Dressember - Day 8

This Dressember lark is hardest at weekends - when what i would really prefer to do is pull on a pair of Monkee Genes! 

But instead wearing a Nomads printed tunic dress with warm tights. The Amara Tunic Dress (currently in the sale!) is probably the closest - but has the 'ladder lace' across the yoke whereas mine, from a previous season, is on the pocket tops.

This dress is warmed up, for this gustily windy weather, with a cardigan that belonged to my grandmother - interesting how the floral embroidery detail is back on trend! I really must learn not to throw out anything that fits me - it all comes round again!

Dressember - Day 7

Found this lovely matching armchair where we went for the first Christmas dinner of the season today. A dress I made some years ago, but it is sleeveless so worn with a Nomads cardigan and thick tights. I did change into different shoes to walk the dog in the rain!

I hadn't realised my lovely felt 'phone case from Nepal was sticking out of my Hatti leather handbag. The 'phone case was a gift from one of the sherpas I met on a trekking trip whose university education I helped sponsor.

Sadly Hatti is no longer trading but was set up originally to provide a sales outlet for work undertaken by craft workers in Nepal and to help rescued trafficked children gain employment. ChoraChori continues some of that work today.

Dressember - Day 5 and 6

Despite all my attempts to buy ethically, I too am sometimes swayed by an impulse buy, such as this grey cord pinafore from Top Shop. I love the shape - covers a multitude of sins as "middle-aged spread" kicks in!

Top Shop are not the worst of the high street retailers, but then none of those score well ethically as can be seen in the Ethical Consumer report.

I made the blouse myself a few years ago - from a piece of Liberty print fabric I had kept for a very long time! I also made the earrings - from tagua (vegetable ivory) beads.

Dressember - Day 3 and 4

I can't really give you any provenance on this one, sadly. I bought it in a lovely bazaar-type shop in East London with piles of dresses on shelves and the floor. 





I thought it looked like Desigual, and the shop owner told me it came from the factories in Nepal that were used before Desigual moved production to China - but he preferred the cotton from Nepal as being better quality. Sizing is obviously different as I am an XL in this line! 

But I love the mix of colours and patterns - and the hand-stitched emphases on the printed pattern. Worn with red tights and boots from Patagonia whose mission is "Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis".

Dressember - Day 2

Today's dress is an adapted Chloe Turtle Neck dress worn with Jo Oversized Blazer from Mayamiko, an ethical women's wear company which employs women in Malawi and works to provide education, training, nutrition and sanitation in disadvantaged communities.

Today I lead worship in which people contributed gifts for women and children who will spend Christmas in one of the local Women's Aid refuges. Today's service coincides with the middle of 16 days of Activism against gender-based violence.

Mayamiko founder Paola kindly let me have some extra material to add to the collar for using some of the time with a clerical collar insert. I am pleased with the way I have managed to pattern-match this so I can still wear the dress at other times too!

Dressember 2018

2 whole years since I wrote a blogpost and a lot’s happened! But now I start the Dressember challenge, wearing a dress for every day in December and asking to be sponsored to fundraise for those working to combat human trafficking. Most of my dresses are summer ones so it is the wrong time of year - but I can add jumpers and think tights and the slight discomfort is nowhere on the scale of the awful experiences too many people go through as part of this horrendous trade. 
The first day’s dress is a warm fleecy one from People Tree - this one is no longer available, but you might like something similar in grey.
It’s dressed up with a scarf by local and Cornish artist Hilary Anderson.
And slippers from Small Home which, sadly, the dog loves as much as I do!

The place where I live

I should have written posts at stages of making the dress for the Weaving Narratives Project but was too busy getting it finished ready for exhibitions!

The cotton sateen fabric from Offset Warehouse was dip-dyed in recognition of the dye-works at the end of the site, then discharge dyed to replicate the factory wall at the end of my garden (shown behind the dress drying on the line!)

Then it was screen-printed with a design based on Commer cars chassis from their catalogues.
The top layer of cotton voile was printed with a plan of the current residential estate.
























It can still be seen in Flitwick library October 13th - 15th along with a wealth of other textile art inspired by Bedfordshire Archives