Dear Alice (Dress 219)

Dear Alice (Day 165), You said do ‘teenage mutant ninja Turtles’... so I did.

All my love,
Ip.

Dear Catherine (Dress 175)

Dearest Cathi,

I miss you so much, I hope you're having a simply wonderful time in Italy, I'm sure you're learning stacks, and seeing all manner of amazing gorgeous things. From the things you said just before you left, I understand it'll almost be like you're the proverbial blank slate, your artistic understanding rewritten by a connection to the heart of all that you've ever learnt. That's how you say things- this intense love of the history of art. It's been wonderful to have seen you grow and mature and find love in this work. I'm insanely proud of you, furball.

(Starched cotton covered in a synthetic coat- white-board style.)

All my love,

Sister,
IP

Dear Jess (Dress 166)

Dear Jess,

You expressed a profound love of clothes celebrating the beauty that is underboob. This one’s for you, (http://somethingimpractical.blogspot.com/ or http://sideofcake.blogspot.com/ )

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

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?

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 Phil and Susan (Dress 135)

Dear Phil and Susan,

You are a lovely couple: kind and interesting and gentle, with two gorgeous sons. In my first memory of you I’m being asked to be your flower girl- although I wasn’t sure who you were at the time, you’d met on the internet, countries apart, spoken often, met, and married. Phil became more than our web designer, he was our friend. Susan became my mothers design co-conspiritor, and their sons my miniature companions. One particularly intense memory is the younger son, Casey, at no more than eight months showing great promise of continuing the familial lineage- impressive English stock where six foot is nothing unusual- so solid that, bouncing on my knee for an hour or so he left an impressive mark- the ghost-weight, as if he was still there, even twenty minutes later. In their first Melbournian house they had the unenviable task of stripping a sedimentary history of wallpaper- from subdued Victorian patterns to the garish and gently furred monstrosities of the eighties. So great a task, in fact, that they wanted to leave it, but peeling strips of wallpaper proved otherwise.

All my love,

IP

Dear Alice (Dress 124)

Dearest Alice,

They've finally given you a name, and now i'm well on my way to making your mobile, three felt bunnies (half size) from the pattern at Hazlenut's Blog and lots of felt carrots coming out of a felt lettuce... it's a challenge.

So no wonder I have carrots on the mind:

not my fault.

xox

IP.

Dear Tom 'n Jess (Dress 123)

Dear Tom n' Jess,

You're ridiculously cute you two; both together and apart I'm really very fond of you. You're not one of those icky couples (to be honest, I didn;t know you were dating until a month+ afterwards!) but there is one gorgeous photo of Tom's birthday kiss that's just adorable.

In honour of your sweetness, and Banj's mad photoskills,

XOX
IP

Dear Lucy, (Dress 112)

Dear Lucy,
The first time I met you you were wearing a man's shirt and a pair of tights.
Damn brave.
This one's for you:
(The 'tails' are the back of the dress. cotton.)
All my love,
IP

Dear Kate, Stevie & ? (Dress 101)

Dearest Kate, Stevie and ?
You were that hospital for a good three days... Wow. Congrats to a new little family.
So to Alice, or Olive, or the surprise out-of-left-field name they might pick for you.
Welcome little bean sprout!
(White silk stretched on solid thick white crepe, (switching to white elastic material on the neckpiece) with painted ink, and a leather tongue holding in the neckpiece.)
All my love,
Cousin IP
(Yeah. I'm evil. Sorry.)

Dear Sally (Dress 92)

Dear Sally,
Yesterday was awesome, we went out for your birthday to possibly the lamest burlesque bar ever (more las vegas showgirls than burlesque dancing- two of the three girls were painfully thin, and apart from the high kicks, there weren't any impressive dance moves.) but the clothes on the pseudoindie crowd there were an awesome source of designideas!
Happy birthday darling, you're damn gorgeous,

All my love,

Dear Beautiful Red-Head Girls, (Dress 90)

Dear Beautiful Red-Headed Girls,

You're some of the most gorgeous specimens of female loveliness walking the earth. There's something about cascading russet hair, next to that beautiful milky skin that is the designer's dream: think Lily Cole or the (admittedly bottle-red) Christina Hendriks. (Also: My best friend and fellow sewingmachinemistress Alice.)

For those lovely lasses also blessed with the equally rare and gorgeous genetic trait for green eyes, there's this:

Lightweight green polyesters, twisted and under-pieced together, zip on the left side.
All my love,

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 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,