"Pushing the boundaries

Author - Caroline Jones

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"Pushing the boundaries

I've come to the realisation that I enjoy pushing my boundaries,

I have recently taken on two commissions that are lust a bit outside my comfort zone. Both involve difficult fabrics, each difficult for a different reason.

The first is a lace bolero to be worn over a strapless wedding dress and needed at two weeks notice. It's taken a week to get the required lace and it is beautiful but very delicate in parts and heavily embroidered in others. This is what makes it difficult to work with, the heavier parts stretch the delicate parts, the heavier border is wanted along the hemline of the garment so need shaping and the buttons need to be where the lace is more delicate, so no buttonholes can be made. All in all a challenge.

The second fabric is a tartan, to be made into childrens dresses and a boned ladies top. The challenge with tartan is matching the pattern, not too much of a problem with dresses as they are simple shapes, the boned top is another matter, lots of seams, mostly curved. Again a fair challenge.

The funny thing is I'm enjoying the challenges I face and the challenge makes me even more determined to do a fantastic job for my customers.

So push your boundaries, enter the discomfort zone and possibly do your best work!!"