What a show . . . Part 2

One full body massage and a long sleep later . . . Oh I am getting too old to do these shows for much longer!


One of the wonderful things about Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch is that further education and higher education colleges are invited to have stands to show off the students fascinating work across the field of textiles. In these days of swingeing cuts and uncertainty in education it was good to see such positive energy, technical skill and fantastic ideas. The colleges also have the opportunity to show work in the amazing fashion shows put on by the indefatigable Brenda Killigrew of Inkberrow Design Centre. www.inkberrowdesigncentre.co.uk There were so many remarkable outfits to show this year that Brenda had to put on 2 different fashion shows which were rotated throughout the day. This was an amazing feat as Brenda and all the models and helpers had only hours to prepare.

 the garments from Longslade on the cat walk

As some of you may know I occasionally work with Freudenberg Vilene in an unofficial capacity as a kind of ambassador for the brand. I love their products as they are just so versatile and always of a consistent quality, this has developed into me running the The Vilene Workshop at Fashion, Embroidery & Stitch and liaising with colleges to work with any new products. I asked Cherrilyn Tyler of Leicestershire Adult Learning Longslade to work with the Vilene Spunbond CS500 and CS500 Crash. Cherrilyn is a brilliant textile artist and a great teacher. www.cherrilyn.com She came up with ideas based on Narnia, The Snow Queen and designs based on Erte.

even the shoes are made from CS500

Cherilyn's students created so many exquisite pieces that they had enough to fill a stand at the show as well as provide the garments for the fashion show.

Leicestershire Adult Learning Longslade

a stunning wrap of free machine embroidered CS500 and detail

another wrap - just beautiful . . .

beads constructed from CS500 decorate the front of this garment, just look at the fine detail around the neck
  
a fantasy head dress


Some of the adult education students from Longslade have created a group named Fulcrum and they had a stand based on walking through the wardrobe into Narnia. Most of the hanging panels were CS500 based with machine stitch and some were felted into. This charming exhibition was a joy to walk through, everyone seemed to be delighted by it. You followed the footsteps on the white carpet into an enchanted white, fairy life forest - fabulous!

I should imagine that after such a busy time getting ready for and then setting up the college stands that Cherrilyn would be having a well earned rest, Ha! no, she is back at college working hard as usual. I think you will agree that Cherrilyn and her students did us all very proud indeed.

There were several fantastic college stands at the show but I thought I would just concentrate on Cherilyn's hard work or this post would never end. I feel it is important to show the remarkable work that can be achieved in adult education in only a few hours a week.  I hope those of you that attended the show thoroughly enjoyed yourselves - and those of you that didn't - make sure you get there next year if you can. www.ichf.co.uk


I'm off to try on my white trousers to see if they fit ready for flying to Spain on the 10th - Yeehaa!!!! 

x

Hello Swansea and Manchester - was wonderful to see you.

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