I’m Charlotte and I’m about to start a sewing adventure, trawling my way through hundreds of family photos for inspiration for future dressmaking projects. My biggest inspiration throughout my whole life has always been my Nanny, Eileen, who looked like a movie star and taught me to sew. She’s my icon, I hope you enjoy her timeless style as much as I do and follow my sewing story.
Before the summer of 2022, I hadn’t sewn anything wearable for years. I stopped dressmaking after a particularly stressful chapter of my life left me with barely any room in my brain for hobbies, let alone a hobby where you had to follow instructions, do things in a certain order and maintain a project from start to finish without losing interest. I am happy to say, I am turning over a new leaf; the brain fog has cleared and I have a head full of ideas. I’m itching to get started!
In June 2022, my Grandad Joe passed away. Whilst looking through photos of him in the weeks after he died, I found so many of him and my nanny; and what a stylish pair they were.
Here they are on their wedding day in 1957. Absolute stunners in my opinion! My nan hired her wedding dress from a film costume department in London. They always spoke about getting the train from the small town in which they lived, to London’s Kings Cross Station and stopping off for a posh coffee in a trendy café before picking up the gown. That was possibly the first and last time they drank coffee, they were very much tea drinkers. On the hour, every hour.
As I mentioned before, my Nan, Eileen Walker, taught me to sew. I started out practicing straight lines on a stripy tea towel and before she died in 2008, we made my prom dress together. It was a full circle, knee length skirt in dark green satin, a petticoat of black net to give lots of volume from the waist down, boning in the bodice and lots of small self covered buttons all the way down the back. A bloody nightmare to sew, but gave me memories I will cherish.
My love of dressmaking has been running through my veins since I was around 7 years old. I went on to study fashion at university, where I became obsessed with making wax jackets. I still wear a waxed cotton and sheepskin gilet that I made in my final year, I love it. I now have my own daughter who sits with me at the machine, she started out following the lines of a stripy tea towel and now makes her own scrunchies.
Anyway, I digress. The suitcase full of photos, (pictured above) along with a mountain of vintage fabrics, fastenings, trimmings and buttons (inherited from a Great Aunt), that I’ve stuffed in every nook and cranny of my small house gave me a burst of ideas, spread around my brain like confetti. This blog will be a journal of everything I make, inspired by my old family photos. I always have too much to say so I know I will probably add in the odd story I remember hearing from generations who are no longer here. But what a perfect way to keep all these memories alive.
Lets do this!