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 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 365ers (Dress 131)

Dear 365ers everywhere,

You're freaking AMAZING! Some of the things I've seen are bloody intense. Particularly entrancing is the work by Brock Davis: One piece of creative work made every day for 365 consecutive days. Exactly the spirit in which I started my project- to be constantly creative. Brock's work is varied, funny, interesting, and often breathtakingly beautiful.

Particuarly his work for Jan 3rd. This image played on my mind for ages, until I couldn't help but make it today's dress.

I know it's not intensely original, and were I to make this dress it would have to be with his permission; but I just thought it was such a gorgeous image it would make a lovely dress (although, due to penfail not a great drawing on my behalf.)

Done in ribbon on cotton fabric.

All my love,

IP.

P.S. A shout-out to the lovely Lucy, an old friend who I don't see as often as I'd like, who (when I bumped in to her in the city) said she reads this, and totally made my day! Which, considering the day I had was a mean feat! Time spent with Jorge, and the delightful Tess in City Hatters, nomsome soup, heavenly pistachio cupcake, cheap and pretty silver shoes, not having my bike stolen when I locked it to itself but not the pole, an Outsapopable stripy jumper, Heston Blumenthal on Masterchef (don't judge me! He's amazing.) and now, a cup of earl grey while I write the blog are just some of the reasons today was simply brilliant. Knowing that people are out there enjoying it is a wonderful feeling, (GoogleApps tells me there are people reading this in Russia! and France! And one lovely lady in the US!) Thankyou- to Lucy specifically, and to others, those I know, and those i'm yet to hear from. Please, if there is anything you'd like to see, anyone you think I should take a look at for inspiration or anything you're not happy with, let me know. I really appreciate the time you take reading, and voting, and commenting- it helps me keep this going more than you could know!

Dear Phyllis Dietrichson (c/o Barbera Stanwyck) (Dress 130)

Dear Phyllis,

In high school I studied your film Double Indemnity, an intense and visually gorgeous Film Noir, tagline: From the moment they met it was murder!

(image credit)
Nothing sticks from the student of Film Noir like the good ol' Venetian Blinds trick, signifying mixed emotions and internal crisis...

In honor of Phyllis, queen of mixed signals and the tiny touches that make an outfit complete (remember... this is the 1940s, when sexual repression meant an anklet was the height of titilation!)

A dress fit for a murderous widow; hand-painted, each dress is individually 'shadowpainted'. White dresses are made, and then put on plastic-covered dress forms, each dress is taken to a white room where a light is shone through a filter that imitates venetian blinds- the dress is then hand-inked at a particular angle and with a unique light focus (some dresses would be sharp focus, meaning that the light is close to the blinds and very bright, or soft focus is achieved by soft light a distance from the blinds.)

All my love,
IP

Dear Patternmakers (Dress 99)

Dear Patternmakers,
You manage to design gorgeous things, and then design the patternsheets to be equally lovely!
There is a shop down my street that I always peek through the blinds at- they design and cut patterns. The women that work there come into my work, and they're so kind. They're the ones that come in with the payment for their bills already organised into the envalopes, and correct change for everything, they're neat and organised and really sweet.
This dress would be pieced along the dotted lines, and then stitched over the seam.
All my love,
IP.