Notable Hands - Craft - Knitting

Learn the beginning steps of hand-knitting in the video below!


Enjoy!

Notable Hands - Craft - Dyeing Fabrics

Rodarte Fall 2008

Let's talk about dyeing fabrics at home.

This is also one of the essential tools in textile design, and one that designer usually opt for when they’re looking for specific shades in their own collections - ones that are not available from fabrics manufacturers.

Rodarte, the brand created by sisters Laura and Kate Mulleavy, works with a specialized fabric-dyer to get a unique shade for their collections. For instance, once they spent months looking of the perfect red-cock shade. This means that they use a lot of time, and resources for the coloring of their collections. That’s how important color is.

You can practice fabric dyeing at home too - either with natural, or synthetic colorants. Say you want a shirt to look ivory instead of crisp white; you can just dip it into a black tea pot for a few minutes/seconds until you see the perfect shade. Remember, after the fabric dries out, the fabrics looks lighter.

But when you are using strong colorants, it is always useful to try the exact shade you want with a small piece of the same fabric you’re using beforehand, and after you got it, you can actually dye the real fabric.

Some fibers are easier to dye. With synthetic materials, you might not even be able to change their shade, but wool, silk, cotton and linen are the best and friendlier materials to dye at home.

Dosa

Artisan dyeing fabric with indigo

DIY dyeing at home

Try it out, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is.

Image via Style.com, Streets and Yo's, Dosa, Google

Notable Hands - Craft - Embroidery

Let's talk about embroidery.

Beading and embroidery are techniques that usually get confused. Embroidery is the art if decorating fabrics and different materials with a needle and thread, or yarn - while Beading is the technique of sewing beads and sequins into fabrics.

Embroidery is a very exciting technique, because while someone can think embroidered fabrics look outdates, many luxury labels also used them to add textures and pattern to their original materials.

Embroidery entails everything from chain stitch, buttonhole or blanket stitch, running stitch, satin stitch, cross-stitch, when it comes to handmade techniques. However, embroidery can also be done by machine, but these pieces are less original and cliché examples.

Artisanal embroidery looks very unique, but once you know the basic technique, you can basically embroider paper, and furniture materials.

Chanel

Missoni

Maiyet - sold at Barney's

The possibilities are endless.

Images via Barney's and Style.com

Satya Twena Creates Lush Hats!

If the art of dressing up our own bodies is a matter of countless conversations, then imagine the fuss that comes with wearing objects on top of our heads. We are here to talk about some headpieces that have actual heads turning around in the streets – Satya Twena collection of women’s hats. 

Satya Twena is not the kind of designer that used to create paper and flower hats ever since she was a kid. She is the kind of creative persona that only after growing up discovered a way of expressing her creative anxiety through design. (Actually, some of the most interesting designers we know didn’t know that they would turn out finding their true passion in fashion and accessories design). This former interior designer was never a stranger to the art world, but she discovered her love of designing hats by chance, taking an evening class at FIT in millinery in 2009.

Pooka Hat

Satya Twena New Campaign

Shortly afterwards Twena’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which resulted in the initiation of her now lauded millinery career, as well as the realization that she wanted to live every day to the fullest. What started as a hobby turned out to be a way of expressing her own creative self, as told by the designer in an e-mail interview we conducted last month. “I just had all these energy and didn’t know how to release it… it just ended up being creating energy.” (see Jacob’s Creek True Character Series).

Twena business grew rapidly from making hats and caps for her mother, to receiving orders from friends, family, and word of mouth clients. Twena is one of the fewcouture milliners based in New York City. She sells to a range of upscale boutiques and department stores, and also enables customers to shop from her own e-commerce site and have costum hats made personally! Talk about small luxuries.

In ST’s collection there is a hat for every kind of woman – and a range that goes from casual to black-tie occasions, with new takes on felt fedoras, floppy wide brim chapeaus, 20s-inspired cloches, and equestrian riding hats. The designer describes her line as “feminine with a hint of vintage and a dash of sexiness,” which is a product of her use of deep jewel tones, high quality materials and sweet elements, such as pearl pins, and a flower or ribbon here and there.

Satya Twen wearing her own design

Twena has kept her business small and intimate. Every hat she produces is made by hand in New York, and although she offers ready-to-wear pieces, the designer continues to design custom hats. “My focus is on quality, longevity and art, not quantity.” Twena has become a master in the art form of transforming a person’s look and style with a single piece. “Also, being able to see and work with the craftsman making your hats – that is true luxury,” says the designer.

Through her craft, not only has Twena found who she is, but she has also strived to reflect her client’s personality through her designs. “What differentiates me and my work is my ability to see past the physical and tap into my client’s character and desires to create wearable art.”

Twena’s newest endeavor is ST’s sister company Discover Pique, a hosiery line that acts as a “monthly curated hosiery subscription.” Sounds like the perfect compliment to the ST woman. Just take feminine classics like a back seam, fine dots, and lacy tights, and top any getup with one of her lush hats!

Jacobs Creek Presents True Character Series – Satya Tweena from Soap Creative on Vimeo.

Images Courtesy of Satya Twena