Taking shape

The last week or so, I've been enjoying making some new bag and purse samples to freshen up the displays of my patterns... but my designer's brain has been engaged mostly in the area of clothing. I'm making bags while I wait to hear back from the second round of pattern-testers for the draped T-dress. Between bags and draped dress, I keep thinking of new ways to shape the trapese-line top (and knitting machines.... which is another story altogether).

I should be preparing more for the Quilt and Craft Show in Sydney, which is looming large...
..but I can't stop thinking of ways to drape and sew and twist fabric around the body. Anyone would think I'd just been inspired by my own book.... (these photos are actually from those original book projects). I just can't stop the creative express-train (of thought) that the projects in the book began.

I've realised how much of a full-circle I've come, since I was a kid - draping fabric around my body to make clothes for myself, through to rigid block (sloper) based patternmaking as I studied Fashion design.... then draping on the stand (dummy/dressform).

Now I'm back to where I began.... albeit older, wiser and and wrinklier. The pattern-based knowledge feeds the pattern-free and vice-versa. It all works together to create an understanding of what fabric shapes create which effect on the body.

And I want to PLAY with it...

I don't see much sewing-for-me time ahead.

Looking at my calender, I see that between now and October, my weekends will be spent going to the Quilt and Craft Show in Sydney and Melbourne, teaching two Bag in a Day classes, two Purse Frame classes, a Shell Purse class, another Pattern-free Wrap skirt and a Pattern-Free Top class. There will be classes in the Make Craft Your Business course at the Thornbury Women's Neighbourhood House and an industry day for the Australian Sewing Guild.
There will be TWO lots of school holidays.....

I think I'll be positively brim-full-to-exploding with ideas to explore by the time I get to Sewjourn in November!! But keep watching this space. I sense that - although I anticipate little time to explore the ideas I have a-swimming in my head - there will be a few garments that escape, because I won't be able to hold them in anymore!

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BTW - The amazing Sooz (my knitting machine hero) has agreed to run a class in pattern-tweaking to fit individual shapes, too. She's been sewing and altering patterns to fit and suit her body shape since she was a kid, and has a great sense of style. Do have a good look through her blog. The girl is a multi-crafting textile genuis. She'll be teaching a "Fit Right" class at my studio on the 23rd July. I'll be teaching the Patternfree top the next week.