A little progress on the new fitting / teaching room...and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hi Everyone.

Floorboards have appeared in my 'soon-to-be' new fitting room/teaching room! What has this to do with pattern cutting/teaching you may ask...?! The significance of this means that the walls are painted, the floor is next to be painted, and then the gloss can be done, and THEN.......we are nearer completion!

I have 2 new students for one  to one private classes starting in January, so hoping that all this will be done by the time they start! My introductory offer of 5 classes for the price of 6 still holds for NEW students, payable in advance. 

Other news: my pattern cutting teaching is continuing at Ravensbourne, Greenwich after Christmas which is great in terms of the students, environment, colleagues, location etc. I love being back in London, especially now it's winter. Sometimes in the country, although it's beautiful and the air is clean, I feel as if all other human beings are dead!

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Bespoke commissions are ongoing too - a wedding dress for July, and a mother of the bride for March, AND....a previous customer was married a couple of weeks ago in the city hall, Florence Italy, in a black wedding dress!!! What a beauty she was too, and what a totally romantic place to be married. (A couple of photos at the end).

  

Sarah and Ben's wedding in Florence, Italy

Just a snap as you can see - note the people in winter jackets and scarves, and Sarah in strapless dress! She was determined, despite suggestions of faux fur/cashmere capelets/wraps....

Any comments, questions, please feel free to email on: atelier@bobbiesroom.co.uk, or comment here of course!

Classes, classes, classes......

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick word to update you on Atelier Classes stuff....

Quite a few new students have started in the last few months, so, realising that the pattern cutting/sewing teaching is becoming more popular (for several reasons - discuss!!), I am concentrating on that at the moment, as well as 'outside' university teaching. I try to give my customers what they want...!

My new studio expansion STILL hasn't happened, but I'm hoping that in the next few weeks it will be done, and there will be a lot more pattern cutting table space, accessible from all angles, and all beautifully, newly decorated!

WHEN this is a reality, I am planning a little opening do, so that anybody interested can come and have a look, bring their friends and have a drink and a nibble :-)

Will keep you posted.

The 6 classes for the price of 5 introductory offer still holds, so if you fancy giving yourself an early Christmas present, give me a call on 07941 619992 or email atelier@bobbiesroom.co.uk

Speak soon!

Bobbie 

Ravensbourne

Hi Everyone,

Very pleased to say that I will be starting some pattern cutting teaching work at Ravensbourne in Greenwich as of next week. They have the most amazing facilities there, but of course the students won't realise how lucky they are are...But that's the  way it goes - I never did when I was doing my own degree!
And it is a totally amazing building - a great working space makes such a difference to how you feel, and therefore how one works. Plus I will be working with a good friend again, who is now Head of Fashion there. I AM A LUCKY GIRL! (Or should that be laydee?!)

And very nice to feel the buzz of the city again, I find it energizing! The country here is lovely, but sometimes feel like I'm in a vacuum....

However, I will (eventually, WHEN the work men have done their thing), be extending my studio here to have a teaching and fitting room across the corridor, which I am very excited about! But I've had to be VERY patient - not something that comes naturally to me shall we say!

Here's the view from inside the huge porthole windows at Ravensbourne, and an exterior:

New Classes flyer - I have some spaces to fill.....

Hi Everyone,

Here's a first (yes you are the first!) view of my new flyer for the Atelier Classes - hope you like it - any feedback very welcome...

Just need to fill in a couple of gaps on my teaching schedule, so if you, or anyone you know are/might be interested, please forward this to them. Please email or message me for details of times/cost on atelier@bobbiesroom.co.uk 
This is one to one tuition, so very good value for money, and I have an introductory, money saving  offer for first time students - 6 lessons for the price of 5 :-)

 You may be a fashion student needing extra tuition, which I can provide - from BTec National Diploma up to and including degree level, or just be someone who wants to brush up on forgotten skills, or totally start from scratch!

Pattern cutting and/or sewing skills teaching on offer, from the simplest starter knowledge, (how to sew a good seam!), to advanced couture sewing techniques. From how to make a simple pattern fit you properly, to drafting a tailoring pattern for a collar and rever, or draping on the stand to create exciting experimental shapes incorporating some Japanese methods.

I can also teach many craft skills - just state your interests, whether it's knitting/crochet/quilting/applique/trapunto or embroidery.

Pleasant studio working environment, in a beautiful corner of Oxfordshire.

Bobbie

Back from the Nether Regions

Hi Everyone,


It's a bit odd nowadays - there are so many ways to connect with people, that it's hard to know which is the most important. I think I do most things - facebook (both personal and a page for the business), official Atelier website, twitter, blogs for my classes and the wedding dress business Atelier, plus other promo work, such as newspaper/magazine articles, flyers, business cards etc., etc....PLUS the best one - word of mouth. This last takes a little time to spread, especially when it's for a business or service which isn't needed all the time by everybody, but it is ultimately the most reliable.
Sooooooo.....tell your friends!!!The Atelier website can be found at www.bobbiesroom.co.uk and the Atelier facebook page is here. 
I have neglected the blogs a bit recently, as the Facebook side of things is so easy to do, but I realised, or should I say, forgot that not everyone uses facebook. So have decided to keep up better with the blogs! Let me know what you think about blogs - do you read them/find them interesting /useful?

I am currently in the local glossy monthly magazine, Four Shires, with a full page article and photos. Only thing is, this article is a year old, as it didn't go in this time last year, as it was planned to, for what reason I don't know! So some of the information is out of date, and I am no longer collaborating with another designer, and the vintage / recycled / personal meaning side of my design work is called Atelier Redolent, not as named in the article. Still, you can see all my latest stuff on the website (link above). Please have a look if you have a moment - it's available in newsagents in Oxfordshire/Warwickshire/Northamptonshire/Gloucestershire/Buckinghamshire

But here we speak specifically about pattern cutting and sewing techniques, although since changing my website host, the Atelier wedding dress blog can't be accessed by anyone but me! Currently working on resolving that, but until I do, I will use this blog for both strands of Atelier. Hopefully you will find it all interesting though....

My one to one  class students have increased noticeably in the last month or so, which is great, and my students are so committed and enthusiastic, it's quite touching.

Stop press - very pleased to announce that my Atelier wedding dress blog has just been rescued from the nether regions of the interweb, and is now available for everyone to see again! It's here:
 bobbie-atelier.blogspot.com

So, this is just to let you know that I will be more blog active now everything's up and running, but please have a look at the facebook page (link above), if you are a facebooker.

Speak soon,

Bobbie 

September Newsblog

Hi Everyone,

Well, summer seems to have returned - really beautiful here in the centre of England, warm and clear blue sky....from the studio I have the most amazing view with hardly a building in sight, and count myself lucky to have such a great place to work!

So firstly, let me tell you, if you didn't know already, about MacCulloch and Wallis, a small shop in the heart of London's West End which I see as a remnant of times when local wealthy ladies could go and buy a couple of yards of silk, and run up a little dress for a weekend in the country! And I mean that in the most affectionate way, as this shop is really a gem, and the website is beautiful.

The great thing about this shop, which to my knowledge has always been in the same location right near to Oxford Street and Hanover Square (home of Vogue magazine), is that you can get fabrics and equipment there which seem to very hard to get elsewhere. O.K., online is now the place to go for many things, but unless you know exactly what you want, it's a bit of a risk. (Saying that I recently bought 4metres of habotai silk lining for about £4 a metre, and the delivery was free from China! But that was an example of knowing exactly what I wanted, and not having to match a colour).

M & C have a fantastic range of French and Italian wools, cottons and silks, which, although not cheap are lovely, and you don't have to trail around looking at dozens of different shops elsewhere in hope. The quality is amazing, and they are the kind of fabrics you fall in love with. The French embroidered laces and the Broderies Anglaise along with countless other fabrics are sumptuous! Want, want, want...
They also have, to my amazement, tracing wheels which are the same design as mine which I bought about 30 years ago. I still think it's the best I've seen or used, the handle is made of wood and is cheaper than Morplan's plastic version...


I reckon I should get a gift voucher for all that free advertising!

Please note that I am still doing my special offer for new students - 6 classes for the price of 5, so it would be £150 instead of £180 for 6 x 2hr classes. It is one to one tuition, so you will learn and achieve a lot in each lesson, and you can come as often or as occasionally as you like. The classes do not have to be in a set block of weeks, just come when you like or when you are able.
Pattern paper, tea and coffee are included in the price!

 So, happy pattern cutting/sewing and speak to you soon!

Bobbie

In the studio

View from the sewing machine

August Already

Hello Atelier Classes students - past, present and future....

Well, it's great to have new students coming along - and so far, the only reason for anyone stopping classes has been work commitments. People mostly have to work harder, longer and with more responsibility these days. (Someone I met yesterday seems to regularly works a twelve hour day...and that's for an employer, not a self employed person).
 Some of my students are high achieving women (and yes it is all women!), and my theory is that people of that ilk are the kind of people who want to try learning another skill to broaden their 'education'. But sometimes life gets in the way...
There's something wrong somewhere - I could bang on about a lot of things related to this subject (!) but this is a pattern cutting/sewing/fashion/ blog, so I will stick to that here!
Have been studying again one of my favourite books - Pattern Magic, the book by the Japanese woman Tomoko Nakamichi, which is one of a pair (vols. 1 and 2), of amazing sculptural garment shapes developed by her as part of her research into patternmaking for herself and her students at the Bunka Fashion College in Japan. The shapes in here are so inspirational, and with a bit of time and experimentation could be adapted to suit any idea you could have. I have used some of the techniques as part of my teaching at universities, and even if a student never actually uses those techniques again, I hope that the unexpected, outlandish shapes made with fabric as shown in these books could set the design process going in another direction.
That is the job of a teacher, in my view - that of jump starting the thought processes in a student,  not so as to slavishly follow instruction, but to enable the learning of skills and ways of thinking and using ideas so that the student can launch themselves into the ocean of creativity. 
Well that all sounds a bit idealistic, but then, you have to have an 'ideal world scenario' that you hopefully work towards!

******************

An interesting variation on the way I normally work suggested by a new customer/student: 

What started off as a commission for an Audrey Hepburn inspired design and make job - a dress and jacket - has transmuted into a combination of a commission and classes. I will do the design for an agreed fee, and then my customer/student will be a kind of student apprentice while I pattern cut the design, and we then make between us, as the person in question has a lot of sewing experience.

So, designs on the go now, and we'll see how it all works out.

Speak soon!

Bobbie