On Sunday caught the end of Desert Island Discs with Pat Albeck. I've not heard of Pat before but something about the way she spoke about design and creating work for others was so wonderful, it made me turn the radio up and sit in silence for the rest of the show. She went to the Royal College of Art in 1950 and I just can't imagine what a weird and wonderful time it was to be studying this subject. She said she paints every day and that you have to keep it up otherwise it's too hard to go back. She said you have to create stuff that you would want, and you want to buy and not try to please other people, she said other things and you should listen to them here.

Without Radio 4 I wonder if I would learn anything.

Pictures from Googs and Pat Albeck's website.

Way back last September I was asked to make a papier mache head/mask for the Edinburgh Charity Fashion Show. The theme for this years show was 'The Elephant in the Room' combining their two charities Elephant Family and Scottish Association for Mental Health. I was so pleased to be asked, and although it was really time consuming (I got through a lot of trashy shit on Netflix waiting for newspaper layers to dry) it was really enjoyable to do something different to sewing.

They've used the head on their blog as an alternative to the normal street style picture, to create an anonymity when talking about ones feelings, such a great idea for some real good causes.

I bought this fabric about a year ago as soon as I saw it as it's just really something spesh. I made myself a smock dress and then forgot to add it to my shop. I think I was enjoying actually wearing something I'd made for myself, which I'm pretty bad at most of the time.

Anyway, it's a fav so I've added it to the shop. You can get it for the rest of today for 90 squid, but tomorrow it'll be going up to £120. So act fast if you fancy paying less for things. Here I am modelling the dress for your eyes whilst in my slippers and having a cupper and accidentally looking stroppy.

You can buy the dress in my shop here or Etsy here. Or just drop me an email on hello{at}isabelknowles{dot}com and I'll send you an invoice direct.

PS: I hope everyone's been having a good 2015 - sorry I've been away for so long. As usual no good excuses. I wonder if there's anyone out there...