Ariel, listen to me. The human world is a mess. Life under the sea is better than anything they got up there.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you're all having a great long weekend. I'm having a lovely time, doing very little other than spending time with Nic, doing a bit of sewing, and watching DVDs. After a very tiring couple of weeks, it's really good to have some time to just rest and do things at my own pace. Seeing some blue sky has also helped a lot, of course.

The particular bit of the public sector I work in means I get an extra half day on Maundy Thursday. I worked from home in the morning and was up extra early for a meeting with Australian colleagues. This was fine, and it meant I could knock off a little bit early and spend the afternoon hanging out with Nic. We went to Kayal for Business Lunch and had a walk in town. It was finally my chance to wear a dress I made when it was still snowing - hurrah!

The Lobsterlex dress - another By Hand London Elisalex dress, worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon pompom shoes

Now, I love a loud print. That's pretty clear. So, when I saw Karen's lobster print Hazel dress and Adrienne's lobster shirtdress last year, this fabric went firmly onto my wishlist. Lobsters kind of freak me out, to be honest. I don't have a phobia of them but kind of a morbid fascination - the lobsters and the crabs are the creatures I spent longest looking at when I went to Birmingham Sea Life Centre a few years ago. I'm kind of the same with insects - to me, they're basically aliens, you know? The other thing this fabric reminded me of was this awesome Charlotte Taylor 'Fire Ants' dress from a few seasons ago:

You can see the excellent Megan looking fabulous in that dress here. If I ever see this dress for a reasonable price on ebay I'll buy it. I probably won't though because it's from Anthro, and it's silk, both factors putting it beyond what I'm willing to pay for it. Anyway, the lobsters, right? So, at the Birmingham meetup and swap in November, Marie pulled the lobster fabric out and I was aaaaaaalll over that like a pigeon on sick. Can I just say that I love Marie? I think she's amazing, and not just because she gave me lobster fabric and because she looks like Kate Bush. She's just brilliant.

The fabric sat in my stash since then and I knew when the Elisalex pattern was delivered into my hot little hands it would be a perfect match. I had initially planned to make this dress before the Feckin Birds dress, but I got carried away with the Michael Miller fabric and lobsters took a back seat. It is the perfect fabric for this pattern though. There's a very slight stretch in it, which makes the bodice super comfortable, but it has very little drape so the skirt pleats sit beautifully.

It was dark on Thursday, so the flash went off in the first photo. Anyway, this one is without the flash.

I cut the skirt pieces shorter this time round as I had to cut about a mile off the skirt of the Feckin Birds dress. Still, I gave this dress more of a midi-length skirt than the last one and I like that. I still think I want to make one with the skirt just above my knee though, I have this vision that it will look really tulip-shaped. I just need to wait for the right fabric to come along. It will.

For some reason I found this dress slightly less fun to sew than my first one. This is nothing to do with the pattern, which is still my wife, but maybe more to do with the fact that I sewed it while feeling really tired and a bit stressed. So I had to unpick and resew one of the sleeves and re-do the pleats on the skirt. Nothing major and to be fair, it didn't make me feel stressed or anything, but I suppose it's funny the way that can happen. I do love the dress though, and it's honestly one of the most eccentric things I have ever made or worn. I like that,  though. For me, that's one of the big attractions of sewing. Perhaps fortunately for me, Nic not only tolerates this gentle eccentricity but encourages it. He was inordinately pleased with the lobster fabric.

I can't remember why I was doing this face, but this is what I look like most of the time.

Anyway, I like it. It's surreal and the lobsters themselves are pretty horrible and creepy - their antennae are freakishly long. It made a small child stare at me for my whole meal in Kayal. But I'm going to wear it to work next week. Because, fuck it, why not.

Kayal's speciality is seafood. I don't eat fish, though. 

So, I'm off to watch more season 2 episodes of The West Wing and think about how much I love Toby (I would seriously marry Toby Ziegler, the grumpy beardy git) and shout 'SHUT UP DONNA' at the TV repeatedly. Because seriously, Donna. Shut up. Be more like Margaret. Also, SHUT UP, SAM.

I've been sewing lots, so check back in soon. Happy Easter everyone!

p.s. I know Sebastian is a crab and not a lobster but...

Don't swear, Jerry. And don't bleed in the sink, I've just cleaned it.

Hola pups! So, after prancing around last Wednesday in my lovely summery Hazel dress, the weekend looked like this:

 

Kenilworth Castle - Nic took this photo, isn't it lovely?

You could be forgiven for thinking I'd moved to Narnia, but no. (For real, I'm not sure I could find my way to the back of my wardrobe, so...) I know it's the same for most of you guys too so I'll try not to complain. The reason we were in Kenilworth was our friends JP and Han were visiting over the weekend and we thought it would be a fun outing. It turned out to be closed, so we went to the pub instead. Thankfully it was still open.

Anyway, I really have had my fill of this cold weather, so I'm going to show you an outfit shot from February when I was still hopeful that spring might be around the corner and that there was no such thing as ENDLESS WINTER.

 

Sunday 17th February 2013 - Ruby Belle Amsterdam dress, red cardigan from a local boutique and Topshop Lacrosse sandals

Remember the SUN? Remember open-toed shoes? Remember not wearing 73 layers IN THE HOUSE? No. Me neither.

But I do remember this day when I wore this pretty dress that's one of my spring favourites, and wore these Topshop shoes that I bought on ebay before Christmas. I also remember managing to miss my mouth when drinking a mug of coffee and spilling coffee all down the front of this gorgeous dress. I'm a spiller, what can I say? I had to take it off as soon as I got home and put it through a cold wash. Luckily for me, the people at Vanish got in touch with me and offered to send me some Vanish to test out.

Now honestly, I hate sponsored posts where the review product is being crow-barred in, but I genuinely am a spiller. I wore my new Limb dress to work last Tuesday for a big scary meeting and ending up doing my coffee trick again and getting it all down the front of my dress. I had to mop up the coffee stains with my scarf! Classy as always, me. I put the dress and scarf in the wash when I got home with a scoopful of the Oxi Stain Removal stuff in along with my washing powder and it came right out. I am a demon for dropping things - when Nic and I first started going out with each other I managed to drop chocolate down my pyjama top when we were eating breakfast and somehow ended up with chocolate on my bum. I am no Audrey Hepburn, safe to say. So the opportunity to sample the stain removal powder was very much appreciated and I have been using a scoop in every wash since - to catch the stains I haven't even been aware I've been making!

Anyway, now it's time for me to go because dinner is ready. Mashed potato doesn't stain, does it?

Disclosure: I was not paid for this post, but I was sent some Vanish Oxi Action to review. All opinions are my own, and expressed as classily as ever. 

Blackmail is an ugly word, Miss Mountshaft.

So, yeah. SNOW. Not impressed. Not impressed at all.

I hope this Friday evening finds everybody well. I'm grand, if cold. I'm bloody glad to have got to the weekend. I had a brilliant time last weekend what with all the drinking and the dancing, but I'm not so young anymore and it took me most of the week to get over it!

It has been a much better week though, despite the shitty weather. I managed to get that work situation that was bugging me out resolved, and that's a massive relief. I don't want to get into it too much here, but things are a lot better. The job itself still sucks, but at least that problem has been sorted out.

I wasn't in work on Wednesday and spent the day sewing (lobster Elisalex, when it stops snowing I'll get her on and model her for you) and saw my friends Dr. Hannah, Dr. Hayley and Dr. Lauren for coffee and a potter in town. Sadly it was too cold to take my coat off, so I couldn't show off my new dress to them, but I did get Nic to take some photos of me before I turned blue!

As you might know, I'm hopefully going to be teaching dressmaking at Berylune in a few weeks' time. I'm not sure how sales are going, but I rather suspect that the 'orrible weather makes sewing a summer dress less than appealing. Still, it can't stay like this forever so if you're local and you fancy giving it a go, you can book onto the course here. You could learn how to make a Colette Hazel dress, and even give it a little variation like this:

Etoile dress - Colette Patterns Hazel dress

This is my fourth Hazel dress and with the others, I stuck pretty closely to the pattern. However, as you might have observed, I am a sucker for a full skirt. A few weeks ago Tasia of Sewaholic sewed up a Hazel with a fuller skirt and I thought "Yessss! I need this!" I had this pink star-print cotton that I had bought a few days earlier while chatting up the owner of my local fabric store, Royal Fabrics, and it fit the bill perfectly.

This modification is ridiculously easy to do. Tasia cut the skirt pieces for the largest size, but I went with my own gathered skirt method, which is just using a dirndl. I cut the front piece the full width of my 45 inch fabric and the two back pieces half that width each. Simple.

Bodice view...

As I'm going to be teaching this, I decided to otherwise stick with the pattern instructions so I did not line the bodice. Usually I don't much enjoy faffing around with facings, but of course Colette instructions are so clear and simple that it's all very easy. I didn't put pockets in the skirt, although I had them cut out. I'm not sure why, I just decided I wasn't feeling pockets so gave them a swerve this time. The only other modification I made was to insert a lapped zipper rather than a concealed one, and I plan in my class to show my students how to do this too, if they like.

I was so taken with how Tasia's Hazel looked with a belt that I pulled out this blue belt that came with an Emily and Fin dress and I think it looks pretty neat! The waist in this dress has a fair bit of ease, which will be nice when it's lounging on the grass in the park kind of weather, but for now I wanted something with a bit more shape.

I'm pretty tough, but not tough enough to be dandering round like this all day so one of my million cardigans came to the rescue:

I'll probably still be wearing this dress with this cardigan come July, damn British weather!

It sounds a bit silly but until I saw Tasia's post, I hadn't considered adding a fuller skirt to the Hazel bodice, but I am really pleased with how it looks. It's partly the super twee fabric, but I think this dress is ridiculously cute. I'm looking forward to being able to wear it in warmer weather with these rather ridiculous sunglasses I bought on Wednesday:

WORK IT

Yes, I know there are five-year olds who would deem those sunglasses too immature. But I love them. Sadly, I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to wear them because:

 

There are no words for how unimpressed I am right now

So, yeah. The weather really needs to start playing ball because I'm really not into sewing winter stuff. HELL NO.

We're having some friends to stay this weekend and I need to bake them a cake. So I'm away to do that. Stay warm, everyone!

Oh yeah, and Google Reader blah blah Bloglovin...

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Well suit yourself, but my son Spiderman turned out just fine.

Hello! And now we're out the other side of another weekend, isn't that sad? I didn't manage to get ANY sewing done over the weekend apart from cutting out my next Elisalex dress, that is. It feels weird to have taken a weekend off my hobby, but it was good and it made me even more keen to get down to it this week. I'm terribly, pathetically excited about my next couple of sewing projects!

It was a really excellent weekend. I was working at home on Friday and I started the day in a real panic. I'm having an issue at work at the moment and I'm doing my best to get it resolved, but it is very stressful and work is making me really anxious as a result. Even though I was at home on Friday, the thought of work was making me sick with anxiety. A call from my lovely line manager helped make me feel better and I was able to get through the day, but I hate that this is happening and that I am feeling this way again. The big difference is that I'm really happy with my life outside of work, which is giving me the strength to get through my current situation, but I just wish it wasn't so hard.

All of that just makes it more important to enjoy the time when I'm not at work. When I finished for the day on Friday, Nic and I had a wonderful, relaxing evening. After going to the shop to buy tasty food and wine, I put henna in my hair, cooked dinner and we watched Jean Renoir's French Cancan. I've seen this film a few times but I never tire of it. The music is brilliant, the colours make it look like a painting by Toulouse-Lautrec, and Jean Gabin is just wonderful. It's also good as part of our pre-holiday Paris film festival.

On Saturday, we spent time cleaning the flat and grocery shopping, before putting the feet up for the afternoon. The weather was miserable, but luckily we missed the worst of it.

Limb Retro tea dress, Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes and vintage handbag

I broke my shopping ban to buy this dress when I was in London last weekend. I don't even feel bad because it was a ridiculously good price and I love it. I couldn't make it for the price - the fabric alone would run me about £30. It's a little big so I had to make some adjustments, but I love it. Nic really loves it too, so of course that is a bonus!

You see what I'm saying though, about having a buttload of dresses with birds on? I know I like to work with a theme and all, but still. But you see why I bought this, yeah?

On Saturday night, we went to our friend Greg's house for a party. I took my Feckin Birds dress out for a spin, and I backcombed my hair as high as I could get it to go. I felt awesome:

We had an amazing night of drinking and dancing. The dress held up to me shaking my stuff on top of the furniture, and I'm proud of that. The night in general was pretty cathartic - I suppose something in me really needed to get drunk and dance all night.

This lovely photo of me and Nic was taken by my friend Hayles. This was before the dancing all kicked off. We took our tired selves home at dawn. It was cool and weird to see the streetlights switch off, but it was good to see the sun come up. My cousin said to me on instagram - "It's good to party til the cows come home, and then party with the cows." My cousin is awesome.

 

The weir at dawn

As I said, no sewing was accomplished yesterday. I only got out of bed to have a shower, put on clean pyjamas and watch Star Trek: First Contact. Having a hangover sucks, but that's the cost of doing business. And First Contact is a great hangover movie, just so you know.

Pensioners! Tired of CROWS stealing your glasses?

Sometimes the need for a sewing pattern creeps up on you. You start seeing versions of it here and there, find yourself returning to look at the line drawings and pondering possible fabrics. I think this is probably how most of my pattern decisions work. Sometimes it's love at first sight, and that's the case with me and the Elisalex pattern by By Hand London. Funnily enough, it wasn't the website itself that made me want the pattern, but seeing a version Rehanon made of it that she put on instagram over Christmas. Gurl looked good. I knew at some point, the Elisalex dress had to get got.

What tipped the whole thing over the edge was an email from Vicki Kate alerting me to a mega Michael Miller sale at Fabric.com. She knew I wanted some more Michael Miller Ahoy Matey fabric, and while I was there and the shipping was cheap, some Wing Song fabric made its way into my order too. And so my Elisalex plan was born!

I sewed this up on Monday, having made a toile of the bodice on Saturday morning. I was a bit cheaty and instead of doing a full on proper toile, used my lining fabric. The pattern envelope of the Elisalex dress says there's not a lot of ease in the bodice. I cut a 12 and decreased the seam allowances all very slightly to 4/8 rather than 5/8 and got the fit I was after. I sewed the main body of the dress on my day off on Monday. DAMN IT WAS COLD. Nic was teaching, so I had a full day to sew, but the flat was utterly freezing. I could see my breath in the air in front of me. So my hands were a bit numb. That said, the dress came together like a charm. It's rated intermediate and I think that's fair given the fact that it has sleeves, but the instructions are clear and I had no bother at all. I don't think I've ever sewed princess seams before, but they were fine, and the sleeves were honestly a delight to insert. I wasn't initially sure if I wanted sleeves, but when it came to cutting out the fabric it was so cold that I thought it'd be a good idea.

Enough gabbing though, you want to see the dress, right?

The Feckin Birds Elisalex dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

I am so gutted it's such a dreary day - I really wanted some sunshine to show this off properly. Because, and I'm being serious now, this is genuinely my favourite dress I have ever sewed. I love all of my handmade clothes (to varying degrees but still) but there's something so special about this dress. It's the best dress I have made so far in my sewing career. I can't even put my finger on exactly what it is, but holy shit, you guys. THIS IS LOVE.

For one thing, I feel like an honest-to-god bombshell in it. The tulip skirt is a really exaggerated shape - enough room with those pleats to accommodate a burrito baby (gonna be one of those later) but with the most feminine hourglass shape. I guess this has everything I like in a dress in that it has a fitted bodice and a full skirt. Check out my walkaway as well. Hot damn:

(Baby Got) Back view

So naturally enough I am already mentally planning out another frajillion of these - like, there really needs to be a polka dot one (and I don't own anything that is royal blue polka dots) I think also the pattern would make a cracking wiggle dress with some slight adjustment to the skirt pieces - but that will take some thought, I guess. No hurry. But I know what I'm going to be doing with the lobster fabric that I was given at the Birmingham meet-up. Yes.

Bodice view - that wrinkle is only because I am leaning forward...

The bodice is especially lovely and I can see it being a good base for working with lots of different kinds of skirts. That said, I am so enamoured of the box pleats on this skirt that I'd really have to convince myself to move away from them. I think my favourite thing about the bodice though is the neckline scoop at the front and at the back. I don't like low-cut dresses especially, and this just shows enough skin to be alluring without me having to worry about my unruly bosoms getting in the way.

The bodice is lined, although the sleeves are not. I liked the method for finishing the bodice lining by catchstitching it down at the sleeves and the waistband. So here's a little glimpse of the innards:

Insides - I may sew quickly but I love finishing everything neatly inside all the same.

Sleeve hem catch-stitching

How fucking adorable is the label that comes with the pattern?! It has convinced me it's time to spring for some Handmade by Dolly Clackett labels at some point soon.

If you've maybe been on the fence about the dress, or you're thinking about it, BUY IT. The By Hand London girls are holding a Sewalong. You could even go for a Reversalex - a reversible one of these! Honestly, this pattern is solid gold. I really love it. The Elisalex dress and me are going to run away to Gretna Green and get married. You're all invited.

I HEART BY HAND LONDON

Oh, and the name of the dress? Well, I have a lot of dresses with birds on by this point. It just made me think of this:

Try Hanratty's Ear Clamps. Fully crow-resistant.

It's in the trees! It's coming!

Hola loves! So, more sewing from me this evening. So far this year my sewing output has surprised even me - I think it's all part of my drive to improve my life overall by having fun and also because DER pretty dresses.

Continuing with 2013's unofficial theme of 'why buy when you can sew', this make is inspired by another dress I have seen elsewhere. A number of weeks ago I noticed Stef of Diversions (one of my favourite blogs to lurk, I think she's awesome) wearing a rather adorable frock from I Know by Isabel Knowles. I was immediately charmed by the fabric and I recognised it as Fox Hollow by Monaluna. Don't tell me that lurking around fabric websites won't teach you a thing or two. Now, it's not my intention to be grabbing money away from hard-working designers, but at £130 the Isabel Knowles dress was just too rich for my blood. I'm not saying that it's not worth it, far from it. If you don't sew you're getting a dress made to your measurements in gorgeous fabrics. But that's something I could do for myself for a fraction of the price. So that's what I did. I should say at the outset this isn't a copy, and it's not even inspired by in the way my faux Bernie Dexter dresses are! I just liked the fabric.

I bought the fabric from M is for Make and their customer service was brilliant. I emailed Kate to ask if she had enough of the fabric in stock for a dress, and she emailed back to say yes, but to warn me that the fabric had no drape to it. I knew that, and that this would be fine for what I wanted, but I appreciated her email all the same. It shows that she valued good customer service over making a sale! But getting the fabric was a bit of a saga as the parcel being mislabelled meant that it got lost in the post.  Kate was great but I kind of gave up on the fabric ever showing up, but thankfully it did a couple of weeks later. Hurrah for my postie!

After the success of my Stay The Course dress, I did exactly the same thing with the Fox Hollow fabric. I reckon I could sew the bodice of Simplicity 2444 in my sleep now, so this came together very quickly. The only real difference this time was that I didn't give the dress such a deep hem, and hemmed it instead with some red bias binding, same as the armholes.

Hounds of Love dress - Simplicity 2444 with a gathered skirt, made from Monaluna 'Foxy Too' fabric and worn with Carvela Assemble shoes

I wore this on Saturday to the pub to celebrate Nic's birthday, and before it turned properly bitterly cold again. Sadly, I don't think this photo does this lovely dress justice because I was so cold that I'm not even standing up straight or anything! But I'm sure I'll get lots of photos of it again when the weather warms up a bit. The blue of the dress doesn't really go with the blue of the shoes, but I wanted to wear them because they're mental and fabulous, and also they're reeeeally high, so are easier to walk in after a few glasses of wine.

Slightly blurry bodice view - how cute are those little foxies?!

After some back and forth in my head about what to call the dress, I settled on Hounds of Love. I know they're foxes, not hounds. Hounds of Love is my favourite Kate Bush song and I was listening to the album on repeat while sewing this dress. One of the lines is sort of relevant...

I found a little fox, caught by dogs
He let me take him in my hand
His little heart, it beat so fast I'm ashamed of running away
from nothing real, I just can't deal with this
but I'm still afraid to be there...

The video for Hounds of Love is wonderful in the way that only a Kate Bush video can be. There's lots of seriously awesome dancing, and the video itself is a homage to The 39 Steps, with a bonus reference to Night of the Demon. So that's cool. And I have a big old crush on Kate Bush and she looks incredible in this video. Anyway, Hounds of Love is a song that always makes my heart leap with delight. I love Kate Bush and I don't care if y'all think that's lame. She's amazing.

I'm not throwing these shoes in no damn lake, Kate.

And I think this dress is awesome, too. I wore it to work today (with more sensible shoes) and the cute wee faces cheered me awfully. That's what it's all about for me, really.

I'm going to leave you here with another Kate Bush reference. My love of her music has been both tainted and enhanced by this. Enjoy.

 Heathcliff! It's me! Cathy! Come home!

Look in the mirror. How do you think it'd go over if I came into work one day wearing a cowboy hat? You think I'd get away with that?

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend. I'm currently huddled up under a hundred blankets again, as the weather has turned so disgusting. Boo! Naturally enough I'm still pining for and sewing for the warmer weather, so fingers crossed that this snow clears off soon.

I had a really lovely long weekend, having taken Friday and today as annual leave. I really needed this after having an exceptionally terrible and upsetting day at work on Thursday. I'll talk about that more in a future post because I feel like I need to get it out of my system, but at the same time I'm not ready to go into it yet. So the long weekend was especially welcome, and we had a reason to celebrate as well, as it was Nic's birthday.

I had a very lazy day on Friday, and just chilled out in the house and did some sewing. We only went out to get groceries and ingredients for baking Nic's birthday cake.

Vintage dress and bowler hat, Hard Hearted Harlot 'Reply' boots and satchel by Max C London

This is a wee bit different from my usual style, but I love this vintage dress. I bought it a few years ago in a vintage shop in Birmingham, and I have no idea when it dates from, but it's handmade. The hat came from the same shop, strangely enough, but on a different trip. Anyway - this is all very matchy-matchy as the black and taupe go with my gorgeous Max C satchel. The satchel was a gift from Fuse Fashion, who got in touch with me a few weeks ago and offered me something from their site to review. I was in the market for a new bag anyway, so this seemed to fit the bill.

I've been using the satchel pretty much constantly since I received it a couple of weeks ago - it's a pretty big bag, in fact it's bigger than I had realised from the product shot - so of course it's totally practical for my work bits and bobs. The push locks are cute but are a bit fiddly to get opened and closed, but at least that means that a pick-pocket would have trouble getting into the bag!

Strangely enough, the last time I wore this dress was exactly a month previously, on Friday 8th February:

 

Friday 8th February 2013 - vintage dress again, this time with neutral court shoes from Peacocks

I do always wonder about this dress, and why the person who made it gave it away. I mean, I'm glad they did because it fits me so perfectly! But I do always think about it when I wear it and how it feels to give away something that you have made.

Anyway, that's enough of me dribbling on for one evening. I'm pretty tired and I think that shows. I will be back later in the week though, hopefully able to show you some more of the weather-inappropriate things I've been sewing. See you then, my dears!

Disclosure: I was not paid to write this post, although I did receive the bag as a gift from Fuse Fashion. As ever, all opinions are honest and my own.

You know what must have happened? My hot and foamy must have exploded!

Yo yo YO. You guys. I have been having a sucky week. I don't know how to explain it really. I hurt my shoulder somehow on Sunday and was miserable and in pain for all of Sunday and Monday, and some of yesterday. Work has been as horrible as ever, but I've been struggling a wee bit more with it than usual because I'm tired and cranky. FUN OR WHAT. Anyway, it's Wednesday night now and I have a long weekend ahead of me if I can just get through tomorrow without going on some kind of rampage. Wish me luck, yeah?

Anyway, I'm trying to get my week turned around. I left work a bit earlier than usual and called in with the ladies at Berylune, and then I came home and ate the delicious halloumi that Nic cooked for me. Then he went to the pub and I cleaned my sewing machine. But all of that was refreshing and reminded me anew that work might suck, and indeed it does suck, but I have lots of wonderful things in my life that the soul-sucking things about work can't destroy. Sorry to be boring, but my head has been wrecked these past few days.

Anyway, looking back to the weekend, I have another finished object to show you! I actually finished this dress before the Stay The Course dress, but I managed to get the Stay The Course dress photographed first. These pictures aren't the best - I was both laughing at the silly jokes Nic was making, and wincing in pain because of my shoulder:

The Too Many Dresses dress

Now, this dress was the result of some soul-searching. My dearest Lauren and Rick bought me this beautiful small-print floral fabric in September for my birthday and I earmarked it for a shirt-dress. But, after the slight stress of sewing my Parfait dress I really wanted to sew something simple and fun. I got a bit torn between sewing what I wanted to sew, and worrying that I should be sewing something where I'd learn something new. I took the question to twitter and got the enabling I needed, and decided to sew the circle dress my heart desired.

For this, I went back to the lovely Eliza M pattern that Eliza sent me to review in January. I fear I gave this pattern a bit of a bad rap when I sewed it up in the first place. Well, no - I did say how much I liked the pattern and I do still feel that the instructions could be better, but it is cute AS. I mean, look at it. Still - I wasn't happy with the fit of the bodice so decided that this time, I'd make some adjustments and not fudge it. The back bodice piece is similar in shape to that of Simplicity 2444, which does fit well. So I compared the pattern pieces. The Eliza dress doesn't have any darts in the back bodice, but Simplicity 2444 does, so I just transferred those across. The only other change I made was to dispense with the all-in-one facing and redraft the facing pieces for the neckline. I used bias binding for the armholes. I also used an invisible zip, because that's what I had. And I ignored the instructions, which made the whole thing a lot easier.

CHUBBY FACE OF JOY

As you can see from the CHUBBY FACE OF JOY (and some pain) I am pretty damn happy with the dress. I actually wore it out for the first time last Wednesday night, to the pub. Our local is an old man pub, but it's the kind where you can rock up in a circle dress and crinoline on a Wednesday night and nobody passes any remarks. It was really too cold to wear this dress on Sunday, so after we went out for a walk and did the grocery shopping, I came home and put my pyjamas on. I'm in my pyjamas now. I know that might spoil the illusion, but like, I love my pyjamas.

Anyway, yes, the pattern. This all came together really easily and I'm very happy with the result. My experiment with the darts on the bodice confirmed that I need to do a bit of work on pattern drafting, so I'm getting that organised. It's sort of funny that I sewed this dress, needing it to be a straightforward and fun project and that is what has encouraged me to push my learning a little bit further. I suppose taking the pressure off myself reminded me that I want to learn a bit more.

As I say, it was cold on Sunday, so I wore this little green cardigan from Phase Eight. In this photo I'm laughing at Nic, who claimed to be trying to avoid getting our naked neighbour in the frame. To be fair to Nic, the neighbour might have been naked. I don't know.

Anyway, all, I'm pretty tired now. Bizarrely, my foot is twitching, so I think it's time for me to sign off. But I do have YET more sewing to show you later in the week, so I'll check your bad selves then. Night!

I don't care, I'll start my own group! Rejection from society is what created X-Men!

Hola everyone and happy Saturday! I've been having a very happy day following a VERY busy and reasonably stressful work week. I had a long lie in, breakfast in bed, and then a happy afternoon in the sunshine with my friend and her beautiful baby. And I got to do all of it in one of the pretty dresses I sewed last week. Can't say fairer than that, right?!

Now, I know this might get my anonymous OMG COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT commenter's knickers in a twist, but I have been exercising my seamstress privilege and sewing a dress instead of buying it. The dress in question is another Bernie Dexter beauty:

Bernie Dexter Jackie dress 

Gorgeous, isn't it?! I've had it pinned on my pinterest 'dream dresses' board ever since I first spotted it, but as ever, the price was just a bit too rich for my blood. It's £125 at What Katie Did, if you want to get your hands on one though! Anyway, having pinned it, when I saw that the fabric was available to buy - well, it was a no-brainer. The fabric is from the 'Ahoy Matey' range by Michael Miller and the print is called 'Stay The Course'. I saw it in a few fabric shops, but eventually picked up 3 metres of it from Ebay at £10 a metre - bargain! Initially, I wasn't too sure if the fabric was a bit busy to have close to my face, but it does look gorgeous in the Bernie dress. I looked closely at the Jackie dress and, while I like the collar detail on it I knew that really, it was the fabric I loved and I wanted that to be the focus of the dress. I decided on the bodice from Simplicity 2444, as I love the fit of the bodice and thought the dart details would look great in this fabric. To keep in line with the inspiration, I added a dirndl skirt. Simple! So, here's my Stay The Course dress...

 

Stay The Course dress worn with Office 'Love Me Tender' shoes and a vintage handbag

So basically, I FREAKING LOVE IT. The fabric is everything I wanted it to be and I really adore the print. It is everything I like - loud, bright, silly and nautically-themed. Which is a bit silly really considering that Leamington is, like, as far from the sea as you can get in this country and also that I can't swim. But IDGAF, you know? 

In terms of construction, not much to say really. I think the sloped darts on the bodice front are really snazzy and I like that the horizontal lines of the print draw attention to them. It would have been easy enough to draft a little collar bit to go on the dress as with the Bernie Dexter frock, but one of the things I love about the other Simplicity 2444 dresses I have made is the simplicity (der) of the neckline and I'm glad I kept that here. The fabric is printed vertically (as with the Paris Ville fabric) which made it easy to work with the stripes and figure out the placement on the bodice. Unlike on the original dress, I didn't want the anchors going across the widest part of my bust as it would distort their shape (busty ladies represent) and I'm really pleased with how that looks on the finished dress!

 

Bodice detail

I didn't line the bodice. I used the neckline facings from the pattern, but used red bias tape to finish the armholes and the waist seam inside:

Waist seam

Armhole bias-binding

The other thing I decided to do, just on a whim really, was to create a bit of contrast at the side seams and mismatch the stripes. They're matched really well everywhere else, and I thought this would give an additional bit of visual interest:

 

Side seams

I didn't manage to get a close-up of the hem, but it's mega deep! I wanted the anchor border to be the bottom of the dress and I wanted a full row of ropes as the hem, and I had lots of fabric! It also meant I was able to have the turquoise dots right at the bottom of the dress. Hurrah!

As with the Nana dress, I'm thrilled with my own take on a dream dress! For one thing, it was a lot cheaper. I had the pattern and the zip in my stash, so without counting the hours I spent on it, this dress cost me under £40. Also, I had the pleasure of making it.

I was saying to Nic today that my shopping ban is having a really positive effect on me. As well as saving me money, it's encouraging me to sew more and that's good for my health and my happiness. I know I will enjoy this dress far more than I would if I had bought one instead!

 

Side view - so you can see how those mismatched side seams look!

So, yeah - I don't have a huge amount more to say because this is pretty much form for me by now - fitted bodice, full skirt. It's what I like! I am planning two more of these dresses - because I bought some of the companion fabric with boats on it - BOATS - and some Monaluna 'Fox Hollow' fabric, as well. I know what I like, what can I say?!

This was perfect for a relaxed afternoon in Leamington, and while the sunshine was warm obviously I had a cardigan with me. I always have a cardigan with me at all times. I know red would work, but I am enchanted by the little turquoise spots, and there was blue in my shoes...

 

I do have a cardigan in basically every colour...

I haven't done any sewing today, but I have a few projects in the queue to crack on with tomorrow - and another new handmade dress to show you in the next few days. I told you I'd been busy - I'm just not sure how my wardrobe is going to cope!