FESTIVAL CHALLENGE: Fabric Inspiration

Aaaaaand we're off! 

The first stage in my Festival Challenge - trawling the web for the best festival themed fabrics. I've been searching for bright summer colours, morrocan / bohemian prints and designs which will work with the Anna Dress pattern. 

Clockwise from left: 1. eo petals - folk modern - pink and green on blue - ellen luckett baker - linen blend fabric from kokka  2. True Colors - Medallion in Aquamarine 3. washi triangles - charcoal - rashida coleman hale - timeless treasures 4. Cotton Lawn - India

FESTIVAL CHALLENGE!

With festival season on the horizon I am setting myself a blog-tastic sewing challenge! I am going to create an entirely handmade festival wardrobe in time for the spectacular Wilderness Festival which starts on the 7th August. 

If you have never been to Wilderness (produced by the same team as The Secret Garden Party) then why not?? JUST GO! It's the most chilled out, beautiful, theatrical festival I have been to. You can go wild swimming in the lake, dress to the nines for secret late night parties in the woods, try your hand at archery or horse ridding, eat sumptuous eastern delights in the Moro food tent, relax in a wood fired hot tub, watch immersive theatre and of course catch some incredible bands at the main stage! I'm pretty excited - can you tell?? 

So back to the challenge...

I need to make outfits for four days of festival revelry - including an outfit for the Astronomers Ball late night party. I am going to sew as much as possible from scratch but may also customise some garments to transform them from thrifty charity shop finds into festival worthy glad rags. 

Watch this space for fabric ideas, pattern choices and daring Astronomical designs!!  

My Back Catalogue

Looking at that pile of uncut patterns and ironed fabrics waiting for your time and dedication to transform them? 

Sometimes it helps to look back at past triumphs for motivation and inspiration. That little, 'yeah I can do this! Remember when I made THAT and THAT was waaaaay tougher' feeling. 

As I gear up for an exciting summer sewing challenge, let's take a look back at my most complicated project to date. It was a dress made for a friend's production of the play 'Our Country's Good'... 

There was boning in the bodice,

I dyed the fabric myself,

I painstakingly printed a historically appropriate pattern (from research at the V&A Museum) onto the fabric,

It had to be as historically accurate as possible,

The sleeves were crazy! It took a week and a few tears but I was pretty chuffed with it. It was adapted from this simplicity pattern. 

*drum roll* Here she is, modeled by the lovely Pru who played Duckling in the show: 

Mathilde finale

My mathilde blouse is finally finished and it's pretty good! Thanks to the robust nature of print at home patterns I can easily make it again and next time round I really need to get the cuff gathers right - they're a tad over gathered and massive but hey, I'll just channel a New Romantic vibe...