Malphi: Frills, Frocks & Fancies!

Going green...

My next wrap dress is made from corduroy.  I bought a couple of metres of it from a craft exhibition in London about six months ago and fell in love with it instantly.

Here's a close up...

Like my other recent wrap dresses, I also had this one made up in India. 

Underneath I'm wearing a net petticoat.  I bought some vintage lace from a small shop near to where I live and already had some matching cream netting so the two went together perfectly.  I didn't have a pattern so simply cut around a strappy sun top for the shape and size and then extended the skirt out in an A-line.  The frill is doubled to add extra fullness.

Perfect dress for a walk through the woods....

"The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration."
Claude Monet

Mother and daughter...

This wrap dress that I had made up in India fits my Mother so beautifully I asked her to model it.

The placement of the darts (as in all the Verity Hope wrap dresses) produces a truly flattering shape.

The fabric is cotton but also has a very small amount of lycra in it.  I love the tiny red flowers against the custard yellow.

I tried the dress on, but as you can see it definitely looks better on a fuller figure!

Here it is on me from the back...

Pink gingham

I'd had these dress pieces lying around for absolutely ages.  I'd cut them out about eighteen months ago to sell as kits but had become side tracked with other projects.  I've been sewing so much myself lately (on my new industrial Bernina 950!) so a trip to beloved India provided the perfect opportunity to have them made up by the marvelous local tailors I know.

I had four dresses made up in two different sizes.  The fabric is a pink cotton/poly gingham and has a nice weighty swing to it.

There's something about gingham, especially pink gingham...one is never too old to play!!

The kingfisher silk route...

I've recently come back from India and couldn't resist getting some of my wrap dresses made up while I was out there.  The local Indian Tailors I know are amazing.  They don't use patterns, instead they chalk the design straight onto the fabric.

This is a wrap dress I had made out of silk dupion.  They have so many stunning colours to choose from and this shimmering kingfisher blue caught my eye...

I absolutely adore the colours raw silk comes in and if it were machine washable I'd use it all the time...but hey,what's a bit of dry cleaning once in a while!

I also have this dress made up in a deep red dupion which I'll show off at a later date.

"Oh! roses and lilies are fair to see, but the wild bluebell is the flower for me."
Louisa A. Meredith.

Ready to Wear...Coming soon!

Coming Soon! 

Ready to wear Verity Hope dresses, Pantaloons and Aprons!! 

Watch this space!

Oh, and these little friends below just wanted to say hi!

Blackberry picking...

Now September has arrived, my younger sister had a sudden urge to bake an apple and blackberry pie.  So we wasted no time in going down to the local woods and gathering them.  Apart from the stinging nettles, we had a very enjoyable afternoon.

I decided to wear my newest wrap dress that I made about a month ago.  As soon as I saw the fabric in the shop, I knew I had to make the Verity Hope Dress from it.  I love the shade of blue mixed in with the red flowers.

This time I decided to change the finish by applying bias-binding to all the edges.  Usually I bind only the neckline and fronts from the inside.  The only thing I would change is the weight of the fabric.  I would have preferred it to be a little heavier.

As I write this, there's still no sign of the pie!

A summer's day...

This is the Verity Hope Dress in brown, worn with a petticoat underneath...

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time"~John Lubbock

Bricks to all greenhouses!

I had a remnant of white linen I bought for a bargain price at a local market.  It had the right kind of floppiness and weight and was perfect for my wrap dress.

Here it is from the back...

Like the white against the cream pantaloons.

"For every person who has ever lived there has come, at last, a spring he will never see. Glory then in the springs that are yours"
Pam Brown

Cath Kidston inspired...

I found a lovely wodge of material whilst walking through Mapusa market in Goa.  It was kind of Cath Kidston...ish so I bought the whole lot from the stall holder!  I was also wanting to experiment using cap sleeves.  As time was short, I used local tailors to make the dress up for me in different sizes.  Here's the result...

Think I prefer the cap sleeves...

A very versatile style...

This is one of my favourite dresses of all time!  It kind of has a French feel to it.

I'm always on the look out for polka dot fabric, especially with the tiny micro dots like this one.

I bought the fabric in red too...

Wrap Dress Crazy!!

I've gone wrap dress crazy!

Some I've made myself and others I've had made out in India. 

This brown one is my favourite.  It's made from a jute cotton mix.

This is how it looks on...

Next favourite is the green.  The tailor didn't like making this one as the fabric is a flimsy, silky type.  I know how he must have felt as it's awfully slippery and must have been a complete nightmare, but I was really pleased with the end result...it glams up really well.

This next one is a very similar fabric...poor tailor.  I ended up selling this one.

I've worn and worn this pink and white gingham one.  Kind of feel like a farm girl in it!

So I made another! 

This next one didn't work out quite as well as I'd hoped.  I love the print of the fabric as the colours remind me of The Willow Pattern but it's just too light weight and I keep thinking it's going to blow up in the wind!

It's a bit difficult to see this one properly because of exposure.  It looks better in real life...honest.

I sold this white one too and kind of regret it.  The fabric was so pretty.

This is a gingham one I made and sold. 

I was looking for black/white but though the navy was unusual. 

I had some fabric left over so made a skirt!

And another...! Fabric look familiar?

And one more!!

Okay I'm stopping now!!!

I love the woods...

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend my world"

Leo Buscaglia.   http://www.buscaglia.com

My first dress...

This was the first wrap dress I made.

It has little white and yellow daisies sprinkled against the red and is made from a fairly heavy weight cotton fabric.  I prefer heavier weight fabrics as they hang well and feel nicer to wear.

And from the back...