Introducing Belle Époque

Designer Lillis Taylor has partnered with Brittany Hartwell of the eco-chic boutique Molly Green to create Belle Époque, a line of dresses and sashes that evoke the aura of artistic expression and feminine freedom during Europe's "beautiful era". Drawing inspiration from the provocatively vivacious Can-can dancer and the "frou-frou" of her skirts, Belle Époque also symbolizes the timeless magic of Southern Charm.

Belle Époque debuts this Spring with its first collection: Birmingham Belles. This line of dresses features sashes inspired by Birmingham, AL. Take the Botanical Gardens with you in the form of: Wisteria, Rembrandt Tulips, Triumph Tulips, or the Rose Garden Topiary; circle your waist with cursive scrawls of "You Are Beautiful"; or make Vulcan an accessory for a night out on the town. Taylor and Hartwell will be celebrating Belle Époque at a number of events this Spring. For more information, please contact Molly Green. 

Belle Époque logo: the union of a Can-can dancer's skirt and a Magnolia blossom.

Spring 2012 Petal Top Collection

A spring rain just began washing away the soft yellow dust that has covered our world here in Birmingham for the past week. As the thunder gently rolls across the valley, I am reminded of one of the beauties of Alabama: thunderstorms. I can see the robin's nest outside of my window and mama and papa are both snuggly settled in the thick of the holly bush, as the rain comes down.

On a day like today, it is quite enjoyable to stay in, working on designs and long overdue computer work. I'm trying to come up with a colorful campaign that shows off the unique options available with my spring line of petal tops. I can print on cotton silk, sateen or voile and each top will be unique depending on how I cut the pieces out from the printed fabric. I'm also using different lining fabric for each top, making these blouses truly one-of-a-kind. To see the individual blouses up close, visit the FLICKR gallery. Tops are available as made-to-order items in our Etsy shop and at Molly Green in Homewood, AL.

Tré Lilli at Molly Green

We continue beautifying the Workroom at Molly Green. Here's a shot taken once we ran out of Mod Podge yesterday. Funny, I always thought it was Modge Podge...also, I thought it was interchangeable with glue...possibly, but definitely not wood glue! Paint continues to fly and slowly but surely, we approach the time when work will be occurring in the Workroom. Until then, find me there intermittently.

Today I've holed myself up by this here computer to crank out some design work. Every once in a while I get up to dance to a song that makes its way up through the iTunes shuffle or to try and save this crazy bee that refuses to let me catch and release her. Clearly she digs my music more than her freedom. Molly Green and I are working on a new line called Belle Époque and I think I've finally got a logo we can work with. See it here first and stay tuned for the fancy roll-out-fanfare soon soon soon!

 

Baby quilt

I spent all morning working on this quilt top for a dear friend who is having a baby girl this June. I really loved the Scrappy Star quilt square I made the other day and think the 18" finished square is perfect for a centerpiece to a small quilt. I'm still working out the best way to add dimension to the finished center square, but am happy with this first attempt. My friend said she loves shades of blue and fuchsia and I gave her shades of orange and purple. Oh well, at least there is plenty of pattern to excite a newborn's eyes.

Inglenook Quilting Bee: A new member

Meet Ms Lizzy - she brought a stack of fabric strips and she sewed seams while I pressed and pinned strips together. She managed to get two panels the size of the one she's holding sewn before the bobbin gave out.

This week at Inglenook, I arrived with a machine that was donated by a guild member. I knew that Ms Annie wasn't going to be joining us and I was pretty sure I was going to be the only guild member that morning. There was a lot of activity at the library, and I noted that two utility workers were waiting for the library to open when I arrived. Shortly after putting our room together: opening closets, pulling out the big cutting table, setting up the iron, the sewing machine, etc, a new member arrived. The lovely Ms Lizzy came walking in with the most beautiful smile upon her face. Not recognizing me since I wasn't there the week before, she walked into the room and sat at a table, seemingly waiting patiently for someone she knew to arrive. I introduced myself and she got very excited to begin.

Ms Lizzy had come the previous week with her sister, who is a quilter and Ms Lizzy said that her sister wanted to get into hand-sewing and hand-quilting and wasn't interested in working on a machine. Ms Lizzy however, was so happy to find us and talked a happy streak as she sewed seams into her fabric strips. She told me that she had gotten into crocheting a few years ago and had made one of her children a bedspread. When the other children saw the bedspread, Ms Lizzy got a long list of requests. She told me she was now working on the last of ten bedspreads and that this last one was a queen-size. She also told me that she used to hand-quilt and that she still has a contraption that attaches to the wall so that you can roll the quilt up and away as you go. She even said there is a quilt still in the contraption that she started many decades ago.

When women tell me stories such as these, I beg them to let me visit their homes and they always say no. Would that I were a ladybug and could hop into Ms Lizzy's purse in order to see this quilt up close and personal.

It was exciting to have a new member and though we missed Ms Annie (and prayed for her husband who was having a procedure that morning) we talked and laughed and sewed for most of the morning. Twice we had young men walk into our room and ask what we were up to. I tried to convince both men to sit and sew a seam, but one was shy and the other was one of the utility workers I had seen at the beginning of the morning. The utility worker strayed and started speaking with me about sewing and fabric and Jeraldine walked over and said, "Now don't be flirting with us and messing us up from all the hard work we're doing. If you want to sew, fine, if you don't, get on your way". As I blushed a shade of purple, I grinned big, thinking of my great-grandmother. She certainly would have said something as direct and it made me want to hug these sweet women who have become members of an extended family for me. Jearldine didn't scare the young man away though and he just grinned and asked if we could go on a date sometime. It wasn't until his co-worker came looking for him that he finally left, but not before promising to come sew with us on a day off. This got the ladies talking about men and beaus and while I tinkered with our new Singer and it's sensitive bobbin, I listened to stories of first dates and flirtation and sweethearts from many decades past. As with every week, our three hours flew past and it was time to leave before I managed to get the machine properly threaded. I'm hoping that Sharon, the guild's bee keeper and a fixture at Inglenook will be able to attend next week and will have some savvy with the machine that I don't yet have. 

Ms Lizzy, Ms Jearldine and Ms Carol tinkering with a fancy new machine

Ms Jearldine's cuddle quilt blocks, ready to be sewn together

Ms Jearldine's second cuddle quilt, this one with sashing

Quilt-loving

I've got my quilting hat on at the moment and wanted to share the latest from the fantastic Block-of-the-Month club. Thanks to this club, which I am a member of through the Birmingham Quilter's Guild, I have learned so many quilt block patterns. These are terribly inspiring and this latest one might be the most inspiring yet. I have a few baby quilts to make for dear friends and find this color explosion such a great idea for a baby quilt. Can you imagine being able to spend your first days exploring the colors and patterns and shapes of this star? I'm going to get back to it and then treat myself to some comedy at ArtPlay later this evening. For those who are quilt-loving like me, don't forget that tomorrow, March 17th is National (why not International?) Quilting Day...which means you should spend part or all of the day with some quilt-loving activities...enjoy!

The first task is to cut out 36 two-inch squares from scraps in your scrap bag. I had the scraps but not the patience to cut out all 36 at once. I had to cut a bit and then sew a bit and then cut a bit and then...

35 unique fabrics. Can you spot the duplicate?

Once the center piece was complete and I had the eight additional scraps cut out, I realized...hm, this is gonna be big!

Very fun once it all comes together

Largest single quilt square I've ever made at 18 inches

Angels all around us...

Today was one of those days that the angels let me know good and well that they are indeed all around us. When my father first started painting, he often incorporated this phrase in his pieces. It became a mantra that I associated with the magic of his creations and his continued success in his new-found passion. I believe that those angels are always there, whether we're awake to them or no.

My morning began at the monthly Birmingham Quilters' Guild meeting, where a memorial quilt three years in the making was presented to the surviving daughter of Dr. Tom Caldwell. I know very little about Dr. Caldwell, but he was an avid member of the Guild and much loved by all the members who remember him. The memorial quilt is a period piece and is absolutely stunning. Sewn based on the standards in practice between 1743 and 1793, it was magnificent to behold. More than twenty women participated in the fabric choice, appliqué, piecing, hand-quilting and binding of the quilt.

It has been three years since I took up needle, thread and fabric in Poland in search of community in relation to sewing, and today, as I walked about the room of 100+ members, I was struck by the dear friends I have made in the short time I have been a member of the BQG. I have become a cog in this delightful whirly-gig of a community. These women and men truly care about one another. We are part of a larger whole and we find ways to work together in service to community, while sharing our love of fabric and sewing and creating. I know this is a gush-pile, but you will forgive me as I sing with my angels.

After Guild meeting, I met my father at his studio to go over a few things before heading to a meeting at the old firehouse a few blocks away. A musician lives in the upstairs of the firehouse and gives music lessons in the downstairs portion. We met today to discuss a partnership in the future. I will leave this thread semi-veiled as we work out the details. Just know that today I met a lovely kindred spirit and look forward to collaborations with him in the future.

Following my firehouse meeting, I ventured further East into Woodlawn. I had a productive and idea-generating meeting with a business consultant through Mainstreet Birmingham, talking marketing strategies, business plans and budgets. She gave me homework, several potential new contacts and lots of energy.

Sadly, she told me a story while we were getting to know one another that I feel I've heard all too often. A few times she made a clear distinction between creative minds (myself) and non-creative minds (herself). I noticed this after perhaps the second or third time and made mention of it. I told her that she could be an artist, is an artist for that matter. She responded that no, she is not capable of making art. She then amended her statement to suggest that a traumatic experience when she was quite young might be the culprit of her mindset against calling herself capable of "art". When she was very small, perhaps still in pre-school, she made a picture of a cat - the perspective being from the back of the cat with its tail in the foreground. Apparently her teacher thought the drawing no good and did not select it to be in an exhibition of the class' best creations. Do you see how fragile we are when we are young, people? To this day, a grown, incredibly capable woman remembers such an experience. And how many times have you heard a similar story? People! Ignore the taste of others. Create, create, create!

Following my fantastic session with Trudy, the can-do business coach, I made a trip to Molly Green, which I left at 10:45pm last night after a day begun at 1pm helping re-arrange the store. As some of you might know, we are putting a Workroom inside Molly Green and thanks to the industriousness of Brittany and Anna, it is becoming a truly great space. After such an inspiring day, a few moments chatting with B&A led to what we all think is a truly great idea and collaboration. More details forthcoming...

Okay, so my angels are a bit cryptic today. Well then...enjoy this fantastic wall in The Workroom and check out that cutting table - so delightfully large and mod-podged (decorator's type: mod-podge is fun and makes you feel like a professional...here we used old pattern pieces). Also, the chair was my great-grandmother's and the sewing machine was given to my mother by her mother. Now there are some angels...

My sewing mentor penpal

A few weekends ago, my father and I traveled to Chapel Hill for the tenth annual Fearrington Folk Art Festival. Dad was an invited artist and I was his helper for the weekend. Dad brought new art to this show and it received a wonderful response from his regular clients. The weekend proved quite fruitful for me as well because I wore Tré Lilli garments all weekend long, sold scarves and received positive feedback from what I hope will be my future client base. Among the jewels of the weekend, was the introduction to a lovely couple from the area who purchased a few of Dad's paintings and who were quite intrigued with our partnership. I started chatting with Francine about the story behind Tré Lilli and how I came to designing clothing with an art background and have been teaching myself to sew along the way.

Francine is also a designer and self-taught and we both agreed that we needed to remain in touch for a multitude of reasons. Ever since returning, Francine and I have struck up a dialogue via email about pattern alterations and modifications and we continue to inspire one another.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my "village". Ever since embarking on this journey two years ago, I have come across a multitude of mentors and each one has given me so much guidance and humor. My ideas have only been able to expand thanks to these women. I started calling one in particular, National Treasure, because it is astounding the amount of knowledge in this tiny woman's capable hands and head. Having recently watched a film about Valentino, and having seen his multitude of incredible seamstresses with their dying art of hand-sewn couture, I know how lucky I am to be surrounded by talent and experience.

Regarding this particular correspondence, I look forward to continuing my mentorship via digital letters and photos. Perhaps there will be something further to share of my communiqués with Francine...

In the Studio: resizing a pattern

Having just taught myself how to sew two years ago, there are many, many things that I am still learning to do. Today in the studio, I followed a tutorial on resizing a pattern. The sizing world is still quite arbitrary to me and I much prefer fitting garments to actual bodies, but in an industry such as this, there are pros and cons to every business model. For example, if I choose to limit myself to a bespoke or made-to-order model, I reduce the pool of potential clients to those able to visit Birmingham. While I am still seriously looking into the idea of becoming a traveling sartorialist with potential for rendezvous in Bali, Turkey, Madagascar, New Zealand, Chile and Antarctica, there is a good deal more planning and work and income required before that dream comes true, so in the mean time, I must try and expand my model a bit. And the tutorial today will help me make petal tops in different sizes so that I can begin to offer S M and L. Once I get the hang of this and figure out how to finish the inside seams cleanly, you B'hammers will be able to locate a S M or L at Molly Green. Until then, I'm becoming quite obsessed with the smell of muslin. Makes me think of hay and farm animals and new garments all wrapped into one delightfully easy to work with material. 

***Note on the word Sartorialist - if you haven't yet checked out the blog of he who coined this term, you must.

In the Studio: new products for a new year

Earlier this year, I made the dress shown below, thinking it could be a new silhouette for Tré Lilli. And while I do love the fit, feel, etc - it has pockets! - I got some new fabric in and wanted to make some simple tops, but needed a pattern. I liked many aspects of the dress bodice: closure, neckline, and fit, so I figured this could be my pattern. The images you see below are the original dress - which I will be making more of - and variations on the modified pattern. I'm calling these simple little blouses petal tops, though I've also made one from my birds a'swirlin' fabric.

In the Studio: the first made-to-order dress

So about six months ago, I introduced my line of made-to-order dresses and three months ago, I made a concerted effort to offer them to customers. My first order, in true Birmingham small-town fashion, was placed by the daughter of my father's landlord and amazing photographer, Marc Bondarenko. Of course, Alea didn't come to me through that channel. Rather, she is a regular at Molly Green (in Homewood, if you haven't yet been - go!) and saw the dresses through their online postings of me.

After a few fittings, I placed the order for Swimming in Flowers fabric from Spoonflower. Then, my father and I went to the Fearrington Folk Art Festival near Chapel Hill, NC and while driving up, realized that Spoonflower was quite close by. As I was scheduling a tour with them, I even thought about asking them to hold my order (if it were ready) and I'd pick it up myself. Amazingly the order was ready sooner than expected and shipped before we even made it to North Carolina.

In the above little video, you can see what one yard of fabric looks like when I receive it. This particular yard of fabric is the skirt front and back of the Swimming with Flowers dress. Don't need to see the fabric swaying back and forth (or me smelling it?) Here's a still image of the same thing:

I am recording this moment - perhaps in excessive detail - because this is a milestone. Up until this point, I have been making clothing for myself (and the women in my life who will allow me to dress them) and this represents the first time that someone not me or related to me ordered one of my designs. What I have learned from this process so far is that getting that first order might take a long time, but once you get it, the joy of making a dress for someone else from a design that you love...well...it's just honey on top of an already glorious day. And within the last few weeks a second order has come in - this time for the Wild Horse of Chaos dress - and I find myself swimming in honey.

Studio shot: bodice and lining sewn together, zipper in,
last step- cutting front skirt piece out and sewing it all together.

Upcycle Challenge @ ArtPlay - February 25th and 26th

Sometimes I feel like jumping in medias res right into a subject...other times I feel like giving the back story. Sometimes I feel like I'm writing "to" an old soul who has being doing this for years and giggles at my newness. At other times I feel like I'm writing "to" a very young thing who just knows she likes to wear shoes and that the more colors on her clothing, the better.

Today, I'm jumping right in and talking to my inner seven yr old:

Having had the *brilliant* idea to put on a fashion upcycle challenge (a'la Project Runway meets New Dress a Day) benefiting My Sister's Closet, I just needed a venue and perhaps a community arts center dedicated to offering such challenges to the community. And then I found ArtPlay (happily, happily, happily...) and we worked on the first version of this challenge: a workshop.

The proposal was this: six hours to take a garment off a rack of donations from My Sister's Closet, apply creative savvy and artistic panache in the form of paint, felt, (also glue from a glue gun!) and voila! Upcycle that garment into a new, gorgeous article of clothing to be returned to My Sister's Closet reincarnated.

I call the results of the February 25th and 26th Fashion Upcycle Challenge Workshop the best in beta testing history. Modification #1: change that name, girl - it's long. Our intrepid participants numbered four: two artistically minded teenage girls and two craft and sewing skilled women. The participants were asked to bring T-shirts that they could warm up with (and also take home) and it was a joy to watch materials flying once they hit their stride.

I find it so fascinating to watch on the sidelines this process of ebb and flow when a group of people sit down to work creatively with one another. I've seen it a lot in my various classes at ArtPlay, and unfortunately can only speak for women having only had classes of women thus far, but there are beautiful moments of complete silence as each participant goes deep into her creative inner world to pull the ideas forth. And at other times it is so loud in a room with multiple excited stories flying about that one is certain to drop a stitch.

Modification #2: either give participants much more time to work on their own shirts or give them a lot less materials for embellishing (the carrot or the stick?) Some of the participants were so absorbed in the transformation of their t-shirt that envisioned the six hours elapsing and hearing, "I could still work on this shirt" - to me, this is the sign of a truly great activity paired with a truly dedicated artist.

I gently reminded our intrepid designers that they had three hours Friday night and another three hours the following morning and than, tick-tock, just like Project Runway, time would be up! This roused the pace a bit and the designers got to the business of upcycling.

At the beginning of the Friday session, Mary Jane from My Sister's Closet came to give a little talk about the YWCA and its residents and I really loved hearing our participants thinking about their end user while reworking garments. "If a woman needs something for an interview, this dress is too risqué but perhaps it could be paired with these leggings (note on the leggings...they were my collaborative pride and joy and will be discussed further) and made into an outfit for hanging out". With such different ages and personal styles represented, one might think that major differences would have arisen, but for the most part, all four of our designers agreed about what was unfashionable among the donated garments.

In case you didn't know, shoulder-pads are out. Way out. Now if they are a part of a vintage suit from the 1940s, that is one thing...but it might be the only scenario in which shoulder pads are safe...

Okay, let's talk about the leggings. But first, Modifications #3 and #4 - while I really like the two-day scenario in terms of stressing the designers out and making them think they really are part of a challenge, the feasibility of teaching garment alteration in such a short time is non-existent. Not to mention, there really isn't much time for such garment alteration if four designers all need the use of a sewing machine. So #3 would be to extend the length of the workshop into a class, which would then allow designers more time to create an entire look that then might be part of a fashion show...but I'm getting ahead of myself. #4 would be to have sewing machines on hand so that the designer can move seamlessly (get it?) from ideation to modification. For this beta test, one of the participants brought in her own machine the following morning and I bought a simple one on sale from Hancock prior to class Saturday morning. Crazy, I know. I was only a minute late to class...

Leggings. Okay, so one designer, shown in the photos below (full disclosure, she is my step-sister, but I promise this is not about favoritism) pulled a pair of truly ill-fitting pants off the rack and almost thought they were beyond hope. She put them aside but kept returning to them because she loved the stripes and the material. Since they were stretchy, she decided to turn them into leggings and she needed my help to do so. What I love about this challenge is that we both learned a lot by trial and error. The best part was that she finished them just under the bell and was ecstatic with the results.

 There are two subtle details that are really amazing about these leggings: the one is that she put a "fanny patch", hand sewn to the seat of her leggings. Technically, because she made them to go with the dress, the look of the seat wasn't crucial, but she wanted the customer to have the option of wearing them multiple ways. Secondly, she liked the seams that were originally on the sides of the ill-fitting pants and wanted to shift the legs so that the seams would run vertically down the center of the wearer's leg. And we did it. I'm still not exactly sure how, but we did.

I would say the overall nugget of truth from the beta test is that this is an awesome idea. It needs a lot of tweaking and some further research, but I envision a runway show of student designers' upcycled creations that continue the cycle of good generated by the YWCA and My Sister's Closet...and I'm thinking set design students, lighting and music designers all coming together to create quite the spectacle. Note to self: you will probably need a few more modifications to get to this vision...