More Customer Photos!

One of my customers has been very kind to give me a copy of a few photos from her trip to New Zealand. She wore a few of my designs while she was there, including the Liberty Flowers Wool Jacket Bolero as seen above.



Above, the Vesper Kimono and below the Kir Royale Halter.



I am so thrilled to see people wearing my designs! One time I hope to be walking down the road, and I bump into someone wearing my work, and I can tell them that I made that!



Above, Leanne, Lorelle and I had dinner at the Spanish Fly (Spanish Restaurant) a few months ago. I really like this photo as we are all so happy, and we are wearing our Penelope Red! Leanne wears the Pop Dress, I wear the Venus Floral Bolero and Lorelle wears the Caipirinha Y-Bar Top.

The Adele Multi-Coloured Halter Top

Yesterday I added the latest design to the Penelope Red Australian Dollar Online Shop (bigcartel), the Adele Multi-coloured Halter Top.



This halter top has been handmade from a beautiful bright and soft cotton fabric in deep jewel colours of plum, cream, grey, blue, green, lime, aqua, red, brown. It is a 100% polished cotton.

This is part of the latest Penelope Red Autumn 2011 Collection.



I think it is important to have as many photos as possible when selling online, as people can't see a 3-d item in front of them, so they need the photos to create an image in their head... so here they are!



All of my halter tops, including this one, are fully lined. You can wear this with or without a strapless bra. In the photos shown, a strapless bra is being worn.



The Adele Halter Top has been handmade by myself, Penelope, in Sydney, and I will be making a small quantity of this design- around 15 copies. I love giving a uniqueness to my designs, and ensuring that my customers have something special to every one else!

If you would like to buy this top, please look at the Penelope Red Australian Dollar Shop Online here: http://penelopered.bigcartel.com/product/adele-multi-coloured-halter-top

Project Reconstruction

I have been invited to compete in an online charity auction for CARE Emergency in Haiti.

My design is below:



The competition, named Project Reconstruction, is organised by the Canadian online bi-monthly magazine, Viva La Moda.

There will be quite a few designers involved. The design brief: use a men’s business shirt in your design, and make something wearable from it.





The design of the silhouette is actually one of my biggest sellers, the Penelope Red Wrap Around Halter Top; this style is flattering on so many figures, is versatile, and adjustable, and since we were auctioning this on the internet, I thought all of these factors would be best to apply to this design.



Above is pictured the Bohemian Sari Halter Top, which is available to purchase in the Penelope Red etsy shop.





Look below to see how I made this one-of-a-kind top:

Once we were given the design brief, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. Since we were told to use a men's business shirt, I wanted this to be the focus of the design, and use as many elements as possible from this.


What the original shirt looked like...






I used bright blue silk for the lining of this top.


I thought the most interesting part of this shirt was the collar and the colours in the stripe, so this is what I kept.


Above and below, sewing the collar in place.





Once I applied the collar from the original shirt to the top, I then exchanged the original cream buttons, for black buttons- I think they really make a statement against the stripe. I was going to apply a few pieces of randomly placed black lace, but it didn't add anything to the overall design.


I think this design is chic and elegant, and I could see it being worn with a great pair of jeans or a pair of hot black pants, some heels and some chunky jewellery.

The auction will be online, and run through ebay. Subscribe for free to Viva La Moda magazine so you will be notified instantly when the competition starts.

All proceeds go to the CARE Emergency in Haiti charity, and it would be fabulous if you could all tell everyone about this wonderful idea.

Penelope Red at The Rocks Market: 27th & 28th Feb 2010

Penelope Red will be trading at The Rocks Markets this coming Saturday 20th and Sunday, 21st of February, 2010. The trading hours are 10am til 5pm.

I am planning to have a new Wrap Around Halter Top style in bright red! I will hopefully post this new style on the blog by the end of the week.

Flashback: Old School Projects

First things first; if this is the first time you are reading this blog, this is NOT what I do now! The designs in this posting are old school and college projects that I discovered hiding in my garage over the weekend. I thought it would be fun to share with you my weird style I had back then, so we can either laugh, cringe or cry together!


This design is a halter top, made from silk, machine embroidery, sequins and diamante. It is hard to believe I made this design almost 9 years ago, at college. It feels like it was even further back; almost another lifetime ago- I have learnt so much, and my style has completely changed.


The above design was made for the evening wear category. It is made from silk organza, machine embroidery, cording, beads, and diamante. Unfortunately, the beaded tasselling have completely tangled themselves, but otherwise, I still quite like this style.


The fabric was originally plain white silk organza. I then painted four pieces of this fabric, into four different colours- red, bright pink, purple and orange. I then placed them on top of each other, then satin-stitched the rows to form squares.


After this, I randomly cut out layers of organza to display different colours coming through- so some squares had one layer of organza, others had 2 or 3 or 4.

I then applied the pattern shape, moulded each panel to fit the body, the satin stitched over the top of previous lines. (A similar process to how you attach lace around seams). The above photo shows that there are no seams inside of the top. It is just a continuous, moulded piece of fabric.


I then applied the diamante and beaded tasselling. This design took forever! Not as long as my wedding dress, but still- Forever!





The next design was for my high school end of year project. While I look at it now, and wonder what was I thinking?!, I can appreciate the effort involved at least. This dress was made from plain white silk, which I painted.


I think sometimes it is fun to look back at where you have come from, and compare it to what you can do now. I am proud to say that I think I have come a long way!

If you would like to see my current designs, you can take a look at the Penelope Red website, the Penelope Red etsy shop, or previous postings in the Penelope Red blog.