Summer: He's probably crying his eyes out right now like Kate Winslet losing on a scratchcard.

Evening everyone, and happy Monday to you all. I hope you all had enjoyable weekends. As ever, mine seemed to flash by in a blur, which felt especially cruel after a very long week last week. Work was particularly grindingly tedious last week so by Friday afternoon I was totally knackered. After a cup of tea and a sit down at the end of the day (by way of a brain dump, really) I was ready to head out for dinner with my fellow chub club members to the new noodle bar on Holly Walk. It's called Wofon and is sort of a fast food type set up, so it's not the most fancy of places. That said, the food was plentiful and very cheap and reasonably good for vegetarians so it was a really pleasant way to spend the evening. To my shame, I was in bed by 10 and asleep before 11, having drifted off while Nic read from Jeeves in the Offing to me. When did I become so lame, eh? That's what I want to know!

Still though, it meant that we were both up bright and early on Saturday so able to get out to enjoy the beautiful Spring weather. Despite Nic having seen a man wandering around shirtless on Thursday, it wasn't overly warm but it was still lovely in the sunshine. On Friday I'd braved bare legs and peep toe shoes...

Friday morning in the station buffet - Emily and Fin Lizzie dress and Irregular Choice Mermaid shoes

...and I was encouraged enough by this to do the same on Saturday.

Fever Maui Atlantis dress, green bolero from Phase Eight and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

It sounds like a trivial thing, but I can't tell you how happy it made me feel to be able to out and about with bare legs and without a coat (but with a light jacket - like I said, it wasn't all that warm!) I HATE wearing tights - even the cute colourful tights I get through winter with get old quickly. I haven't packed them away yet, I'm not that optimistic, but I'll take my chances to foresake them where I can. Nic and I pottered around town, picked up some groceries and looked in the consignment store around the corner, where I found a wee present for Denise. All very pleasing! Nic had plans in Kenilworth for the afternoon and I decided to stay home and get on with some sewing.

I bought some gorgeous yellow cotton broadcloth in my local fabric shop with an eye to making a Megan inspired dress for Julia Bobbin's Mad Men challenge. It's not the linen I had thought of going for, but it's exactly the colour I wanted and cheaper and maybe more practical than linen. When I got it home, though, my wayward heart took me in a different direction... towards this vintage McCall's pattern that my friend SJ gave me a few weeks ago.

From my research it seems to be from 1960 and it's pre-cut to Misses 12, bust size 32. I honestly had no idea whether the bodice on the jumper version would fit me, but decided to just go for it because the construction should make it fairly adjustable. It wraps and fastens at the back with four buttons. So far, so good - the bodice seems to be a pretty good fit, and the yellow cotton is so cute! I sewed at this for a few hours on Saturday and for a bit yesterday, too, and it's definitely helping me to get my mojo back. There's something about sitting in the sunshine, merrily sewing away at something so sunshiney and yellow. The pattern is gloriously odd, as well. The jumper dress has an 8-gored skirt with two massive pockets, all good, but the pocket construction is strange in that the pockets themselves are huge but the opening to them is really little. Also, the sheath dress that you can see on the envelope - well, both of these dresses can be worn on their own but they're also designed to be layered. It looks cute on the envelope, but I admit to have been scratching my head over the practicality of a fitted skirt underneath such a full skirt - your legs would be BOILING! This is my first time sewing from a vintage pattern and so far it's been trouble-free. I kind of like how laissez-faire the instructions are but obviously that's because I'm confident enough to take my own path on some of the bits. For example, I'm going to do the waistband just as the instructions for the Sewholic Lonsdale dress suggests because it makes the inside of the dress so neat. Hopefully I will have a finished object to show you later in the week, and a nice vintage-style sundress to wear in Florida!

On Saturday evening I wended my way south of the river to hang out with Rick and Lauren. It was a lovely evening, with Nic joining us when he got back from Kenilworth. We drank wine, ate snacks and I watched my first ever episode of Take Me Out, which was an experience! It was a really lovely way to spend Saturday evening. We had a lazy start to Sunday, with me sewing in my pyjamas while Nic watched a Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes and nursed a slight hangover, but the afternoon had a treat in the shape of homemade pistachio macarons, courtesy of Denise.