Walking Dress Adventures

I've been continuing my 1000 Mile charity walk for the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Ongoing updates can be found at www.facebook.com/thousandmiledress

However, I thought I'd share a few here too!
My current total is 73.8 Miles, with the most recent walk being up Weatherlam, a mountain in the Lake District near Coniston.

Climbing The Old Man of Conison with a bag full of warm and waterproof clothing in case a change was required!

Past the old quarries on the mountain

Another walk to Pen Y Ghent- one of the Yorkshire three peaks. Unfortunately it was too windy to safely attempt to climb to the top (Think Storm Desmond might have had something to do with that!) So we had to settle for walking around it instead! 

Passing an extremely peaceful and still tarn on the way up Weatherlam.

Proper snow near the top!

The summit of Weatherlam.

I'm hoping I might make it to 100 Miles for new year, although time is fast draining away to do it! Lets see what I can come up with next...

Today's workshop

Today's Light up Lancaster workshop was a great success, lots of people turned up! But all at different times, which enabled me to talk to everyone. There were people of all ages attendance which was great and everyone seemed to enjoy getting involved! Some people made several flowers or badges, and I was impressed with the enthusiasm to keep going, and high level of results! Thanks to all attendees!

Assorted!

Here's a bit of a mishmash of my various bits and pieces from the last couple of weeks!

This Tuesday I'm doing a free drop in workshop at the Dukes! It's for adults, children, anyone! Turn up for as much or as little as you like, no pressure to be there for the start or to stay right through. Come just to watch and ask questions if you like, or take part making flowers, rosettes, badges... And I'll be sharing tips on other things you could go home and make, to build on what we do in the workshop. You don't need to have attended the first workshop either. And you can get a hot drink or something stronger afterwards in the Dukes bar! Lovely

I've been out walking in my long dress for charity...hoping to eventually reach a total of 1000 miles! A long way to go, so I'm not putting a time restriction on it, but I have plans up my sleeve to get out and about in the coming months! It's for the UN Refugee Agency, and more of my thinking behind it can be found at www.justgiving.com/thousandmiledress, or www.facebook.com/thousandmiledress. Oh, and also, for every pound donated I'm adding a new fabric scale to the dress (like it wasn't a big enough challenge!) it would be great to see it completely covered in them, let's see what happens!

And because you never know what you might end up making for theatre! Here is something I was asked to make for a student show... It's a rainforest burlesque costume (well, part of it, as well as this bra and gloves there is also a bodice, boa and pants!) all covered in leaves. Apparently the character is staging a protest against deforestation!

When we have a spare couple of minutes in the Dukes Wardrobe it's nice to arrange things into a satisfying pattern! 

Back in my own studio I'm already working on next years entry to the World of Wearable Art show in NZ, but I've kinda got to keep that under wraps for now, as with many of my things!

In the summer I made some items for a wedding at the cohousing community next to my studio... I spoke of it in my blog but never shared the pictures, so here's a few now. I enjoyed making such non-typical wedding outfits for the bride and groom!

That's all for now!

Restyling a few costumes!

I've been out of the country for a month or so visiting the faraway realm of NZ- having a great time exploring, and going to the World of Wearable Art show in Wellington, where I was lucky enough to get a garment (my Angel costume) into the final and see it on stage. It's been amazing, but it's on to the next thing now! I'm back in the UK to work on a Christmas show at the Dukes in Lancaster. The designs by Alison Heffernan are looking great and there shall be some beautiful costumes to make. But before getting started here are a few fun snaps my sister took this weekend to revisit and restyle a few costumes of mine... I love seeing what she comes up with, and how she puts her own spin on it with a spot of editing!

Finishing touches

I felt this dress I made was lacking something, so added a splash of pink, which I rather like :-) I could get carried away putting loads more on, but don't have that much time at my disposal, so it shall probably start like this for now...

A few little jobs

Just been catching up with some bits today.I shortened this coat that you may remember from an earlier blog.I did like it longer, but it's more usable at this length, which will be good as winter approaches! And here's also a bundle of chiffon frills that I made to add to a dress, but decided it was better without.so I'll save them up for another time!

A dye experiment

Earlier this week I did a little experimentation with dip dying... I love the purple colour!

A matching hat

Matching hats are always good! The silk tails are quite long, for maximum wind-sweeping...

Joining up the parts!

I sewed lots of braid on today

Jacket and bodice, plus last week's photoshoot

I did some fitting alterations on the bodice today, and added some ruffles to the jacket sleeves.the bodice still needs some bones putting in.I shall join it to the skirt before putting fastenings in though. Here's also a photo from a photoshoot I did with my sister on Friday.She got some great photos of me playing in the lake in my boat sails dress. More are available on my Facebook page- www.facebook.com/duxburycostume

Ruffles on skirt

The assembly of the pieces begins!

Wednesday ruffling

I'm slowly building up a selection of parts to assemble.there's also the start of a little jacket in this photo...

Bodice beginnings

To go with the skirt of my last post! There is much yet to do...

Beginnings of a dress!

A little sewing on a Sunday morning has produced this :-)

A little update

Hello!

It's been rather a long time since I posted on here, so thanks very much if you're reading this! I'm afraid there's nothing new I can show you in terms of images presently, but thought I'd do a little update on what I'm up to.

I'm busy working at the Dukes on costumes for Oliver Twist- there are a couple of nice Victorian dresses I've been working on, which I shall share pictures of once the show is up and running and there are some press shots going round. There are all kinds of  other things that need making and altering, with there being a supporting cast of 13 young people, alongside the 7 core actors, so we are all being kept very busy in wardrobe!

Alongside this I'm also working on some wedding outfits for a couple I have met through my studio- they live in the co-housing community next door. Again, I won't share any top secret pictures until after the wedding in July!

And my next idea- it's in the early stages but I'm quite keen on setting a challenge for myself. The idea has sprung from the work I've been doing on Oliver Twist. We've been thinking a lot about breaking down the costumes in order to make them look aged and well worn- and my question is, how many miles would you have to walk in a dress before it looked the way we are aiming for our Oliver costumes to look? I'm thinking about creating some kind of an ambitious walking challenge for myself, just to see how many miles it really takes to destroy a hem! Madness, I know, but I'll brew the idea further and see what comes from it!

http://dukes-lancaster.org/events/event/oliver-twist-4/

Ruffles again

I'm working full time at the theatre again now, so thought I'd take advantage of the bank holiday to finish a couple of jobs that I've taken on at my studio. Then since I was here anyway I thought I'd use the opportunity to create a few more rounds of ruffles...I quite like how the patterned ones look.

More ruffles!

More cuffs and some ruffles

I like the mixed colours in the latest cuffs. Today I also made a skirt to sew ruffles on to...

Sail update

I've added some more feathers!

Sail feathers

Using the feathers I started cutting out of old sails over a year ago...in my usual fashion of covering a dress with millions of repeated parts!