I have been designing and making wedding dresses since I was a teenager, originally starting in theatre costume design at my local saturday morning drama school (having 2 brothers I think my mother thought this would 'girly' me up) - the acting bit I did as we all had to but I am not a natural 'actor' and then I discovered costume, make-up and stage managment! My first play for costume design and making - aged 13 - was Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' for a cast of approx 60 young people in various roles and a budget of £60.00!
My love of medieval literature and heroic tales, costume & art has stayed with me and increased to include anything LOTR, the Pre-Raphalites, Camelot or loosly connected to the Arthurian legands, Harry Potter, and of course fantasy films such as 'Legend', 'Stardust' & Braveheart.
I made my dolls' clothes when I was a little girl from cast off clothes (including one of my mum's 'New Look' dresses - why she let me cut that up I do not know!) and lost myself for hours of happy play in my fantasy world of their adventures and reinactment of stories from some of the books I was reading at the time! I made my own clothes from 11 years onwards after discovering how to actually thread and use a sewing machine with the advent of spectacles to correct my short sightedness, and that, combined with being pushed to the front of the class as I was shorter than most of my classmates at the time. I had a wonderful 'old-fashioned' needlework teacher - Mrs Sheldrake - who drilled into me the importance of technique and whom I didn't appreciate til years later. I started to experiment with commercial patterns and began to work on my own variations and designs then - not that I let Mrs Sheldrake know that!
I really enjoyed 'Needlework' and 'Art' at school, and went on to Further Education to do a Foundation Course in Art and then gaining a degree in Textile Design in 1985 from Huddersfield Polytechnic.
This website is dedicated to the memory of my brother - Mark Haigh-Hutchinson - who died from pancreatic cancer on 15 January 2008. My younger brother by 11 months, Mark was a talented computer games programmer, very respected in his field, involved in visual imaging techniques including 'real-time cameras' - he tried to explain the technical bits of this to me many times! He was always encouraging me and I miss him a lot. See more about Mark.
Debi
Email debilysaght@yahoo.co.uk or telephone me on 07906 719326 (if I am with a bride or working on a dress I may not be able to answer the phone - leave me a message and I will phone you back)