and Australia!

The project involves one 5x7inch moleskin book sent to any participating person which must be returned to the Brooklyn group Art House the same size(but any depth).

My friend and I stayed in the library for over two hours, checking out a couple of books at a time. We were soon totally engrossed in the process. When we arrived there were no more than 6 of us, but as we left there must have been a good 20 people either sat turning pages or queuing for more books.

So here, in a random order are some highlights, with blogs or digitized booked linked. Apologies for any names missed or wrongly labelled.

 

Picures of book on her Tumblr here

 Artist forgotten.

Artist forgotten.

 

Beautiful book of illustrations.

The above book was by Sarah Duke, Australia.

 Fabric book by Beth Sutherland

More fabric and stitches by jazhandmade

 

Shades of grey, Artist unknown/forgotten. The book has burn holes through the book, with small black and white beautiful illustrations
.

 Southamptoner, Matt Robinson. Beautiful colours and pointalism.

View his book online here.

Beautiful sketches, artist forgotten. I loved the house illustration.

 

Stitched pages which folded out. The pages has delicate colours and wording along the bottom of all the pages.

Pages by Dollo. Stunning illustrations that left us gobsmacked at the detail. 

I insist that you look at all the other pages here.

I loved the colour in the top image, and the simplicity and the space on the Rainy Day in Town image. By Claudia Hemmings

Forgotten the artist, but I loved the contrast betwen this image, and the more traditional drawing like Claudia Hemmings.

A book where the pages seemed to have been laminated. Very odd, but this page amused me and I liked the colours pallet.

 Great illustrator Jesper van Loenen from Netherlands with lots of various illustrations which were detailed, amusing and engaging. 

In The Thick if It

At the start of the month , I spent two days volunteering with Winchester Discovery Centre helping with the set up of the latest show- In The Thick of It. The artist, Laura Ellen Bacon, is a sculpture who uses willow to create giant pieces. 

"My large-scale installations are almost always built on site, allowing me to form my work in a way that truly fits a site."

Alongside 5-6 other volunteers, I helped to prepare large amounts of birch branches before transferring them to the Discovery Centre. On the second day of helping, we started to form the structures with guidance from Laura. The experience was intimate and yet relaxed as we worked three metre high birch branches into oak trunks which formed the start of three last structures that now stand in the gallery space.

See pictures of the installation here.

 But here is where you will find visitor info.

Over the two week installation, there were a total of 15 volunteers who helped the project along. Read the Volunteer's Feedback about the experience.

I haven't been able to visit the finished piece of art, which opened to the public on the 12th October, but the exhibition is open until 6th January and is expected to grow through the months that it is installed on site.

I will upload my own photos as soon as I have visited!!

Links

Laura Ellen Bacon Homepage

In The Thick Of It Exhibition Info

Hampshire Chronicle Write Up

Busy Bee

I have been quiet recently as I have been helping out in a local school with art classes. I am spending a bit of time working on activities for them. So far we have covered Andy Warhol, bunting and building rockets from nets!!

Body Reading

If you have any interest in Body Image or are self-conscious of your body in any way or form, I'd recommend looking at asking Santa nicely for this for Christmas:

Body Gossip, who I have blogged about before here, are fabulous campaigners who collect stories and share their experiences to encourage others to help with body confidence. Both of the co-founders are worth following on Twitter too as they are lovely and quite amusing too!

Ruth Rogers and Natasha Devon

I haven't ordered my book yet, but have asked Santa very nicely.