For a while now, I have been thinking about a new way of working on my designs. I love to use an inspirational images to base my designs upon. Usually, I took one idea from the designs and created one outfit at the end. Sometimes I would come back to the theme at a later date.
I decided that I would like to work on small "collections" using my themes.
The Lilac Collection
The Lilac Collection is the first of these to be completed.
The colours are shown in my photo at the top of this blog. The photograph is of lilac blossom. I adore lilac blossom, the colours, the scente and the beauty of the blossom and the trees. I have 3 lilac trees in my garden. It was great fun finding the fabrics, wools and accessories for this range. I chose to create 6 outfits for this collection.
This dress is a beautiful floral cotton fabric. I used a lovely mauve plain cotton for the belt and the fine piping accentuating the cuff. Her tights are made from a new pair of mauve toddler's cotton tights.
I love this outfit. Ffyon my Limited Edition Pintucks is modelling it. The larger photo above shows the duffle coat with this outfit.
The sweater is hand knit using lace weight shetland wool in 4 colours. I love knitting fairisle it is wonderful seeing the pattern developing. I softened the look of this sweater with a pretty collar using the pale pink edged with blue.
Her trousers are a sea blue colour with a lovely sheen to the surface of the needlecord.
I used the pale sea blue colour of lace weight wool to knit her ankle socks. The outfit is completed with a beautiful pair of Boneka leather laced shoes.
Beautiful lilac smocked dress. The smocking is worked using a pretty hand dyed cotton embroidery thread. It is in shades from lilac through purple to turquoise. The dress is made from a beautiful plain lilac cotton fabric. Her pants match her dress fabric.
I used a pretty soft sock yarn made from 75% bamboo for her lovely short sleeved bolero jacket. This yarn has a wonderful sheen that looks like silk.
Her ankle socks are hand knit using lilac lace weight shetland wool. I used this wool to knit her hair tie. To complete this outfit I bought a pair of t-strap sandals that remind me of the Clarks sandals I used to wear every summer when I was young.
I think this is one of my favourite of the outfits. I love the contrast in the colours.
The smocked dress is made from a beautiful floral cotton fabric. The background is a pretty lilac colour. The flowers are shades of pink outlined in maroon. The smocking picks out the leaf green and these shades. Her pants match her dress.
Her bolero is hand knit using lace weight maroon shetland wool.
I chose a pretty pale lilac lace weight shetland wool for her ankle socks. It matches the background colour of her dress. I also used this wool to knit her hair tie. Her Boneka t-strap shoes are a good match to the colour used for her bolero jacket.
Maya is wearing this lovely outfit. Her hair is held back with a pretty little purple butterfly clip.
Her cardigan is hand knit using a pale lilac lace weight shetland wool. The buttons were hard to find. I kept looking for the right size and colour everywhere I went. I wanted the buttons to match the lavender colour of her trousers.
Her blouse is a pretty dainty floral cotton fabric which buttons at the back.
Her socks are hand knit using the same wool as her cardigan. The outfit is completed with a pretty pair of lavender shoes with little bows.
The final outfit in this collection is a gorgeous traditional style yoke dress. I used the contrast fabric for the yoke, cuffs, pantalettes and her waist slip.
The dress fabric is a beautiful floral fabric with a darker shade of mauve for the background and lilac, pink and ivory flowers. The leaves match the same shade of aqua that I have used for the contrast fabric.
Her ankle socks are hand knit using a lovely pale aqua colour of lace weight shetland wool. Her beautiful cream coloured leather Boneka ballet style shoes set the outfit off perfectly.
