Fonts & fascinators & 7 fabric dresses

Where did this last week go?

I have so many things I want to get on to, but there are never enough hours.

I've been on a 'make Empireroom look professional' jag recently.
I have these gorgeous head pieces & now everything else needs to look just as gorgeous, to get them out there & selling.
There's so much involved.
A new font & logo, better pictures, a new website with online shop, more samples for the range, sourcing materials. and then there is the business side of things.

I've been doing Marie Forleo's B-School which has opened up so many resources & information I feel a little like a duck. Serenely gliding over the water, with my little legs going like the blazes under the surface. There is a lot to digest in only 8 weeks, but i have learned so much about how to run an online business.

On the creative side, this has been happening.
Some more silk flowers with left over wedding petals.

A new blusher veil, in several different fabrics, this is crystal tulle.

Miz Mimi sporting last week's silk flower blusher.

A box of gorgeous crystal samples & some lace that I've been thinking of including in some 1920's bandaeaus

More petals & layered vintage motifs. I got these motifs in a huge garbage bag of dirty vintage lace from Job Warehouse years ago. They've been in the trims box at school since making lots of 1930's lingerie for 42nd Street in 2006. 

After all this time they suddenly spoke to me & said they were destined for bridal head pieces. And I think I agree with their destiny. I have stiffened them & layered  three on top of each other, all individually trimmed & with some beaded & gold thread they will look amazing

I also pick up this adorable Regency pattern & want to try the frilled wrap in silk & lace.

Of course the obsession with Wizard of Oz continues.

Glinda  & the Wicked Witch of the West  have hit the forefront & I'm so excited for their costumes now. 

Glinda was so hard because there are such strong images of her costume already out there. 

The MGM fairy floss pink  1930's fairy princess, the Meringue wedding dress of Wicked & the recent Great & Powerful Oz Glinda in slinky medieval inspired dresses.

I wanted my Glinda to be different & when the suggested wedding dress from Les Mis did not fit our actress, I was so happy to return to the drawing board.

Our Glinda will be wearing a dress of blue & gold brocade with 6 layers  of Organza, blue brocade, Glitter organza, blue tulle, gold spider web fabric in her skirt & silk shot chiffon sleeve drapes.

This was the inspiration.

 Our Wicked Witch also need to be equally spectacular. 

No ugly dowdy version. I loved that Wicked made her beautiful, paving the way to move beyond warts & pointed noses.

When I saw this 1890's dress on Pinterest I knew this was the foundation of the design. Majestic, elegant & powerful.

 Coupled with this pattern in my collection, I delved into the fabric store room & grabbed every textured scrap of fabric I could find. Lots of the pieces are from Chicago 2 years ago. I also like the feather trimming in the recent Oz incarnation & luckily I still had some Babette trim from Beauty & the Beast. Every single pattern piece is a different fabric, from sheer lace under sleeve, 3D flower fabric over sleeves, red & black lace overlay front panel, stretch cotton brocade bodice, lurex thread sleeve caps, crushed taffeta over skirt, red glitter tulle front under skirt & a removable black & red feather stand up collar.

Here is a little mock up with the scraps after cutting. 

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Wizard of Oz takes over my life

I love it when I get so excited about a project I just can't stop working on it.
The Wizard of Oz has become just that. I have had so many Ah-Ha moments in the last week.

Today I'm supposed to be working on Empireroom Designs, but I just can't stop researching Wizard. One idea just flows onto the next & I find myself back at the computer Googling & eBaying like my life depended on it.

I have really been struggling with the concept for the Cowardly Lion.
Tinman & Scarecrow got sorted last week after I came across come YouTube videos for the London Production. Be blown away by Dorothy's miraculous dress change at 1.39.

After watching some of their 135 videos, it all just fell into place & with some tweaking & trial paint effects there were the designs. See last weeks blog.

But the Lion hasn't been sitting easy with me. It's the whole idea that even though he's Cowardly, he is still a Lion & no-one has a problem with that. I felt the need to make him a little more person-ish, a bit more accessible, harking back to Wicked story lines,  but I didn't want him to be lame.
So here's my inspiration over many weeks & months

I really liked this Lion mane, but I didn't want our Lion to be in a full fur suit.

I also loved the Lion from the TinMan mini series, but it still wasn't quite right.

Then I found this gorgeous fraidy cat from the Carousel Theatre For Young People. I really connect with his human-ness, but it wasn't my vision.

Then when I was supposed to be packing up to leave school at 4pm yesterday, it came to me.

Perhaps not a blinding flash, but certainly ideas started tumbling. I raced up to the storeroom to seek out the leather surcoat that Merlin wore in Pendragon. A lovely burnished brown leather, aged behind the back of a 4WD.

Then I thought about jodphur pants that would give the effect of the Lions muscular legs without being a fur suit & ridiculously hot. 

I 

 Once I got home, I took of my rain sodden leather shoes in favor of my good ole Teddy bear slippers. And then I remembered seeing some monsters slippers online.

Add some fur trim fingerless gloves, a stringy mane from my first picture & hey presto, I had a Lion design I was pretty happy with.

Then I tried looking at crows again. Nothing in any productions really inspired me, but when I saw this adorable mini raven costume I was done.

Our three crows will wear a black hoodie with attached peaked beak, felt winglets & feathers,  black baggy rough edged shorts, long orange & black stripe socks, & oversized  bird feet slipppers.

They will be so comfy! 

Next time I'll share my amazing transforming Poppies into Snowflakes & the delectable Jitterbugs.

Stay tuned for more Empireroom bridal millinery. Silk bows are on the horizon.

Oh yeah…. Jennifer Hawkins wore one of my Teardrop veils for her Hen's night last weekend. 

No business like Show Business

It's been a big week of creativity & culling.
I spent a lot of last week rearranging my workroom.

In my line of work it's impossible to throw anything out. 
You never know when you will need that piece of fabric, trim, cardigan, button, tool. So you have a ridiculously large stash of everything.

But with the new focus on millinery & accessories I decided a large amount of fabric could move to the garage, freeing up space for millinery supplies to be a hand.

Being a professional hoarder often means your work space can get out of hand, but my semi New Years resolution, to clean up after every project has stuck. I'm finding it liberating to pack everything away & have my work table & sewing space clear every few days or weeks. 

In my creativity this week I designed lots of costumes for the Wizard of Oz, 

made a year 12 formal dress 

& designed a new bridal comb to add to the collection.

The lovely Miz Mimi also joined our little team at Empireroom. You'll see her sporting our upcoming designs.

Don't forget to join our list at Empireroom.

My own little photo studio

This week I've been looking at ways to improve my new website, so I asked a few people to critique www.empireroom.com.au

She's only new & at the moment I'm working on the cheapest plan available, so I don't have too many options on how to design my page. I'm also a bit of a techno spaz.

The feedback came back pretty much as expected. They knew what I was selling, but it isn't really conveying a professional outfit. With my limited experience & know how I set about making it look a bit better until I can really get set up.

I have done enough fashion shoots to know that setting & lighting can make or break your pictures. I made a little black stretchy cover for my poupee, that's 'canvas head' in layman's terms. Rigged up a little navy velvet backdrop & after fighting for the space with Willow, my grey furry feline, I started to get some better images, even using my iPhone.
As with any modern designer all my pieces have delightful names.

My fascinators seem to have decided they with start with F & this sweetheart is know as Fleur.

My torn silk pieces are palest yellow & are named after flowers. Jonquil, Jasmine etc

The floral headband is Amelia

My 1920's bandeaus have E names from the era; Edna, Elsie, Edith.

 And so the business feels like it is really launched & I can share my website with out completely cringing.

2013: The Year of Big Changes

How did it suddenly get to be a quarter of the way through 2013?
I mean, it was sudden, wasn't it?
It just snuck up on me.

There was a cruisey January where I caught up on all my sewing & started on the Historical Fortnight Sewing Challenge.
Then school started.


Then there was Kyria's gorgeous black & white wedding dress.


And then fashion season was upon us.











I originally thought I was just crewing High School Musical starting March 9, so I booked myself silly working for the Myer Autumn/Winter 2013 launch,

the Victorian  Racing Carnival Autumn parade

& L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival 2013.

Next thing I know the hire agreement for HSM has disintegrated & suddenly I was required to source some costumes. Before I knew it, 12 outfits for Sharpay & Ryan, blew out to about 40 costumes, & I found myself working almost everyday from February 22 through to March 26.

What a ride! Come Easter I was beyond exhausted & my husband had almost forgotten who I was, but I was clear about where I was heading in the next part of the year & into 2014.

After a lot of soul searching I decided it was time to move on from the Carey Musical Theatre Association after 15 years of costuming their annual musical. It's something that probably should have happened 2 years ago, but you know how it is with habit.
I love the work, I love the kids & I love the volunteers I work with, but the organisation has changed over the last few years & I was finding it hard to cope with the new methods of operation.
The thing is when you finally take the plunge & make the right decision everything else just seems to fall into place.
And that's what has happened with me.

The stylists I worked with this season asked me to create some millinery pieces for their parades while doing alterations. A few veils, several fascinators. 

The first two were easy projects & started me thinking that this was what I could really do. 

I enjoyed it, it was relatively easy & it didn't stress me out of my brain like wedding dresses tend to. This led to an in with the millinery buyer at Myer.

Then I worked with Karla Clarke at Harpers Bazaar on the L'Oreal Red Carpet Runway Bridal extravaganza. We came to a bit of a brick wall with the millinery that had been supplied for the parade & I suggested I could put a few pieces together. A few pieces turned in to 31 with a 72hour turn around. 

The pressure was immense, but I enlisted the help of my friend Maddie & we managed to make beautiful pieces that complemented the wedding dresses by Akira Isogawa, Collette Dinnigan, Rachel Gilbert, Aurelio Costarella & Toni Maticevski.

And so begins the next phase of Empireroom.
Stay tuned.