Dear Red Wheelbarrow Books (Dress 39)

Dearest Red Wheelbarrow Books,
I've never been happier to work than I am amongst the mustyish smell of books. Tomorrow night you become something more than that, from a church of literature, to a (nondenominational) place of happiness when two people get married there. I'll be bartending the reception- and when I was thinking of what I could wear that was both pretty and splatter-safe it seemed inevitable that they become one item of clothing (now with 20% free splatter.)

Dye-washed cotton with a pieced-in black cotton/something stain resistant blend apron. 3D bow fixed at the back, zip down the side.

All my love,

Dear Matthia (Dress 38)

Dearest Matthia,
You used to tutor me in German conversation when I was in high school- you'd come to my house, sit down to tea and a biscuit, and patter away at whatever topic intrigued you- no matter what, you'd always have something interesting to impart, wheather it be about the traditional german mugs we had, and the history of their design, or the politics of teaching in the modern world. Always in German, and always so fascinating that I never realised how much you were teaching me. You had a very precise aesthetic, clean-cut suits and always a silk scarf, a broach, and on the last finger of your left hand, a gold set signet ring in royal blue. The idea of you carrying around the history of your family always mesmerised me, the object's memory of the letters it had sealed when that was all the rage- so when a co-commuter this morning had a similiar ring, more delicately set- It seemed natural.

(Dress specs: heavy linen for the front piece, modeled with corset underlay to hold stiff over the bust area, light cotton (undyed) for the waist/back piece. Resin brooch for the wax seal.)

All my love,

Dear Ballarat (Dress 37)

Dearest Ballarat,
We went on an excursion to see your goldfields once when I was in primary school, and as a representative of the large Chinese population there was a woman folding paper cranes (Doesn't make sense to me either.) The sharp lines have always fascinated me; even though I never remember how to fold the damn things. Maybe i'd have more luck in fabric?

(Dress specs: white and black heavy-weight fabric. Elastic choker with the 'crane head' affixed. )
All my love,

Dear 13-Year old IP (Dress 36)

Dearest 13 Year old IP,
You thought it would be a good idea to paint your ceiling lots of different colours, didn't you. Well you weren't prepared for the angsty bland years of 15yearold mopeydom, or the minimalism-crazy year that followed that, or the antique-minimalist-colour-happy-oversaturated strangeness that remains, were you.
Oh well. It still looks pretty interesting if you don't really focus or have particularly refined taste.
(Dress specs: one piece of dark purple cotton blend for the sleeves-under-bust-curve routine, and scraps into a corset-belt, lavender cotton all the way down. For a picnic or small child's birthday party.)

All my love,

Dear Vitamin E cream (dress 35)

Dear Vitamin E cream,
You're apparently awesome for scars; and since my legs got busted up rather wickedly last december when I went to the dead sea on insanely squelchy sinking mud (now with added scratchy salt crystals) I thought i'd do something about it; and hell knows if it does my legs any good- it certainly makes them feel awesome. Which got me thiking about textures and such, and thence came today's dress:

Not the easiest dress to draw, although i'll admit I botched it up pretty wicked. Something along the lines of either: low viscosity fabric paint sprayed in four layers- first goes from top to bottom, second from top to just below the knee, third from top to mid-thigh, and fourth layer ends at the upper thigh. That; or it's four layers of very faint grey-black mesh.

All my love,

Dearest This is not Hamlet (Food Habits)

Dearest This is not Hamlet,
You're really exciting, and a thrill to be a part of- but you're bridging the gap between what is technically autumn-autumn, but what is in post-climate-change terms, goodbye warmness, hello winter. And that means that now, in preparation for the weight i'm going to be putting on in winter, i have to take off the weight I put on last year. Three winters (travelling) is an error.
So. the plan is as follows:
No more making pastas as a there-is-no-food-in-the-house-and-I-am-hungry option (although there are two pasta recipes that still need to be written up and posted.) Salads will replace as speed-noms.
No more processed sweets. If I havn't made it- I don't deserve it. I just hope this means I end up having the baking skills of Canelle et Vanille or Bakerella. It wouldn't hurt if I learnt to make amazing healthy noms like Smitten Kitchen either...
And no. I should have never looked at either of these sites if I'm going to try and change my eating/cooking habits.
Dress will come later tonight,
All my love,

P.S. I don't know if this is jarring, I know that for the last month or so it's a dress every day and as little actual blogging as I can get away with; because i've been so freaking busy- I'm wondering what you think of this kind of thing- If it's alright by you that I punctuate the blog with the occasional ramble. To be perfectly honest this is just here to ensure that I actually do what I've said I will- but I thought I should spread the word about these three AMAZING cooks/bakers. It does not hurt my design-heart that not only is their food delicious in its composition, but their photography skills are also nothing short of gorgeous.
Anyhow- drop a line to let me know you exist; happy food-ogling.

Dear Mondrian (Dress 34)

Dearest Mondrian,
I meant today's dress to be a subtle tribute- it turned out just kinda silly; but I think it'd be a nice summer staple. Light cotton with white lining.

All my love,

Dearest Melbourne Weather (Dress 33)

Dearest Melbourne Weather,
This week has been good to Imprint-by-ip- we got our first follower; and we finished our first month of dresses. Almost all the dresses are available to vote for- I will be making the dress for March in May, so you have a month to vote. I will be making Dress 17 (Frankie) in preparation for whatever birthday celebrations I might organise- but if I get more than 40 people voting (in total) then I will make whatever dress is voted in. You might notice that I did not put all the dresses up, as between playing Ophelia and University and two jobs I don't think I will be able to perform seamstressmiracles at the same time (which is to say that the dresses left out are WAY over my sewing skills/printmaking abilities/funds availability)

However, while it's been a lovely week for IP, here in Melbourne it's been pretty crazy weatherwise- a real four seasons in a day situation- which means that you have to bring a variety of clothing; and can only venture into the land of sandals and boots in very small windows of time (very middle of summer and winter respectively) it means that jackets must be lightweight (for when you eventually have to carry them) and tee shirts must be of a cut that does not look silly if you wear another shirt over it. It means that umbrellas in interesting prints that are small enough to be reasonably travelable are in high demand (and therefore far too expensive) and that is why:

(Dress specs: Heavy cotton with petticoats to achieve 'bell' effect. comes with soft grey tights, a soft grey long-sleeve shirt, and an umbrella with the design of a sun and blue skies printed on it.)

Dearest Google Books, (Dress 32)

Dearest Google Books,
Now in 3D? WTF?
(Read: you got me. Complete article on google's april fools planks here)
Dress!

All my love,

Dear Lady Cottington C/O Brian Froud (Dress 31)

Dearest Lady Cottington (Care Of: Brian Froud)
I devoured your book as a child, enveloped in the idea of exploration and discovery and (most important; for an eight year old) Fairies.

I'm a little older, and nevertheless, although the fairy phase has been and  gone, and taken with it a host of other childhood obsessions, I always come back to the book- perhaps because of the beautiful calligraphy, more probably it is the stunning watercolours by the genius Brian Froud- their delicacy and blend is simply stunning; and so we have:

Dress for a pressed orchid:

All my love,

 

Dear Pina Bausch

Dearest Pina Bausch,

They talk about you with a kind of reverance I could not understand. Then they showed us this:

To perform in this dress might give the impression that one were even a fifth as electric as this remarkable artist:

(Stretch fabric, white or very pale blue- same colour elastic bands.)

All my love,

Dear Bloom (Dress 29)

Dearest Bloom,

Once upon a time you were a lovely (yet inhumanely expensive) fabric store but several hundred metres from my house, and then came some sort of Mother-of-the-bride crisis, where Greek and Italian ladies no longer went to tailors, or required your exquisite hand-beaded extravagancies, and began buying boring things in satin. with shoulder pads. and the occasional sequin.

In memory of extravagancies, and in the event that I ever use the babillion fabric samples I picked up from the pile left on the nature strip when you closed.

(My post-passover drawing skills do not do justice to the monochrome fading that was meant to occur... Technical specifications: matte silk on a cotton shift.)

All my love,

Dear Modcloth (Dress 28)

Dearest Modcloth,

I wish I did not know you exist, lurking, in the internet space where I could one day spend my money (if I ever had any to speak of) But looking at your (frankly Gorgeous) dresses did give me the idea for today's dress, so thanks... I guess.

All my love

P.S. For some reason formatting has gone kablooie... I will endevor to fix this somehow...

Dear Joan Holloway, (Dress 27)

Dearest Joan Holloway,

An inspiration to curvy gals everywhere not to dress like those stick figures they (rather annoyingly) get to advertise clothing lines inspired by your look....

(via: this is london.co.uk, L-R, Paula Ke, Victoria Beckham and Marks and Spenser.)

All my love,

Dear: Shakers, Alannah Hill, and Kate Winslet (Dresses 24, 25 and 26)

Dear Shakers,
Your strange and secretive sect brought together craftspeople of various inclinations. One of my favourite of the shaker inventions; the bent-wood-box, often finds its way into my designs, less blatantly, or sometimes:

Dear Alannah Hill,

Your new-romantics style influenced roses bag was so crowded- lovely materials, lovely idea, but it seemed a waste; what about the gorgeous subtlety of your dresses perhaps?

Dear Kate Winslet,

All the trash mags are fascinated to rip your personal history apart, which i think is cruel and unnessecary; but it does mean they have rather a lot of pictures of you in the latest 'thing'; regular fabric interset with lace panelling- so i thought i'd have a crack at the new genre...

wish me luck?

All my love,

Dearest Flu (Dress 24 tomorrow)

Dearest Flu,
You make me feel like death, so I will post tomorrow.
no love,
IP

Dearest Mario (Dress 23)

Dearest Mario (Dress 23)

You're turning 21 this saturday! And since you're wonderful (and wonderfully strange), you're having a Toga Party (which should be fun). Seeing as I havn't any togas lying about (surprising really... I have a ballgown, a velvet bodysuit, an oversized tutu, but no toga.), I've been thinking about what i'll make, which (as inspired by the hooded-flowing gown I saw on Charlotte Kemp Muhl in a magazine today at work) turned out something like this:

(headband affixed hood, two grades of mesh, one elastic-blend under-playsuit)
All my love,

Dearest Federation Square (Dress 22)

Dearest Federation Square,

Passing by you on the tram, delirious with the current illness that seems to have everyone in it's grasp, I gaze at the gorgeous panelling, remeniscent of the beautiful panelling on antique planes.

(via johnnyjet.com)

Which reminds me of the absolutely STUNNING original 1960's Ford Falcon belonging to the greengrocer, distressingly bad condition, except for the perfect hood ornament, a flying aeroplane/stingrayesque shape...

(via taillightking.com)

And then, we have the 'no hangers here' dress:

(sorry about the poor quality of the image. I'll do it later when I feel better.)

All my love,

Dear MadebyRAE (Dress 21)

Dearest Rae,

Because I’m designing every day, I've been coming to realise there are certain design-crutches I lean on- I'm very prone to dress-specific printing (particularly in dresses 19, 15, 6 and 3) and over-the-top stiff-shaping that wouldn't really be practical. What I love most about your designs is their utility and simplicity- they apply to all types of fabric patterns, so if you find something that you really like, you can make/buy it in various patterns. I bought two different prints (blue and silver flowers
 ,and red and gold stripes) from the upholstery centre near my house (5$AU for 2m. they must be insane!) and I've been thinking about what I could make out of them. Then I saw the Buttercup Bag (Made by Rae, via: The PomPom) and all was revealed:

(Dress specs: heavy upholstery fabric, satin lining, rubbery band on top of the bust-line to hold it up)
All my love,

Dearest Long Lost Friends (Dress 20)

Dearest Long Lost Friends,

You remind me to look forward- the past's been awesome, and the present's hot stuff, but the future... that's where it's at.

(Please take nothing I say today to be of much consequence. Cider FTW.)

All my (slightly inebriated) love,

Dear Edward Craven-Walker (Dress 19)

Dear Edward Craven-Walker

You utilised the fascination that is the contact between unmixable substances (in your case oil and wax, in mine- oil and water.) and created something that was a symbol of a generation. I used to have one as a small child- although I remember most of the appeal being that it was warm when I was reading and got cold hands in winter. Nevertheless!

All my
,

Dear Monash Radio (Dress 18)

Dear Monash Radio,

You host wonderful parties, full of people dancing exhuberantly unimpeded by embarrasment or fear. There is wonderful conversation to be had, and inspiring dresses to be seen. Therefore:

(Black mesh for the shoulders/sleeves area, Aluminium discs (2cm Diameterish?) sewn; scale-like on a satin-lined cotton shift.)

All my love