Bloomeenee's Bambi Bolero.

This is the second bolero that I've made for Bloomeenee. It's made from a recycled duvet cover, with an original Disney Bambi print. It's lined with plain brown, which was the original reverse side of the duvet cover.

The seam allowances are carefully placed to ensure that there are no decapitated Bambis... unlike Giles Deacon's newest dress! I particularly like the matching hat. ;)

New Dress Forms Are Great, continued...

A little while ago, I made a lovely bolero for Bloomeenee, out of a piece of barkcloth fabric that she sent to me.

On my old dress form, it looked like this:

On Bloomeenee, it looked like this:





Bloomeenee has now ordered a new bolero, and would like it to be a slightly different shape from the first one. My usual bolero jackets are cut away very high at the front, so that they emphasise your bust and draw attention to your waist. (They look great with a corset, by the way!) Bloomeenee has asked for her new bolero to provide a little more coverage at the front. This, of course, is the advantage of having things custom made for you - I can make the new bolero any shape that Bloomeenee wants!

However, getting the right shape using my old dress form would have been tricky, to say the least. I would have made a mock-up, sent it to Bloomeenee to try on, and it probably would have taken at least three incarnations to get the new shape exactly right. Now that I have a new dress form which I can simply dial to Bloomeenee's size, I can show her what I plan to do:



The left hand ribbon shows the shape of the original bolero. The right hand ribbon shows the proposed new shape. Bloomeenee can now ask me to make adjustments before I make the mock-up, which increases the chance that when I send it over to her, it might actually fit first time! Obviously I'll still be going through the mock-up stage, to make sure that the new shape fits nicely on Bloomeenee herself, but having this new dress form makes the whole process a lot more accurate.

Four New Vintage Duvet Covers...

Where do you draw the line between "vintage" and just plain "old"?

I have four new-to-me duvet covers now available, and I think I would describe two of them as "vintage" and the other two as "recycled".

The E.T. and Bambi duvet covers I would describe as "vintage", as each of them is more than twenty years old. The Winnie the Pooh and Finding Nemo bedding is much more recent, so I'd describe those as "reclaimed" or "recycled".

These four new fabrics are now listed on the website, and are ready and waiting to me made into shiny new items, just for you!

You can order them very simply. Go to the Design By Claire web store, and add your elasticated skirt, a-line skirt, bolero jacket or tote bag to the shopping cart.

When you check out, simply tell me your choice of fabric in the "information" box. you can also include your measurements at this point.

As soon as I receive your order I'll email you to confirm the details, and then get started on your sewing!

Diane's Barkcloth Bolero

This morning I have been making a bolero jacket for Diane.

She chose the barkcloth herself, and sent it over to me to be transformed. It's a Robert Kaufmann design, in a 1950s style.

The ends of the sleeves are trimmed with a narrow black bias binding, and the lining is also plain black.

If I'd been making this for myself, I might have lined it in the deep red, or the mustard yellow, or even the olive green, and trimmed the sleeves with the same colour. Then I would have made a plain black dress to wear with it, with trim to match...

I don't know what outfit Diane has in mind, but I'd love to see some photos of it!

More Space...

Remember the space bolero?

Now it has a matching skirt.

The waistband is bomber-jacket elastic, simply zig-zagged to the top of the skirt. The hem is bound, partly because I wanted it to match the bolero and partly because I couldn't find any other form of navy trimming which was actually nice.

I like elasticated waistbands, because my waist size varies by up to four inches depending on my health (long story), and this way I know that I'll be able to wear it whenever I like.

Space is big. Very big.

My jacket says so.

This is a little bolero jacket that I put together this afternoon, following a sudden flash of inspiration yesterday evening.

Believe it or not, it's made from a kids' pillowcase!

It's a different style from the red silk bolero - shorter in the arms and the back - and I think I like this one better. It'll be more comfortable to wear to work, as my arms are more free to move around.

I do have tons of this fabric left (I bought a duvet cover as well as a pillowcase!), so if anybody wants one of these, please yell!

Prices start from £30, depending on fabric.
(Obviously, a silk bolero is going to cost more than one made from a recycled pillowcase!)
It's fully lined, and the sleeve edges are bound. I can bind all of the edges if you prefer, or none at all.

These little jackets look fabulous over corsets, by the way... ;)