Why would that cheer her up? Does she look like a 22 year-old frat boy?

Hello hello hello! Happy Thursday evening everyone! I am so glad it's nearly the weekend, I tell you what. I've been finding work really stressful this week and I'm so looking forward to kicking back and trying to forget about it over the weekend. Preferably with a big glass of wine. I hate getting stressed about work because it seems like such a pointless waste of energy, and because I am very mindful of the fact that things could be a lot worse. I've been getting stressed because I'm invested in what I'm doing - whereas previously, work-related stress was due to feeling totally disenfranchised. So I'm fairly confident that this will pass, and I'm trying my hardest not to comfort shop my way out of it - instead I'm comfort sewing or knitting my way out of these feelings! I had to frog what I'd done on the Agatha cardigan because I was finding it too difficult to concentrate on a challenging pattern while I was feeling freaked out, so I've cast on Hetty instead. I may have been - no, I totally was inspired by Busy Lizzie's adorable Hetty cardigan. Agatha has just been benched. I'll come back to her when I have more experience and less mind clutter.

So, I promise I have been sewing other things apart from five million Emery dress - but, fuck it. I have also been sewing Emery dresses because, you know. This is me we're talking about. After Sarah, Char and I spent the day sewing her raccoon Emery, I bought myself some of the fabric too. It's 'Raccoon' from the Acacia collection by Tula Pink, just so you know. As well as not wanting to be a total copycat, I was pretty sure the pale blue 'sky' colourway wouldn't suit me, so I went for 'blueberry' instead. And to try something a bit different, I decided to omit the sleeves on this version.

Bread and Jam for Frances dress and Irregular Choice Lady W shoes

The fit of the bodice is slightly different on this dress to my other Emerys. Like duh - the sleeves obviously make a difference! There is a little bit of a gape at the back neckline that isn't there in my sleeved versions. It's nothing major and no biggie, but that duh was aimed at me because I didn't even click that would happen when omitting the sleeves from a bodice that is drafted to have them. Yes, I know. I'm a sewing remedial. 

I opted to use a concealed zip on this dress, too. All my other Emerys have lapped zips and that's because I generally like the way they look. But, real talk. It's also because inserting concealed zips has never been my number 1 favourite sewing task. I sucked it up here though, and BOOM. I'm now somewhat converted to the concealed zips. It's Christine Hayne's instructions for inserting them - she makes it so easy! 

Back view. I'm mainly including this because it means you can see the backs of these crazy shoes - they have wings on them!

I named the dress after one of my favourite books, Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban. I had this book as a child and I think my copy of it fell apart from rereading. When Nic and I first got together, he bought me a new copy in Blackwell's in Oxford on a day trip.

I think the Frances in Lillian Hoban's illustrations is actually a badger, not a raccoon. But I think you can see why the raccoons remind me of her. I love Frances. We have a lot in common - we're both bossy but loving big sisters, we both have limited patience and unlimited capacity for fantasy, and we're both faddy eaters. I think my favourite bit in the story is when Frances gets mad food envy looking at her friend Albert's lunch. I can identify with that. In fairness, Albert is kind of awesome - for lunch he brings a cream-cheese, cucumber and tomato sandwich on rye bread, with a pickle on the side; a hardboiled egg with a little cardboard shaker of salt; a thermos of milk; a bunch of grapes and a tangerine and a cup custard. Albert makes sure he tells Frances he has a spoon to eat the cup custard with because: BALLER. Clearly. 

Spoilers, but Frances sure shows him at the end of the book when she rocks up to school with a thermos of cream of tomato soup; a lobster-salad sandwich on thin slices of white bread; celery, carrot sticks and black olives, and a little cardboard shaker of salt for the celery; two plums and a tiny basket of cherries and vanilla pudding with chocolate sprinkles AND a spoon to eat it with. She lays this all out on a doily, along with a tiny vase of violets. Albert tells her, "I think eating is nice." Like, YEAH. 

Um, Albert? I ALSO think eating is nice. Pass the rye bread, pls.

Anyway. The print is mainly green but the colourway is called 'blueberry' and there are lots of blues in the print - teals, turquoises and sky blues. It's really lovely, and I'm so glad I bought it. And I'm going to include this in Sew Blue February, even though I wore this outfit with green:

And I'm going to leave you with one more totally unnecessary photo because it was a beautiful sunny day last week when these photos were taken. It's still chilly but these sunny days are so happy-making.

We were on our way to get some coffee and cake at The Larder here. One of the things I love about living in Leamington, apart from the fact that it's so beautiful, is that there are so many really nice independent shops and cafes. The Larder is reasonably new - they opened towards the end of last year - but they endeared themselves to me immediately because the owner gave me a free cake one evening because I happened to be passing. Last week when we went in, he also gave us free cake and complimented my accent. Free cake and compliments and the coffee is really good. I'm going to live in Leamington forever. FOREVER.

Okay, I'm off to spend a bit of quality time with Hetty and to watch some more of S6 of Mad Men. If my hands are busy with my knitting needles, I'm less likely to throw something at the TV when that massive fuckwit Harry Crane behaves badly. Probably.

Your landlord called. He says it's not the toilet, it's you.

Well well well. Hello, everyone! It's been quite a few days around here, between one thing and another. As I write this, I'm mildly hungover after a lovely afternoon and evening with our friends Rick and Lauren - it turned into a very late night for a school night, but luckily I have been working from home today and that is much more manageable than being hungover in the office. I've been drinking tea and eating bourbon biscuits as if my life depended on it. It's actually been the nicest hangover I've ever had!

Anyway, it's been a really special few days. Yesterday morning, Nic told me he had a surprise for me but he could only stage manage it if he took my phone off me for a few minutes. I was like WUT, but as we were going outside to photograph a finished object anyway, I gave him the phone. After taking my photos, he handed the phone back to me so I could read this post that popped up on my reader:

ERRRR WHAAAAA?! It turns out that my sweet friend Sarah of Rhinestones and Telephones palled up with Nic and with my gurl Clare to organise a surprise for me - a Sew Dolly Clackett sewalong! This is something we'd joked about on twitter a couple of weeks ago, and I was honestly lost for words to see that Sarah had made it into a reality. Not only has she masterminded this idea, but she got lots of my favourite retailers to donate actual prizes. I mean. Seriously. WUT?! You can read about the whole thing in more detail over on Sarah's blog, but the gist of it is that if you sew a Dolly Clackett inspired dress between now and 23rd April, you can win one of these fabulous prizes:

• A £50 voucher to spend at Berylune
• A $75 voucher to spend at Harts Fabric
• A Christine Haynes Emery pattern
• By Hand London's Anna and Elisalex patterns
• A pattern of your choice from Sewaholic
• A pattern of your choice from Colette Patterns

Sarah has asked me to judge the entries and choose the winners, and as I'll be doing that I'm also going to throw in a special mystery prize of my own. That seems only fair, because Sarah also included me in the spoils - organising a voucher for me from Minerva Crafts!

This is me reading Sarah's post. She asked Nic to take a photo of it. This is a face of bewilderment...

To say that I'm touched by this venture is such an understatement. I don't even know how to begin to express how moved I was by this gesture of affection from my friends in this online sewing community. I have made so many friends - virtual and real-life - through this blog. Learning to sew has helped me to express myself creatively, it's given me a valuable outlet when I've needed it and it's given me access to an incredible community of funny, intelligent, sweet and thoughtful friends. I am truly humbled by the way in which you guys have responded to this idea, and I'm genuinely bowled over that anyone would like to emulate my style. I mean it! You guys mean so, so much to me and I still can't quite believe that this is actually happening. But of course, I can't WAIT to see what people sew!!

I was also ridiculously touched that Sarah - and the rest of the dear people she involved - are doing this as a wedding gift to me and Nic. I love that he is interested in and supportive of my hobby, and that he has made friends here too. Thank you all so much!

So,  I really will be super excited to see what people sew. Sarah is setting up a Flickr pool for the images to be uploaded to and - somewhat hilariously - there's also a #sewdollyclackett hashtag on twitter. And, if you'd like some (ahem) inspiration, you can have a look at my handmade wardrobe tab on this here blog.

Anyway - when I got the news, I was outside on my front step getting photos of a recently finished make. Not a dress this time, but another hand-knitted cardigan! Pretty soon after finishing my first Andi Satterlund Miette cardigan, I decided to put the lessons I had learned to practice and get knitting on another one. I bought some navy yarn from a local shop - it's a 25% wool mix and it was pretty pleasant to knit with. After my first one turning out to be so - erm - fitted, I went up a size for this one.

Nautical Miette cardigan, worn with Stay The Course dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa 3-strap shoes

The Miette is knitted from the top down, with the idea that you can try it on as you go. I did that but honestly, I didn't think this was going to fit until I had finished the button bands and neckband - up until then, it really felt like it would be a bit too big. But it's not! I'm super happy with both the fit and the length. 

I found knitting this much easier than my first Miette. This is mainly because, you know, I knew what I was doing and was more confident generally. I think there's also a bit of muscle memory coming into play - On my first Miette I was totally handless. I found the circular needles difficult to get to grips with, but by now I can handle them much more easily. I still made mistakes - misreading the pattern left me having to knit my buttonholes on the wrong side, for example. It makes no difference to me but looking at the photo above, I do think it looks a bit odd. But of course, that could be because I'm aware of it!

I bought the buttons from the rag market in Birmingham. They were ridiculously cheap - I think they were 8p each or something stupid. I did buy some more subtle, sensible buttons too but when it came to sewing them on I had to go with these. I mean, come on. Tiny little anchors! Blocking the cardigan widened the buttonholes enough to make the buttons actually usable, too. Hurrah! Those sensible buttons can go on something else, maybe.

Here's the back view

I made one minor amendment to the pattern - I knitted the waist band and the sleeve cuffs in a 2x2 rib rather than a twisted one, although I stuck to that for the button bands and neckband. As you might be able to see above, my button band sticks out a little bit at the bottom, so I'd have to pay a bit more attention to that in a future one. The other thing is that the lace detail on my cardigan isn't very apparent, even after blocking, and I'm curious to see whether that will be different if I knit it in a 100% natural fibre yarn. Or maybe it's something I'm not doing correctly when it comes to blocking? In any case, it is only curiosity and not disappointment. I'm really thrilled with the cardigan. As I said previously, I'm so happy to have learned how to actually do this. I'm also really pleased by how much better this one is than my first one. Progress, baby! That's a good feeling. And, you know, knitting is fun! I did get a bit of finish-itis with this one in that I knitted the biggest part of it really quickly and then stalled when I was nearly finished the second sleeve, but I gather that's a pretty common phenomenon.

I will make another Miette before long. It's a lovely pattern and really enjoyable to knit. I bought some lovely pink cotton yarn over the weekend and have already cast on my next make; an Andi Satterlund Agatha cardigan. I think that will be really fun for spring and it seems like a nice challenge now I feel like I've got Miette figured out. Don't worry though, sewing. You're still my main squeeze!

Ha ha! I look proper goofy here. I'm pushing my hair back out of the way because it was windy, but I look like I think I'm in a shampoo advert or something. What a dope.

Okay, I'm going to leave it here for the evening. Check out Sarah's blog for details of how to get involved in Sew Dolly Clackett. Also, don't forget that there's still time for you to win a copy of the Simply The Best Sewing book! I'm away to watch some Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Commander Riker, is that a trombone in your hand, or are you just pleased to see me? I hope it's a trombone. Please let it just be a trombone.

If you don't like it, you can leave. This isn't Eric Roberts' teepee.

Hola! Hope everyone is keeping well. I'm grand - working from home for the next couple of days and trying to balance out how frustrating I find teleconferences with the fact that my house smells a lot nicer than the office, and that the coffee is nicer here too. You know. Standard life stuff. It's also really nice to be working in my bedroom with the sun - actual SUN - streaming in through the windows.

Anyway, I have a short and sweet post for you today, and a giveaway. Whoop! The people at Simplicity got in touch with me a few weeks ago and asked me would  I like a copy of their new edition of the Simply the Best Sewing Book. I'm not usually one to turn down a freebie so I said OMG YES PLEASE in the most dignified way I could manage, and they very kindly sent me two copies. One for me to review, and one for one of you lot playing along at home:

Ugh, this photo is out of focus, sorry! Also, if you don't get a Tina Turner song stuck in your head when you look at this photo then we can't be friends.

I must admit, I don't have a huge sewing book library. I have Gertie's book and Sew U: Home Stretch, and that's it! So, I was very happy to be sent a general sewing reference book. The book states its aim right at the beginning, saying

The aim of this book is to be the most comprehensive source of information for both new and experienced sewers.

Fair enough, right? While I honestly cringe at the word 'sewers', I think this book is a very comprehensive guide to home sewing, with a focus on garment construction.

The book is spiral-bound, and the chapters are marked with coloured tabs for ease of reference. I  also really like the way in which Simplicity have gone to some considerable effort to make the book attractive - they clearly know their audience!

Hello, pretty end papers!

I think the most useful chapters for any home seamstress are the one on achieving a perfect fit, and the chapter about sewing techniques. The perfect fit chapter is really clear in explaining how you can make adjustments to your pattern, and how to tell what adjustments you might need to make. I'm a pretty visual learner so I found the diagrams particularly helpful here:

Actually, the diagrams about bust adjustments are probably a better illustration of how good the diagrams are! But this gives you the idea.

So anyway, I won't waffle on too much more about the book. I'm a reasonably experienced seamstress by this stage but there are lots of things I am keen to learn - particularly about fitting - and I think this book will be a great basis for that. And now for the science bit. Concentrate.

Would you like to win your own copy of this pretty book? I have one to give away to a reader in the UK or Ireland. I'm sorry international readers, I just don't think I can afford to ship a pretty heavy book all the way to wherever you are! All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is to leave me a comment below and tell me what sewing technique you want to learn. You can have an extra chance at winning if you tweet a link to the giveaway - just leave me an additional comment to tell me you've done it. I'll leave the giveaway open for a week - until 4pm on Thursday, 27th February, and then I will choose someone at random after that time. Good luck! May the odds be ever in your favour.

And because I now find it weird to have a blog post without my big round face in it, here's a non-sewing related outfit from earlier in the week. I tried on this Laura Ashley dress about 5 years ago in  store and couldn't afford to buy it. This is seriously the first time since then that I've seen one in my size on ebay:

Laura Ashley geo-print dress, Topshop shoes and Hell Bunny cardigan

It's funny because I remember when I tried it on at the time thinking it was the most flattering dress ever. And now I'm not at all sure that it is - it has a strange dropped waist, for one thing. Still though, it was super-cheap on ebay and I suppose it is pretty cute.

Anyway, that's your lot from me, boys and girls. Hit me up in the comments if you'd like the book!

I didn't know what to bring you so I just got some magazines and lipsticks. Women stuff.

Hello hello. Two posts from me in two days. Whaaa? But think of it as a two-parter. Like all of those awesome Star Trek: The Next Generation ones, such as The Best of Both Worlds, Redemption, Gambit, or the best ever, Chain of Command. Or the less good The X-Files two-parters such as Anasazi / The Blessing Way or Nisei / 731. Actually, The X-Files isn't the best example there because it excels in doing a good part one and a really sucky part two (usually with ponderous Mulder voice-over), and this post is going to be as good as yesterday's. And there are DEFINITELY no evil Cardassians or alien-human hybrids up in here I swear.

But yes, yesterday I told you that my Happy Valentine's Day, No-one! dress was one of two Valentine's-themed Emery dresses. Dudes, it's because lil ol' Emery has totally stolen my heart. I kind of want to make enough so I can wear one every day of the week. No, I'm not that extreme and I don't want to get tired of it or anything. But it's just so damn cute and fun to sew! I got this excellent Alexander Henry fabric as a gift, and I think it works just perfectly with Emery:

Los Amantes Clandestinos dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress in Alexander Henry 'Sweetheart' cotton, worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa 3-strap heels

Yeah, you know I was saying yesterday how much I love hearts on stuff? Well my pin-up girl preoccupation is almost as strong. This is now the eighth pin-up print dress I own, and it certainly won't be the last. I have my eye on some amazing Alexander Henry pin-up Mermaid fabric, which will have to find its way into my stash at some point soon. I just think the prints are so cute and fun, although I must admit to being a tiny bit disappointed that none of the girls on this dress had bitchy expressions like that one bitchy cowgirl on From The Hip. Still though, they all seem to be pretty delighted with themselves:

Is it weird that I am totally jealous of her hair?

For some reason, this one really reminds me of the covers of the Sweet Valley High novels. Where's her lavaliere, tho?!

Anyway, nothing to say regarding the construction here. I've said it all before on my other makes. I lined the bodice with some of the red sheeting Offset Warehouse sent to me, and it feels really nice against the skin, and it looks cute inside too. I love that!

I did my best with pattern placement on the front of the bodice, in that I wanted to get as many of these sassy ladies out front and centre as I could. I'm pretty happy with how that turned out.

It's not clear from the angle but you can also see the girl in the red dress on the lower right side of the bodice

I was a bit less careful with the back pieces and, as a result, one of the girls has a dart right through the middle of her face! But, whatever, Dart Face. I can't see you.

So yes. Emery. If you can't find me, it's probably because me and Emery are sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S...well, you know the rest. I'm going to make one more over the weekend (I bought some of the Tula Pink Raccoon fabric with an Emery in mind, and it arrived on Tuesday) and then I'm going to give us both a break. Just don't go sleeping with that girl from the copier place, Emery.

I wore this today to go and have coffee with Sarah, and it seemed like it would be rude not to wear it with some red shoes. I bought these Melissa shoes in Poste Mistress in Covent Garden. They were on sale, and I loved them. Yes, it helped that the ridiculously handsome young Spanish man working in the shop complimented me on my dress (I was wearing the Blanche dress at the time, and in fairness it did look amazing with the shoes) and then talked to me for ages about his boyfriend's job as a garment technician for Miss Selfridge. I AM that shallow, but he was genuinely adorable.

Our little overnight stay in London at the start of the week was brilliant. Nic's talk at the Vortex was well-attended and a lot of fun. A few of our old university friends came along, one of whom was pretty instrumental in Nic and I getting together and is one of my all-time favourite people. It was a really good night. We stayed in a cute little flat in Finsbury Park and after breakfast with our friend JP on Tuesday morning we headed into town to potter around in Soho and have lunch in Franco Manca before meeting Clare and Sally for cocktails at the Bar Americain.

This was taken just before Sally arrived, but she looked as gorgeous as Clare does here

My life is normally in no way like Carrie Bradshaw's life (well, except in that I would choose Big over Aiden every time, no question, even though he is an asshole. Aiden is a total asshole too, just in a far less interesting way) but, you know, having brunch and buying shoes and drinking cocktails in the big city with well-dressed friends was pretty nice for the one day. Of course the illusion was shattered on the train journey home, but that's public transport for you. We can't all have town cars.

OUT-TAKE! While we were taking the photos there was a pigeon flying overhead squawking (or tweeting or coo-ing or whatever it is pigeons do) and this is me, blinking, mid-glaring at it, hoping it doesn't crap on me. Or drop out of the sky, which my friend Disha saw a pigeon do on Thursday.

Over coffee, Sarah presented me with what is definitely one of the best gifts I've ever been given. My very own labels!

F*cking Handmade by Dolly Clackett. FUCK YEAH.

I was really touched by being given such a thoughtful, funny and appropriate gift. I can't wait to sew one of these into my next handmade dress!

FUCKING HANDMADE

That's your lot from me for today. I'm tired and run-down so I have a date with some peppermint tea and some DVDs. I'm kind of in the mood for watching some TNG now, actually...

A happy Anna Howard Shaw day to us all!

Hey hey, and Happy Valentine's Day, if that's your thing! I have the day off today, which is very nice - sitting at home and watching the rain hammer on the windows sure beats sitting in the office and watching the rain hammer on the windows, doesn't it?! I have been out into the weather to pick up some essential supplies - hoummus and dessert and some tights - but the rest of my day is going to be all about relaxing, and maybe some sewing.

Nic and I don't make much fuss about Valentine's Day. Not because of any objection to the holiday or the idea of it or anything like that, we just don't. That said, I do enjoy a bit of themed dressing so when Offset Warehouse got in touch with me a few weeks ago and asked would I sew something Valentine themed, of course I said yes. They very kindly sent me some of their red shirting, and it's lovely. I freely admit, I would never have bought this myself because it's a solid colour. As you might have worked out, I'm all about the prints, so this was a nice challenge in itself. Luckily, inspiration struck thanks to Handmade Jane, who has had this lovely dress pinned on her 'Red' pinterest board for ages:

This dress is so cute so let's ignore the fact that she looks like she's about to fall over...

I initally thought I'd make something similar, with a bow at the waist. So, um, the Emery pattern is pretty perfect for that. But when it came to it, I just couldn't do the bow. It's really cute and everything, but I just knew it would annoy me when wearing it - you know, when it comes to wearing cardigans or sitting at a desk or whatever. So, I kept it simple. Sure, why not. So here's my Valentine's dress...

Happy Valentine's Day, No-one! dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress, worn with Mel Pop Heart shoes

Sadly, it's a horrible rainy day, so I'm afraid these pictures don't show this dress at its best! I was a bit dubious about it when I finished it because it seems so odd to me now to wear a solid colour. I think I only have a tiny handful of dresses that don't have some kind of print on them. I do like it a lot, though. Maybe not so much that I'm going to rush out and buy lots of solid-coloured fabrics, but enough that I'll certainly wear this. For one thing, the shirting fabric is really lovely to wear. It's so drapey and soft and is of a very high quality.

This one is a bit out of focus, or it's blurred by the rain or something, but it's the best photo I got of the skirt! Shame about my smug face, but what can you do. You have to work with what you've got.

Offset Warehouse asked me to choose between two Valentine's themes for this fabric - 'All The Single Ladies' or 'Love and Romance'. Well, as I said above, I'm not much of a one for Valentine's Day, but I did think that going with 'All The Single Ladies' might send out the wrong message to, you know, my fiance. So, 'Love and Romance'. I went for it with all the heart-shaped accessories I've got.

Heart-shaped earrings from Thomas Sabo

Heart-shaped ring from Antoine et Lilli; a souvenir from our last holiday in Paris

Heart-print tights from H&M and heart shoes by Mel

I legit love heart-printed stuff. The Thomas Sabo earrings were a birthday present from my parents, and they chose them because I have so many pairs of shoes with hearts on. I have seven pairs. Which is maybe kind of excessive, but I can live with that. I sort of like excessive. It's why I've pulled a Cassie Stephens and made two Valentine's themed dresses. I'll show you the other one tomorrow, though.

YES CAN I PUT MY COAT BACK ON NOW PLEASE IT'S FEBRUARY FFS

Thank you very much to Offset Warehouse for so kindly providing the fabric. And thank you to my lovely Valentine, Nic, for standing out in the pouring rain to take these photos of me. He's a whole good'un. Happy Valentine's Day, folks!

Ain't no party like a Liz Lemon party cause a Liz Lemon party is MANDATORY

But... wait. How... Where else could you put the Northern Hemisphere but on the top?

Hello! What's the craic with everyone this evening? I'm having a standard Sunday evening of Inspector Morse ('Daughters of Cain') and a roast dinner, after a pretty relaxing weekend. I have two days off next week as well, although not consecutively, so I suppose life is pretty good! I'm feeling a bit tired and chilly and off my game this evening for some reason, though. Apologies in advance if I ramble or make less sense than usual.

I did a fair bit of sewing over the weekend, as well as some socialising and a bit of drinking. I've had a few sewing deadlines that have made my desire to sew diminish a bit. It seems I strain against obligation, which really shows me that sewing things to sell would not be a good career for me! Anyway, I tempered it a bit by sewing something just for fun on Saturday morning. I bought some map print fabric when I went to Goldhawk Road last month. It came from A1 fabrics and on each of the last three occasions I went in, I fondled it before talking myself out of buying it. It's been working on me though, in no small part because of excellent creations from Rehanon and Hannah. I finally made myself buy it because I couldn't stop thinking about it, and how awesome it would look as a circle skirt. Map fabric ----> Globe ---> Circle skirt. You see my logic! So, that's how my latest dress came to be:

Claudia Jean dress - By Hand London Anna bodice with a circle skirt, worn with Lola Ramona 'Angie Lila' spotty heels*

I really love the print. I've wanted a map print dress for ages - basically ever since I first spotted the fabric - and I love how vibrant the colours are on this print. As a map it's pretty terrible. The geographical accuracy leaves a lot to be desired. The quality of the fabric isn't the best either. The grain is kind of all over the place (technical term) so even after leaving the skirt to hang overnight and trimming it to make it even, this was still a real pain to hem. I ended up swearing at it more than a few times in frustration, and it's been a while since that's happened! Still, though. The fabric was cheap and you have to expect that sometimes, and I still really love the dress.

Globe!

The eagle-eyed among you might have spotted that the print isn't always the right way up. Without cutting a panelled skirt, that wasn't going to be possible in a circle skirt. The idea of it tickled me anyway, because of CJ Cregg's encounter with the Organisation of Cartographers for Social Equality:

My dress no longer has the full Mercator Projection. It's upside down, so it's almost approaching a Peters Projection... Well, okay, not quite. But the way CJ's mind is blown by the alternative projection of the map is one of my favourite moments in The West Wing. To be honest, I nearly called this the Big Block of Cheese dress, but I thought it was high time I honoured Claudia Jean Cregg, because she is amazing.

Maybe I can find something else to be a Big Block of Cheese dress one day, though.

Anyway, there's not much more to say about this dress because I've said everything I need to about the Anna bodice, and I just love circle skirts in general. Today was sort of the wrong day to photograph a circle dress made from light, drapey fabric though because it was so windy! Like, extremely strong winds - the kind that make you feel like you've been in a fight even though you've only walked 100 yards. I am so ready for it to be spring.

Ummmmm... this isn't ideal. Just as well I have a slip on...

It also started to rain while we were in town, so my choice of open-toed shoes wasn't ideal either. Still, I wanted to give my lovely Lola Ramona shoes a spin:

Polka dots and bows and scallops... these may be the twee-est shoes ever!

Anyway, that's the craic there. After a little turn in town and a coffee with a friend, I came home and put my slippers on and got on with sewing some of my obligation sewing and watching The Golden Girls on DVD. So my feet weren't chilly for very long after all. It was totally worth it.

Anyway, to sum up. It's cold and grey, and I wish it was spring. This dress is not geographically accurate, but I love it nonetheless. It's blue, and it's February, so I'm calling this one for Sew Blue February. And CJ Cregg is one million percent awesome.

I have a (mostly) fun and very London-filled week ahead. Nic is running a Jazz on Film night at the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston tomorrow night, and we're treating ourselves to a night away. Hopefully this means I can get in some cocktails and/or shoe shopping on Tuesday afternoon. 

For now, though, it's time for me to give my full attention back to Chief Inspector Morse. I'll catch you cats later in the week.

I'll never do better than you. You're a cook in the bedroom and a whore in the kitchen.

Hola! I hope you're all keeping warm and having a good week. Mine so far has been grand - I got a big project signed off yesterday at work, which was both exciting and nerve-wracking. I've been able to get some sewing and some knitting done, as well as some gin-drinking. No ironing, so my ironing pile is threatening to engulf the flat, but sure you can't have everything. The ironing will keep, I might just have to rope the area off with some of that yellow safety tape. Maybe it's in fact safer to stay well away from that ironing pile, actually. Yeah, that.

The weather is still pretty horrible - I am so ready for spring - but, much like last year I'm sewing away as if there isn't a freezing wind and heavy rain. That's just how I roll, I guess. I've never much been able to get excited about cold weather clothes. Having fallen pretty hard for my first Christine Haynes Emery dress, I was keen to sew another one up basically straight away. So that's what I did last Tuesday afternoon when I got home from work. I used this excellent Michael Miller fabric that I bought from Ditto at the beginning of January:

Home Ec by Michael Miller. Ironic, because Home Economics was my most-hated subject at school, tied jointly with PE

Yes, I know. So feminist, isn't it? Here's a print of a load of women in aprons doing very domestic things in a kitchen. They look very happy and very smug about it. I had spotted this fabric on a dress from Modcloth about a year ago, and I have been playing basket roulette with it ever since.

Modcloth 'Bygone Days' dress in 'Bake Off' - this is no longer available, as far as I can tell

This is cute, right? But the way the lines of the dress break up the print kind of does my head in. I don't really understand why you'd use a print like this and then frig about with it. but maybe that's just me. Anyway, I'd bought myself 2 metres of this fabric thinking it would make a cute strappy sundress for the warmer weather, but Emery intervened and so that's where I went with it.

On Opposite Day dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress in Michael Miller 'Home Ec' fabric, worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon bow shoes

Holy extremely pale face, Batman! I'm not sure that red lipstick is working for me - I'm not much of a one for a lot of make-up, to be honest - but I sure do love my dress. The Emery dress is a really great canvas for a novelty print like this. The simple lines let the fabric do the work. So, suck on it, Modcloth. I like my dress better.

Bodice view. Wrinkles due to poor posture. Stupid face: model's own

I do feel like a total fraud in this dress because, seriously. I spend so little time in the kitchen. I can cook reasonably well (I make very good enchiladas) and I can bake when I can be bothered. I'll make Nic a birthday cake. I wouldn't starve if I lived alone, but I probably would eat more toast-based meals than might be healthy. I just don't really enjoy cooking or baking. Luckily, Nic quite likes cooking and he's happy with shop-bought cakes AND he does nearly all of the washing-up. The kitchen is not my domain, is what I'm saying, and so I will never be any of the women on this dress. Especially not that bish in the blue dress holding the cake aloft like it's Simba in The Lion King. Actually, I might be that woman standing by the fridge. She looks like she's looking at an iPad before going into the fridge for some gin. That sounds much more my speed, to be honest.

Cardigan girl - because obviously, it's February. I'll be wearing this with a cardigan.

There isn't really anything much to say about the construction of this dress. I experimented a bit by increasing the darts at the back neckline to lessen the slight gaping there but I'm not sure if I would do that again. It was only very slight in the Blanche dress, and I wonder if that small adjustment has contributed to the slight wrinkling under my bust. It could also be down to the slight difference in the fabrics, although they are both medium-weight cottons. Anyway, who knows. I think I'm splitting hairs because I'm still very happy with how my dress fits.

And I'm not going to lie, I am genuinely pretty amused by how the print of this dress is basically the antithesis of who I actually am. Well - no more so than cowgirls or tropical pinup girls, obviously, but still. Those girls seem pretty awesome. The ones on this dress are just smug hausfraus. With, admittedly, very nice dresses.

After my last Emery post, I had lots of people asking me how much fabric I used and whether the yardage listed on the pattern envelope was right. As far as the yardage goes, I have to confess that I didn't look at it so I don't know. I used 2 metres of 45 inch wide fabric for each of my dresses and it was plenty. Admittedly, I omitted the pockets and I have gone for the short-sleeved version of the dress,  so you would need more if you wanted to do that. Also, I didn't pay any attention at all to pattern matching. On plaids or stripes or ginghams? Yes, I'd worry about it. But on a print like this? Fuck that, basically.

Back view with NO pattern matching. I get that this might make some of you twitch, but I honestly don't care that much about it.

Thankfully Nic is very accommodating of the fact that I'd always rather sew than cook, or that I'd rather be reading than measuring out flour. And I'm especially lucky that he never grumbles about the fact that  I hardly ever do the washing up. Really, in many ways, I'm not ideal wife material. OH WELL.

This is my idea of fine dining

Nah, I'm not as bad as all that. I'm exaggerating for comic effect. I do that sometimes. 

I have to tell you again how much I like the Emery pattern. It was a total investment and I already have at least two more planned in the coming weeks. Luckily for me, any of you who have come this far are aware of the fact that I like sewing multiples. One of the ones I have on the go is a pretty Valentine's themed one using fabric kindly sent to me by Offset Warehouse. I'll share that with you next week, but part of the deal was that I'd tell you about a little Valentine's Day competition they're running. What you need to do is sew something up using their beautiful red shirting fabric and your creation should fit into one of their two themes, 'Love and Romance' or 'All The Single Ladies'. Email a photo by February 14th to info@offsetwarehouse.com and you could win a treat for you or a loved one on Valentine's Day, a voucher for Offset Warehouse and the cost of the fabric you've used will be refunded to you. I'm really looking forward to taking part in the challenge, and I hope some of you lovely sewing bloggers will too - I'd love to see what you all come up with!

Anyway, I'm going to leave it here. I've got shit to do. I'll sign off on one more picture of my dress, though, because I love it. Laters!

This is also new shoes face. I now have all the colours of these shoes. No KitchenAid mixer in this house, just lots of shoes.