Fashiony Goodness Served Cold.

I've been getting lots of work as a mobile seamstress lately. 

And what, you might ask, does a mobile seamstress do? I'm afraid it has less to do with sewing natty little covers for mobile phones & more to do with packing up your work room & hauling it all over town to do alterations.

At trusty Bernina sewing … something

I used to work as a head dresser on fashion parades & then after suggesting I could make a petticoat rather than sourcing another seamstress to do it for the stylist, my job description changed forever.

I went from drafting running orders, setting up backstage areas & cajoling dressers into getting their models on the catwalk in the correct outfit to slaving away with my trusty Bernina to make those size 10 samples fit on bustless size 6 models.

Backstage fittings. That's me on the floor. ^SS2009

View from my sewing machine AW2008

Waiting for it all to start 2007

'Backstage' for the Myer windows parade 

Walk & smile & don't fall over. SS2009

Headpieces I made for Jayson Brunsden dresses

Magadalene bodysuit sized down to a  size 6 AW 2011

Swimsuit by Cozi, skirt by me Myer SS2011

Backstage Autumn Winter 2012
- My workspace is by the yellow box.

Really, it's fun, crazy busy & I get to work with some amazing stylists. And BTW I'm a miracle worker, or so I keep being told. That just makes me laugh. All I do is temporarily alter clothes… but if you insist, ok!

Celebrity dressing room

Recently it's evolved again. 

As I work with all these fabulous stylists, they ask for my business card & they call me and say stuff like "Megan Gale is flying in tomorrow (Friday) & we need a dress altered on Saturday for her to shoot Project Runway on Sunday. Can we courier the dress to you Saturday at 1pm & pick it up at 10am Sunday?"

Which my answer is invariably "Yes, but it will be double time for a rushed job."

Mt Franklin Lightly Swarovski covered swimsuit

There have been Melbourne Cup outfits, Logie outfits, Mt Franklin ad campaigns, catalogues & the like over the passed few months. There's usually only a few days notice & a 24 hour time frame to complete these jobs. 

Except with the Swarovski swimsuit. I had four evenings to do that because I was working on the Myer Autum Winter 2012 launch parade 10 hours each day.

And sometimes I just wonder whether it's all worth it & then I walk down Lygon Street & see a floor to ceiling image of a dress I made for a Sportsgirl campaign & the crazy schedule melts away.

On Thursday it was a Portmans shoot with Abbey Lee Kershaw, an Aussie model who has made it big, no huge, on the international scene & Trevor Stones, stylist. 

At 7am start on the coldest autumn day in a photographic studio that had inadequate heating, I worked my magic yet again on a suit, 3 dresses, 2 coats, a cute pink jacket.

 I get to work with a fabulous team, meet some very cool people & bask in private joy when I see 'that' person looking fabulous because I made their outfit fit like it was made for them. 

Next stop a new season of Project Runway & the production of Beauty & the Beast, I'm designing.

The next big thing

Wow, it's almost the end of April.
I knew I'd been busy since school started but I had no idea I hadn't posted in all that time.
This is how the last 3 months panned out.

42nd Street

Myer Autumn Winter Launch

Mt Franklin Ad campaign

L'oreal Fashion Festival

Logies

Hayley Lewis in Alex Perry, altered by yours truly

and now I'm designing Beauty & the Beast & just about to get into discussions about collaborating on a new musical. It doesn't rain but it pours. Which is great.

Since the wedding I have also been able to put enough money away to start designing our new kitchen.  It will only be a flatpack, but who cares. A new kitchen! That has me excited in the home front.
Which leads nicely into my next project which also very exciting & full of kitchen ware, Beauty & the Beast (B&B)

I worked on the Professional production of Beauty in Sydney in 1996-97.
It was one of my all time favourite jobs & my first official paid for costume work. - I don't think $75 a week at Billanook really counted. I don't think there could have been a better place to learn all about costume as there were so many facets to Beauty. Objects, Beasts, Humans, pyrotechnics, cast change overs, shoes, jewellery, a couple of hundred costumes, dancers, singers, oesteopaths, prosthetics & beading galore. I was in heaven for the 11 months I work backstage.

Sharon, Markham, Chelsea, Katrina & Carolyn Sydney 1996

Silly Girls Disney production 1996

We're going for something a little darker than your usual sugar coated, brightly coloured, very Disney show. It's not a light & bright tale, so I'm edging towards Steampunk Tim Burton-esque, red, black, gunmetal, gold & cream. I've bought rolls of gold fabric for the Castle Objetcs & trying to design them to be as fantastic as possible, but also easy for teh parents to manage in 9 weeks.
Here's a couple of patterns that we're using.

Madame D'arque

Babatte's hat

Let the magic begin…..