Giveaway Winner

It's been so busy round here of late, with lots of different things on and lots of work to do. I wanted to put a quick post up today though to announce the giveaway winner! Thank you so much to everyone who entered, there were so many great comments and thoughts on what makes a good 'staple' item. As promised, I wrote everyone's name down and put them all in my housemate's cute hat. I even closed my eyes and swooshed my hand around a bit! And the name that came out was... Vivy. Congratulations Vivy! I will send you an email today.

Here is Vivy's entry: "I've been trying to limit my new purchases to tried-and-true silhouettes recently! I feel the most comfortable in dresses with a fitted waist and an a-line skirt (whether flowy or straight), because I know I look good in it so I won't be fussing around all day adjusting my clothing. These dresses get the most wear in my wardrobe, and are what I reach for when I wake up with 10 minutes before I need to be out of the house!"

Thanks again everyone! I will leave you with some pictures from round here over the past month or so...

Bread, or a Mannequin Head

Some snaps from this past weekend - we stopped at the delicious Nicholson Street Baker for some fresh bread on the way to visit with our Mothers for Mother's Day. We may have snuck in a cheeky pie and cake too, despite the fact that I had already made this cake (delicious recipe!!) to share with the parentals later that afternoon...

I have had this little burgundy velvet skirt now for ever such a long time now, and every winter it gets so much use. It is definitely a 'staple' of mine! I am starting to realise that anything burgundy, navy or a dark shade of green will inevitably get a lot of use in my wardrobe, whether I plan it that way or not! I guess perhaps we are just naturally drawn to certain colours? I don't know...

When I was a young aspiring hippy child taking creative dance classes with my school friends, my creative dance teacher (a very lovely lady) liked to group our personalities by element or season. Anyone who danced with great vigor and enthusiasm was a 'fire' personality. I remember being told I was a 'water', whatever that meant, and also I was an 'Autumn' and should wear Autumnal colours. That last part has certainly proved to be true!

Thank you all so much for your giveaway entries so far, they've been really wonderful! Don't forget to enter here if you haven't yet. There's still plenty of time to squeeze in an additional entry or two should you wish :)

Have a lovely weekend! 

Higher Than the Tree Tops

Back on Easter weekend two of my dearest ladies, my favourite fellow and I took a drive out to the Yarra Valley for the day. After some Op Shop scavenging and a drowsiness-inducing lunch by the fire in a country pub we decided to round off our day with a visit to the Maroondah Dam. Though we amused ourselves with creepy thoughts of the dam wall collapsing, the view from the top was pretty incredible, and the surrounding park was English garden worthy. A beautiful end to a perfect day!

The cold seems to have well and truly set in here in Melbourne now, and Sam and I have been living it up. We've become near hermits the last week or two, spending many a night curled up on the couch with a blanket and snuggles, chilli pie or a hot bowl of soup, and the latest episodes of Game of Thrones and Mad Men. Winter, I think I may be ready for you!

May Giveaway : What's Your Staple?

Dreamers Blouse and Autumn Sky Skirt
Photo by Hannah Kelly

I have been thinking a lot lately about what makes a garment a staple in one's wardrobe; a 'go-to' item that you always feel good in and, in a pinch, you can grab from the cupboard and throw on without thinking too much about it. These items can tend to be a bit more boring to the wearer, purely from having been worn so many times. The familiarity makes it seem unexciting compared to the novelty of a new purchase. On the other hand though, they can be a source of comfort and pleasure. After all, there is a reason that we keep going back to them! I often read, on my favourite style blogs, bloggers saying they don't know why a certain garment has never made an appearance on their blog when they wear it all the time in real life. I think this is to do with this attitude we have towards our staples, of their being 'boring' simply because we ourselves are so used to them.

I absolutely partake in this love of the new, I think it is part of human nature, and growing up in consumerist culture it is almost programmed into us to seek out novelty and 'newness'. But humans are also creatures of habit and lovers of comfort, and I think it is equally in our nature to become emotionally attached to objects, to hoard and love and use and care for items that we feel are precious for whatever reason. I feel like the absurd abundance of stuff that we have access to today can tend to lessen the importance of objects to us, particularly how cheap everything is. It's easy to develop a throwaway attitude because as soon as something begins to look old and tatty you can replace it again for next to nothing. Forget about good as new, just get more new! I think that the popularity of vintage though shows that we do still have an interest in more 'special' individual objects over the 'new'; things that have a bit of history or meaning to them. I like to think of people in centuries past, before we had access to a never ending supply of affordable everything, and what clothes and objects would have meant to them. A dress would feel a lot more special for a lot longer when you only owned three or four of them!

I am not suggesting we should return to such times by any means. I do have a bit of a fascination though with clothing 'staples'. My absolute dream would be to design a dress or item that someone loved so much and felt so comfortable in that it became a staple for them. Perhaps it wouldn't seem so very special or impressive to them because they wore it so much, but the very idea of making something that you feel so comfortable in, that you can pull it on no matter what mood and feel good fills me with excitement! On top of this, having something you will wear over and over is an awful lot kinder to the environment than having a throwaway wardrobe that one gets bored of with each passing trend. I want to try and make clothes that will last a bit longer!

Mountain Dwellers Dress
Photo by Hannah Kelly

Personally, my clothing moods range all over the place and I am interested in lots of different styles. My 'staples' however always seem to be comfortable dresses with a bodice that is shaped to the body but not overly fitted, and a loose or full skirt. I guess there are two obvious reasons for this: it is generally a pretty flattering shape, and the simple fit makes it comfortable for moving in and doing stuff. Other staples include collared shirts (to wear under cardigans!) and full/gathered skirts (because I feel full skirts are most flattering to my body type). It is probably for this reason that you see these particular styles reflected in the stuff I have made for Frances Baker. For example, when I was making the Mountain Dwellers dress I was trying to create something that would be nice and warm so you would always want to put it on for the chillier days, and with a loose silhouette that would be really comfortable to wear but would look good with lots of things. I wanted to make something you could just throw on over tights in the morning and feel warm and look cute with minimal effort! I'm not sure if I achieved all those lofty goals but in any case that's the kind of thing I try to keep in mind with my designs.

I am definitely aware though that my 'staples' are likely to be very different to your 'staples', and so we reach the point of this post! I want to know what kind of clothing makes a 'go-to' item for you.

As thanks for your thoughts, I am having a giveaway for any one item of your choice in the shop (etsy or bigcartel, it's up to you!) To enter, all you need to do is comment here, telling me something about what makes a clothing staple for you. You can tell me what your favourite go-to item is in your wardrobe, or maybe a dream item that you feel would pull a lot of outfits together, or your thoughts on what makes the perfect dress shape, anything you like! For extra entries, you can share this post on facebook (don't forget to tag Frances Baker / @hifrancesbaker so I know and can enter you.) Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you in your comment :)

Entries close at 9pm Australian EST on Sunday May 27th. I will pick the winner by putting names in a hat because it will be way more fun for me than a random generator. (Multiple entry people get their names in extra times of course).

eco stuff

I have a longer post than usual for you today. I hope that you can read it if you have the time, because it is something that I care about very deeply. I really love that the blog world I partake in is a truly inspiring place, filled with happy and positive posts about fashion and creativity and the things we love. I think it's ok though too, important even, to sometimes talk about the things that move us in other arenas of life. For me, one of these things is the environment and sustainability.

You may be aware that since I started Frances Baker, I have been making efforts to try and ensure it is an environmentally responsible venture. Sustainable fashion is something I am really passionate about, and the more I learn, the more inspired I am to make changes!

There are obviously lots of reasons why we should be mindful of our consumption habits and the ways in which our lifestyles affect our planet. However for me, right now, it all boils down to this: I am truly and deeply concerned about climate change. It's not just that I am concerned what might happen to future generations, or to the beautiful planet that I love; there is every likelihood that a lot of really upsetting and horrible things will happen in my own lifetime. Some already are. (The UK Met Office has a very informative resource about the current and future effects of climate change here if you're interested.)

Don't worry though, this is not intended to be a depressing post by any means! I like to think that while I am a bit of a realist, I am also a pretty positive person. I decided recently rather than just having this constant nagging sense of worry in the back of my brain about climate change, that maybe I should make an effort to learn a bit more about it, and what can be done to stop it. Sam and I have been watching a bunch of documentaries on the subject, and I have been doing some reading.

Most of the various documentaries I have watched and articles I have read seem to think that we have, give or take, maybe five years to turn things around before we reach the point of no return. Some studies suggest, very scarily, that we have just two years left! I personally am not a scientist, nor am I a fortune teller. I am not smart enough to know when the tipping point may or may not be. I do know however that if the tipping point does come and I haven't done anything to try and stop it, I will not be able to live with myself.

For some time now, Sam and I have been making efforts here and there to be more conscious of our lifestyles. We have been trying to change our behaviours to reduce our carbon emissions, and lower our impact on the environment. I decided though that I wanted to put this down here, in a public setting, as a way to hold myself accountable and challenge myself to do better.

So, in the name of accountability, here are some of the ways so far that I can think of that I have been trying to eco-friendlify my home and business (which are really one and the same since I work from home!)

Power Consumption: A pretty obvious place to start. Sam and I are renters and financially solar panels seem pretty unattainable to us right now, so unfortunately our only option for the time being is to try and be really careful of our power usage: turning off the TV and all other electrical appliances at the power point, changing over our lightbulbs, having shorter showers, etc. It has been getting pretty chilly in Melbourne this week, but we are trying to do without the heating as much as possible, and living up the multiple layers, wooly cardigans and slippers! When we do turn on the heater, we keep the thermostat low. I am definitely looking forward to seeing a difference in our power bills, that's for sure.

Transport: Working from home is obviously pretty awesome for lowering your transport needs! I do take the train to my other job though, as does Sam. I also prefer to ride my bike when I'm running errands up to the post office or to pick up sewing supplies. We unfortunately do own a car, but I am glad to say that it is an efficient little two door, and it hardly gets used. We have considered selling it, but it does still come in handy for picking up groceries when it's raining or there's too many items for the bike basket.

Food: Speaking of shopping, we have recently changed our ways! We now get all our vegetables from Ceres Fair Food, a non profit organic food delivery system that is designed to provide access to local, fresh, organic and fairly priced produce. Fellow Melbournians, this thing is seriously awesome, I wish I had heard of it earlier! You help your wallet, your health, the local farming community and your planet all in one go! I definitely recommend checking it out. Oh yeah, we have also started a little veggie patch in the backyard. So far we have some beetroots, spinach, carrots and a bunch of herbs on the go. I am seriously excited to be eating our own home grown veg in the near future! We have started a compost bin as well, and I can't believe how much less waste we are sending to landfill each week.
*Edit: I forgot to mention that I am vegetarian, and Sam has cut right back on his meat consumption. You can read about the environmental benefits of eating less meat here and here and here for a start.

Clothing: I think I will have to do a separate post on this one, seeing as it is a personal interest of mine and  I have lots of ideas about things to do here! I do highly recommend reading "Green is the New Black" by Tamsin Blanchard. It is a few years old now but it is still a really great resource.

Paper usage: This one is super important, because re-forestation, and protecting our existing forests are obviously a key part of cooling the earth's climate. Since my business is conducted entirely online, I am lucky that I don't need too much paper to go about my day to day work. When I do have to print an occasional invoice, I use 100% recycled printer paper (totally looks like normal office paper too, though I personally think that the 'recycled' look is actually far nicer). I draft my patterns on rolls of 100% recycled 'kraft' paper. One thing I am super embarrassed about is the fact that when Sarah and I got my beautiful new business cards she designed for me printed up, we didn't get recycled paper. I don't know why! We were totally going to, but then the time came and we just.. didn't! Ugh. If you get some, please don't throw them out! Or if you do, recycle them. I promise any future cards will be recycled. 

My new business cards and postcards designed by the amazing miss Sarah Adkins! Watch out for this girl, she is a graphic design superstar <3

I have another paper issue, and that is that I have a slight magazine addiction. It's not too bad, but I do buy maybe one every month or two. I am trying to reduce this to maybe just Lula or something equally as special, and the occasional other purchase. I just find magazines so inspiring, and I do love the beauty of print! I really hope that we can find a truly sustainable way to make printed products in the future, but until then I will try and stick to e-magazines when I can bear it.

Shipping: I really love buying things on etsy and other handmade sites from all over the world. Buying vintage and recycling is just so much better for the planet than buying anything new. Buying handmade is also so important, I feel it's so great to buy items with some transparency about where they were made and in what conditions. Handmade items have had thought put into their manufacture, and should hopefully last you and be well cared for. I do sometimes feel guilty though about all the planes flying around the globe taking my dresses to others and bringing me other handmade goodies back. While I still think this is probably a better option than buying factory made goods that likely have a lot more carbon miles behind them, I am at least trying to support local sales by offering free shipping to Australian customers. I would actually be really interested though to know your thoughts on this one, cos I am at a bit of a loss! 

Politics: I am not talking about party politics or voting etc. I am simply talking about empowering our governments to make changes by making our voices heard, because if we don't get some renewable energy happening here soon we are going to have some serious problems! For fellow Victorians, this site has some pretty good petitions to add your name to should you feel so inclined.

If anyone has any other suggestions for me, or thoughts, or ideas about things you are doing to change your own lifestyle, I would love to hear!

I know that climate change is a scary subject, and I know that in putting myself out there on such a controversial and upsetting matter I am probably going to get some nasty comments. So be it. I would rather that than sit back and be silent when I care so much. I am no extremist, I just love our planet the way it is, and I know you do too! I love the changing of seasons, rain on the window, crisp Autumn mornings, bright green Springs with a good mix of sun and rain, and beautiful warm Summers that only last as long as they're supposed to, however much we might not want those sunny days to end! When I've been in countries that get snowy winters, I've been filled with joy at such a beautiful thing. And there are still so many other countries, with other amazing climates, flora and fauna that I have seen only on film and in images. The diversity of the natural wonders of our planet are so amazing, I don't even want to do them the injustice of trying to describe their beauty.

Like I said, I'm not a scientist and I'm not smart enough to know how this is going to go down or when. Nevertheless, to quote one interviewee from this excellent documentary: "I am alive now and I can do something today. I can't in good conscience wait for somebody else to do it. For me the time is now. It's the only time we have, it's the only time anybody has."

Sunlight

Photos by Sarah Adkins

These photos were taken a few weeks ago now, when there were still roses on the rose bush. Now everything is already much crisper.

This little dress is from The Loved One. You can't see it in these pictures, but the insides of the pleats feature inserts of the same orange gingham as the applique on the neck. Such perfect details <3

The weather lately has been blissful; warm, sunny Autumn days with that hazy light that you get in Autumn. The sunsets, which are happening earlier and earlier, are perfect. I love riding my bike in the pinkey-orange-tinged evening light. Normally this kind of weather (or any kind of weather really) makes me long for the country, but riding my bike around the beautiful streets of Brunswick at sunset this week I felt there was really nowhere I would rather be.

Plaid for Keeps!

Last night Sarah and Sam and I made a house mission to the Finders Keepers market. It was so amazing! I was actually really overwhelmed and didn't know where to look, there were so many people and so many shops full of incredible handmade goodies.

We stopped by the etsy stall to say hello and check out my dresses on display, ate cupcakes, and helped ourselves to business cards for the things we'd love to go back and buy when we have a little more cashflow. Then we went outside and got burgers from beatbox kitchen and sat in the gardens underneath the beautiful Exhibition building, which I think is my favourite building in Melbourne. We also managed to all three of us wear plaid, it would've looked pretty funny I think! Sarah took these photos of me being silly on the way to the tram. I am loving these Autumn evenings so much, they put me in a mighty good mood!

Anyway, if you have time this afternoon and you're in Melbourne I would definitely recommend heading down to the market while you still can, it's a lot of fun :)

Forest Walks

These photos are from the walk Sam and I went for with my Dad on Easter weekend. It was so beautiful, and made me realise how much I miss living in the hills. Or even just anywhere with lots of greenery! I enjoyed it so much I've decided I really want to try and get out of the city and do things like that way more often.

My Dad is serious about walking. He is a yoga instructor, so he is pretty fit to begin with, but lately he has started doing lots of long distance walks. This weekend he is doing a 100km walk for Oxfam, which he is hoping to try and finish in 32 hours! I seriously don't know how he does it. By the end of our one hour walk Sam and I were both sweaty messes, but Dad was still striding on. I am totally impressed and think it's awesome what he's doing this weekend. Good luck Dad! 

(P.S. If you would like to read more about the cause and/or donate you can check out Dad's team page on the Oxfam site here.)

Finders Keepers

For my fellow craft loving Melbournians, the Finders Keepers Market is this weekend! I am so excited because I haven't been able to go previously, so this will be my first one. I am also excited because Etsy is having an interactive photobooth stall there, where they will be showcasing the work of local Etsy sellers, including me! I won't have a stall of my own so you won't be able to purchase Frances Baker items on the night, but if you were ever curious and wanted to see any of the dresses in person there will be a small number of items from the new collection on display there for you to check out.

I myself am going to be there on the Friday night for sure, checking out all the amazing things clever people have made and wishing I was not broke. If you happen to bump into me at all on your way around please do say hello! I may also be spending an inappropriately large amount of time at the food trailer...

Melissa & Johnny

All Photos by Honey Honey Photography

A few months ago now, I was contacted by a lovely lady, Melissa, who was interested in wearing the Virgins dress for her Wedding gown! Obviously I was incredibly flattered that she wanted to choose something I made for her Wedding day, and so excited to get to make something so special. I was also pretty nervous too! What if she didn't like it in person, or it wasn't quite right somehow? I wanted Melissa to feel amazing in her dress for her special day. I was so honoured that she had chosen me to make a dress that is so meaningful to so many women, and has a lot of significance behind it. Basically, I didn't want to let her down! 

Seeing these photos is really a bit surreal and wonderful to me. Melissa is so beautiful! She looks absolutely stunning, and seems to be having such a happy time. :) It looks like an absolutely gorgeous Wedding too, with so many lovely handmade details. Thank you so much Melissa again for involving me in such a special event, and congratulations to you both!