Monday, December 20, 2010

And the winner is...!



 At last I have had the chance to look through all 88 entries for the Givaway Event and after much deliberation have decided upon Becka in Minneapolis as the winner. I was very impressed with her comments about making a 60s style garment as a reminder of her visit to the Horrockses exhibition at the V and A in London this summer. The fabric and garment will be, as she says, be a lovely reminder of that visit - Auntie would approve as I remember her wearing some Horrockses dresses when I was very young.

For those not familiar with the name, (or old enough to remember it!) Horrockses Fashions was one of most respected ready-to-wear labels of the late 40s and 50s. Founded in 1946 the company concentrated on the production of quality womenswear, beach clothes, housecoats and children's attire. Although produced in considerable quantities, the firm maintained an air of exclusivity with an emphasis on good quality fabrics - especially cotton - with custom-designed patterns and couture styling. Horrockses' designs had a distinctive look, celebrated for their lively floral prints and full-skirted summer dresses. The label also collaborated with contemporary artists such as Eduardo Paolozzi, Alastair Morton and Graham Sutherland to create alluring designs for their fabrics. Drawing together a wide range of archival material, ranging from magazine spreads to interviews with former employees and consumers, "Horrockses: Off-the-Peg Fashion" told  the story of this iconic label and its role in the history of the British high street, while also exploring the connections between couture and ready-to-wear fashions in the post-war decades.

If you didn't get a chance to see the exhibition, or even if you did, the book which was produced to accompany it is still available from Amazon via the link attached. The photos alone make it worthwhile buying and its great for once to see a book about the sort of everyday fashions (not overly expensive) which everyone could wear at the time.Because there were so many wonderful entries I am thinking of posting off one or two other items in addition to the remnant above! I wish I could give you all something, but the postage alone would be a problem. However, watch out for tips and stuff from now on and maybe a pattern or two before long, which doesn't involve any postage either!

Have a wonderful Christmas all, wherever in the world you are, I hope you get where you want to be despite the snow if you have any.
















Saturday, December 18, 2010

Snowed in and snowed under!

A big thanks and a warm welcome to everyone who entered the Giveaway Day event, the time for entering has now closed! There were a surprisingly large number of entries and I will now take some time to consider each one carefully and award a winner. Look out for more details in a day or two. I will not be going anywhere for a few days anyway (even to post the item off as yet) as this part of Oxfordshire is snowed in this morning! All todays events for us have had to be cancelled as several inches of snow fell overnight and its still falling.



Some of the bag making supplies are still held up in the post somewhere after 10 days too. Thankfully I went shopping yesterday so we have plenty of food and the house is nice and warm. My cat Tabitha loves playing in the snow (she has a lovely thick warm coat on) but unfortunately she brought into the kitchen a poor dead yellow hammer this morning, a beautiful little bird, probably caught as it was desperately seaching for food in the snow. She has now given up terrorising the local wild life now and is sitting on my window sill as you can see! If you have snow wherever you are in the world at the moment, take care and keep warm and safe.


Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Get ready for Giveaway Day!

Hi Folks, the supplies for the vintage bagmaking ideas are stuck in the post somewhere in the snow, so no samples as yet, but pics will go up soon.

 In the meantime, I want to tell you that December 13th is Giveaway Day and  I am participating this year. For those who don't know its an event organised by sewmamasew.com a US retailer of fabrics and other sewing supplies. They have online tutorials and stuff to encourage everyone to sew. On Giveaway Day online  bloggers give away an item on their sites, go to http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=14170  to see the participating list. Each site will have its own criteria for giving away; you may have to answer a question, show something you've made, etc. to win the item. The whole point is to encourage sewing, the writing of good blogs about it and the exchange of information.


I am giving away one of Auntie's remnants from the 60s as seen in the photo above. It's made of dress weight cotton fabric, ideal for a garment or for quilting or whatever you fancy, it's unused, completely new but recently washed. The piece is 2.75 metres in length and 89cm wide. For our American cousins a metre is 39 inches or just over a yard. The width is 35 inches.

To bag yourself a piece of 60s London, just sign up as a follower, then tell me what you would like to do with it and why in the comments section. If you win, we'd all love to see a photo of what you've made too, but its not compulsory! 
The link again is - http://sewmamasew.com/blog2/?p=14170