Are you experienced?

Only a few days of Night Fever left before we close our doors for good and start the reopoening as Frock, exciting but very scary which is apt as the last day is this Saturday in the hope that the majority of remaining stock will be snapped up in a Halloween frenzy.....that was the plan...Tesco may have foiled that one though!

 However, the end of Night Fever has been fun and that was partly due to having a work experience girl in, Harri. I must confess I was unsure about this, especially as judging by recent weeks there wasn't an awful lot of work to experience, but it turned out to be a pleasure, as well as helping out with the general everyday tasks of running a shop Harri also helped me in my steps towards Frockdom and she was enthusiastic and helpful. She also had a go at making a corset and I think for a first go it was pretty damn good, so thanks Harri.

Harri chose which fabric she would like to make her corset in from the local market and some decorative braid for extra detail.

She then cut around the pattern we had already tested for size.

The inner and outer were then stitched...

And pressed.

Boning and braiding were added.

Eyelets were then made,

                                          
Ribbon lacing added at the back to finish........

Et Voila.......



I think that if we had used slightly stiffer fabric or interfaced this first the wrinkling seen here would have been eliminated but nevertheless I think Harri has done a really good job, and as a thankyou she was able to take home a gorgeous handmade prom dress, which fit her perfectly and looks gorgeous on her.

W.I. not?

Just a brief one about the Nottingham City W.I. I was invited along to hold a stall at the W.I fete above Cape in Hockley.  It is the first stall I have held with my dresses and panicked a bit because I was only asked on the Thurs and the fete was taking place that Saturday. It did make me kick my arse in gear though and I quickly sorted out bags, labels and a big thanks to the very, very fabulous guys at Labelserve for sorting out printed garment labels for me in less than 20 hours, which meant I was able to spend Friday sewing them into the dresses.

 I met some lovely ladies, bought some gorgeous cakes  and met the lovely Caroline who runs the Hockley boutique Pink and Lilly. as well as the owners of the new yarn shop that recently opened on Mansfield Road Knit Nottingham.

Frock Shots

As promised here are the photos taken the other day. I am really pleased with the results, and think the colours are really striking. Unfortunately, because it was such a beautiful day, we were unable to use the picnic photos, the sun was causing real problems which was a shame but even so I think we still had a fun and productive day.Thanks so much to Duncan Oakley and the models Amee, Amy Lou and Becky.

 I have been waiting to get some images for a while so that I can use them in the website I have been building and to use on the business cards, I can get a bit further with these now. Take a look at the website so far, the address and domain name will change once the shop is up and running but feel free to have a sneaky peek of where I am up to so far.

Frock Website

Dotty Hotties

Well the photo shoot went really well, the three girls were fabulous and they all suited their respective dresses beautifully. They and Duncan worked really hard on what turned out to be rather a long and tiring day. Who would have thought that it would be so exhausting. I was lucky because I only had a five minute drive home at the end of the day, whereas the others had to travel to Manchester, Wolverhampton and Bristol!!! It will all have been worth it though when we see the photos I'm sure.

We were so lucky to have had such a beautiful sunny day, especially as we had planned a picnic shoot in the Rock cemetery opposite the shop. Such a beautiful and interesting place and a wonderful setting. As well as having the picnic as a prop we also all tucked in to some lovely food to set us up for the walk into town.

Well the girls literally stopped traffic. The three of them in their cute, short, spotty dresses strutting down Mansfield Road was a sight to behold and the beeps and wolf whistles were well deserved. We managed to get some great urban shots on the way to our main destination, the Market Square which was hosting the annual Nottingham Riviera, basically a man made beach in the middle of Notts. Garish and tacky, maybe but the colours perfectly complementing the fun primary colours of the dresses what with the Helter Skelter and Hook A Duck , adding a saucy postcard nod. And of course, no visit to the heart of the city is complete without a shot by the famous left lion.

All in all a fabulous day, topped off by meeting up with my family for a drink and a cuddle with my beautiful little neice Isla....perfect.

Some (not very good) snaps of the photographer taking photos....thank god I left that job to him, it gives you a little sneak preview and I will post the actual photos when I get them.

Who The Frock?

So...what the Frock is this all about then? Well, Frock is a new business in the pipeline which will offer vintage inspired dresses, handmade in Nottingham, England.

 For the last 10 years I have run a retro, fancy dress shop called Night Fever which specialised mainly in 60s and 70s clothing made to vintage patterns, handmade by myself as well as original vintage. This included flares, shirts, catsuits, dresses etc. Whilst this was alot of fun, I can't say that fancy dress was my real passion, it was more something I 'fell in to,' (as you do!) and with the hire market seemingly struggling to compete with cheap online, mass produced costumes I decided it may be time to try something new and follow my real passion.....

And what I do have a passion for are vintage dresses, making my own dresses from or inspired by vintage sewing patterns, researching vintage fashion, making unique frocks for women to wear all the time, not just for 'dressing up'. I tended to selfishly do this when I should actually have been making a glam rock  mens catsuit and I suppose it was only a matter of time before I made this my main focus.

At the moment I am in the process of closing Night Fever so that I can start my new project from scratch. I will be keeping my premises but using it more as a studio/workshop space with a shop front window and opening as an occasional shop or by appointment. I have been working on a website, branding, etc and tomorrow I have a photo shoot so that I have some images for promotional purposes. I'm very excited about it because my good friend Duncan Oakley  is the photographer and my gorgeous sister Amee has agreed to be a model. As the dresses are made in Nottingham it seemeed a good idea to use the city as a backdrop.

This blog will chart my progress in the start up of Frock and hopefully keep you updated with the new website, shop, designs, exciting news and inspiration.

It seems a bit overwhelming at the moment as I realise I still have so much to do but it's exciting also that at last I will be having a go at doing something that I totally love.....fingers crossed and wish me lots of luck