Blue Scraps Dress

After volunteering for TRAID at the UK Aware event last month I began making a dress from scraps of blue, white and grey knitwear samples

Stitching this material together was quite tricky, but I recently finished sewing all the pieces together to create a summer dress - just in time for the sunshine!

Leila Hafzi + Livia Firth + Oxfam + Ebay = MY NEW DRESS!!

As documented in a previous post on my blog, the wife of Colin Firth, Livia, set herself the challenge of sourcing ethical and sustainable outfits to wear to all the red carpet events and premiers throughout awards season 2010. Her blog was published on vogue.com and I loved reading about her search for the perfect outfit for each event. She sourced amazing items, concluding with a wonderful black dress for the Oscars custom made by From Somewhere. However, my favourite dress was the one she wore for the BAFTAS - a yellow Leila Hafzi.
I recently visited the Oxfam Curiosity Shop at Selfridges and as well as buying a lovely little summer dress (as shown in a previous post) I realised that many celebrities had donated garments to sell at the pop up shop in Selfridges and also on the Oxfam EBay site. To my delight when I checked out the site Livia Firth had donated three of her Green Carpet Challenge Dresses to Oxfam - INCLUDING THE YELLOW ONE!!

I have been bidding on it for a few days and today I was successfully the highest bidder!! It will arrive in a couple of days and I can't wait. So, thank you Leila Hafzi, Livia Firth, Oxfam and Ebay for making me the very happy owner of a beautiful new dress that I will love and keep forever. - Yellow Dress Blog Post

Emilie's Prom Dress

When asked to make a prom dress for my friends sister of course I said yes! I set myself the challenge of making the dress to her design specifications entirely from reclaimed materials. I used an old purple dress of mine, a large silk chiffon scarf that was my Mums and never worn combined with my fabric box remnants and some gold lace pinched from another dress. We had a fitting last week (she loves it!)so I thought i'd put a few images together of the process of making and the journey so far...and two weeks later...Emilie will go to the prom!!!

Dress Making Workshops

These are four of the most commonly referred to businesses that provide workshops for garment making and alterations. They range in prices and availability but guarantee a fun social event, and you can also book in for private parties!

The Make Lounge

The Papered Parlour

Sew Much Fun

Fabrications

Repair and Alteration centres

For my MA project I will look further into the successes and failures of local clothing repair and alteration shops. Primary research will help me gain an insight into these businesses, as they are often associated with dry cleaners or tailors and common on many high streets.

They are a common feature within many communities and I am intruiged to find out more about these places that play such a vital role in restoring the clothing we wear out.

How successful are such places? How creative are the alterations they perform? What prices do they charge for alterations? Have they seen a change in business since the recession?

EFF Social at EJF Pop Up Shop

April Ethical Fashion Forum Social at the EJF pop up shop on Carnaby street. Speakers from Forum for the Future, EJF, and Think Act Vote brought everyone up to date with their latest projects and initiatives. After the presentations the attendees were encouraged to try on the clothes in the upstairs boutique from labels such as From Somewhere, Goodone, Lowie and Monkee Jeans. Think Act Vote t-shirts that had been redesigned and customised by other designers such as Ciel and TRAID:remade were also available to try on.

It was a fun night and really interesting to hear the speakers from different areas of the industry speak so passionately about the major issues related to environmental and ethical concerns that effect the fashion industry.