Bedazzled

Bedazzled, the new exhibition at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, looks at the lasting appeal of beaded and sequinned dresses through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first.

Old and new(ish) on display together

Some of the pieces were previously in the Shimmer and Shine exhibition at the Walker, but here they are displayed alongside newer additions to NML's costume archive; items originally owned by local businesswoman Leila Potter. Many of these are from the 1980s and 1990s, but some are almost contemporary.

Sequinned evening coat, 2021-22

The great joy for me is that none of the garments are behind glass, so it is possible to see (and photograph) them without reflections. This 1930 cape, for example, was impossible to study properly in Shimmer and Shine but here it is able to, well, shine.

Sequinned cape and velvet dress

Detail

These two 1920s dresses are displayed with a beaded dress hemline section which was sold ready to be made up into a dress, but never used.

Complete dresses, and a piece for a dressmaker

Early and late twentieth century pieces are displayed side by side.

1980s and 1920s

The notes for the c1925 evening dress on the left point out that the all-over design of glass beads would make it both very heavy and difficult to sit down in. The 1990-2000 jacket on the right, while less densely decorated, was doubtless more comfortable to wear.

Opulence v comfort

Unlike me, Mrs Potter clearly loved pink. Despite not liking the colour, I did admire the way the beading on this dress used large pearls to create a faux collar.

There is no separate collar on this dress

I did, however, struggle to find anything to admire in the jacket on the right. It's just not my taste at all. On the other hand, I was very impressed with whoever in NML's exhibitions team had the job of hanging all the paillettes to make the sparkly backdrops - it must have taken forever!

I did like the jacket on the left

The exhibition also includes information on how beaded clothes are made, and a small display of beaded bags and shoes.

I would love a pair of shoes with heels like these

Or any of these heels, for that matter

Going round the exhibition today I encountered several ladies, all about a decade older than me, who felt that the 1980s and later pieces should not be in a museum exhibition because they were not "old". Which was an interesting reaction. Yes, we could all remember when these clothes were the latest fashion, but plenty of other visitors could not. And surely that's the point of museums - to offer something of interest to as wide a range of people as possible?

Be dazzled at the Lady Lever

If you would like to visit and decide for yourself, Bedazzled runs until 26 January 2025.

Lothian update

Even though there is only a tiny bit left to do, my skirt still isn't finished - for some reason it takes very little for my sewjo to go into hiding at present. I have been knitting, though, and have got far enough with my Lothian shawl to merit a progress report.

The first part is just rows of garter stitch with a yarn over stitch increase at each end of the row. I knitted it on straight needles for as long as I could, but at 300 stitches I had to swap to a circular needle.

No more stitches could be fitted on the needle!

For this section, it is the yarn which provides the effect. I love the way that the occasional copper stitch appears amid the yellows and greys.

Pop!

As I reached the point where the first set of five contrast 'routes' is added, I had to think about the order in which I wanted to use the colours. Along with the main yarn, I had bought a pack of four Easyknits mini skeins from Kathy's Knits in Edinburgh, and also a single skein of Ducky Darlings 4ply at the pop-up wool show in Port Sunlight. Initially I was going to use the variegated skeins in colour order, with the plain yarn in the centre.

Plan A

This didn't feel as though it provided a lot of contrast between the routes, however. To mix things up a bit, I bought a skein of yellow from Strictly Hand Dyed, and experimented with the order of the colours until I was happy.

The final arrangement

And then, it was time to knit the first route!

We have contrast

Obviously, there is always a bit of a risk with variegated yarns, and the dark grey stitch in the 'terminus' rather dents the shape. But I don't think that will matter so much once I have knitted more of the design.

The 'terminus', with a dent at the top

Right now, it doesn't look that big. But there are another 14 colour changes to add, plus I'm aware of how much my Dahlia shawl grew when it was blocked.

141 rows knitted

Of course, now that I’m on to the colours section I’m keen to do more. It may be a while before that skirt gets hemmed!

Short and sweet

Just a brief post this week, to demonstrate that despite decades of dressmaking experience I am still 1) capable of doing something really dumb and 2) bad at estimating.

Wearing my official 'going for a jab' outfit* with my Express Line cardigan last week prompted me to think that I could do with a few more separates. In my stash I have a few skirt lengths which were part of a lot of sewing stuff which I bought at auction, so I decided to make one of them up. It's a lovely vintage fabric, pure wool I think, in a brown and black check.

The skirt fabric

I used my self-drafted straight skirt pattern. I had used this pattern for my black skirt, which is now a little snug, so when cutting out I added some extra width to make the new skirt looser. Then, in what can only be described as a brain fart**, when sewing the pieces together I narrowed the seam allowances to make the new skirt looser. It was only when I tried on what was, by then, a remarkably roomy skirt that I realised what I'd done!

Fortunately I had made the skirt with an internal curved petersham waistband, not a sewn on waistband. Also, I hadn't added the lining by the time the Awful Truth dawned, so it was reasonably straightforward to unpick the petersham and redo the side seams of both the skirt and the lining. Despite this extra work I still thought, last night, that today I could finish the skirt and take photos before it got too dark to do the latter.

Reader, I could not. Somehow I always forget just how slowly I sew. So the big reveal of a not-very-exciting project will have to wait until next week!


* - I went for my covid and flu boosters this week, and wore it again. The combination of skirt, sleeveless top, and cardigan is perfect for the job.

** - Having done some research on brain farts before using the term (academic habits die hard!), I’m slightly mollified to discover that I may have made this error because of my decades of dressmaking experience rather than despite them.

Express Line speeds to the finish

Little more than three weeks after I started it, I completed my Express Line cardigan - the joys of working with super chunky yarn!

All done!

Although the pattern described as relaxed fit in the body, I feel that mine came out as quite close-fitting. It's not a problem, I'm perfectly happy with it, but I might make the next size up if I want one with a boxier fit.

The back view shows off the broken rib pattern

Top-down knits are great for anyone like me, who has to shorten bodices. I knitted this slightly longer than my standard schematic-minus-two-inches, but it still came out a little shorter than I wanted, possibly due to the tighter fit. So I added two more rows to the ribbing, which also gives it that deep vintage welt.

Worn with my covid jab top and black skirt

With hindsight, I think that the full-length sleeves could probably have accommodated another two rows. The thing with super chunky yarn is that two rows equals quite a lot of length, and I didn't want them to end up too long, so erred on the side of caution. Something else to remember if I make another one - of which, more later!

Anyone who reads this blog regularly (thank you!) will know that I normally suffer agonies of indecision over button choices. Not this time. I found the perfect vintage buttons in my button box; the right size, look and colour and, crucially, the right number!

The perfect buttons do exist after all!

Because there isn't a huge amount of negative ease in the design, the button bands didn't need to be strengthened with petersham. However, I did line them with some wide satin ribbon, just because I feel it's a nice touch.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the end result, and even ventured out to take photos somewhere other than my back yard! I'm really self-conscious about taking photos with other people around but Port Sunlight, where my friend F now lives, is both picturesque and quiet, so seemed a good place to start. Most of the time I was trying to be sensible, but I couldn't resist attempting one 1950s knitting pattern cover shot.

Getting in touch with my inner knitting pattern model

It turns out I'm not the only person who likes this cardigan. I took it over to show my mum, and she absolutely loved it - so much so that she's asked for one for Christmas! I really did not see that one coming; the idea that I would ever get good enough at knitting for someone to ask me to make them something is mind-boggling. However, Mum is the only person from whom I would actually take requests, and I'm very happy to do so.