Costume and Textile Society of Wales - upcycling Headscarves

27th July - Vintage Village Bazaar - made some new friends at St Fagans at the end of July at an event to re-cycle patterns, fabrics, books and costume related items in the Village Hall.  Jill Salen was there with her books on Corsetry, lingerie and swimwear, as was Michelle Griffiths from the Resist Gallery/Studio, Llantrisant,  with her incredible Japanese vintage textiles, haori, kimono, obiage, obi, and fabric bolts suitable for soft furnishings and dressmaking.  Michelle explained how her wonderful shibori chrysanthemum creations can take a full day each to tie, amazing patience.  www.shibori.co.uk

After a conversation with one of the members selling liberty bodices (which my grandmother remembered wearing as a child) and lace pieces , I ended up buying a small selection of silk scarves and came home full of ideas on how to reuse these.

Here is the first experiment using one of these scarves (red with white bows and a white and red striped boarder) as the yoke of a top.  I added a contrasting white bias cut edging and white cotton gathered skirt with red machine embroidered hem.  Only took about 2 hours to make, and I'm really pleased with the finished result.

 

 To make it even better, my grandmother won the raffle and her prize was membership to the Society for the next 12 months.  They've got a great programme, and hopefully I will be able to attend some of the lectures on pattern cutting, early shoe construction, wedding dresses, traditional tribal weaving technique and Indian textiles .  More at www.costumeandtextilesocietyofwales.org.uk.