Tutu Many....

These tutu skirts were made for a stage production and used for all of 30 seconds of a dance routine! They are now available for sale as I am running out of space to store everything...there are different sizes and colours available, you can find them on EBAY or contact me for more details.

The finished dress...

...And here is the finished result, it turned out quite well considering she changed her mind on the style several times after I had started it and then pointed out she was doing me a favour as I would come across much more difficult customers than her, HA I don't think so!

The first one...

My first try at some designs, I used traceable figure templates as I'm much better at sewing than drawing, but they turned out ok for my first ones. They are painted in watercolours (my favourite medium).

This was a 'freebie' for daughter, she wanted a salsa type dress for a party and I wanted to give the pattern software a try!

Pattern software...

I wanted to try out pattern software as it saves vast amounts of time when planning the costumes. I managed to persuade hubby that a pattern software disc was a really good idea for a birthday present...and I must say I'm fairly impressed. I chose Pattern Master by Wild Ginger (www.wildginger.com) and so far I have the occasions and childrens discs. You do need a reasonable amount of sewing experience to use them, but I would definitely recommend them.

Advertising...

I had my business cards printed at Vistaprint, I originally used their 'free' offer (though the postage is quite expensive) and was really disappointed with the quality so I decided 'what you get is what you pay for' and had another go with reasonably priced ones and they turned out quite well, they are printed on the back to double up as appointment cards.

I also needed something to put in local shop windows etc so I bought a basic template download and just added the wording myself, that way I can print off what I need and change the wording when required. I tend to print them at A5 size as many places don't like them any larger.

Creating a workspace...

My workspace is my daughter's old bedroom, it's not very big so I've used deep bookshelves with baskets on it to store my fabrics etc, I have an old desk which houses my sewing machine and overlocker (I have dreams of a lovely new Horn sewing cabinet...if you've never seen them you don't know what you're missing!), lots of shelves on the walls, a dress rail (which is already full to bursting) and lots of antique fashion prints (a real source of inspiration). Add to that a few tailors dummies in various sizes and I'm ready to go....

Making a start...

Luckily I'm quite well set up for sewing machines, I have a fabulous Janome computerised machine with 60 different stitches (haven't used half of them so far), this is my 'all rounder' machine, it can tackle any fabrics. I also have an overlocker which is brilliant for finishing and for stretch fabrics, my back up machine is a basic singer which is a proper little workhorse and kept so that I can keep sewing if my Janome is out of action. Finally I have an old manual singer sewing machine, this is the machine I learned to sew on at 7 years old, it belonged to my Grandma and was past on to me after her death...it's a treasured friend and I could never part with it...besides it means I can still sew during a power cut!

How it all began...

For a long time I have harboured a dream of becoming a professional costume maker...and after many years of toying with the idea (and making loads of 'freebies') I am finally ready to make a real start...I had originally planned to go down the route of college followed by university, but after the college stage and having a family that needs supporting, I found myself working and putting my dreams on hold.


Now with my daughter grown up and settled and my son soon to be at university (and my work not being of the fulfilling type) it feels like my turn!