A Grand Day Out, Fashioned from Nature at the V&A

 A truly grand day out at the V&A and a lovely day in London.  The exhibition run into January next year and is worth a visit - amazing costume and crazy fashion.

The dress to the right is made from oat roots, the pattern being printed onto the soil, the seeds sown and once the roots have established themselves they are cut away to form this fabric - fascinating.  All in all a wonderful experience that I heartily recommend to all who are interested in textiles.

The exhibition looks at all aspects of natural materials from the obvious cotton and wool to materials made from pineapples.  There are also some gruesome exhibits when dealing with animal derivatives, the real horror being a cape made from colobus monkeys - nasty. 

The exhibition is beautiful to look at, particularly the period costume downstairs, and very informative.  Still quite buzzy about my visit!

A Very Grumpy Jewel Frog

 This little frog was inspired by the colours of Mexico, it is somewhere I would like to visit but have not done so so far.  I have been watching all things Mexico on BBC iPlayer which set the scene for this jewel frog.

I wanted to work with waste canvas, as an enthusiastic counted thread worker I had never used waste canvas.  So this frogs skirts are embroidered with waste canvas beatles, all over.  The tropical feel was enhanced with a lovely piece of tropical Liberty Lawn given as a present and just perfect for this project.

She is heavily embroidered to the body with mostly french knots and beads.  Her dress is also embroidered with french knots, seed stitch and cross stitch beatles.  Her sachet is a little cross stitch butterfly in tonal colours.  I rather like her and I hope you do.