Making of Ms Butterfly - Base Cape Construction

 

This is the second episode of Making Of Ms Butterfly Cape video series. Find out what's hidden under the tuft!

Eco Furs Packaging

Convertible Eco Furs pieces come with a handy wooden clips-hanger which keeps all panels safe while not worn or unattached to each other.

The swing ticket attached to the left armpit of the garment is a little booklet which includes, among other things, the comprehensive care instructions and tips for how to wear the garment.

The complimentary shower proof, folding carrier bag with handles and sealing zips ensures that your Eco Furs piece travels safely home from the store. You can carry the bag on your shoulder which makes bringing the piece along while traveling easy, too. Note that the piece can be stored in it - safe from dust and sunlight, while not being used - as well.  The unfolded bag is breathable.

24-hour Work Trip

It's summertime again however it's still chilly in most parts of the Northern hemisphere and my '4 or more in 1' coat makes a wonderful work trip companion so. To find out how please read & see more below.

- Wear the complete coat whilst traveling and only pack the lighter garments, accessories and the other travel essentials in your cabin baggage/ 'weekend bag'.

Tip: Leave a small space on the top of your case/ 'weekend bag' for the sleeves to slip in if the full coat is too hot full time.  

OR you can leave each of the sleeves unzipped a tiny bit and only slip your arms out of the long sleeves (below). 

Photo: Absolute Studios Dublin, Model: Katie B/Distinct Model Management, Makeup & hair: Julie Caulfield

- In the destination complete your fabulous work looks with the different parts of the coat:

On arrival quickly lighten up the coat by removing the hem, slip in a lighter pair of shoes and fly on to the afternoon meeting.

 

Impress in the dinner time meeting by wearing a look constructed with the hem panel of the coat (and the bolero).
 

The bolero is cozy in the air-conditioned meeting room the next morning. Zip the sleeves and the hem back to the bolero when you're off to the airport for the return flight.

Ideas by Maria N. Please click the images to see the details for the other clothes & accessories featured.

- Enjoy your work trip!

Thousands Of Photos

Past spring I got an idea of having a large scale fashion editorial photo shoot with my designer colleague Nina. We both wanted to get our newest collections shot somewhere different than just in a regular studio. It was to take place this autumn and the location options were either Helsinki World Design Capital 2012 or Dublin's beautiful suburbs. After careful thinking we marked mid September in our diaries to give us enough time to finish the collections but also to have the photos ready by the time the first retailers start buying the autumn/winter 2013/14 collections. For location we picked Dun Laoghaire on the coast of south Dublin as along past years September has proven to be still quite dry and green there - and it also tends to spoil one with a choice to shoot at!

Despite the huge amount of work and very little sleep before, during and after the shoot, this was the greatest of the ideas, I can tell you a few days after this very own fashion week of ours is over, as it resulted in over 1000 absolutely fabulous shots - plus nearly 2000 fabulous ones - and it also was a start of many new wonderful friendships.

For all those great shots we thank the old friend Billy, who spent long 3 days in the chilly and sometimes quite wild sea breeze hiking from one corner of the harbour to another about half a dozen times a day carrying the gear and struggling with the lights & flashes and at the same time directing the scenes. His great patience and pro photos are highly admired.

However, those particular pics wouldn't exist without our modeling talents Eve, Rebecca & Emma who with their brilliant acting made the collections alive after the fantastic makeup artists Karolina's,  Sarah's and the hairstylist Vicky's magic wands together with stylist Maria N.'s and our own  transformed these 3 ladies into nearly 20 different personalities! 

 

Working with the team was easy going and great fun and some of the greatest scenes were made up as we went on. The majority of pieces shot being of 2013-14 autumn/winter season I'm afraid I can't give away more on the shoot - except these few snapshots

However if you fancy putting together a shoot of your own and fell in love with our location, I can share with you some useful tips, links and contact details:

***

- Team up with your designer colleagues; the more the merrier organizing especially a larger scale shoot is and your clothes can make wonderful combos too. 

- Models, actors, stylists, makeup artists, hair stylists:
http://www.starnow.ie/
http://www.facebook.com/groups/107609052648498/ (Dublin Models group on Facebook)

- Re paperwork remember model/artist and property release forms to make sure all involved are aware of their rights re photos. It's best to create a different form for every shoot specifying the terms discussed with the crew beforehand. You can find great templates here.

- For customers' and staff safety the hotels that are open 24/7 are not very comfortable with accommodating shoot crews in their public areas, but there are many beautiful restaurants in Dun Laoghaire that may wish you warmly welcome to shoot at theirs' before the opening hours. Julie, the owner of Hartley's Restaurant in gorgeous old rail station building kindly let us shoot in and outside their premises last Tuesday. You can have a peek at the restaurant and find their phone number here - beautiful, isn't it! 

- Not to be removed from our sets at the harbour area by the Harbour Police just in the middle of very tight schedule we needed a permission to shoot from the Dun Laoghaire Harbour Company who were very helpful too - thank you Tim! If you want to capture any of the private buildings, like any of the Yacht Clubs in the area, with your fashion pieces you need to ask the property owners/managers for permission separately. The National Yacht Club kindly let us use their beautiful club house as a background in a couple of shots for which one of our big thank yous goes to them too.

- Should you like to have our models in your shoot, please drop us a message to heli@heli.ie and I'll forward your message to the ladies who can then contact you.

- To find info on any of the other artists click their names above which will link you to their websites or Facebook profiles.

- Remember to look after your shoot crew and other shoot related contacts before, during and after the shoot - be professional; recognize their input and talents, keep your promises and don't forget to keep in touch. - A heartfelt thank you to Irish jeweler Anne-Marie O'Rourke who helped us to show our recognition to our talented models and beauty team by giving us some beautiful handcrafted Irish sea glass pendants of hers to post out to the team members as a thank you for their brilliant work meanwhile they very patiently are waiting for their portfolio images. Please click the photo below to enter her online shop. To read her fascinating stories of sea glass and sea pottery click here.

 

Photo: Anne-Marie O'Rourke

- For the very last but not any least, a huge thank you to my lovely husband Paul Gilbert, who did a great job by looking after our personal transportation & logistics all week long. Also loads of thanks to Jason Jennings for letting us rent his modern and well equipped family camper for our shoot base. 

***

  

More news re shoot to follow in a few months - and we'll proudly publish the fruit of it later in summer 2013.

Traditional Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique

All Eco Furs products are tufted by using Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique. The technique is a very simple yarn knot created into fabric with a needle. The knot is repeated - one by one -  to cover the base cloth with rows of them.

I'm going to show you very shortly how the knot is made. You can then test it yourself during a lazy day in the sun and see if you get bitten by a  Rya sewing bug - like the Habitare 2011 visitors did at my Traditional Scandinavian Rya Rug Sewing Technique Workshop last September. 

At the workshop I taught to five 10-student-groups - including among others 3 Finnish Politicians and their assistants, a glam rock band Flinch, Michelin Star Chef Jouni Törmänen, Textile Designer Sari Syväluoma, Fashion Designer & Finnish Project Runway Finalist 2010 Maria Jokela, Finnish Association for Mental Health staff members and many, many other expo visitors - how to sew the knot and then all had a chance to take part in tufting one of my new designs back then, a birch trunk inspired neck cushion that was launched at DesignShopOutlet.com during the expo.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

Lads from Flinch did excellent job!

Photo: Juha Pohtio

Finnexpo and Finnish Association for Mental Health staff were so excited about their new tufting skill that it was really difficult to kick them out of the class at the end of the hour that was allowed for each group.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

Finnish MEPs Anneli Jäättenmäki and Riikka Manner and Member of Finnish Parliament Elsi Katainen were listening carefully my demonstration before throwing themselves in to sewing.

Photo: Juha Pohtio 

And here Elsi is proudly presenting her first completed row - beautiful work, well done!

Photo: Ellen Tuomaala/ Finnish Association for Mental Health

The day's work resulted in a 90cm long log cushion that was sold to Tapiola Group in the same evening for fabulous €5000 price. The money in full was donated to the Finnish Association for Mental Health to help young people with mental health problems. Below the Tapiola Group's Markus Savolainen, who was among the seriously bitten ones - in a good way though. He also got an honor to bring the cushion to its new home at the Tapiola Group HQ.

From left Markus Savolainen, Sinikka Kaakkuriniemi and Tarja Heiskanen (Finnish Association for Mental Health) with myself.

Photo: Ellen Tuomaala/ Finnish Association for Mental Health

The event was hosted by DesignShopOutlet.com and generously sponsored by Fiskars (scissors), Pirkanmaan Kotityo Oy (yarns) and Heli (other cushion materials) and it was organized in collaboration with Finnish Association for Mental Health.

- Now it's your turn to dive in the fascinating world of Rya sewing! You need a piece of loosely woven canvas fabric. For example sack fabric is excellent for this purpose. Start sewing from the left bottom edge and proceed to the right. Next row will be sewn above the first one. Leave 1cm-gap between the rows (about 4-5 weft threads' up counted from the first row). To achieve straight don't fall of the track between the 2 weft threads.

 

- What do you think? ;-)

How To Take Measurements For Your Eco Furs Order

All Eco Furs product samples are made in common model size, which is EU36-38/ UK8-10/ US6-8. I make all items plus bespoke designs to-order in different sizes and to fit different body shapes. To be able to make your very own piece perfect match with your great figure with as little amount of fittings as possible - or completely without any - I need you to give me correct measurements.

Measurements for coats, jackets and vest are taken the following way on underwear.

Don't take loose or too tight measurements or add extra couple of centimetres for garment to fit over woollen jumper, etc. All allowances are taken into consideration in pattern making already. Only take exact measurements.

A tip: Ask your friend for help and use mirror to keep measuring tape in level position all the way around different parts of your torso. It might also be a good idea to invest on a new measuring tape, if your tape is old-ish as the tapes can shrink/stretch along the years depending on where they have been stored and how much they have been used.

For coats and jackets I also need your arm length taken from * corner of neck and shoulder to wrist bone plus wished back length of the garment.

For hats take measurement around your head at forehead.

 

How To Wear Your '2 or more in1's #1

All my coats and also some vests are convertible, they're '2-4in1's! Zips hidden at horizontal cuts under the tuft allow you to adjust the hem & sleeve length so that one coat goes with many different outfits and in any occasion.

I went through my photo archive the other day and found these nice photos of Mu Yang posing for photographer Tony West in one of my classics, a Peacock inspired 4in1 coat.

 Complete coat with casual jeans & boots - chic everyday outfit.

Without sleeves, combined with bright/black leggins and boots - for trendy office and after work drinks.

 With or without sleeves, the hem panel detached, combined with a black evening gown and stiletto heels - for a 'black-tie' party.

All photos: Tony West

Care Your Eco Furs Well

Eco Furs are tufted with soft and fine, 100% lamb's wool yarn that is tightly twisted so it doesn't fray or unravel when cut. It's also finished moth resistant. Base cloth of products is durable and lightweight 100% jute fabric. Products are lined either with 100% silk which is ideal for warmer climates and indoor use or polyester satin that is more durable and wind resistant. All zips used are durable and if metal, they're Anti-Nickel finished too.

In general woollen products don't need washing too often, as they're not usually worn straight against skin. Hanging them outdoors in fresh, dry breeze for some time many times does the cleaning job. Woollens also like being rolled around in fresh, clean & dry snow if some is available. It freshens up their looks and feeling significantly. Just remember to shake all remaining snow off and let the garment dry properly before storage.

Should your Eco Furs item need more thorough cleaning it is to be professionally dry cleaned. Heli products can't be soaked through in water. However if they're stained depending on stains it's safe to remove them by carefully following wool hand wash instructions:

*Clean the stained area by squeezing the wool gently between your fingers (do not rub) in light mixture of lukewarm water and Pine/Marseille Soap until the stain fades. Rinse the area with cold water, press excess water off with tissue and shake the garment to get it airy again. Dry on a hanger.

Photo: BlancDeZinc

When bringing your textile to the Laundrette, please show the staff the care label attached to the left side seam inside your coat/jacket/vest or neck of smaller items with the care symbols (below) printed on it and ask them to wash the item with chemicals that don't remove the lanolin from wool and don't shrink the product.

If the tuft of your garment/home textile is bent funny ways on delivery/ during storage straighten it with steam from iron or steamer. Iron setting '2 points', when warm bring the iron to 2-3 cm distance from tuft and let steam come out. Bring iron away and immediately comb tuft straight with your fingers - in any circumstances try not to touch/press the tuft with iron. When finished shake the textile airy and let dry on a hanger. With iron setting '1 points' only iron lining normally if needed.

Wool keeps you warm even when damp. However the garments are not recommended to be worn in direct, pouring rain because it may make the tuft felt. Direct sunlight fades the colours of wool so store your garment, or hang your wall decor on the wall out of direct sunlight.

Products are stored best in the suit bags they come with, in dry and cool (18 degrees) temperature. Always hang the bag in your wardrobe unfolded as the inside of the bag is breathable material and so it lets the product breathe, too. Folded, zip-sealed suit bag is showerproof.

I also create little seasonal collections of tufted accessories and interior decoration textiles with recycled materials by cutting them into long strips and tufting the items with them. Also synthetic yarns with synthetic base cloth (knitted, woven, etc) are used in these items sometimes for special look and easy care.

 

Photos: Heli

Stick toys are tufted with synthetic yarns and the base is synthetic too. They endure quick soak through in cool water. Follow wool hand wash instructions* when washing them. Dry thoroughly in mild summer breeze or in room temperature. 

Products made from plastic bags love quick hand wash in cool water and mild washing detergent mix. They dry almost at instant in mild summer breeze. Plastic products are not recommended to be used or stored in very hot and frosty conditions, that may weaken the plastic and cause it to break.

Comprehensive targeted care instructions are found attached to every Tufted Luxury item's  swing envelope. If you don't have it handy when travelling for example, you can double check the instructions here or on my website too. - And if you are unsure even a smallest bit don't hesitate to contact me, I'm very happy to help.