My Latest Obsession - Doll Cothes

 Above are some photos of my finished project from the Liberty Jane Design Academy class that I took in October.  We were charged with reproducing an outfit from one of several images Cinnamon (Liberty Jane), gave us at the beginning of the course.  I had so much fun making this outfit, finding all the fabrics, trims and even the wig!  I'm currently in the process of turning all my other patterns from my Bonjour Teaspoon Pattern Line, into patterns for clothing that fits American Girl and other 18" Dolls.  I'll keep you all up to date on my progress.

As you can see, I chose outfit #3. Some of the other participants made versions of the other outfit designs and did wonderful jobs. 

Here is my 3/4 sleeve boat neck tee.  The pattern will be available soon.

Exploring Fashion - Visiting Desiree Salas

 Desiree Salas is an Oakland, California designer.  Her focus is on vintage inspired dresses and separates that flatter a real woman's figure.  As a long time friend and fellow pattern maker, Desiree opened up her home studio to our Exploring Fashion Team.

Look at this Cute skirt with red accents!  Perfect for Summer

Showing us her patterns

In the Sewing Room

More work with patterns

Super inspiration board

great vintage fabric

Exploring Fashion - Candace Kling Ribbon Artist

 Candy Anyone?  

Recently, our fashion camp had the opportunity to visit the studio of Candace Kling.  Candace is a ribbon artist and as we've come to find out, one of the leading ribbon experts in California, if not the US.  Studying the ribbon arts from history as well as creating her own modern wonders, Candace brings ribbon to life.  Check out her works of art below and above.

drawer full of vintage and antique Ribbon

Antique Ribbon Creations

Ribbon Flowers created by Candy

Ribbon Work on Millinery

Sculptural Ribbon Hats from the 1980's

Fancy Ribbon work on this sculptural hat!

Cate and Jocelyn viewing the work

Folded Paper Dress made from a book

Fancy Pleating

Exploring Fashion - Visiting Levi's HQ

 Friday was our final day of Exploring Fashion Camp.  We got an early start and visited the Headquarters of Levi Strauss and Co. .  What a treat we were in for.  Starting off in the lobby with a little history lesson, we learned how Levi Strauss started  the company during the Gold Rush. 

 Onward to THE VAULT where the students viewed archived and restored historical garments and some great Hollywood memorabilia like Jennifer Lopez's customized Levi's and the photo of Marilyn Monroe wearing her Levi's.

Fun in the Vault under the Hollywood sign!

More fun in the vault!

Look what you can do with Denim overalls and a little blazer.  Great style in the lobby.

Our team with Sage.

 Designer, Sage Mathews gave us a tour of the Men's design department and answered Anese's miriad of questions about the design and development process. 
 We ended the tour in the pattern making department.  Pattern maker, Jose, showed us how to manipulate patterns in the CAD system they use to work on patterns.  So Interesting.

What a great Visit!  Thanks to Beth MacLean, Susie Poulelis, Elaine Hamblin & Jose for such a rich and rewarding experience.

Exploring Fashion - Photo Shoots and Modeling

Thursday we visited the studio of Emery Street, a clothing manufacturer in Emeryville.  Emery Street  produces knit dresses for other fashion companies like Boston Proper, Lesley Evers and Celebrating Grace. 
Susan, Emery Street's head designer and owner invited us to come and observe a photo shoot in her studio.  She was having many of her knit dresses photographed for her website www.emerystreet.com.

Our Laurie Ann was on hand to help coach the models.  Modeling takes effort and thought. We found out that learning to use your body to make the clothes look good is not as easy as it appears on TV.  And also that photo shoots take time.  It's not all glitz, glam and glamor.  Still, it's fun to be involved!

After we returned to home base, we decided to do a short and much simpler photo shoot of our own.  The girls modeled the clothing they wore to camp and practiced smiling, sitting, standing and using different body positions.  Here are our final shots, edited and chosen by each student.

Anese

Ellie

Jessica

Rachael

Sofia

Exploring Fashion - Bay Street Fashion

Exploring Fashion - Fashion Journalists Week 2

Yesterday, we started Week 2 of our Exploring Fashion Camp.  Our group (see above) spent the morning of watching "Bill Cunningham - New York", a documentary about a Fashion photographer in NYC who rides around on his bicycle  taking pictures of fashion on the Street.  Afterwards, these young fashion bloggers went to Bay Street in Emeryville where we spotted trends, hot colors and some pretty awesome accessories.  See below for a taste of their favorites.

This lovely lady had a great studded ring and gorgeous BRIGHT Orange nails.  One of the Hot colors for the season for sure!

 

She had matching studded shoes that she decorated herself.

Neon was the Uber trend of the moment along with color blocking neon as you can see in the shoe above ( at Steve Madden) and the Window below (LoLa)

Cool combo of printed blouse and lace shorts!

 Love his bag! &lt's Bright Orange!

More candy coated colors at Williams Sonoma.

                                                          Neon is sooo in!!!!!!!!  :)

The Gumballs carried the theme and were fun to look at.

                                           This is so COOL! Look at the beautiful pink paint!
                                           I wonder if they got my message?.......

We love the nails and phone cover!