Ah, your Auntie Elsie, Brenda. Is she still a cleaner down the brewery?

Hello lovelies! Oh, it's been a funny old week. Perhaps it was the barometric pressure, but I spent most of the week ill and totally all over the place emotionally. I'm much brighter and more myself now, thankfully, I'm not sure I could have passed another week like that!

My new job is still going well, although things are still as topsy-turvy as ever. I got some really positive feedback from my new line manager today though, which made me really happy. There are always going to be ups and downs in my job but after being so unhappy for such a long time at work, it really feels brilliant to finally be enjoying work and feeling challenged and satistfied by it. Long may it last!

I was working from home today and the day started out really dismal and cloudy, but at lunchtime the sun peeped its head out so I scrambled around to get a recent sewing project photographed! This is a dress I made using some of the fabric I bought in Paris, some 100% cotton gingham from La Folie des Coupons on Rue d'Orsel. Unusually for me, I sewed this dress a few weeks ago and then I must have gone off the idea of it or something, because I only got around to finishing it (hemming it) this week. As ever, a bit of distance can be a marvellous thing because I'm very happy with it:

Cornflake Girl dress and Irregular Choice No Place Like Home shoes

The bodice here is kind of experimental. I was really happy with the shape of the neckline on the Shepherd's Bush Sweetheart dress and wanted something similar here, but I didn't want to break up the gingham with princess seams. So this is the bodice from the Eliza M Eliza dress, with the back from Simplicity 2444 and an eyeballed sweetheart neckline. The shape of it isn't perfect but I like it anyway. I LOVE the colour and size of the gingham and couldn't resist pairing the whole thing with my red sequined shoes. Predictable, it is me. I don't care.

Not too much to say in terms of construction here. The gingham wrinkles like anything so it was kind of a pain to work with. I lined the bodice with some cream cotton and did a handpicked lapped zipper. Standard. I hemmed the skirt with some bias binding - some pretty gingham bias binding that was a gift from my friends at Berylune.

Bodice back - I ended up not having quite enough fabric to match the gingham on the back bodice. But honestly, as I can't see it I don't really give a shit.

This picture kind of sucks, but here's my bias bound hem - you can also see how I finished my seams, by turning and stitching them. I love that finish.

It made me happy to sew a Wizard of Oz style dress to wear with my No Place Like Home shoes - along with my cherry Lady Dragon shoes, my sequined shoes are probably my favourites! But I must confess, I don't much care for The Wizard of Oz. It's fine and all, and the dog is cute, but it's not a film I'd choose to watch. It's a bit weary. I decided to name this dress after the Tori Amos song, partly because this week I was feeling all emotional and listening to Tori Amos is good when you feel that way. It's partly because, along with Anne Shirley, Tori Amos is the reason I dye my hair red. I'm talking two serious hero figures of my pre-teen and teenage years, here! Also, fuck it, the UK video for Cornflake Girl is absolutely brilliant:

The Thelma and Louise inspired US video is good too, but I think this one is better.

So, that's my Cornflake Girl dress. Not exactly ground-breaking, but certainly happy-making:

I think I'm actually getting ready to sneeze in this photo...

I wish I had more to say about this! But I had a rough night last night with insomnia and my brain has kind of checked out for the weekend. I'll be on better form next week - I'm off to London tomorrow to meet up with some sewing folks, and I have a little giveaway planned for next week. See you then!

...thought that was a good solution, hangin' with the raisin girls...