Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Dear Caberet (Dress 165)

Dear Caberet,
I'd love to be in a stage production of you- if not, i'd happily settle for costume designer. I'm particularly proud of this 'lil number.
all my love,
IP

Monday, July 19, 2010

Dear Jamie Oliver (Dress 164)

Dear Jamie Oliver,
You're the author of Jorge's favourite go to cookbook for which I am forever greatful. The food he's made me from the depths of stained-corner-folded-pages is always spectacular. There's this one salad with fetta and cheese and all sorts of deliciousness. I likes it.
Om nom nom nom,
IP

Dear Safta Shula (Dress 163)

Dear Safta,
You're getting bck into knitting, which is good because it means that even though tit's winter your arthritis is not being too harsh. Rather a surprise 'since you had to quit the knittety knit several years ago beause of the aforementioned joint pain.
Anyway, I've seen knitting needles made into necklaces, bracelets, brooches and rings, but never into clothes. There's always a way!\
All my love,
IP

Dear Flo's 20th (Dresses 153-162)

Dear Flo's 20th
You were MAD. So I forgot to dress. Sorry!
Not Braille, but dice! Same technique 'though.
This dress has printed hands- but real fold/pleats in the fabric.

White Picket belt.
Yes. That is a bycicle wheel. Don't judge me. It's recycling! Even if it's not terribly physically possible.
I wanted to film my first short film in a spiral staircase, needless to say the story I wanted to shoot was too morbid and involved far too many Special Effects. The script is somewhere on my computer 'though, and I might go looking for it to have one of those awkward 'wasn't I strange' nostalgia trips.

Flo's artwork for her party was very macabre. I liked it- but that sort of things rather sticks in your mind.

 I remember my best friend's mum planting sunflowers. There is no happier plant.
This is in no way a cross-promotion with my workplace. I just like stamps.
Odd little beaded/bunched thing. The idea is there bur the drawing is attrocious.

Simple and (to be honest) kind of boring shirt/dress contraption with tiered collars. Oops.

All my love,
IP

Dear Korean Girl on the Train (Dress 152)

Dear Korean Girl on the Train,
You were adorable and inquisitive, and you asked me all sorts of questions about my drawings, and then proved in about 4 seconds how insanely far I have to go when it comes to drawing- hell but you draw fast, and accurate, and pretty!
This dress reminded you of a traditional Korean dress- and I see what you mean, but with a twist.
(Blue matte satin, and silver matte satin in the middle, seperated by 'bands' of rubber tubing filled with something vaguely mercurial.)
All my love,
IP

Dear Izzy (Dess 151)

Dearest Izzy,
You came to my house, and you were sad, so I fed you; which next to cuddles and talking in the dark is the only way I know how to cheer people up. So I made you poached pears. I think it may have worked (as well as it could have).
All my love,
IP

Friday, July 16, 2010

Dearest Reader (Update)

Yo.
So I know this update situation is not ideal, I've really not been updating regularly, I'm under shitstacks of pressure right now, rehearsing full-time and preparing for stage managing two plays and co-hosting a radio show. It's really squashing me. So when I'm using my dad's camera (because mum took mine to india with her) and the batteries are flat i'm just stumped.
On a more positive note:
My dear friend Flo hosted an art party the other night. It was freaking awesome. I got all living statued up, and debued my Audrey costume, which was fun/frightening/hard/awesome. I re-drew all the dresses up for voting this month and put them on her wall (underneath a gorgeous art photography/linocut series and an origami mobile of the solar system.) and:
Dress 107:  3 votes (T.H, S.R & K.H)
Dress 108: 1 vote (T.H)
Dress 116: 2 votes (FLO.D.C and Raphael, her housemate- who does look like he sounds like he ought to.)
Dress 118: 3 votes (J.A.M, T.P and Alex Welch- who has a fish in his signature, and saved me from accidental fare evasion once, and is lovely.)
Dress 119: 1 vote (L.W)
Dress 122: 3 votes (C.C, E.L, and J.A.M)
Dress 123: 1 vote (N.S)
Dress 136: 3 votes (G.J, John Munroe -who will be an author. he has no choice, his name is too authorly- and Dumbledore... which I am considering counting.)
Dress 138: 1 vote (the esteemed D.W. Murray)
which is an awesome lot of votes!
I will be carrying around my drawings in the hope that I can get people to vote on them. I quite liked the reaction of people- having to touch the drawings to vote (they were instructed to sign their initials) made it an interesing thing to watch.
I will post tomorrow as and when I have a chance.
All my love,
IP
P.S. new design! Thoughts?

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Dearest Emergency Services (Dress 132)

Dear Emergency Services (c/o Di Munro)
You do awesome. Thankyou.
Di Munro took the first aid course I did last month. She was lovely, personable, informative and kind. We learnt things. We heard stories about what amazing work emergency services do. I could not respect those people more! Absolute saints, the lot of them.
This dress is a plain cotton base, two individual layers of mesh crepe with one painted circle on each. Attatched to the cotton base are two LEDs, which slowly fade in and out.
All my love,
IP

Dear Huntingdale (Dress 149)

Dear Huntingdale,
You are structurally unsound.
There is a tunnel under the tracks to get to the platform. This is not really the problem, but the drains get clogged, and then it floods, and then no matter what you are wearing you are going to have wet socks which is like purgatory, only worse.
You have bathrooms which are always locked, and benches that are always wet with fresh paint.
And no matter where you stand, you are always in the path of freezing winds.
BUT:
if you look out from Platform 1 at dusk, you will see a collection of streetlights, wires and poles washed in intensely beautiful cobalt skies.
and that is why, for all your faults, I really do like you.
All my love,
IP

Dear Lucksmiths (Dress 148)

Dearest Lucksmiths,
I went to your penultimate concert last year with my father- totally unaware of how lovely you were, or that the gentleman who worked at the greengrocers in my street was your bassist. There is something intensely australian about you, without being Casey Chambers grating or Missy Higgins samey.
There's a song called Fiction (from Warmer Corners) which is what I based this dress on.

The song is really clever, and sweet, and darn catchy too.

Listen to the song- and then look at the dress and it should all make sense.
The 'Fiction' bit is printed on mesh, and the Firs on the front of the dress are painted on. They're from one of the album covers, First Frost- which has another of my favourite songs on it; Lament of the Chiming Wedgebill.
)
Enjoy!
All my love,
IP

Dear Neil Gaiman (Dress 147)

Dear Neil Gaiman,
I've been reading your books since I was a child- graduating from Coraline to American Gods, and thence onto the bizzare wonder of the Sandman series. Your mind seems to fit into a same pattern of those artists I admire- Stephen Fry's encyclopedic knowledge and immense respect for other artists (watch any and all interviews with the man. He is a god.) or your dear Amanda F***ing Palmer's intersongstuality, or Billy Connolly's scatterbrainedness, or your friend and mentor Terry Pratchett's hyper-referancing, or anyone else equally awesome.
You just won a CARNEGIE MEDAL!
(for the Graveyard Book)
freaking congratulations.
Two blind girls were on stage when you accepted the medal with a gorgeous speech (watch this also. It is sweet and lovely) and presented you with a braille copy of the winning book.
How ace is that?
Long time readers may know I have a deep love of Braille, I made the bf and myself matching rings when I went to Israel with our names on them. It's not as clingy as it sounds! It was more a piece of myself to leave behind whilst I travelled... This is a guy who wears a silver replica of the one ring; so it is very hard to take his jewellery seriously.
Anyhow, this dress would have to have little 'beads' implanted between the dress and the lining. might not be very comfortable. Would have something meaningfull written on them, but not sure what. Any suggestions?
All my love,
IP

Dear Brotherhood (Dress 146)

Dear Brotherhood of St Lawrence,
I miss you- when you were old-school. You were so messy and disorganised, which meant that if you put in the time and the effort you were bound to find a bargain/something interesting and reasonably priced. Now you're really just becoming a Retro store, which is such a pity, since I really wanted skinny ties to make a bow tie (Tutorial when I find some, design alert courtesy of @ilanacharnelle) and there aren't any, because all the hipsters shop there. And who wants to pay 8$ for a scrap of badly patterned polyester? I just want something I can take apart to take a pattern off... Silly.
If I found a nice cheap tie to take a pattern off, I might be convinced that this dress
was a good idea.
All my love,
IP

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Dear Reader (apologies)

Dearest Reader,
I'm going through a 'lil transitioning, as my mother took the family camera to india with her (she's backpacking. Is it just me or is this the wrong way 'round?) and the camera on my laptop is atrocious.
I'll post this week's dresses asap.
xoxo
IP

Monday, July 5, 2010

Dear Bed (Dress 145)

Dear Bed,
I want to go to you.
All my love,
IP

Dearest Paprika, Chili, Gefilte, Puck, and ? (Dress 144)

Dearest Paprika, Chili, Gefilte, Puck, and ?,
You were my pet fish. I tried- I really did, but I was never very good at curing the multitude of diseases you caught, and even though I fed you often and cleaned the tank, I really wasn't so good at the Dr House impersonations. Sorry!
All my love,
IP

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Dear Reader (Poll Results)

Dearest Reader,
Today's post has the bad news before the good. Isn't that always the way? I'm a little deflated by this month's poll results. I made the poll open to multiple votes this month, posted it on facebook- and got a total of 6 votes.
1 for Dear Tramdrivarr
2 for Dear Beautiful Read-Headed Girls
1 for Dear Sally
2 for Dear Jorge
I said last month that if I didn't get more than 20 votes I would make whatever dress I felt like- which I'm glad i said, because Dear QE II would have cost an arm and a leg (silk!?!), and taken me all month to make... (When did I think I could do corsetry?) I made Dear Melbourne Dandy- it's given me a little trouble in the fitting, it was made on schedule, but it was a funny shape, so once it looks shmexy (or passable...) I'll post it. I'll probably make Dear Jorge this month, but it depends on fabric costs etc. Between moleskines and material this is becoming an expensive experiment!

For all that voted last month- I couldn't be more greatful. Every vote surprised me, you didn't go where I expected- and I liked it!


What I'm trying to say is, please, make this exciting, make this something I can't control. If you're reading this I imagine you're into design and/or sewing, and you might know others who are into such things- I would really appreciate if you encouraged a couple of your friends to go through the links in the last post, have a look at the dresses in the running this month, and have a vote- remember you can vote for as many dresses as you like, the more the merrier!

I'm finding it really hard right now to post every night, since i'm out of the house 7am-7pm every day, but I promise i'll do better than i've been doing.

I really appreciate your reading this- taking the time to check in every so often, knowing my little collection of scribblings is out there interesting anyone is a great feeling. The reasons I made this public was in the hope that someone would find it interesting, that I would feel responsibility to those reading, and maintain this thing- I've never done a 365, and it's just as hard as I thought it would be. Knowing you're out there reading/seeing/commenting/liking/hating/being curious is the only reason I can keep this up every day.

If you're alright with it, I'd love to see what the people who read my blog do- I know the lovely Tammie takes the most incredible photographs, and Jess is an insanely talented woman of many mediums, Jorge (the patient boyfriend) is cleverly interesting on a bizzare variety of topics, if you're out there, reading silently as I have so often done, please let me know who you are- enjoy a virtual scone and perhaps some tea to escape the Melbourne chill.
Be safe, warm, happy and healthy,
all my love,
Ip.

Dear Reader (This month's dresses!)

Dearest Reader,
The dresses up for voting this month are
Dear Half Way Mark (Dress 102) Knife and Fork
Dear Half Way Mark (Dress 105) Patches of Text
Dear Half Way Mark (Dress 106) Orange Peeled
Dear Half Way Mark (Dress 107) Spats Dress
Dear Half Way Mark (Dress 108) Quoted Cleavage
Dear Ilana (Dress 114) Strawberries and Cream
Dear Antoine (Dress 116) Le Petit Prince
Dear Koko Black (Dress 117) Nom Nom Nom
Dear Safta Haya (Dress 118) Copper and Midnight
Dear Metro (Dress 119) Tracks and Tunnel
Dear City Hatters (Dress 121) Top Hat and Macaw
Dear Darryl (Dress 122) Pallette
Dear Tom n' Jess (Dress 123) Vase/Face
Dear Alice (Dress 124) Carrots
Dear Dad (Dress 127) Space Invaders Arr.
Dear 1980's (Dress 129) Mirror Image Collar
Dear 365ers (Dress 131) Ruled Margins
Dear Collectors Everywhere (Dress 133) Film Trimmings
Dear Renault (Dress 134) Grille'd
Dear Scrabble (Dress 136) Seven Buhbillion Letter Score
Dear Dianna Wynne-Jones (Dress 137) Backless with Torq
Dear Pentel (Dress 138) Graphite 1920s

Vote well! Vote often! Vote wisely!
And please invite your friends to participate, the more votes the merrier!
All my love,
IP

Dearest Eve (Dress 143)

Dearest Eve Yamouni,
You're inexpressibly amazing. Talented Artist, Lawyer, Cook and Playwright. You're part of the tight-knit community of artists who were in and out of my childhood home(s). Every time we moved, you moved with us- apparently you were doing a lot of moving around yourself, I can't remember the other houses- only the one in South Yarra, the apartment with the balcony view above the Botanical Gardens and the abundance of ferns and indoor plants. I remember hours spent drawing in oil pastels (the kind whose quality assured you should never let a child near them) whilst drinking lemonade and listening to Vivaldi. Everything about you is class and sophistication. Today's dress is a combination painted/preforated number in black and white. Complex structurally, but aesthetically simple and straightforward.
All my love,
IP

Dear Rambo (Dress 142)

Dear Rambo,
So I fell asleep ten minutes in; so I'm not really the authority on your, shall we say, art. However- I do know that at some point in the early part of the film (Rambo 3, I think.) you use a bow and arrow to catch fish.
Bad. Ass.
voila!
black satin ribbons on white muslin, with feather embellishments.
All my love,
IP

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Dear Bernina (Dress 141)

Dearest Bernina,
You're gorgeous, sexy, you come in a red box, and you help me make lovely things. You're not like the other sewing machine I had, pale, sickly, plasticy shmickery. My dearest Bernina just helped me make this month's dress; she's not quite ready to show yet, I need to re-pleat because the pattern was massively off, but once I don't feel sillygoose wearing it, i'll upload it.
I hope Bernina will help me make today's dress, it's simple, classic lines, wth beading as the vertical 'lines' in the drawing.
All my love,
IP

Dear Gelobar (Dress 140)


Dearest Gelobar,Wow! One Hundred and Forty Dresses!
I'm excited, I don't know about you.
Gelobar is an amazing cafe/gelaterie near my house, where I once did a single shift of work- it was more an introductory on-the-job interview. Suffice to say I did not get in, but I did get paid in Gelato, so I care not a whit. Can I tell you? Icecream straight out of the machine- INSANITY. Too much loveliness- it was almost painfully delicious.
All my love,
IP