I’m off to Germany next week to start an MBA, so in order to start my student life in style I thought it may be a good idea to throw a fabulous leaving party complete with a I-can-party-all-night-long-now-I-don’t-work outfit. I started off in an art-deco place but my pattern cutting quickly went in a different direction and I seemed to end up in the 50′s instead of the 20′s. As I’m not pencil thin it was probably a good thing anyway. Black and white is never a bad combination and I’m quite a fan of layering chiffon on top of a more sturdy fabric to create some interesting shades a patterns. The dress is an incredibly simple white “prom dress” with circles of chiffon sewn onto the bodice. I love that it’s too short to wear to a work party because for me there are no more work parties for a whole year!

With temperatures in London soaring and no sign of rain, I thought it would be a perfect time to research city looks that can withstand the heat but also are appropriate for work. I wanted to find outfits which would inspire me to design dresses which mix smart, sleek, causal and cool (as in temperature, although I’m not adverse to being the other “cool”). I thought a good place to start might be with Italian designers, as unlike us Britons they are annually blessed with several months of gorgeous sunshine. This white dress by Gucci would be perfect to wear right now, although the colour isn’t great for eating spaghetti with a rich tomato sauce it is great for at keeping you cool and shouldn’t we all just be eating salad in preparation for the beach anyway. The best thing about this dress for me is that it looks very smart but then it has all this great beading and detail at the top which keeps it really interesting and fun.

Inspired by the sun I also noticed this great yellow dress by DVF, as you already know I love making things out of silk but I’ve never made either a shirt dress or a wrap dress and I love how this combines the two. I don’t think you can fail to look chic in this dress no matter what the occasion.

Finally, I spotted this very pretty dress by Stella McCartney, although it has long sleeves it looks wonderfully airy with the light coloured fabric broderie anglaise decorated with mini holes.

A couple of weeks ago I opened my curtains to summer, it had finally arrived. With this abundance of sunshine and nothing better to do than sip Pimms in the garden I found myself with a distinct lack of suitable outfits. Sitting in the garden decorated with beautiful flowers I too wanted to be covered by bright pretty petals. Although one of my favourite challenges on project runway is creating a dress from plants and flowers, this did not seem like a very sustainable way to dress so instead I went about finding fabrics that gave the illusion of being flowerbeds. I quickly remembered a sari which my sister had got for me from india which was printed with yellow and green flowers and made me think of the alps during summertime. As I was in a hurry to get back to sunbathing I quickly put together a simple dress, with braided straps to give it an alpine feel. Not content with one new dress I also decided to make a simple pleated skirt from some japanese fabric I had been forced into buying by a pushy shop keeper a few months ago. It turned out to be a good buy as the skirt has been the recipient of many compliments.

With football fever gripping the country I was first inspired to research football fashion but this quickly bored me as t-shirts and shorts made out of shiny material are not what I like best, however my train of thought then moved to South Africa where the world cup is being hosted. After a bit of googling around I found out that South Africa is home to many amazing designers, which is no suprise really when you think of the fantastic traditional cottons that many Africans wear. Although many designers stick to using these classic fabrics many are using fabrics that are still dyed in classic colours but have a more contempary print. A great example is this dress I found by Chichia, which is incredibly simple in shape but a masterpiece in print – I love it!

The next beautiful dress that I spotted was the opposite of this one, simple in fabric, complex in design. The dress by Stoned Cherry has a greecian goddess feel to it, but a goddess who has moved to africa and dyed her white dress yellow to match the sun. The best part of the dress for me is the braiding, which really gives it a personal touch.

Finally I was very excited to find a highly intricate beaded dress by Spero Villoti, it should be sold with a warning to be worn only after 3 months of intensive gym going but if you can pull it off it would look amazing at a 1920′s flapper party. The dress is great, not only does it have a very cool pattern but also swinging beads at the bottom. I have been desperate to make something with osterich feathers for a long time but now I am thinking beads.

Designing may be my main passion but unfortunately it doesn’t pay the bills. Therefore I decided to venture into the world of office apparel. The clean lines and smart tailoring makes a nice change from my usual party dresses. That’s not to say workwear can’t be fun, with the right fabrics it makes 9-5 a joy. Making outfits for the office is actually fairly easy, I’ve made both a classic pencil skirt and shift dress, whose pattern’s deviated only fractionally from my basic blocks. Where I’ve really had some fun has been with the fabrics, as with most garments natural fibers look better. This is especially true in the office with harsh lighting, therefore I choose a beautiful red broderie anglaise for the dress. I love this fabric and it’s perfect for the office with it’s intricate detail smartly displayed in a single colour. Although the dress is very simple, the pockets on the side and black buttons down the back add some interesting details.

I’ve also made a brown woolen pencil skirt with a matching cape. The cape can be worn to work but also looks great with a pair of jeans or over a summer dress in the evening when it’s getting a bit chilly!

I’ve recently been through a monochrome phase, I don’t know if it’s the dull unispiring colours of the British winter or just because I seem to have an excess of black and white thread in my sewing box calling out to be used. All is not lost though, my penchant for black and white has been coupled with a desire for silk. Since reading the Great Gatsby I’ve been obessed with creating silken gowns, but alas my life does not revolve around weekends in the country where one has to dress for dinner and society balls. I do feel however life can always be made better if you do add a little silk to it so I have created some more useful pieces to my wardrobe. The first of these is a black silk party dress, it really is a great LBD. The front is fairly classic in style but the back is where the fun really starts, it has a beautiful draped cowl back with has great movement. I’ve also created a beautiful white silk blouse that can be worn to the office (see above post for a picture).

My sister has just come back from India armed with handfuls of beautiful fabrics (as well as plenty of jewellry, scarfs and bags). Apparently everywhere you look there are amazing saris and lengths of fabrics with fantastic prints. Although there are lots of places in london to get saris and other indian things, they don’t offer the range India has especially with the printed cotton. As someone who very much enjoys working with cotton, because it’s so easy to sew and wear, I was absolutely thrilled to get this lovely black and brown cotton. The leaves are hand printed on which gives it a very unique feel.

I decided that I wanted to make another summer dress that could be worn in the day or perhaps out in the evening with the right accessories. The top front and back are identical except I hand stiched together the front a little so it wasn’t too low! The bottom is about a metre and a half of gathered fabric. I think the simplicty of the design works well to showcase the beautiful fabric.

I had a great time last weekend at my one of my friend’s birthday party, it was held in a roller disco in South London. To make the party extra fun we all dressed as animals. As someone who has always like the fluffiness of bumble bees I felt nothing could be better and set about making a costume for myself and the other half of my swarm (my friend Rags!) The dresses were so simple and consisted of strips of black and yellow fun fur sewn together to create a stripy body!

Last saturday I attended my cousin’s 21st birthday party held at her parents beautiful farm in northampton. I arrived at the party after flying back from a week’s holiday in Tuscany that morning, luckily the weather was just as great as it was in it had been in Italy. Back in February she had asked asked me to create a fabulous turquiose dress for her to. She wanted a long silk gown with an empire line and a low back. I wanted the dress to hang beautifully – to cling to the body in the right places and flow out at the bottom to create a striking silhouette. As I had never attempted a dress like this before I opened up my pattern cutting books to find out how to start. After looking in the lingerie and eveningwear sections I was able to draft a great pattern that elliminated the use of darts. The fabric was sourced from a shop on goldhawk road – I bought four metres of silk satin, which was enough for me to cut the entire skirt on the bias and leave enough for the top section too. The dress was fairly easy to construct, I did notice the fabric puckering in a couple of places so will have to try sewing with tissue paper underneath next time I use satin. Initially I wanted to bead the dress along the empire line, however I couldn’t find any beads that I liked so I decided to use buttons to add an extra elegance to the dress. I put twelve buttons along the left hand side of the dress with only a fraction of fabric in between each one, which gave an extra detail to the dress.

The party itself was a great success, with loads of beautiful dresses including a floor length silver gown with 20 turquoise buttons running the length of the dress that I wore. The brillant turquoise of Amy’s dress certainly made her stand out from the crowd and the beautiful 1930′s feel of the dress gave her a beautiful elegance perfect for such a wonderful party.

I saw a dress in vogue with a really pretty pleated bodice; it was a more unusal take on the classic prom dress. I wanted do to something similar but with a great print, that would show off the pleating detail.

As soon as I saw this black, orange, red and green floral fabric I fell in love with it. It has looks as through the fabric has been painted with rich oil paints, as the vibrant colours really stand out. The fabric is actually cotton, which is great for me as it was fairly inexpensive and easy to iron.

The pattern for the dress was a basic bodice and bias cut full skirt. I wanted to do lots of pleats on the bodice, so I divided the bodice into 16 strips about 2cm apart, then after the fabric had been cut out I was able to carefully iron each pleat perfectly into place. I added gold buttons to the back of the dress as buttons always look so much prettier then zips and seem to get more attention too.

Underneath the knee length bias cut skirt a layer of tuelle was added both to add volume and also to make one feel more like a princess in the dress.

The dress has enough character to get away without accessories, but some ehnic gold jewellry along with a great tan would really show the dress off to the best of it’s abilites.