200 Years of Australian Fashion

My brother and sister-in-law had a big birthday, so for a treat we had a lovely lunch at South Bank, then the boys went off to the football, and the girls went to the Gallery to take a look at the '200 years of Australian Fashion' Exhibition.

What a treat it was too, so many wonderful fabrics, designs and most of all the details. I mean who would have thought to use Walnut shells to decorate a hat, and my what a wonderful hat it was and the shells just made it extra special!

The exhibition flowed from the first known Australian Made dress to the current trends from Australian designers, with some unique accessories along the way, I particularly liked the Parasols, must be the ancestors genes coming through again.

So take a brief stroll through history, and if you can make the trip to Melbourne to take a look at all the garments, as this is only a small snippet of some of the wonderful garments!

Lost Trades

The week-end before last I went to the 'Lost Trades Fair' in Kyneton. What a great event and what fun it was to watch! The Event included; blacksmithing (interested due to my Great Grandfather and beyond), Saddlery (my Grandfather's trade), A Fletcher, Armourer (with Blacksmithing in my ancestors, surely there were a few suits made for Knights!), bookbinding, instrument making, gunsmithing, rope making, boat building, Wood turning, general wookwork, bee keeping, plus much more of the traditional men's crafts, and then there was the crafts that these days are more for the ladies (that being said there were men doing some of these at the fair as there would have been years ago too).... Spinning, Weaving, Millinery, Shoe Making (which I so want to get into), and an antique Sewing Machine stand.

Now this stand was not just your run of the mill treadle Singer machines, but fancy embroidery and a Cornelly Machines. These days one really just considers that the embroidery machines are a new things, as they are now affordable for the domestic market. Well some of there are affordable, some are way out of my reach.

This now has me thinking what did my ancestors on my mother side use in the first Umbrella & Parasol Shop in Melbourne, that also made ladies accessories.... (this is an assumption as many of the children including my pop have their occupation as glove maker, bag maker etc, in the early years of their working life)

 

 

 

So here are a few pics of these fancy antique machines, and an original advertisement for the Umbrella Shop. Presumably some of these types of machines where in use at the shop. I will have to try and investigate, but sadly there is no one around to ask first hand anymore.

 

 

Odd (for me) Blend

There are some colours I would never think of putting together in a blend, until I see some inspiration via nature or just by change.

 

This blend was from Red, Brown, Lime, Mint and off white, yep not my normal colour combo.

 

So first the blending board, then the wheel, through the loom and through the Sewing machine.

 

The bolero is all one piece, and inspired by the relaxed Saori style of garment construction.  

Navajo Plying Fun

Finished a top down vest in Alpaca from 'Fibre naturally'. (http://www.fibrenaturally.com.au/)

 

First time trying Navajo Plying. Navajo plying sure is tricky not to overspin, which I did, but happy with the gradient effect.

 

Topped off with a shawl pin I made a 'Ladies in the Shed' this morning, the wood is Myrtle from an old tree we had to cut down.

 

This garment and pin fit into the 'Fibreshed' with all materials sourced with 500km of home (and in this case much closer).

(https://www.facebook.com/groups/FibreshedMelbourne/)

 

 

Yarn Art

On Monday I went to an 'Art Yarn Workshop' at the 'Hand Weavers and Spinners Guild', with Janet Knoop. It was great fun!!

We started with preparing a fibre sandwich.... such a great way to mix it up and use up stray fibres bits.... then the spinning began!

In the afternoon we learned Beehive, spun up a little thick and thin and then attempted these. I say attempted as I need a lot more practice!

So Yesterday I practice the new skills, and mostly worked with the fibre sandwich. Then when plying I threw in a couple of funky beehives. Managed 200+ grams so I should be able to make some equally funky item!

Janet's facebook page!

https://www.facebook.com/My-Spin-on-Things-187836691260881/?fref=ts

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resist Felting

So I bought a second hand drum carder that needed a lot of love. I was also given some dirty old and very ordinary alpaca some time back, so thought I would test of the drum carder with the alpaca. There was 3 colours, off white, tan and a small bit of brown. So I thought I would try out resist felting, lets face it, who could resist trying this technique out.

Placed down the clear plastic discs, and soon reaslised that this was going to be impossible, so added coins, and this worked a treat, yes some moved a little, but made adding the brown and the cutting so much easier!

This piece of felt will become a bag eventually.

Also thanks to Jenny Hill of https://www.facebook.com/jhillfelt/ for the great you tube video on this technique!

 

 

 

Hand Spun Naturals

About a year ago, I decided to get my head around spinning, and today I finished a cowl of a selection of various shades and breeds. Shetland, alpaca, finn, corriedale, finn cross (I think corriedale and merino), and the colours are so rich and varied, who needs dyes!

The patterns are taken from the 200 Fair-isle Motifs book, I punch then onto a card, and knitting this up on the Bulky knitting machine. Since I can fair-isle knit well, the machine was more of a challenge. The mix is varied plys, some I had to use single others I had to double up.

Knitting on the machine can also be a little tedious in pattern work, especially all the colour changes, dropped stitches(mainly because of the varying plys).... and dropped stitches in fair-isle is a pain, as on the machine you only see the wrong side so keeping the pattern true is hard work.

So it has just turned summer, so it will be folded and placed in the cupboard all ready for Winter 2016..... I even have left overs that I will throw at the loom Saori style and see what comes out.