I have been really excited about this new Japanese import fabric. It's quite a heavy weight cotton with the most gorgeous vintage look design and beautiful colour range. Initially I thought I would use it for the Betsy design, but as the fabric is so pricey ( the Betsy uses 3 to 4 metres per dress), the price I would have to charge, I thought, would be too high. So, I decided to make it up in the Clara style, not only because the meterage is less but because I was really pleased with the structured quality of the Clara made up in the heavier weight cream fabric as shown below.
Judge for yourselves, but I think that the resulting dresses are stunning. Fun, pretty and certainly eye catching. These would be fabulous for a wedding and the perfect antidote to the omnipresent Monsoon and Coast dresses that mostly make appearances on theses occassions.
Clara in grey floral/ spot fabric
Clara in turquoise floral/ spot
Clara in pink floral / spot
Clara in red floral/ spot.
The three colours work so well together, bridesmaids maybe?
I have to give a massive thanks to the newest member of the Frock team, Norma. (Hence the dress name. Oh, and a nod to Norma Jean, obvs!) Norma was a sample machinist for Janet Reger and I honestly could not have found anyone better to help with making the dresses. Whilst I am incredibly busy making the made to measure orders, Norma has been concentrating on sewing the standard sized dresses for the ready to buy rail. Whilst I still cut these dresses out myself (sometimes with a little help form my Dad, who I would also like to thank big time.) she makes the dresses beautifully, from scratch, which is hugely important because the ethos behind Frock is a personal, unique, hand made experience and product. I have had the opportunity to have my dresses made in a factory in Poland, but somehow that doesn't sit quite right. I want to keep Frock close to home and going with mass production, well that wouldn't make us any better than any High Street store, would it?
