Sew your own advent calendar workshop

Create your own advent calendar that can be used year after year and fill it with the treats you really want!

In this workshop we will cover a variety of techniques, including creating box pleats with a pleating board, sewing with wadding for a quilted effect, sewing piping for a decorative border, and attaching quilting tabs so that your creation can be hung easily every December 1st. Many of these skills can also be used in quilting so this is a great way to dip your toe!

While nibbling on mince pies and drinking some lovely warm drinks (all included) you will make a great decorative centrepiece for your festive home with 24 pockets that you can fill with anything from chocolate coins to Lego, to gin! Whatever takes your fancy 😉

Available dates:

Sunday November 12th 10.30am - 5pm

Saturday November 25th 10.30am - 5pm

Location: Nim Burgin Studio, 27 Murray Street, M7 2DX

Kits are available for just £15 and include:

• Front and back panels (quilting cotton)
• Pocket fabric (quilting cotton)
• Gold wooden hand-painted advent numbers
• 2 meters gold piping
• felt for hanging tabs
• wadding

Advent calendar kit

You will need to bring with you:

• Sewing machine (limited number available if needed)
• Basic sewing kit (scissors, pins, green and red thread)
• Packed lunch.
• The kit detailed above (If you prefer to create your own kit please contact me for the dimensions needed.)

Workshop cost: £50 including festive refreshments throughout the day.

Please email nim@nimburgin.com to book your place and notify if you require a kit.

All workshops are kept small which ensures you get a really good level of personal tuition. Please note that there is a minimum attendance required for these workshops to go ahead. 

Tunic top sewing workshop

Learn to sew this versatile wardrobe staple, creating the pattern from your own measurements. This tunic has short sleeves, a bias-bound neckline, a flattering central pleat, and 2 big patch pockets, or in-seam side pockets. You will take home a finished made-to-measure tunic, as well as your pattern so you can make many more at home!

Available dates: 

Friday 29th Sept 10am-5pm

Sunday 8th October 10am-5pm

Location: Nim Burgin Studio, 27 Murray Street, M7 2DX

Workshop cost: £50 including refreshments throughout

Please send an email to nim@nimburgin.com to book your place.

Workshop sizes are kept small to ensure a high level of personal tuition.

You will need to bring:

• Sewing machine (small number available if needed)
• Basic sewing kit (thread, pins, scissors, etc)
• 1 meter of fabric 150cm wide OR 2 meters of fabric 115cm wide (non stretch)
• fabric for pockets (non stretch)
• 1 meter bias binding to match your fabric

Please note, there is a minimum attendance required for this workshop to go ahead.

Turning John Cleese into The Grim Reaper

Now that it is being broadcast on TV, I can finally reveal that I recently completed a commission for the one-and-only John Cleese! I was thrilled to have the chance to dress this comedy legend as the most gothic of characters: The Grim Reaper.

 His stylist provided me with fabric and trimmings and a tight deadline of 2 days! The requirement was a robe that looked luxurious, and had a train - quite a length for a man of 6 foot 5. 

I created a partially interfaced hood to ensure it draped over his head naturally, but didn't flop down over his face. The edges of the hood and centre-front opening were trimmed with a twisted black braid, and a decorative frog clasp was attached at the throat. The actual cloak was done up with about 25 hooks and eyes all running down the front and hidden.

The belt seen in the screen-shot was added on-set. You can see the cloak in action in the full commercial below. 

If in doubt, make it bigger and add more sparkle

I am always thrilled to hear that the truly divine Jonathan Mayor wants to talk to me about a design, so was there like a shot when, back in June he sent me a message asking to chat about something "fabulously Roman-esque" for his part in the Manchester Pride Parade.

Original sketch

Jonathan wanted to incorporate some red sequinned fabric into his dress, and true to form, wanted an absolute show stopper. "Think big, and then think bigger." With a reference image of Celine Dion in a Stephane Rolland gown for sleeve inspiration we sat down together and drew up a design with a huge, full skirt and kimono drop sleeves with massive shoulders. During his on-stage performances, Jonathan is very expressive with his arms so there needed to be lots of room to move.

As the dress was destined to be big and heavy, Jonathan chose a breathable silk fabric for the bodice part, lined with cotton, with a faux silk habutai for the billowing inserts and faux silk dupion sleeves. 

Sewing with sequinned fabric is always somewhat of an experience, and creating the size and shape of the sleeves was quite a challenge involving a large amount of crinoline and coils of boning all hand-stitched in.

Sparkly heart-shaped buttons were added all the way down the front, and the chest area was left intentionally empty to accommodate Jonathan's wide variety of spectacular jewellery. He also wanted the sleeves to not come higher than shoulder height to avoid crowding his head/headpiece.

To create even more fullness to the skirt part of the dress, a ready-made hooped petticoat was bought online, which also helps to ensure it doesn't get wrapped in his legs when moving around.

Seeing Jonathan parading down Deansgate for Manchester's Pride Parade leading the rugby Spartans, I was incredibly proud too! I can't wait for Jonathan's next vision! 

Back detail

Featured in the Manchester Evening News 

 

Hustling the bustle

The Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre's Costume Hire Department recently commissioned me to create this Victorian style corseted bustle dress in green duchesse satin. It is based on a costume that had been on their rails for 17 years was a very popular plus-sized pattern.

The dustle and draped apron front of this dress take up a lot of fabric, and the Victorians really liked all their trimmings and decorative touches and this dress is full of them. There is a velvet trim bordered with fringe as well as ribbon, and several feature buttons. The corseted bodice has satin covered piping at the seams and edges, and the sleeves have lace inserts and more buttons.

The lace-up back to the bodice means that it can be worn by people of a wide variety of sizes, which is very useful for Costume Hire as you never know who you'll be dressing.

The Costume Hire Department were thrilled with this revamped version of a favourite and have put in an order for another one in purple already!

Never outdress the bride... but get close!

This is Sue, and she wanted a stunning dress for her best friend's wedding in Manchester. I have to say, getting a bespoke dress for these kind of events is THE best way to not only get a gorgeous dress that fits perfectly and is comfortable for a long day, but to also make sure you never have to deal with the often-dreaded scenario of someone else wearing the exact same thing!

Work in progress

We started by looking at vintage-style dress patterns. Sue (like many ladies) wanted sleeves and a tea-length hem. She chose a Vintage Vogue style with a faux wrap bodice which gives a gorgeous neckline, and short sleeves that I lengthened for her.

I created a mock-up of the bodice part of the dress so that I could make all the adjustments needed to ensure a perfect fit, and Sue choose this beautiful cotton fabric with printed gold highlights.

And doesn't she look divine? Swamped with compliments on the day, she now has a unique and personalised frock in her wardrobe on hand for any event.

Gingham drapery

It's festival season, and my client wanted me to create her something drapey and easy to wear that is also unique and eye-catching.

I love working with gingham - it's such a fun weave and looks so bold and shows off the drapes in this shirt perfectly.

It's wrap-style means it's held together with just two buttons (the third is decorative!) so can be worn untied for a floaty, loose look. When it is tied it adds even more interest as the gingham weave shows off the drape and tied bow beautifully.

Having the yoke only connected to the shirt and the shoulders makes it perfect for hot weather too, and stops the shirt feeling like it swamps you :)

This client had also won one of my Instagram competitions for a free bento bag so I was able to make it a matching bag! Quite a coordinated festival outfit!