Ellen showing some ribbon flowers

I love to make clothes. Creating clothes can be slow, meticulous work but oh, the final product – it speaks of me: the love and care I put into the garment. It also speaks of the wearer: bold or soft spoken, brightly colored or muted tones, bejeweled or plain – if it accurately represents the wearer – she will stand tall and feel confident: an equal to anyone in the room.

I spent five years writing and editing, and Creating Couture Embellishments; it is available from Amazon or your preferred bookseller.  The “writing” included making the samples, photographing the samples and writing the text to accompany the photographs of the samples. Creating Couture Embellishments explains how to make fashionable embellishments.  Each technique is explained through a series of photographs, with a few lines of text describing the process.

The word couture means sewing in French, but is equated with high quality clothing, frequently made with unusual fabrics and often hand sewn with special attention paid to the details. The details, the embellishments, are the extra bits that can transform your clothes from plain to polished.

I am fascinated by how students of all ages learn: some need to read a textbook, some need to see a demonstration, some need to do the project themselves. For this reason, I love to teach pattern making and sewing. The moment when an idea or concept suddenly makes sense to a student – the aha! moment – is joyous – that’s the reward for a teacher.