Mostly photos

Hello! A brief post with some pictures of me wearing my August Burda Challenge scarfy top.

Having worn it for a full day, there's a few tweaks I'd make if I sew this again (lowering the front neckline a little more and moving the shoulder seams forward more), but it's comfortable to wear and makes me happy, and the poly content of the fabric means it washes pretty well too.

I wore it to see the Miró exhibition at Fondation de l'Hermitage in Lausanne - which was absolutely wonderful. There were more works than I thought there would be (it's a deceptively large exhibition space), and a fascinating short film of Miró in his studio in the later years of his life (although I found it really hard to understand his French as he spoke with a strong Spanish accent!). It was really interesting to see his working process - I always get the impression of speed and energetic brushstrokes with his paintings, but in reality everything is slow and careful and considered. I loved that after working on a painting, he'd prop it up against a trestle table and sit in his rocking chair to contemplate it.

I finished my September Burda Challenge this evening! I plan to wear it either tomorrow night or Saturday night, so hopefully I can get some photos and I'll post about it soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek...

Cottonopolis

In December I spent a couple of days in Manchester on the way to visit my husband's family in Liverpool. For those who don't know much about the history of the place, it was at the centre of the Industrial Revolution in the UK at the beginning of the 19th century. It was probably the world's first industrialised city, and its growth was driven by the textile industry - at its height, around two thirds of the world's cotton was processed in the city.

The day we were there it was freezing cold, so instead of looking round the city, we went to the Museum of Science and Industry, and I'm very glad we did as they have a big gallery dedicated to their cotton processing heritage. As well as artefacts relating to the business side of the cotton trade, they also have a huge set up of the machines used for processing from cotton bale to cloth, which they have demonstrations of twice daily (I think around 11am and 3pm).

Seeing these machines running is amazing. They are huge and noisy, and then you realise that the machines in the mill were six times as large, with hundreds all together. It was a pretty dangerous and difficult life to work in such a place. Many workers ended up with byssinosis (chronic lung disease from inhalation of the cotton dust), and there was grave risk of injury or death from the drive belts and the machinery itself. It also made me wonder about the conditions in modern mills - whilst I'm sure there is some more mechanisation nowadays, the principle of how the cotton is sorted, spun and woven is the same, so has life improved for those who work doing this?

On a slightly lighter note, there were also exhibits of modern Mancunian textile artists, two of which were especially fascinating. Jennifer Collier, who creates art by incorporating found materials into textiles, and Trish Belford, who created printing techniques for designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes in the 1980s and 1990s, and since 2005 has worked on amazing composite materials, with fabric embedded in concrete. Seriously, these things are beautiful.

The rest of the museum is also super interesting, but if you are interested in the history of textile manufacture and find yourself in Manchester, I would highly recommend a visit. And look: I have a piece of cotton woven on a loom over 100 years old!

Ballgowns

Hmm, I haven't posted for a while now, time just got away from me, and I never really regained my sewing mojo after the bout of sinusitis in the summer. However, it's slowly returning (helped by sorting out and tidying my sewing room), so I'm catching up on posts from over the summer that have been sitting in my drafts folder. By the time I've done that, there will hopefully be a few new things to show you too!

I went to London for a long weekend in June. I'd planned to do some fabric and notions shopping, but I caught a cold and didn't feel in the mood (this was what turned into the sinusitis after my flight back). I'd also planned to do some shoe shopping, but everywhere had sales and pretty much no summer stock left. Seriously, why put all your winter stock out when it's only halfway through June?! (I'd hoped to buy some Chie Mihara shoes at Selfridge's, but have since discovered I can buy them online - hooray! But dangerous for my bank balance...)

Anyway, enough whinging, whilst I was there, I did go and see the ballgown exhibition at the V&A. Have any of you guys been to see this? What did you think?

I have to say, I was a little confused by the exhibition. Whilst it was lovely seeing so many beautiful dresses (and a couple not so beautiful) all in one place, that seemed like all it really was. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but for the amount of money for a ticket, I would expect a bit more than that (although, having said that, I'm a V&A member so I got in with a guest for "free").

The dresses were divided between two floors, with modern dresses upstairs (post late-1990s), and earlier ones downstairs behind glass (early-1950s to mid-1990s). Apart from that, there was not really any theme in how they were arranged. I loved being able to see the dresses upstairs so close up, but it also surprised me how "unprofessional" some of them looked close up. Hems were just cut, feathers looked shabbily applied etc. I found this rather interesting, and wondered if these were the actual runway pieces, which I guess would need to look good from a distance but the details weren't so important (and may have had to be quickly adjusted or mended backstage). It was a shame the older dresses were behind glass as it would have been fascinating to be able to inspect these some more.

The most striking contrast between the newer and older dresses was the structure apparent in the older dresses, which seemed to have disappeared in most of the newer dresses. Some of the newer dresses just simply wouldn't be able to be worn by anyone without a model perfect body.

There aren't many pictures on the website for the exhibition (and you aren't allowed to take pictures in the exhibition), but fortunately they include two of my favourites from the newer section: the gorgeous yellow and purple Erdem Rumina gown, and the amazing Atsuko Kudo latex gown with trompe l'oeil lace print (both pictured above).

The exhibition is on until 6 January 2013, and despite my quibbles, I would still recommend it to anyone who likes looking at beautiful dresses.

London bits and pieces

Most of this is only vaguely related to sewing at best, but I wanted to share a few photos - if you do read it all through, there are a few clothes pics, honest...

This was the first time we've been to London in a year where the entire time was our own - every visit last year included a wedding... The main reason for visiting this time was much better (sorry, lovely married friends...) - shopping! Despite being very productive lately, I wanted to stock up on a few things so I didn't have to make things in a panic. Specifically bikinis and summer clothes - because I'm going to St Lucia! Oh yeah. I would quite like to make a bikini - I've stocked up on fabric, elastics, books etc - but I was worried I would end up with my usual last-minute stress if that was my only option (particularly as I also need(ed) to do an enormous amount of tidying and gardening). And considering that we're going in a week and a half and I haven't thought about starting a bikini, I think that was a good plan. I'm definitely going to try making swimwear though - I was definitely inspired by Carolyn's tankini (woah, was that really back in November?), and I've also discovered a fabulous website for drafting and sewing swimwear etc. Anyway, that's for the future, for now, hooray for Bravissimo. And Monsoon. And Schuh. And Uniqlo...

...where we went to the launch of the Laura Ashley line in their Oxford Street flagship store. There was live music and cocktails in teacups.

Other fun stuff - randomly saw the Queen (and Camilla, and Kate, and Boris Johnson):

They were visiting Fortnum and Mason and unveiling a plaque to commemorate the refurbishment of Piccadilly. There's an article on the BBC website about the visit, where the Queen is quoted as saying "How marvellous". Perfect. And I brought back these souvenirs:

The next day we were on our way through the V&A and had a look at the spider silk cape. Bloody hell it's amazing. The beauty of the natural colour of the silk and the embroidery, coupled with the amount of time and effort that went into its construction makes it really quite amazing. I just wish I could have felt it.

That evening we went to see the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy. It really loved it. I have a passion for David Hockney throughout all the many incarnations of his art, and his new pieces are just gorgeous. For me they were also rather nostalgic as the landscapes reminded me so much of home. And, I wore my new yellow skirt, paired with my floral Sorbetto, bright pink tights, and blue suede shoes - uh-huh-huh (apologies for the terrible photos, I forgot to take them whilst I wast out, and for some reason decided to take them myself rather than get my husband to take them. Also very creased from sitting down.)

The next day saw a trip to the cinema to see the Muppets. Oh my goodness it is such a good film - we were actually crying with laughter pretty much constantly. We also saw Tomorrow's Warriors at the Queen Elizabeth Hall - I really miss all the cool free stuff in London...

And finally, here's the translation of "Heidi" into Chinese, from the inflight magazine (it's the bit in angled brackets):

Heads up: Alexander McQueen

A heads up to anyone in London - Harvey Nichols currently has a selection of McQueen couture dresses in the windows of the Knightsbridge flagship store, promoting the New York Met Museum retrospective.

You can't get up terribly close to the dresses, and the window reflections play havoc with taking photos (as you'll see the evidence of below), but it's still super interesting to be able to see such a selection of (a) proper couture catwalk dresses and (b) McQueen dresses from as far back as 1999. It always surprises me how "handmade" many catwalk dresses look (haha from my vast experiences of about 4 V&A exhibitions!!!). I guess they are one-offs and not really meant to be seen super close up. It would be amazing to actually be able to have a proper nose around them to have a look at all the internal construction...

The display is only up until the end of May, so get there quickly! Here's a few photos to give you an idea of what's there:

I did some shopping whilst I was in London (of course) and now seems like an appropriate time to show you some of the jewellery I bought - yep, an Alexander McQueen pendant! I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste, but I adore it...