Stoned Love

I mentioned a while back that I was considering making my own dress for the Stone Roses gig at Heaton Park this weekend, well I only went and did it =)

I bought fabric paints from The Range in Dark Blue, Turquoise, Yellow and Black. The dress was a ten pound one I bought from H&M about a year ago. (Note: You have to have washed the dress first before you begin customising.) Wearing some scruffy clothes, I laid out bin bags on our back garden lawn, weighted down at the corners, and put my dress in the middle. Then I just got splattering. I started with the turquoise, covering most of the dress, then used the dark blue. Lastly, I added some yellow accents and a little black to set the yellow off.

I should probably have left each colour to dry in between each layer but I didn't have time. It needed overnight and a blast from the hairdryer as some parts were quite thick. Once it had finally dried I laid a pillow case over it and ironed it all over on the hottest setting. Et voila!

I got loads of compliments on it at the gig, and a few people thought I'd bought it! I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I'm glad that I've got something to keep as a momento to such an amazing weekend. Aaaand I saw the Shane Meadows documentary being filmed, so I told them I'd made my dress and they filmed me doin what I thought at the time was a 'groovy' dance. CRINGE!
The gig was all my dreams come true and I can't wait for them to hopefully announce a full UK tour so we can do it all over again!

Psst, I also met Dominic Monaghan at the gig! I've only just started watching Lost from the beginning very recently and Charlie is my favourite character (so far...) so I was well chuffed! He was really lovely!

Oh! Take me back to dear old Blighty

Happy Jubilee Day everyone!

I'm not a royalist but I've really enjoyed this bank holiday. I've decided to view it as celebrating being British rather than a pretty pointless anniversary. I particularly enjoyed the celebrations we had at school as it felt like we were making some really fantastic memories that the children would cherish in the future.

We had a wonderful old fashioned street party in the afternoon sunshine, complete with a samba drum display from our Y4's. I decided my class would create a piece of artwork as a display for the festivities, so a couple of days beforehand, to the sountrack of a best of British playlist I'd made (I'm educating them musically, as well as academically) we got to work on this Union Jack mosiac.

I have 28 children so I cut up a small union jack into 28 sections and gave each child one, along with a number (that they all promptly forgot, of course). Then they each had a sheet of card that was a bit larger than A3, and they had to work out the ratio to turn the smaller one into the bigger one, so it was a bit of sneaky numeracy too.

Then they were free to choose how they wanted to fill it. Some did it black and white, some used black and white pictures of things to do with britain then painted over them, some did fingerprints, collage, lace, felt, glitter etc. Then we strung it all to a fence with my step ladder and gang of sensible volunteers!

Once I had a love and it was a gas, Soon turned out, had a heart of glass

I started out todays design wanting to do a beautiful eye-catching dress that was completely covered with sequins. However when I began arranging them I felt a cascade of them down the front looked so much more dramatic. Especially against the stark white of the background. I think it's a really good mix between the tackyness of sequins and flashing the flesh, and a classy embellished cocktail dress.

I'm looking forward to the end of this week when we're having our big Jubilee party at school - I will patriotically be sporting my red, white and blue attire. We break up for half term on Friday and I'm off out in Liverpool on Saturday night, then my usual night out in Wigan. Only have an outfit for one so if anyone fancies whipping me up a life size version of this dress then do feel free!
 

My apologies for the reflection of my pesky hand in the photo, I twisted myself into all kinds of shapes to try and avoid it but we're stuck with it I'm afraid!

"Where did the little dancing fairy go?"

This dress started off as a napkin from a meal we had at La Mama's in Standish. I started cutting petal shapes out of it and it turned into this lovely little flower fairy dress. I couldn't resist adding some wings on to finish it off.

The title of this post was said by a lovely soul looking for my good self at Glastonbury the other year. I'd love to go back with this dress on and frollick to my hearts content.

Dancing in the deepest oceans, Twisting in the water, You're just like a dream

Bit of a change from dresses today, brought on by the glorious weather we've enjoyed so far this week. It was officially the first day the kids at school were allowed on the school field! Oh the excitement when the rumour first went round! And it was true! Cut grass! Jumpers as nets! Other cliche misty eyed memories!

And so I got to thinking about holidays. I've got a little one booked for June in Cornwall; we're goig staying in a luxury yurt - v.exciting! I shall optimistically be taking my swimming costume because you just never know. I much prefer 'one-pieces' over bikinis and last year I splashed out on this gorgeous 50's style one and I cannot recommend it enough. It makes you feel completely devoid of any body hang ups and the retro styling is so glamourous, I wish I could wear it all the time! And so I'm thinking of purchasing another vintagey one, inspiring me to design this little number. It's the same shape as the one I've already got, made using some pastel pink polka dot wrapping paper I had lying around. It's got two layers to create a flattering skirted rear and would skim over the wobbliest of wobbly bits.

Warning; these costumes may result in unnerving levels of body confidence. Wear with caution.

Yeah she looks like a painting, Jackson Pollock's number five

I've been a massive Stone Roses fan since first hearing them on a compilation CD 12 years ago. After years of resigning myself to watching their tribute bands they announced their reunion and subsequent gigs in October 2011 and I couldn't believe it. I was really worried and sceptical at first but I was of course first in line for tickets. It's now little more than a month away and I'm excited/nervous in equal amounts.

I've also got to thinking about what to wear for the gig. I've got an old faithful Ian Brown top I may throw on, or I may do something altogether more exciting and try to make my own dress inspired by the band. Their artwork, with it's Jackon Pollock influences, is very recognisable, and I think it would look great on a dress. With this in mind I had a little practice using some old NME's.

I love how the skirt has turned out, but I ummed and ahhed over the top part for a bit. I'm still not sure whether I should have used block colour such as black or dark green instead of cutting up Reni's sleeve from a poster. It's given me some ideas though, so who knows what I'll turn up wearing eh?

Edit: I did end up making a dress, click here to have a look =)

Go ahead put your red dress on

I'm out all day today watching the play offs then the champions league final in Preston, then possibly ending up on a night out in Liverpool. Obviously I've no time for dressmaking so here's a little 'What I Wore Today' post instead.

I bought this 'Chelsea Girl' dress from river island last weekend on a desperate shopping spree for a Cribs gig I was attending. I needed something to go from gig straight to a Manchester night out and it was ideal. Really easy to wear and came with a little red slip underneath it. The navy tights (that probably look black in this post) are from tesco and make a nice change from my usual black opaques The navy suede/leather (fake I presume) shoes were a Primark bargain for £8 and seem to be holding up well. The Lee denim shirt was a gift from Gav that I throw on all the time to finish an outfit.