Off to see some old old friends

So im off to see some old friends of mine today up in Norfolk in a little place called Diss.
Not going to be back until Sunday so untill next week!

Waving your flag with pride?

In the lead up to THE ROYAL wedding I am seeing the British flag EVERYWHERE even my local swimming pool is flying the flag with pride! It's something that will always make me feel a bit strange as it has become a symbol, for me anyway, of some rather unpleasant things. Its a shame that what should be a representation of national pride has been tinged with the unpleasantness of the far right.
Historically flags have been used by all nations as a representation of pride and I hope the coming days will aide in changing my view a little and seeing this as great time to be British forgetting the associated negatives.
A tentative link i know but i thought i would take this opportunity to show you some of the beautifully hand crafted Fante Asafo flags of Ghana.
These flags are hand crafted and have a strong link to colonialism (maybe not such a tedious link after all!)

If your interested You can read more about the history of Fante flags here

When I die bury me in an oversized sewing machine

There is a tradition in certain areas of Ghana for the dead to be buried in a huge carving of the thing they most loved in life or a representation of their profession. There is pretty much a coffin perfectly made for every thing you could imagine. If you had to chose what would be the one thing that sums up you life so far? tough question eh?well i guess mine would have to be a huge sewing machine...... 

I looked it up thinking there is no way such a thing would exist but low and behold here it is......

Photo shoot insperation

It so important to get an idea of what it is you like and how you want your shoot to look. I always have a million things going round in my head. As i said in an earlier post my models for my next shoot are all dancers. I want to get a combination of a 1950's tropical pin up images and a more physical image showing the bodies and the muscular form of a dancer.
 I went to see an exhibition at the V&A of costumes and images of the Ballet Russes. The photographs in that exhibition were very striking i loved the positioning of the dancers and how there physicality is the main focus of the image.

I have found some beautiful Tropical pin up pictures and i think the combination of the two will eliminate the potential cheesiness of the pin up pics.

 

I cant wait to see the final images i hope they come out how i see them in my minds eye.

Phyllis Galembo

Wow these are some serious photographs! They are taken by Phyllis Galembo and they are from her book, Maske which contains photographs from festivals and celebrations in Africa and the Caribbean.

The colour combinations are extraordinary. 

They are pretty powerful but with a lovely sense of humour. You can read more about Phyllis Galembo and how she became interested in taking these photographs.   

Dreaming about dresses

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I feel embarrassed even admitting it but yes i have been going to bed closing my eyes and dreaming about dresses. Not quite Marting Luther King is it? Saying this out loud is like admitting your favorite song is um bop or you love Harry form one direction....sad times!

I think writing this blog has heightened everything i was thinking before.....its more like a little diary of ideas for me. When i write about something exiting (to me of course probably not to everyone) like new fabric it turns me into a super geek and i am sure that i am the most boring person in the world. There is only one person i know that loves talking about sewing as much as i do and for the purposes of this blog she will be know as miss jazz. Oh the emails we send to each other would make most of you fall asleep at your desks! So i wont go into all of that instead I wanted to show you some pretty things i want to use along with the Kenyan fabric i posted yesterday.

MMMMMM lovely leather straps (oh god that does not sound entirely right does it?)

I also want a big fat gold kilt pin or a broach but they are either

to Scottish

or too old and expensive

So i think I'm going to give up on an online search and get out into the wild world and find something or make something myself.....

Oh and back to the dreaming thing..... so i went to sleep thinking about my fabric and what i could do with it and in my head i was thinking something kind of structured and 50's underneath and something a bit like the image below in the draped parts.......

(oh god it pains me to use a pic of this dude but its the only thing i could find that describes what i mean!)

Sorry getting back to the story..... when i woke up this morning Gertie had written a post about almost  the exact dress i had dreamt about.

if you want to read more form her blog you can here! http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2011/04/daily-dress-whirling-turban-shaheen.html

this probably sounds like the weirdest combination ever but in my mind its beautiful.......

pics to be posted here once its done

Tasty new fabric

So after all my bleating on about East African fabric I thought it was time to actually bag some of my very own so I did just that.......


Check out these lovelies........

 They are winging there way to me as I write this I cant wait to see the colours and pattern in the flesh. Just got to decide what to do with them now better get my thinking cap on.

Oh and just in case your a fabric buff the cloth is called Kikoy the ones I have chosen have been woven and made in Kenya East Africa. (Dont want to over face you with regurgitated facts but if you want to know more give them a google, there are plenty more articulate descriptions on-line than i could ever give). It is traditionally worn as a sarong drape or wrap, I always feel sad and a little bit guilty when I cut these beautiful things up. I hope I will do them justice with my design, with a couple of details  thrown in as a reference the their present and there past.

Every time I find something new I promise Iwill post the follow up on here so I better stop writing and start sewing !!!