Alterations and new friends!

03/30/2011

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Having received an alteration query by email last week, I made my way up to Heaton Moor on my bike. A little further out than I would normally venture, but as it was a beautiful spring day glad to be out and about on my bike. I arrived a little hot and bothered, and having got totally lost on the way glad to be greeted with a friendly face and a cold glass of vimto! Bliss!
My appointment was with Toni from Lady Behave! - seller of fabulous quality vintage clothes and hats, and handmade embroideries ( I love the birds in frames). We nattered like nannas and cooed over beautiful fabrics and dresses in her sun drenched room, before getting a cheeky cuddle from baby Arlo!We also discussed the forthcoming Vintage Village Fair in Stockport on Sunday 10th April - Lady Behave! will be there and hopefully I will be offering an on-site alteration service for beautiful garments that need a bit of tweeking or styling. Check out Lady Behave! on the link below and Vintage Village for updates.

http://www.ladybehave.com/

http://www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk/
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Plates, cups and saucers....

03/15/2011

 
I'm knee deep in plates, cups and saucers for a new venture into making cake stands and Teacup Candles! I will be selling them in the beautiful Vintage cafe in West Didsbury, And the Dish ran away with the Spoon, on Burton Rd. http://www.dishandspoonfood.co.uk/
Here is a sneak preview - more on the way....
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Vintage Textile Fair, Fallowfield

03/06/2011

 
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From Preston yesterday to Fallowfield today, looking a little strange on my bike with hat, scarf, gloves and then big sunglasses! What a beautiful day! The Vintage Textile Fair always fills me with excitement and dread as I know I will fall in love over and over and not have the funds to fulfill my wishes. I found some amazing things but found that with my new camera and permission from the lovely stall holders, it was sometimes enough just to get photos. My favourite find was these embroideries of eerie looking babies!
 

Vintage Weekend

03/06/2011

 
My Vintage weekend began on Saturday with a Mcr Cloth ladies day out trip to the Harris Gallery in Preston. It was the final day of the Shirley Craven abd the Hull Traders exhibition, a collection of fabrics hand printed by Hull Traders and designed by Shirley Craven and others in the 1960s. The bold vibrant prints and large repeats were stunning, the fabric hanging like paintings in the main room. I particularly liked Eduardo Paolozzi's small etched textural prints and geometric designs, as well as Molly White's Op Art designs. So glad I saw it before it ended!
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On we went to see "Embellished" exhibition in the next room, a collection of garments from 1700 to present day decorated with embroidery, prints and weaves. I always seem to be drawn to children's clothes throughout history, a fascination I think to do with the attention to detail in children's wear in the past that seem impractical today. I also love scale with garments, both in the small child's dress and also in the large ostentatious sleeves on some of the 18th century garments.


The 1950s dresses of course caught my eye in both print and design, my favourite dress the bolero sleeved green rouched dress. 
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I thoroughly enjoyed both exhibitions and succumbed to the shop afterwards, buying the Horrockses Fashion book of 40s and 50s clothes and prints.  Its an amazing book with fab photos, and as Gemma said, I should get it so that she can come over to look at it too! So selfless!
 

Berlin!

03/03/2011

 
Had an amazing trip to Berlin recently, a long awaited and needed holiday! I found the best fabric and haberdashery shop and spent hours trying to decide which fabrics to buy (still have dreams about the ones I left behind..). It was a wonderfully weird and inspiring place, perfect for wandering around and getting lost. And, as it was the start of the Berlin film festival while we were there, our claim to fame was seeing the back of Jeff Bridges' jacket on the red carpet!! Yey!!
Check out fabric shop: http://www.tinyurl.com/4fqdd3aweeblylink_new_window
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Manchester Cloth

03/02/2011

 
Got lots to catch up on and not quite got used to writing it all on my blog! Anyway, I am part of an Art Collaboration with 3 other artists, Mandy Tolley, Gemma Lacey and Kiran Williams. We have been working on a project to explore collaboration by using a game similiar to that of the surrealists, exquiste corpse. We have each started a piece of work and then passed it on to each other to produce 4 pieces that we have each worked on. We will be doing the final reveal in a few weeks so must crack on with it! This is our blog to see our progress!
www.manchestercloth.wordpress.com