Festive Lights

The Christmas tree the children decorate has signalled a new grown up era this year, with the decoration maturing with them. It's always bitter sweet when they grow up and I felt I could not confine the fairy's we have collected over the years to a bag in the garage, too many memories of shopping trips scouring the garden centres, vintage shops and Past Times for fairy memorabilia are caught up in them and signal the days when my daughters truly believed in fairy's and father christmas, with this in mind I decided to decorate my light fittings with the fairy's (Keeping them away from the bulbs) and i'm really pleased that they remain on display this Christmas

Vintage Style Christmas

Well Christmas is just around the corner now and here at The Vintage Dressmaker i've put uni work to one side today and gone back to my interiors experience to make Christmas Day that little bit special. We've had a bit of a tough year as a family so I wanted to show them just how much they all mean to me and decorate not just the dining area, but also the bowls that we will be eating from. Each dinner guest will have their own decorated bowl to take home as a gift and memento of a special family day.

The beauty is, a lot of this can be planted into the garden afterwards

Bowl with silk robin print trapped into the glaze and footprints in porcelaine paint

Personalised and a pretty keepsake for each guest

Soda Sea & Architectural arches

The base pattern appeared on my blog some months ago however it was only a few weeks ago I started to work into the pattern after I printed it onto silk.

The base pattern was a digital manipulation of a watercolour of the sea I painted and the pink a happy accident as I feel like it highlights the green moss like patterns which represent the moss covered walls of Venice. Ive accentuated the moss by means of machine embroidery and then taken a drawing of one of the many churches I sketched and free machine embroidered them onto the fabrics using the stone like tones. The windows appear to be crumbling into the sea, reflecting the plight of Venice today.

This is more the colour pallette I will be working with, this is now ready for the embroidery work to begin

Just a rough sketch of the Scuola Grande si san Marco I will be using to embroider with

A little bit of Christmas Magic

Things have been really hectic at the Vintage Dressmaker since university started again and design has taken a back seat while the dreaded dissertation takes priority. However I got a little request from my gorgeous little princess of a niece asking if Santa could bring a childrens version of my In Memory of WW2 dress. I could not let her down, and bearing in mind I have no little fairy helpers, I was in a quandry about time however when I spotted a plain red dress which seemed the perfect solution. As it was similar in style it meant I was able to customise the dress and transform it into a unique gown fit for a princess.  I had some left over felt and laser cut silk petals that I didnt use on my initial dress so a few hours later, some machine embroidery and voila, the dress is transformed. The added bonus is that all the Poppies are sewn onto brooch fastenings so not only can they be removed when washing, the wearer can also make her own designs with the Poppies or simply attach them to another outfit.

But sssshhhhh, its a secret!

Shoulder detail

Fully removable decoration

my original dress

For further information or commissions, please do not hesitate to get in touch

xxx The Vintage Dressmaker xxxx