Rowena Luke-King

Designers such as John Galliano and Vivienne Westwood work in half-scale when generating ideas for garments that use an abundance of cloth. During this beginners course you will make your own half-scale tailors dummy and use it to create a vintage style, portfolio-size wedding dress whilst being introduced to the specialist fabrics and sewing techniques essential to the production of bridalwear today. Looking at different styles of vintage and designer wedding dresses you will create a source book of ideas and produce toils and paper patterns that can easily be increased to full size. You will use the college's industrial sewing machines to create a sample book of different types of seams and finishes, learn how to hand stitch and make trimmings such as fabric flowers and cover buttons; hand embroider flowers with silk ribbons; bead and attach lace to tulle for petticoats and veils. You will learn how to insert boning to give a corseted look,  create padding for a bustled look, tea dye for a vintage look and complete the course by producing in fabrics of your choice a fully-lined vintage style wedding dress in half-scale with a storyboard presentation showing your theme for the whole event.

No previous experience is required for this course which is not only perfect for students wishing to embark on a career in bridalwear, but also for brides who want to generate ideas for their own wedding dress. Please note that you will not be making a full size wedding dress on this course.

For more information please visit:  http://www.rowenalukekinghalfscale.blogspot.com/

Rowena Luke-King has had an extremely diverse career in design. She has worked as a designer and colour consultant for textile design studios and leading retailers such as Marks & Spencer and NEXT. She has produced collections of clothes, accessories, hand printed fabrics, greetings cards and wrapping papers for a number of stores including Fiorucci and has worked as a stylist in the music industry (stage clothes that she created for 'Adam and the Ants' have been exhibited in the Victoria & Albert Museum). Rowena studied fashion and textiles at Central Saint Martins and is currently involved in sourcing vintage fabrics for the fashion industry.