Maddison modeling Bess’s proofed linen coat (quilted with wool wadding) with wiggly eye epaulettes. Zipping in the panels and sleeves undo to reveal white proofed linen pleats.
Fabric and Notions:
Chartreuse proofed linen
White proofed linen
Wool wadding
Black continuous zipping
wiggly eye buttons
Black cotton grosgrain
Spot printed viscose acetate lining
Cover buttons
Pocket zips
Eyelets (umbrella pocket)
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Bess’s own
Megan wears chartreuse cotton drill A-line skirt with a spiral zip inserted, worn with a grey wool mesh hoody top with ears, designed by Bess
Fabrics and Notions:
Skirt:
Charteuse cotton drill
White continuouse zipping
Viscose acetate spot print lining (Inside zip)
Black venezia lining
Invisible zip
Bias binding
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Top:
Wool stretch mesh
Stretch semi-sheer turquoise lycra binding
Patterns: Bess’s own
Modelled below by Bronte showing what happens when you undo the zip
Kyra modelling the wool tweed zippy dress remake designed by Bess
Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue double sided wool tweed in charcoal and ivory
Big spot poly satin
Red continuous zipping with extra pullers
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Self made wide bias binding
Iron-on reinforced stay tape
Iron-on stay tape
Pattern: Bess’s own
Kyra modelling the felted jersey cardigan designed by Bess with integral glove puppets.
Fabrics and Notions:
Turquoise wool and polyamide felted jersey
Red viscose elastane jersey (binding and waist yoke lining)
Cover buttons
Wool wadding (collar interlining)
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Megan (spinning) and Bronte (triptych) modelling angora and wool mix jumper with red viscose jersey circle insert and monster gloves, and charcoal grey dogtooth worsted wool with zipped panels revealing printed silk habotai inserts.
Fabrics and Notions:
Jumper:
Wool and angora stripe rib jersey
Red viscose and elastane jersey (circle insert, covered buttons and glove linings)
Wool wadding (Inside circle insert)
Covered buttons
Bias binding cut from jersey
Stay tape
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Skirt:
Charcoal 80% Wool 20% Poly dogtooth check brushed worsted wool
Digitally printed silk habotai
Red continuous zipping
Black grosgrain fold-over binding
Invisible zip
Backing button
Bias binding
Iron-on stabilising tape
Maddison modelling reversible black and white polka dot dress (red on reverse) that Bess designed for her final degree collection.
Fabrics and Notions:
Red viscose elastane jersey
Black and white polka dot print viscose elastane jersey
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Stay tape
Pattern: Bess’s own
Clair braving the British summer in her red bubble spot cotton panelled dress.
Rachel’s granddaughter wearing printed cotton sundress with stripe contrast trim.
Lulu wearing Italian Designer chevron knit dress
Fabrics and Notions:
Cotton and mixed fibres Italian Designer chevron knit
Lycra binding
Bias binding
Stay tape
The selvedge on these knits are often usable as an edging, they may need a bit of tidying up as there is often threads that come loose, but look good when the time is spent.
Bess wearing her posh white grosgrain and sequinned zippy dress, with red cotton sateen inserts.
Bess has a bit of an obsession with zips
Fabrics and Notions:
White cotton and acetate grosgrain
Black sequinned jersey
Red cotton and poly stretch sateen
Red continuous zipping
Red piping
Red bias binding (cut from sateen)
Iron-on reinforced stabilising tape
Iron on stabilising tape
Black fold-over grosgrain binding (hem)
Kitcat’s green gingham school dress with heart pocket detailing and daisy trim made by Jane, with matching daisy trimmed shorts. (no more showing your knickers to the boys, young lady)
Miaow learning to walk in the garden wearing her yellow Italian cotton rara dress made by Granny
Kitcat wearing Italian yellow printed cotton rara skirt with trimmed purple t-shirt
Kitcat wearing smocked linen dress with cross over back.
Fabrics and Notions:
Spotty printed linen.
Smocking
Buttons
Lawn iron-on interfacing
Malin looking fabulous in red velvet.
Fabrics and Notions:
Red cotton velvet
Invisible zip
Venezia lining
Piping
Silk organza (interlining)
Pattern: Vogue 8555
Sarah wearing her pink backless dress made for a Drama awards ceremony and embellished with beaded trim
Fabrics and Notions:
Pink wool double jersey
Beaded trim
Bias binding
Clair wearing heavy jersey sailor top and pleated wool and silk skirt.
Fabrics and notions:
Heavy wool jersey
White ribbon
Stay tape
Black silk/wool worsted (permanently pleated)
Medium weight knitted interfacing
Venezia lining
Gingham ribbon
Invisible zip
Clair wearing boxy winter white boiled wool cardigan jacket with black trim, and guipure lace skirt
Fabrics and Notions:
Jacket:
Winter white boiled wool
Black fold over acrylic/wool binding
Skirt:
Black guipure lace
Ivory Venezia
Invisible zip
Bias binding and piping
Malin wearing her camel pinafore dress made with stretch cotton and viscose trousering.
Fabrics and Notions:
Camel Cotton/Viscose/Elastane trousering
Invisible zip
Venezia lining
Iron on medium weight knitted interfacing
Pattern: Vogue 8555
Kitcat wearing her red gingham little red riding hood dress and cotton velvet cape.
Emily wearing horse print fleece dress made by Grandma Gill
Kitcat in her tiered skirt school pinafore dress
Fabrics and Notions:
Grey viscose poly elastane gaberdine
Green and white gingham check cotton (lining bodice and tiers)
Piping
Concealed zip
Jacoba in her mixed fibre tweed skirt and mohair and wool coat.
Fabrics and Notions:
Suit: Mixed fibres tweed
Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Pattern: Butterick 4461
Coat: Wool mohair coating
Viscose satin lining
buttons
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Bess in her prototype tweed dress she made for her final collection with six zips opening up the panels (the zips have extra pullers so can be undone in a multitude of ways for different silhouettes).
Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue double sided wool tweed in charcoal and ivory
Big spot poly satin
Black continuous zipping with extra pullers
Red grosgrain ribbon
Black fold-over grosgrain binding
Self made wide bias binding
Iron-on reinforced stay tape
Iron-on stay tape
Pattern: Bess’s own (but is a pretty basic panelled shift)
Bess wearing her sequinned tulle and organic cotton jersey dress (made in one hour!)
Fabrics and Notions
Silver/Black penny sequinned tulle #1926
Black organic cotton jersey #2916
Stay tape
Bess made sleeves and lined her sequin dress in cotton jersey because she is fairly intolerant when it comes to suffering for fashion (and sequins are hot and scratchy).
This dress would have taken much less than an hour had she not taken the time to cut away the sequins along the seams (which makes sewing easier, reduces the risk of a sequin jabbing her in the thigh, and the seams lie nice and flat. It was unnecessary to sew any back on.
Due to the tulle backing the sequins are sewn on to no hemming was required (result!).
Jacoba wearing her posh shot silk dupion dress.
Fabrics and Notions:
Silk dupion
Silk organza (interlining)
Fluffy iron-on interlining (bodice)
Boning
Venezia lining
Pattern: Bellville Sassoon for Vogue, 2481
Becky modelling Lucinda’s quilted cotton hooded jacket with laser cut leaf embellishments, and worsted wool shaped yoke with jersey draped skirt (made using the Julian Roberts sub-cutting method)
Fabrics and Notions:
Skirt:
Marble print viscose and elastane jersey
Chocolate brown English worsted wool
Red viscose and elastane jersey
Invisible zip
Jacket:
Dyed calico
Laser cut leaves from ultrasuade, jersey and calico
Blue viscose (lining)
Wadding
Cotton bias binding
T-shirt:
Viscose elastane jersey
Clair wearing red and black boiled wool ladybird spot skirt suit.
Fabrics and Notions:
Printed Boiled Wool
Elastic
Stretch binding
Buttons
Bess made this hoody with ears for her father (modelled here by her husband, Rob) out of white cotton sweat shirting which she dyed blue with Dylon machine dye.
Fabrics and Notions:
White cotton sweatshirting
Navy Dylon dye
Stay tape
Wool wadding (for ears)
Bess believed that EVERYONE should have a hoody with ears in the Christmas of 2010
Bess made this sleeveless hoody with ears for Lulu using the lightest, softest jersey and interlined with wool wadding (sold in bed sized sheets).
Fabrics and Notions:
Stripe viscose elastane jersey
Charcoal Marl Viscose Elastane Jersey
Wool wadding
Binding
Or is it a leopard?
Kitcat wearing leopard print velour mouse costume ready to meet Father Christmas (who is very scary).
Fabrics and Notions:
Leopard print stretch velour
Wadding (to stuff tail and ears)
Elastic
All made by Clair.
Pip posing in printed fleece skirt made by Clair.
Fabrics and Notions:
Fleece
Elastic.
Kitcat with her horse print fleece ensemble made by Jane and Clair.
Fabrics and Notions
Horse print fleece
Daisy buttons
Elastic
Grey cotton jersey
Miaow’s christmas tree print smocked cotton dress with petticoat made by Jane.
Proper smocking is a laborious business, but Jane doesn’t get put off by labour. No detail was spared in the making of this outfit. It is amazing.
Sue with her daughter in her shot red silk dupion posh frock (made in classes).
Fabrics and Notions:
Red shot silk dupion
Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Lightweight iron-on interfacing
Piping
Bess made this reversible jersey dress as a dummy run for her final collection. The plain side in a linen viscose jersey, and the spotty side is viscose elastane. The pattern was designed on the stand.
Fabrics and Notions:
Linen Viscose jersey
Viscose elastane polka dot print jersey
Lightweight knitted iron-on interfacing
Stay tape
Skirt suit made by Carole using green wool bouclé from Scotland.
Fabrics and Notions
Green wool bouclé
Self cover buttons
Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Viscose iron-on interfacing
Edge tape
Pattern: McCall’s 5335
Kitcat ready for ballet in her dress net tutu and dyed organic cotton cardi made by Clair.
Jacoba wearing big flower print lined cotton skirt.
Fabrics and Notions:
Flower print cotton #1580
Cotton lawn lining
Invisible zip
Bias binding
Jacoba wearing Pucci inspired print silk crepe de chine dress.
Fabrics and Notions:
Printed silk crepe de chine
Stay tape
Lightweight iron-0n knitted interfacing
Invisible zip
Jacoba wearing black and white polka dot printed cotton dress with collar detail and purchased belt.
Fabrics and Notions:
Polka dot print cotton
Lightweight iron on knitted interfacing
Invisible zip
Jacoba wearing her John Kaldor tulip printed stretch cotton sateen skirt.
Fabrics and Notions:
John Kaldor tulip print stretch cotton sateen
Invisible zip
Medium weight iron-on knitted interfacing
Jacoba wearing super-slinky and versatile red viscose brocade panelled skirt.
Fabrics and Notions:
Red viscose brocade
Invisible zip
Red Venezia lining
Lightweight iron-on knitted interfacing
Jacoba wearing floral printed linen skirt with frill detailing.
Jacoba wearing red bubble spot panelled dress.
Kitcat’s daisy printed cotton a-line dress with daisy buttons and matching knickers. (Made for Kitcat by Jane)
Fabrics and notions:
Printed cotton
Rickrack trim
Daisy buttons
Elastic
Spotty bias binding
Kitcat wearing pale pink tulle tutu with satin trimmed waistband and bow made by Clair.
Miaow in bought baby-grow that Clair added pale pink tulle tutu to.
So sweet! (I’m not biased)
Blue and White Gingham Dorothy Dress made by Clair.
Kitkat is only *slightly* obsessed with the Wizard of Oz. (this dress needs to be surgically removed, sometimes)
Fabrics and Notions
Blue and White Cotton Gingham
White Poplin shirting
Invisible zip
Buttons
White Cotton Stayflex iron-on interfacing
Piping cord
Fenton wearing his red cotton jersey squid costume made by his clever granny, Anna
Every child should have a squid costume!
Naomi in her fabulous Amy Butler tunic using two printed cottons
Fabrics and Notions
Amy Butler printed cotton
Kaffe Fassett spot printed cotton
Cover buttons
Bias binding
Light-weight knitted iron-on interfacing
Pattern: Amy Butler tunic.
Kitcat’s combined spotty/gingham dress
Fabrics and Notions:
Red and White cotton gingham
Blue and red spotty printed cotton
Rickrack trim
Miaow’s turquoise seersucker gingham sundress with matching bloomers, made by Jane.
Fabrics and Notions:
Turquoise cotton seersucker gingham
Rickrack trim
Elastic
Judith wearing wool mix double jersey skirt with a clever flower detail
Fabrics and Notions:
Wool mix double jersey
Knitted medium weight interfacing
Invisible zip
Kitcat’s simple a-line dress with matching knickers, and appliquéd flower pocket. (made by Jane)
Fabrics and Notions:
Flower printed cotton #1580
Elastic
Spotty bias binding
Kitcat in cherry printed cotton dress with piping and cherry buttons made by Clair.
Clair wearing Off-white raincoat with Kaffe Fassett Green spotty panelled dress.
Fabrics and Notions (raincoat):
Proofed cotton
Kaffe Fassett spotty printed cotton (lining)
Double cover buttons
Piping cord with self-made bias binding
Viscose iron-on interfacing.
Pattern: McCall’s 5525
Fabrics and Notions (dress)
Green Kaffe Fassett spotty printed cotton
Green Venezia lining
Invisible zip
Piping cord and bias binding
Knitted medium weight iron- on interfacing
Clair, being the queen of matchy-matchy fashion excelled herself here with this summer-weight all-weather ensemble. Proofed fabrics will need a sharp, fine needle, such as ‘super-stitch’ or those intended for use on microfibre
Lulu wearing green and pink spot print cotton skirt and pink LG cotton waffle wrap top. (Made by Jane)
Fabrics and Notions:
Pink and green printed spot cotton
Pink waffle cardigan jacket type Cotton
Viscose interfacing
Invisible zip
Tutu: model’s own
Gerbera printed cotton dress with matching rickrack and ribbon trimmed bloomers made for Miaow by Jane
Luka the siamese cat in cashmere coat (Model’s own). Bess in Laurent Garigue waffle cotton boxy jacket with red silk grosgrain trim (made by Jane)
Fabrics and Notions:
Laurent Garigue waffle cotton
Red silk grosgrain
Large poppas (self covered)
White Bremsilk lining
