Angie collection - finished!

I'm back! and I'm married!

More about that later.

For now I'm excited to say that I have "finished" the Angie collection. I say "finished" because I didn't end up producing as many pieces as originally planned. As I said in the previous post, I ended up going back to Australia early to attend a funeral and so I was away longer than I thought I would be. I didn't want to drag out this collection forever and fall behind, so I finished off the items I was working on and called it a day. Time to move on to the next collection!

I'm just in the process of adding the last few items to the Etsy store, it will all be there by the end of the week. I'll also have lots of wedding photos to show you on Friday!

Tonight, in an effort to make working from home feel like a normal job, my husband (!) and I are going out for after work drinks to celebrate finishing the collection. I think it's better than celebrating things alone in the studio with my mannequin.

New in store: Angie & Ayumi T-shirts

Remember I mentioned maybe calling the new collection 'Angie'? Well, this is Angie. Angie arrived in Tokyo with nothing but a sewing machine. She knew no-one and got lost frequently. One day she stumbled upon a textile workshop, filled with happy chattering girls dipping scrunched up fabric into indigo dye. Angie introduced herself to Ayumi, who immediately said 'Angie? from the Rolling Stones song?' and Angie knew they would be best friends.

These t-shirts were made from quick illustrations I did while teaching a fashion design class. I liked how the girls turned out, so we made them into a screen print and coloured in their dresses by hand. Each one is slightly different and they are very limited edition.

This is Ayumi, in her favourite rainbow dress.

She also likes to wear her blue polka dot dress.

Angie has a blue polka dot dress to match.

Get the girls from the etsy store!

Hmm... what can I show you?

I haven't had much to post lately, because I've been working on making my wedding dress (!) and I don't want to show any photos of that process until after the wedding! I've also been working on some bridesmaid dresses for someone else's wedding, so that's another project I don't want to share until it's all done. So... what can I show you?

My March 2013 collection rack is starting to fill up... don't worry, it's not ALL tie-dye. I just haven't finished the other stuff yet. I'm a little bit behind my original schedule, because I made those plans before I got engaged so didn't factor in the wedding dress! I think this collection will be called Angie. I'll be starting to list items in the Etsy store over the next few weeks.

This is my favourite piece so far. I've called it the Countess top because the neckline and flutter sleeves were inspired by a dress worn by Cora on Downton Abbey. I love that show!

Speaking of collections, I've got a bit of a moodboard going for the next one. The map was painted by my mum for our storybook inspired wedding invitations. I had already decided on the colours for the collection before I realised that the map fits in perfectly!

A couple more things from around the apartment:

I'm very much liking this corner of the living room. The whole room needs more plants and more books.

This world map, with black dots for places visited, has been on my wall in four different apartments now. I thought I'd fancy it up with some fairy lights.

It's been nice and cool in Manila lately, and raining on and off all day today. I realised that I can get a bit of a panorama shot by taking photos from different windows! The area we lived in Sydney was very residential so I'm still getting used to seeing so many buildings in every direction. It's never boring.

Hand dyed fabrics for new collection

Before I left Australia, I visited my mum and we had a fun day hand-dyeing lots of fabrics with different shibori or tie-dyed techniques. Most of these techniques involve folding, scrunching or rolling fabrics up and then dyeing them - so you never really see what the final design looks like until it's completely dried and ironed. I never got to see all of them together, so one of the first things I did when I got into our new apartment was iron all the fabrics and stick them up all over the walls of my work room. I love how they all look together!

I'll be using a lot of the fabrics for the next collection - as you can see the pieces are really small, so anything I make from them will be completely one-of-a-kind!

Can you see that little girl on a t-shirt in the corner? You'll see more of her soon!

Which one is your favourite?

Moodboard for March 2013

Thought I'd share my moodboard for my next collection. It's inspired by busy cities like Tokyo and will feature hand-dyed textiles in moody indigo and grey, with touches of citrus yellow. Geometric shapes and sharp angles balance out the watery look of the fabrics. It'll be a small transeasonal collection - a couple of dresses, some tops,  light outerwear, a couple of skirts and a cute pair of shorts. I'm aiming to have it all finished and in the shop by early March. I've got a lot of other projects to work on at the moment with settling into our new apartment (yes! we moved in on Saturday!), making my wedding dress (!) and a bit of custom work, so I'm giving myself plenty of time to get it all done. Now I just need to wait for my sewing machines & other equipment to arrive so I can really get started!

I should mention that the photos used above & their original sources can be found on my March 2013 Pinterest board.