Pattern Magic, part 1

I'm doing a two-day course at Morley College taught by Manisola Omotoso called Pattern Magic. It's based around the book of the same name, which is full of amazing ideas for creating sculptural effects on sewn garments, but doesn't exactly hold your hand and guide you through them. The idea behind the course is to offer more detailed instructions for carrying out the techniques in the book.

I thought I'd have more to say this evening, but today was taken up with drafting a block for a bodice and then using that to create a pattern for one of the designs in the book. I have a lovely collection of bits of paper with sums and shapes drawn all over them, (this book is math-tastic), but no textiles to show off yet and no idea if I'll have any time to work on this before next weekend.

Frustratingly, there's lots of stuff I'd like to blog about right now, but it's all either unfinished or intended as a surprise for people who I think read this blog! Maybe in December I'll finally be able to post some pictures.

Bow-tie

I needed an orange bow-tie for a costume party I'm attending in December. Obviously there are many serviceable and affordable versions available to buy, but while I was looking for wool for another project I uncovered a large piece of orange fabric left over from my course. It was supposed to have been yellow, but I'd dyed it for too long and then set it to one side thinking it would come in useful for something else. Here was that opportunity! I would make my own bow-tie and save myself £4.

Graffiti

Two pieces seen while walking along Caledonian Road. It looks like the top one was done to promote the Cally Festival.

Eat Your Heart Out 2012 at St Bartholomew's Hospital Pathology Museum

A friend and I went to Eat Your Heart Out this weekend. This pop-up cake shop took place in possibly the only grotesque museum in London that I haven't been too - St Bartholomew's Hospital Pathology Museum. It seems that this museum isn't open to the public, though you can arrange a private viewing and it does host events, usually lectures and seminars.
   

New blog feature

I've added a new section to the blog. On the right-hand side there's now a section labelled "Patterns" where patterns and instructions that appeared in blog posts are collected. At present it's got the phone case knitting pattern mentioned in the previous post, the lambda knitting chart from this post and the paper watch template and instructions from this post.

Swedish Snowflake Phone Case - Free Pattern

So, I recently designed myself a knitted phone case. As a friend of mine was also in need of a phone case I tweaked the design and made my own fair-isle chart to use with it. The result is Lucy's Swedish Snowflake Phone Case. The pattern can be downloaded by clicking on this link or if you're on Ravelry you can search for "Swedish Snowflake Phone Case" in the pattern database.

Advertising

Walking past Selfridge's on Thursday I discovered that Yayoi Kusama is collaborating with Louis Vuitton on a clothing/accessories collection. Polka dots feature heavily, (unsurprisingly), and the Selfridge's window display is enjoyably bizarre and slightly creepy. It includes an army of tiny Kusamas and two photo-realistic mannequins.