Pop-up Re-fashioning

Over Christmas I spotted a free crafting event at the Southbank in London for the first week in January - so I booked two tickets and invited my friend Natalie along. All you needed to do was turn up to the event with an item of clothing you want to adapt or re-fashion. It was part of a Pop-up charity shop for 'Mind' the mental health charity. The re-fashioning tools and accessories were provided for you to get creative! The choices were pretty extensive, they had; pom-poms, safety pins, sequins, beads, wool, embroidery threads, buttons, zips and pockets cut from other garments.

I had brought a selection of clothes but decided upon a simple navy gap tunic dress to change. There were no sewing machine available for any complex alterations so opted for a DIY re-fashion with these awesome coloured safety pins - the advantage being when I get bored I can easily remove them!

I also found any amazing bargain in the Pop-up charity shop - a bright green Paul Smith shirt in my size with the original labels attached for only £10. The original price on the tag was £148! Happy days. The button placements are quite unique and the buttons have been sewn on with different colours for an interesting touch.

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School

What a way to spend a Monday evening. If you get a chance to go to a Dr. Sketchy's event I would highly recommend it!

What is it you ask?! Well, the original events started in Brooklyn in 2005 by a USA artist called Molly Crabapple and the evening consists of a cabaret act interspersed with the opportunity to do life drawing. There is a bar for drinks to get your creative juices flowing (if you need that sort of thing) and the host of the evening provides commentary and dishes out the odd prize or two! I went with my friends Mel and Rachel and we all absolutely loved it.

My friend Rachel sketching the Cabaret Rouge act.

The London Dr. Sketchy event was hosted as part of the Wonderground festival on the Southbank.

This is the outside of the Speigeltent where the Dr.Sketchy Anti-Art school was held. The seating area is like a dodgems at the fair with wooden dodgem cars as little seats and tables! Very surreal and fun!

Our cabaret act for the evening were three lovely dancers called Cabaret Rouge who started the evening in daring black and silver outfits and danced to the Moulin Rouge version of Roxette. Very striking moves. They used chairs to dance around and when they came to do their poses (for the life-drawing element) they used the chairs as props to create bold and interesting shapes. There was a 20 minute interval where you got a chance to get a drink and in the second act Cabaret Rouge had changed into some fabulous flapper costumes and danced the Charleston and other 1920's style routines.

I have to admit some of my drawings were slightly suspect - I haven't really done any figure drawing since art college over 20 years ago! A bit like riding a bike though, once you know the basics of figure drawing it's just practise! My drawings for the second act were better for having a bit of a warm-up.
I was slightly embarrassed but pleasantly surprised to win a little prize (blowing bubbles - such a cute gift!) for my 10 minute sketch in blue crayon.

My 'prize-winning' blue sketch. I used negative space you know.....

It's a pretty niche event but if you like figure drawing and cabaret then you would absolutely love Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School!

A selection of my 5, 10 and 20 minute sketches from Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art cabaret event