Colour forecasts in action

As I have no sewing machine on board, I'm keeping myself in touch and creative in other ways. For instance, I reflected on the Pantone colour forecast that was in this earlier post. Remember the fabulous colours?

Well, I wondered whether this trend forecast was being reflected in any clothing. So I grab the nearest magazine (May 30 edition) on the boat (not even a purely fashion magazine) and low and behold, these colours are definitely now in the marketplace (see the pages below).

Orchid Hush influenced

Coffee liqueur & nougat perhaps

Bamboo, honeysuckle and ember glow influences

I wonder whether any of you have been making similar choices?

Don't you love fashion documentaries?

I do! The other night I caught a documentary (hooray for TV reception at Abel Point Marina) called "The Day Before" made by a French director Loic Prigent. He takes us behind the scenes for the last 36 hours before the fall 2009 fashion shows of Sonia Rykiel, Proenza Schouler, Fendi, and Jean-Paul Gaultier. The episode I was glued to was the Gaultier one.


I was absolutely mesmerised by the craftsmanship and skill of the people who take a design vision and make it real. The highlights for me were watching the creation of the hand sequinned dresses....

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...and the crocodile crocheted garment. The crocodile skin had been disassembled and the reassembled by crochet by a master at her craft of crochet. 

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Seeing this documentary reminded me how much I enjoy watching these "behind the scenes" look at the fashion industry. Another couple of my favourite are:-
Valentino: The Last Emperor   - This gave you an insight into the designer Valentino and the business of a couture fashion house. 
The September Issue - This one gave you a behind the scenes look at American Vogue and Anna Wintour. 


Does anyone else have their favourites?

Bed Jackets

Remember this post with the charming photos of knitted underwear which is a thing of the past. I had a comment asking what a bed jacket was, which is a great question because it's not a garment we hear much about these days. How ever it does have it uses......according to Wikipaedia.....

The bed jacket, a woman's garment, is a waist-length robe worn to cover the chest, shoulders and arms while sitting up in bed. Its short length and cape-like cut allowed it to be put on (or removed) while in bed. Often made of sheer or lacy fabrics and displaying very feminine trimmings and details, it was often used more for seduction, rather than warmth or modesty. It was popularized in 1930s Hollywood films featuring glamorous settings and glamorous stars lounging languorously in their silken bedrooms. Ostrich feather tips, swan’s down, pleated tulle and shirred lace were just a few examples of the extravagant materials that could be used in creating these confections. These garments are currently very popular with people who have been hospitalized or recommended bed rest.


Sometimes, they were akin more to a cape in style, for something to throw over your shoulders easily.

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I think they are lovely. Any modern day versions I've seen have been very frumpy and made of not very nice fabric like polar fleece. Polar fleece doesn't make me feel glamorous at the best of times!

While bed jackets appear to be a thing of the past, I think it's shame. You can just throw something pretty over your shoulders while reading in bed. Seems like a good idea to me. Must get knitting.....

More canvas work

This photo was taken at Coffs Harbour en route to Queensland (about 3 weeks ago). Here are the lee cloths I made to keep the cockpit warmer and drier while sailing. We were very happy to have these when we did our chilly overnight trip. Once again the sewing isn't pretty as it was a learning curve (with no pattern to work from). The walking foot was a big help in managing the canvas.

Basically, it's a rectangular piece of canvas finished with turnover seams. After the basic rectangle was finished, we inserted plastic grommets which involved punching a suitable hole out of the canvas and then assembling a grommet piece on either side of the fabric and snapping it together.

In between each grommet I sewed a hook through sewable plastic. This was a little frustrating as my machine has a low shank foot and the hook was quite high which mean't I couldn't sew as close to the hook as I would like. Also the needle kept getting caught in the plastic and I had to keep an eye on it otherwise it just pulled out of the machine.

A piece of stretch cord was then threaded through the grommets allowing us to hook the cord around the life lines to secure it on the boat. This has proved a really simple mechanism for fastening the cloths onto the boat but also being able to undo the areas we need to when accessing other boat bits.