And now for something completely different...

There's been a lot of talk in the sewing blogosphere recently about 'stash' - that is, the amount of equipment and fabric you have on hand waiting to be used. It's something I can't join in as I have no real stash to speak of - Chateau Clackett is very small, and I have no storage. My 'stashbuilding' has been limited to whatever I can fit into a couple of shoeboxes. That was a bit sad because, I mean, they're pretty Irregular Choice shoeboxes and all, but still.

So, when Jill of Retrobox got in touch with me towards the end of last year, I was immediately interested. She is an upholsterer and has a special interest in refurbishing sewing boxes. Jill had a 50s sewing box that was in need of some love, and she wondered if I'd like her to upholster it for me in my choice of fabric. My answer, needless to say, was OMG YES PLEASE.

Jill lives locally so one Friday afternoon last year we met up and nattered for an age over coffee, and I handed over some fabric. Jill explained that she was very busy for a variety of reasons, and that it might take a little bit of time to get the box to me. Fair enough - and last week, she emailed me to say that it was ready. She dropped it off here on Friday and I'm not exaggerating when I say my jaw dropped. If you look at Jill's blog you will see the before, but man - just check out the AFTER:

WUT

Regular readers may recognise the fabrics - I had just enough of the Home Sewing Is Easy fabric for Jill to make it the centerpiece of the design. The side panels are more Alexander Henry - the blue From The Hip fabric leftover from my Cowgirl Cambie dress. The whole thing is tied together with yellow twill left over from my vintage McCall's 5517 dress.

I'm honestly bowled over by this sewing box. I couldn't have imagined that Jill would present me with something so gorgeous. Now I feel like it's putting all of the rest of the furniture in my flat to shame!

I have a small Cath Kidston sewing box that holds my notions, and this one is just perfect for my fabric and the few bits of haberdashery that are too big for the other one, such as my button box and my tin of pins.

With fabric...

The Gingerbread Man (whose name is Joe) is my button box and the Vaseline tin holds my pins

There are so many gorgeous touches to the box - I wish I was a more talented photographer so you could really see how amazing they are! Jill lined the box with soft grey wool and added some adorable polka dot piping to the inside of the lid. Even the cord for holding the lid open is polka-dotted!

Jill chose all of the fabric pieces with great care and even the inside shows off the Home Sewing is Easy fabric beautifully. I couldn't have asked for anything better or more thoughtful!

The box has taken up residence in the corner of the living room that is home to my collections - some of my books, some of my prettiest shoes, my collection of Hornsea Pottery. I think it looks pretty cute:

 

MA STUFF

I love the sewing box so much - I only wish I was a better photographer and could really do it justice. But I will try to do that by filling it with gorgeous fabrics!

Please do go and visit Retrobox Upholstery. As well as sewing boxes, Jill has upholstered some truly gorgeous chairs and it's a feast for the eyes over there. I couldn't be more thrilled or touched with what Jill has done for me - these fabrics say something about who I am, and it's truly special to have such an amazing and unique piece of furniture. Thank you, Jill!

Self-promotion special - Dressmaking lessons at Berylune

Hello my loves! Well, having had a very busy week last week, I have a LOT to tell you this week. So, hang on to your hats!

Firstly, I have an exciting announcement. No, not THAT kind of announcement, I just like chips, okay. No, my announcement is that I'm going to be teaching again! Starting in April, I will be teaching dressmaking classes with the lovely ladies of local crafty shop, Berylune. You can see the class listing here - more to follow, hopefully! Having read here that I was considering getting into teaching as a paid gig, Amy and Emily got in touch and we decided that their craft space would be a good place to do this.

Even more excitingly, Berylune is shortly going to be stocking Colette Patterns. I'm ridiculously excited that a local independent shop is going to be stocking these gorgeous patterns, and my first workshop is going to be teaching folks to make the Hazel dress. This is a fab dress because it's fab, it's fun for beginners and more accomplished seamstresses alike, and there is so much scope for making the design really fun!

The workshop will run over two days, and at the moment we're limiting numbers to a maximum of four to make sure that everyone coming has lots of one-on-one attention and support.

I'm not going to lie, I'm nervous. It feels like a lot of responsbility. But I'm excited as well - lots of people say to me that they can sew a bit, but don't know where to start with a pattern, and this class is really designed with those people in mind. Included in the cost of the course you get your very own Hazel pattern to take away with you, a little goody bag at the end, tea and home-made cake and lots of giggles and fun along the way. I'm pretty stoked about it! I love teaching, and I LOVE making dresses, and I'm really keen to work with a lovely local business - this is a whole lot of good things all rolled up in one.

I'm going to be guest posting on the Berylune blog between now and the class with inspiration, advice and ideas - so keep an eye out there too!

I have to hand it to you kid. Most people come to Paris to fall in love. You came and got slapped.

Hello my dears! It’s finally mid-week and I’m starting to feel like I have my head on the right way round – I’m having a busy week and an extraordinarily annoying eye-twitch today has been making me feel a bit frazzled. I have a backlog of outfit photos to share and a lot of thoughts to sort through so I am trying to get back into the swing of blogging.

In recent years I have found February to be a real struggle emotionally. It’s like, you get through the seemingly endless and depressing January, and February seems like a welcome respite. But then it turns out to be just as cold and horrible and poverty stricken as January (thanks to the winter bloody heating bill) and you’re only two months into the year and already you’re wishing your life away. This is how last year went, and I was determined not to let this February be the same. This time last year I was still upset about a horrible disappointment at work, and lacking the confidence to do anything about it, and now I am in a much better place. I have started to get serious about applying for a better job and thinking about what I want my work life to be like, as well as starting to take my personal  happiness more seriously. It’s one of the reasons why I have been sewing so much this year – it makes me happy! I’m also starting to think more seriously about how I can take the things that make me happy and apply them to my working life so to that end, I’m looking into a side-line of teaching sewing workshops. I'm still sorting out some of the details, but it’s potentially an exciting development, so watch this space!

Anyway, this is a very old outfit shot – from Sunday 3rd February. I can’t even remember what we did that day – I think probably something very exciting like grocery shopping and coffee with friends.

 

Another Eiffel Tower dress (Simplicity 2591), blue cardigan from H&M and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

In a quite frankly ridiculous fit of optimism when the snow melted at the start of the month, I packed away most of my heavier winter clothes and unpacked some of my Spring clothes – this dress included. I made this last May during my me-made-May challenge and I love the fabric and the dress, but often find it difficult to wear and it’s not as flattering as some of my other handmade dresses. I do adore it though, because I am just mad about Paris-themed dresses! I think I am gearing up mentally for our holiday in Paris at the end of April (which you’re all going to be totally sick of hearing about because I am just that damn excited about it) because I can’t stop looking at Eiffel-y fabric. 

 

ELEGANT TO THE LAST

It might sound bizarre, but one of the reasons why I’m looking forward to going back to Paris is that I’m looking forward to coming home from Paris. I know that sounds a bit like WUT, but seriously! Nic and I went to Paris in June 2010 and had an amazing time. The weather was spectacular, we were staying in a beautiful little flat in Montmartre, it was romantic and exciting and utterly perfect. But coming home was SO HARD, and not just in your usual back-from-holidays-blues kind of way. I was suffering from depression at the time, and when I think about it now, I think I was able to enjoy Paris so much because it was the perfect break from the things that were making me so miserable at the time. Being across the sea from my problems, and being on holiday and therefore able to spend most of the time sunning myself and drinking wine was just what I needed – but of course, it didn’t solve any of the problems I was having at home, and coming back was truly horrible, and the subsequent summer was probably the most unhappy I have ever been. So it might sound a bit morbid to be talking about this now, but I’m looking forward to going somewhere lovely, enjoying myself, and then coming home and being able to enjoy the memory. I’m full of gratitude that I have a happier life than I did then. The funny thing is that the only significant thing that has changed since then is me.

Me outside the Cafe Saint Jean in 2010

Anyway, I’m going to fly my tourist flag high when I’m in Paris and bust out some of my best themed garments. On Sunday 10th February, I wore another Paris dress in honour of us having found accommodation in the city of light:

 

The Pursuit of Love dress (modified Colette Patterns Truffle dress) pink cardigan from H&M and pink shoes from Primark

Isn’t this dress just gorgeous? The darling Sarah of Rhinestones and Telephones made this for me and it has become a firm favourite in my wardrobe. It has everything – Paris, shoes and sassy pin-up ladies. It must be fairly obvious from this ‘ere blog what makes me tick! Anyway, one of the fab things about this dress is that I can wear it with any colour, so on a rainy Sunday I paired it with a pink cardigan and these hideous-fabulous pink patent Mary Janes from Primark. Nic bought me these ages ago – having spotted the one lone pair left in the shop and seeing that they were in my size, he said he’d treat me – so then it was all the better when they rang through at half the price that was on the ticket. Hurrah!

The accommodation we’ve found in Paris is another flat in Montmartre. Self-catering is a good way for two vegetarians to enjoy Paris, I think. In 2010 we stayed on Rue Lepic, and it stole my heart – in no small part because our flat was right next door to Fromagerie Lepic and almost directly opposite both a jazz bar (Autour du midi…et minuit) and Café des Deux Moulins. We booked our apartment through Airbnb and initially were tempted by one on Rue Abbesses, which was the other Montmartre street that I fell in love with. However, the flat on Abbesses had too high a security deposit, so instead we’re staying a bit closer to the Sacre Coeur, in La Goutte d’Or. I think it’s a bit more shabby than shabby chic, but I’m excited. The apartment looks wonderful, we’re still close to the Butte. The nerdy part of me is excited that we’re staying in the part of Montmartre where Zola set L’Assommoir, which I’m re-reading in preparation.

I’m going to pull this rambly mess of a blog post together with two of my favourite ever photos. On our first visit to Paris in 2008, I couldn’t stop laughing at the fact that there is a company called Darty. I guess Darty is some sort of electrical retailer, but that didn’t stop me from finding the name hilarious.

People walking past were looking at me taking a photo of this all GURL PLEASE. Of course that all made it even funnier.

And here's me, in a classic blogger pose - in front of the Eiffel Tower with a Laduree carrier bag. SO FRAWNCH. Where are the breton stripes? What? Shut up!

Ah, MEMORIES. Au revoir, suckas!

Sexy is what I try to get them to see after I win them over with my personality.

I could subtitle this post – WHEN BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD FABRIC.

When I got back to Leamington after Christmas, Nic presented me with lots of gifts from his family – some Christmas presents and some belated birthday presents. His lovely mum sent me a few metres of some absolutely GORGEOUS cotton lawn – so soft and drapey, and pretty pretty colours, with pale pinks, blues and greens against a navy background. I can’t tell you anything about it as there’s no info on the selvedge, but it’s a heartbreaker. So pretty!

Anyway, last week I decided to get sewing with it and got to work on making it into a variation of Gertie’s wiggle dress pattern – her variation, in fact, the Pinkie Pie dress. Sigh. This is so pretty, and I thought the shape would work with the dreamy romance of the print of the pattern. I diligently sewed it all up and was distressed to find that it just looked wrong. Like, Laura Ashley 80s monstrosity wrong. Added to this, the fit was all kinds of off on me, and it was just a big old bag of hot mess. I don’t have any photos of this, I’m just going to leave it to your imaginations. I was determined not to turn this pretty fabric into a wadder so, to borrow Vicki Kate’s terminology, I reverse engineered the dress – I cut it up and had enough to recut this as a Colette Patterns Parfait dress.

Now, I am an emotional person, and I would definitely say that how I am feeling when I’m doing something imprints itself on whatever I’m doing. That’s certainly the case with this make. I wasn’t stressed when sewing the dress and I wasn’t even overly upset when I had to take apart its original form, just something felt off about the whole thing. So that has sort of transferred itself to my feelings about the finished dress, which is a shame. Anyway, after all of that qualifying, here’s my finished Parfait dress!

Colette Patterns Parfait dress - worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon skull shoes

The good? Well, I genuinely think that the Parfait is a lovely pattern. I love the fabric, which feels so soft and comfortable against the skin and which was a delight to work with. The pretty flower buttons were a gift from Lucy’s wonderful children, so that makes me happy too! I can see this dress being a really good comfortable day dress in hot weather (should we ever get any actually HOT weather and not the 12 degree ‘summer’ we got last year) as the fabric is really cool and breathable. It does make me happy to have made a dress using gifts from people who are important to me. But the dress itself? Well, I just don’t know. I don’t know if it’s me. I don’t know how comfortable I feel in a dress that shows this much of my décolletage (it doesn’t look much in the photo but the bosoms work their way up and out through the course of the day in any dress they get the chance to – it’s why I have so many high necked garments) I don’t know if the dress just looks like a night-dress! In honesty, I think that Parfait probably works better in a fabric with less drape to it to avoid this look. This dress feels like a bit of a departure for me and I’m not sure if I like it. It doesn't help that I think I look chubby as in that photo - despite the fact that I'm not even that chubby. What's with that?!

Anyway, I am pleased with the dress itself – it’s nicely made and it fits me well. I will wear it – I’m just not sure how good I feel in it, and whether it will get as much wear as my other me-mades. But I thought it was worth showing it to you anyway, because I sewed it and, you know, it’s good to sew outside of your comfort zone occasionally. I am pleased that I managed to salvage this from a project that wasn’t working and that I saved the fabric. And hey, it’s always possible that the next time I wear this and have gained some perspective, I’ll feel much more positive about it overall.

 

Pretty buttons - thanks, kids!

So, Parfait is not Parfait for me, and I'm passing the pattern on to someone who will love it. My next sewing project is all cut out and waiting for me to sew up this week - with some more fabulous birthday gift fabric. I really am lucky that my friends and family know me so well! 

You were lucky, Kurn... but luck always runs out. Someday I will stand over your broken corpse and drink to the victory of the Duras!

Yo fools, and happy Friday! So much for my plans to blog more frequently this year as it's been a week since I last did any blogging but eh, it's been a busy week. And now it's the freakin' weekend and I'm about to have me some fun. Right now, that means drinking tea, eating chocolate biscuits and watching Star Trek: The Next Generation. YEAH.

Anyway, it's been a busy week but a good one and I feel like I achieved a lot. I was busy at work, built and populated a bookcase, made a dress, read an excellent book (The Autobiography of Mrs Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin - you should definitely read it, because it was brilliant) and found a cute little apartment for us to stay in when we go to Paris in the spring. Oh, and I was interviewed by the BBC.

Yeah, that's right, the BBC. But don't get too excited, it was local radio, and it was only about 10 minutes. Still though, it was very exciting! After appearing in the Coventry Evening Telegraph showing my handmade knickers, I was contacted by a researcher from BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire asking would I give an interview on the Annie Othen show on Monday morning so naturally enough I said yes! I had some time in lieu to take, so I took Monday off and enjoyed the whole day. I had to go to the studio, which is in Coventry city centre, and of course it was only fitting to wear something I had made. Unfortunately it was snowing, and very cold...

Meta dress (Butterick B5748) with a mint cardigan from H&M and Poetic Licence Backlash boots

It was really windy, too! Anyway, the interview was very short but a lot of fun, even if I was encouraged to show the presenter my knickers while I was actually wearing them... in a studio that has a webcam and a window out onto a public area. Yeah. I no longer have any shame at all, it seems. Still, it made me happy to promote Action 21, and it was very exciting to be interviewed about how I fit sewing into my life. You can listen to the interview (until Sunday) here - I'm on just after 11!

One of the questions Annie asked me was, would I consider doing this for a living. That's always a difficult question to answer, isn't it? Lots of people, when they're being complimentary about something I have made myself will say "you should do this for a living" and I always tell them that I'm not sure that I want to turn my hobby into my livelihood. I do feel that way, but one of the things that I realised after teaching the knicker workshop a few weeks ago is that I do really enjoy teaching, and since then I have been considering whether I could turn this into a business. For now, I'm committed to volunteering - and this is of benefit to me, because it's all experience. But maybe some day I can quit being a civil servant and focus on something more creative for a career. Maybe.

Certainly, I have decided since my last post, that I am going to focus on making this blog my space to be creative and to write about what takes my fancy. Thank you to everyone who commented so kindly and so thoughtfully! I have had a busy week, but I've been bubbling over with ideas for posts I want to write, so watch this space.

For now, though, it's Friday evening. I have a date with a friend to watch a bad film, and then a large gin and tonic to enjoy. Have a good weekend, everyone!

You know what Mr. Bag? I will have a nice day. I'm gonna hang you in my kitchen and fill you with other bags. You will eat your family.

So... you guys all been having an exciting week? Yeah, me too. But hey, it's Thursday night, which is tantamount to Friday. It's all good. Apart from the weather, that is. THAT CAN DO ONE. I am so over feeling cold.

A good time then, to look back to the sunshine of last weekend. It was chilly last Saturday, still, but the sunshine made it all feel somehow more bearable. After running a few errands in town, Nic and I had a leisurely walk over to Warwick. This is one of my favourite things to do on a Saturday - the walk is just the right length to feel like we're getting some exercise (about 3 miles) and Warwick is small enough to aimlessly potter around without getting too tired. All good. We had the plan of doing some shopping in the market but when we got there, there weren't many stalls and it was just too cold to stand around them. So instead we had lunch, had a look in the charity shops, and walked back home.

Louche Leah dress, green cardigan from H&M and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Ultragirl

shoes

Naturally I did also have a coat on because, duh. It was too cold to consider taking my cardigan off, though. The cardigan was part of my Christmas present from my sister (along with the complete Red Dwarf boxed set, oh yeah) and it turned out to be the perfect match for this dress, which is otherwise a bit difficult to accessorise. Recently, I have been leaning towards wearing slightly longer skirts, so strangely enough this dress felt a bit short! Which, obviously it's not, but my knees were cold, but that's because it's February. The wind that's causing me to push my hair back in that photo was cold enough to slice through a person.

 

YES CAN I PUT MY COAT BACK ON NOW.

I've been having a bit of writer's block this week. This is partly because work is busy and it's turning my brain to treacle but I must admit to it being partly because I feel that, right now, I'm not sure what I'm doing with this blog.

That's not some big existential crisis or anything although I must admit that sometimes, I do wonder what on earth I'm doing putting all of this on the internet. It's more that I'm trying to decide whether I should keep this blog as it is, or try to become a bit more focused. I never set out to have a sewing blog - I had this blog before I had a sewing machine. I never even really set out to have a personal style blog. This started out as a place for me just to write about whatever was in my head at the time. Over the past few years that's become more focused on style and on sewing, and that feels natural and I like it. I do miss writing about TV and books, though. So I do want to make a conscious effort to include more commentary here, as well as talking about what I did and what I wore while I was doing it. I want to be a better and more interesting writer.

I suppose where this is all coming from is the fact that a few opportunities have come my way recently and part of that is more exposure for my blog. That's great, because it's always nice to have new readers (hi, new readers!) but I suppose it has made me a bit self-conscious about what it is I'm doing here, and it has made me decide to try to become a bit more focused. I don't usually tell the people I know in real life that I blog and I have been wondering why this is. I didn't tell my colleagues (with the exception of the ones who are good friends outside of work) out of a fear that they'd think me frivolous and ridiculous and weird, and also because this has been a safe space for me to crab about work. This blog is not on my CV. But I don't want that to be the case because I'm proud of it! I'm proud that I write regularly, and that I'm part of an online community, and that this is something that I have created. I need to get behind my blog a bit more, and make it something I'm really proud to talk about.

What do you think about this? I know a lot of my readers have blogs themselves - do you tell people you're a blogger? And those of you who don't blog, what's your take on it? I'd love to know if other people have these thoughts, too!

Good lord! Your eyes - you look like that lady astronaut who tried to kidnap that other woman.

Happy Tuesday everyone, and belated happy February as well! I'm sure many of you are as relieved as I am to have another January over with - although, I must admit that this past January was a better month than I might have expected it to be. Lots of fun things happened in January to soften the blow of having to go back to work after a lovely long holiday.

In the past, I have struggled more to get through February so I'm trying to make sure that I have lots of fun things planned for this month, as well. As such, I tried to get the month off to a good start by taking Friday as a holiday. I had no real reason to do this and no special plans, it just felt like a good idea to take a bit of a sanity day. I resisted the temptation to make plans for my day off and instead just let myself drift. I definitely needed it and have decided to do this more often. In fact, if I have more days like today (read: this afternoon at work sucked ass) I will have to make it a regular thing.

Nic took the day off as well, as we started it right with breakfast in bed, with the sunshine pouring in through the bedroom window. I spent the morning sewing. This time, not for myself - I owed my friend Lucy a dress. After I made the Meta dress, I decided that I really wanted to make Lucy a dress with a circle skirt using Butterick 5748, so that's what I did. She picked out this awesome Michael Miller fabric and it's really lucky that Lucy is not the same size as me, or I might have kept the finished dress for myself.

Michael Miller Mid Century Modern - Atomic Olive

I spent Friday morning sewing it up, and Sunday evening hemming it. So there was no sewing for me this weekend! Still, that's fine - having made five dresses in five weeks I think I'm doing all right!

In the afternoon, we headed out to meet up with Lysy and her munchkin at a local cafe. I was so encouraged by the sight of the sunshine that I dressed for tropical weather. Yes I know.

OPTIMISTIC, MOI?

 

Honolulu Baby dress, green shrug from Phase Eight and Poetic Licence The Right Stripe shoes

Yes, February be damned, it was time to take the Honolulu Baby dress out on the road. Well, by 'on the road' I really mean 'to a cafe and then to buy some cake in Marks and Spencer.' But yeah, that. Apart from putting this dress on to model it as a finished object, I hadn't had the chance to wear it. So it was fun to do that. It's everything I want in a casual sun dress and I'm pleased as all hell with it. You can see in the photo that the fit in the bodice isn't perfect but that's fine, it's nice and comfortable. I wore it on Friday with a petticoat that seems to have lost some of its flounce, so at some point soon-ish (probably after Paris) I'm going to spring for a pink super-fluffy petticoat for extra cupcakey goodness. As it was, I felt suitably eccentric when I paired the dress with these Poetic Licence shoes. As with most of the other Irregular Choice shoes I own, these don't really go with anything, but I thought they looked cool with this dress. I was probably a bit of an eyesore, on reflection, but I'm fine with that.

 

"What is this bright yellow thing? I'M CONFUSED."

The wisdom of taking the day off proved itself when I got home and started to feel all cold-y and horrible. I retired to the sofa with a blanket, a mug of tea, and endless episodes of The Sweeney. Sometimes a day off can be like that, I suppose, your body just takes the chance to collapse in the knowledge that it can. Anyway, my Friday night might not have been exactly rocking, but it was just what I needed.

Anyway, that's about all I have to say at the moment - I think my afternoon at work has wiped out any imaginative thought - but I will be back later in the week with more interesting things to say. Probably.