Before you worked here, were you an ass scientist? Because your ass... blah-blah-blah. You get the point.

Afternoon, all! It's been a hectic week here at Clackett Mansions. Work has been extremely busy - I've been in non-stop meetings, or at least it feels like it, since the dawn of time. I think actual time was really just Wednesday and Thursday, but time moves more slowly in the office, doesn't it?! It's been a good week, though. Work was good - the long meetings were the culmination of a couple of weeks of really intense work, and they went really well. It's satisfying to me to see how much I have learned in the fifteen months since I changed jobs. I'm still getting used to feeling good about work, and although things are about to get really crazy (and will stay that way until around about next May) I feel okay about it. So: yay!

Also, it was my birthday this week and I had a very lovely day. I had to be in work, but Nic got my day off to a good start by waking me up with tea, birthday cake and my birthday present. After work, I went to the pub with friends and then we went for dinner. And I had Friday off work, and went for Business Lunch at Kayal. Really, what could be better than that?! I did try to sew a special birthday dress but I was short on time, and the dress I started ended up being kind of a disaster (never sew while extremely tired, kids!) so I binned it. Ah well. You win some, you lose some. I wore my Buttons and Bows dress instead, and felt awesome in it.

So anyway, that's the craic with me this week. It's been really good and I have high hopes for next week, too. I have a big work thing on Monday which could be exciting if it goes well, and then I have a short week/long weekend ahead of me in which I'm off home to visit my family. I even have a day to myself, which is going to be a nice indulgent sewing day. Oh, and I'm expecting to get some shoes in the post as well. It's a good week if it includes a shoe delivery, right?

As usual, I have a dress to blog about today. Another Emery dress, because duh. I think we're all going to just have to be real here and acknowledge the fact that probably every other blog post is going to be about an Emery dress.

I bought the fabric for this dress when I met some sewing friends in London to go to the Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Barbican. As ever, I went to Goldhawk Road fully intending NOT to buy fabric and yeah. That didn't work out. But basically, Classic Textiles had a Liberty lawn I've had my eye on for a while, so I bought 1.5 metres of it and went for it.

Half-Cut, Wholly Yours dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress in Liberty 'Jack and Charlie' tana lawn, worn with Irregular Choice Hello Ha shoes*

There's not too much to say here, except that I probably shouldn't have been so tight and bought two metres instead of a metre and a half because this dress is definitely shorter than I would usually go for. Ah anyway, it's fine. Because I know we're all so desperate to get into our OMGTIGHTS and I think this length will work with tights when it gets colder.

I do love this print, which is a series of pears. What I like less is that it was part of some sort of collaboration between Jamie Oliver and Liberty and I find Jamie Oliver almost unbearably irritating. It's nothing personal, Jamie. I find that to be the case with almost everyone on TV, because I'm very easily irritated and it's why I don't have a TV. And he's a lot LESS irritating than Gordon Ramsay, or anyone involved with the Great British Bake Off (I swear, Sue Perkins' voice actually raises my blood pressure) Sigh. But anyway, I like the print and I like the fabric a lot.

You can see the pears closer up here. Jamie Oliver notwithstanding, I really do like this print a lot, and I love the variety of colours in there. It means I can wear this dress with basically all of my cardigans, which is a good thing when you work in an air-conditioned office. Also. I think that Liberty lawn and the Emery dress are a good match so there will certainly be more of these, provided I can continue to find bargain Liberty prints at Classic Textiles or elsewhere. At full price, lovely as it is, it's a bit too rich for my blood.

Here's one more picture because why not.

It's really nice having a couple of go-to patterns that fit me well and which are in a style I like. I appreciate that it might not make for the most exciting blogging, but I'm fine with that. I like the fact that I can sew (and nicely finish) an Emery dress in a few hours and have a dress that fits me and that I like to wear and that I feel good in. I have a special one made all ready for my big work thing next week, too.

So, that's the craic there anyway. I sort of feel like I should have a jazzier blog post this afternoon because this is my 500th blog post! 500 posts. God, you'd think I'd have better things to be at with my time. Not to get all reflective on you all - especially after the last, navel-gazing why do I blog post, but 500 posts is a nice milestone to have reached. Blogging here has meant so much to me in the time I've been doing it. It's been a diary, a space for catharsis, a creative outlet and a wonderful, wonderful way to make friends. Even if it is a weird thing to do, when you think about it. So to all of you who have been reading - either more recently, or over entire 500 posts of nonsense, thank you! To celebrate, I might go and crack into some of my birthday presents. My friends know me well and among my gifts were a bottle of champagne, a bottle of red wine and a bottle of Scottish gin.

Cheers!

I don't even like Will and Grace. But Karen is the best.

My grandmother was missing that tooth and she was the most beautiful woman on her oil rig.

Hello all! Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend - I did. So good, in fact, that I spent all day yesterday in my pyjamas with a raging hangover. I came by it honestly, though, thanks to a lot of prosecco and gin on Saturday night with friends, and a living room disco until five in the morning. It has to be done sometimes and, after a stressful few weeks it was nice to cut loose. I had a bit of good news on Friday afternoon so I was ready to celebrate. I should know more next week and I can only hope for another hangover on the same scale!

So. If you're a reader of sewing blogs, I'm sure you're aware of the blog hop that's been going around about the writing process. I don't normally go in for blog hops, to be honest, but I have found every post I have read on this subject to be interesting. So when the hilarious Sue of A Colourful Canvas  nominated me last week, I was happy to take part. Here goes!

Why do I write?
Honestly? I'm not totally sure! The existence of this blog predates my sewing. I'm not really a sewing blogger - for the first couple of years that I was blogging here, I was blogging about clothes I had bought. Before that I was just blogging about what I thought about stuff.

I BOUGHT this dress! It's from Cath Kidston and I bought it a few weeks ago. At one stage, I was only blogging stuff I bought but since I've been sewing that has felt increasingly weird. Anyway - I bought this dress because I thought it was cute. I rarely buy RTW clothes these days and when I do, it's usually because the print or shape is something I wouldn't be able to recreate myself. As it happens, fabric with this print is available to buy, but it's canvas rather than the soft barkcloth that this dress is made from. I like this dress a lot and have worn it a few times since I bought it. Oh and I'm wearing it with pink Swedish hasbeens heart sandals which are the cutest shoes I've bought in ages.

Before I had this blog, I had a blog on my university blog network that was mainly about me ragging on the PCGE course I was doing, talking about pop culture stuff and things that were going on in my life. When I think about it, I have always been a writer. As a small child I kept diaries and in my teens I was a letter-writer with lots of penpals. At school, my best friend Emma and I wrote each other hundreds of notes and letters and comic strips. I still have them all. I like to think that my cartoon drawings of our teachers, of Jim McDonald from Coronation Street (it's a long story) and ugly babies that look like potatoes predates my love of a well-timed gif. I write because I enjoy writing, and it's just a nice bonus that people like to read what I write.

What am I working on now?
I don't have anything on the go at the minute. As I basically exclusively sew cotton dresses, which don't take very long to sew, I don't usually have UFOs hanging around. I'm hoping to get some time to sew a fun dress this week as it's my birthday soon and I'd like to have something new to wear. But if I don't have time, it's no biggie. I have a lot of clothes. I do have a few dresses in the queue that I'd like to get to soon: a v-backed Emery dress with short sleeves, from some cute fabric I have with elephants on it; a By Hand London Holly dress from some beautiful silk that was a gift from a friend; a Blue Gingerdoll Billie Jean dress, for which I haven't chosen the fabric yet and another Emery dress in some cute fox-print poplin I bought in Barry's a few months ago. I always have lots of ideas - I just lack the time to execute them! I also have a bit of a blogging backlog. For instance - I just never got around to blogging this Anna dress I made months ago:

Birdie Loon dress - this is an Anna dress with a gathered skirt made from Cloud 9 fabric from Berylune. I made (and photographed) this months ago - maybe in April? Anyway, it was a little bit too big when I made it and it's bigger again now, and the moment for blogging it just seemed to pass. It's shame though, because it's very cute. I love the colours and the print, which looks abstract from a distance. I'm wearing it here with Topshop wedges, Hell Bunny cardigan and green Zatchels satchel.

How does my blog differ from other sewing blogs?
Ha ha! Okay, it mainly differs from other sewing blogs in as much as it's not really a sewing blog. Yeah, sewing is what I mainly write about these days, because it's how I spend most of my free time. Also, it's what most of my readers come for, I think - so it's why I have mostly stopped blogging about stuff I have bought. Well, that and the fact that these days I mostly wear things I have made myself. My blog is not really a sewing blog. I don't do tutorials, I rarely show you the inside of my garments - hey, once you've seen one nicely-finished seam, you've seen them all, right? - I have ZERO interest in writing a sewing book or being sponsored by a fabric store or setting up my own pattern company. I don't want to sew for a living, and I don't want to quit my day job to be a blogger. And, I've got to be honest, here, those aren't the blogs (or at least, the blog posts) that I like to read.

I sew because I love pretty clothes and I like learning new things, and I write about it...well, for the reasons I outlined above. I do write a bit about construction and I'll describe any fitting challenges I have had, but that's as technical as I'm apt to get. It's not to say that I dislike reading very detailed posts about construction or whatever, but that's not what my blog is about. I also like to write about what's going on in my life. I do get quite personal on here and I like other blogs that have a personal face. You all saw my handmade wedding dress, but I wrote a lot more about the wedding than I did about making the dress. This blog is about me. Sewing is just a part of that. I'm not going to lie: there are times when I have worried that I'm not serious enough about sewing, and that people out there might be judging me for being a frivolous, shit-at-sewing, no-overlocker-having basic bitch.

But then I remind myself that, you know. Whatever. I like it here. That's the main thing.

Another picture of the Birdie Loon dress - I feel guilty for never blogging it.

How does my writing process work?
Writing process is maybe a grand way of describing it, to be honest. I don't have as much time for blogging now as I used to. When I get the chance, I try to draft a blog post on paper or in an an email draft. I usually have a couple of posts worth of material waiting to be blogged, which means that even  if I am too busy (or ill, or whatever) to sew or get out and about, I have stuff to write about. Since Scott and Bailey has been back on TV I've been trying to carve out some time to write about that, because I love writing about TV but sadly, it's looking unlikely that I'll have the time to do that. Maybe I'll do a whole-series recap at the end. Anyway - yeah, then after that, it's just a case of sitting down and writing. It usually helps if I've been out and done something fun because, to be honest, I find just writing about sewing to be pretty dry. I like having news to share and stupid jokes to crack. One of the reasons why I'm not interested in being in a sewing store network or trying to write a book or anything like that is that I really value not having to have a system, here. I really value being able to write on my own schedule, and write about whatever the fuck I want.

Here's me with a pizza I made in April. This is the only time you'll see something I have cooked on this blog, I swear. Even here, I didn't make the dough, like. I just rolled that shit out and threw a few toppings on it. It was tasty, though.

Anyway, that's the craic there. Thanks so much, Sue, for nominating me! Part of this process is I'm meant to nominate two other bloggers but this hop has been hopping around for a while so I'm going to take the coward's way out and throw this open to anyone who wants to answer those questions.

Anyway, I'm going to leave it here for the evening. I have a ton of ironing to do and dinner to make, and I think I might even be recovered enough from that epic hangover to chance having a cocktail with dinner.

...or maybe I'll stick to water for now.

This bag is just full of knives and bras... and loose onions

Hey guys, happy Thursday! Ugh, this week has been a bit of a struggle, I'm not going to lie. I'm going to get straight in here with the complaining, right, get it over with in the first paragraph and then I'll be on to bright and shiny and pretty things. Do feel free to skip ahead, I won't mind. This week has been a struggle. For some unknown reason my mood took a major nosedive on Sunday afternoon - I'm talking actual tears when my laptop was slow to load an episode of Luther I wanted to watch. And I mean, Idris Elba is pretty and all but I'm not THAT into Luther. It was one of those attacks of the blues that September seems to be so generous about handing out. I have a work thing that is making me really anxious and it's kind of seeped into everything else! I finally got a handle on it today, and I'm still feeling jittery about it but a lot better.

Sorry to be vague-booking here, but it's not something I can talk about openly just at the moment. It's made this week crawl by, I've had a tension headache for what feels like forever - you know the drill. I broke my special short keyboard on Tuesday by spilling tea on it, which sucked because it meant my keyboard AND my tea got ruined, and I dealt with that stress by buying shoes. Then yesterday I went to the park after work with Nic and felt what I thought was a leaf or something fall into my dress. Got home, felt something squirming around and found a LIVE BEETLE. IN MY BRA. There are no words to describe how weird that was. The beetle was fine - I fished him out and Nic put him on the windowsill and he flew away. I was like this:

But, you know. My week can only get better from the moment when I retrieved a LIVE FUCKING INSECT FROM MY UNDERWEAR. Because, duh.

A LIVE INSECT.

Actually, let's be real here. I'm not cool Beek 2.0 - I'm this...

That will never stop being funny. Ever.

Anyway. Seriously the beetle bra thing did pick my week up and after that, I was feeling happy enough to sing along loudly to the theme tune to The OC. Our poor downstairs neighbours.

So that's the craic with my week. Thanks for indulging me there, lads. Now on to the dresses!

You might recall me saying a few posts back that I think I sorted out the fit on the Sewaholic Cambie dress. After lots of you guys weighed in with helpful advice on how to sort out the bodice fit, I gave it a go. I did a quick bodice toile and experimented with curving the darts under the bust and making them more...I guess, bullet-shaped? This is an alteration that Liz recommended to me when I first met her back in April, and it did the trick. I sewed the darts as drafted then pinched out the excess and redrew the darts. All good! Then I cut into some fabric that has been sitting in my stash for a while and got sewing.

Tammy 2 dress - Sewaholic Cambie dress with pleated skirt and Lola Ramona Angie shoes*

It's kind of hard to tell from the photo but curving the darts under the bust made a huge improvement to how the bodice fits. I omitted the waistband again because I think that works for me, and just for a change I used the skirt from Simplicity 1419. Because I LOVE THAT SHIZ. It's a really nice skirt pattern.

If the fabric looks familiar, it's because it is. I've used it before - in the Meta dress, which I sewed at the end of 2011. I used the pastel colourway that time, which I had bought from Barry's Fabrics in Birmingham. I loved that dress and wore it loads but it doesn't fit any more and I didn't feel up to altering it so I gave it to a friend. I've had this colourway of the fabric since the spring - I bought it from that online store that shall remain nameless, along with the sunflower fabric I used to make the At the Indie Disco dress.

Ba-da-ba-da-ba...DORP

So anyway, yeah. The fit is still not totally perfect, like. But I'm broadly happy with it. I might take a peep more out of the tops of the darts, but I might not. I want to see how it works with the sweetheart neckline that the pattern is drafted with.

You know what, though? I freaking LOVE this dress and I'm so happy with it. I think the bodice works brilliantly with the pleated skirt, which looks really cute with the measuring tape print of the fabric. And the fabric is SO fun. I wore this to work on a day when our statistician was in - she's usually based in Sheffield - and she was tickled with all the numbers. I have big meeting with her next week and she's one of my favourite work people, so I'm going to wear it to the meeting. I'm super cool like that.

BACK VIEW FOR THE WIN.

Woah, bright eyes, that's not a super invisible invisible zip, is it? Oh well, wevs. I like the way this dress fits through the back. And I like that one stubborn little flick of hair that would not just sit the fuck down. You go, stubborn little flick of hair. You do you.

So anyway. This dress is not perfect, but it was a nice pattern alteration to have a go at, and it was a quick win in terms of sewing. It's bright and cheerful and fun, and this fabric still makes me laugh, because it reminds me that this exists in the world:

LOOK HOW HAPPY HE IS. I like his little hat. I wonder where you get hats where the brim is at the back rather than the front. Does anyone know where they come from?

Oh no, hold on, I've worked it out...

Okay. I'm talking a lot of shite here so maybe I should tip on out. My friend Sybil gave me a bottle of Burleigh's gin as a gift yesterday, so I'm all set to put my Gin School lessons into practice and make me and Nic a perfect gin and tonic. I'm going to leave with one more picture of my dress because I love it. It's awkward as fuck, though.

Pigeon toes!

Oh, and I should say - this dress was totally inspired by one of my very favourite sewing bloggers, Anna from Paunnet. She made a Cambie from this fabric aaaaages ago, and it was gorgeous. Thanks for the inspiration, Anna! And regarding the name - well, I made this dress when Nic was away for the weekend and as well as chain-watching Luther, I chain-watched Parks and Recreation.

I want to be Tammy Swanson-Swanson when I grow up.

She was multi-tasking. It's a thing women can do. Like smelling nice and wrapping gifts.

Happy Saturday everyone! I have to admit: I'm already in my pyjamas. Pyjamas and fleecy socks and a pair of sandals I'm trying to break in, and I have my glasses on. Nic asked me did I want to go outside and get some photos on the front step but I thought I'd spare you - and the people of Leamington - that particular delight. Still, though. I'm looking pretty smokin'.

Anyway.  I don't have a lot of craic at all today. I've had a busy and pretty stressful week. I had a big work deadline to meet, but after I did I celebrated by going to Ikea and then having noodles. I know that makes my life sound really sad and maybe it actually is, but I bought some fabric in Ikea and the noodles were really good. I also had my first ever steamed custard bun and that kind of rocked my week. Yeah, I know, I need to get out more. Especially as the main excitement of my week was the new series of Scott and Bailey starting on Wednesday night. I'm trying to decide whether to recap the episodes again this year - I know a fair few of you guys are also into cop shows too, so I might. Let's see if I can find the time to do the screen caps, I guess!

No sewing this week but after my sewing binge last weekend and the weekend before, that seems fine. As well as making a few new dresses, I have also tackled some alterations, taking in a number of dresses and completely reconstructing one. I won't show you pictures of the ones I have taken in, but I am pleased with the refashion of a very special dress - the Lobsterlex dress:

Lobsterlex dress - By Hand London Elisalex dress worn with Atelier Scandinave sandals

Yaaay! My Lobsterlex dress is back in action. This was the second Elisalex dress I made, back at the start of 2013. I loved it then and wore it reasonably often but it's been packed away for over a year now because it was just too big. After the success of the refashion of the Feckin Birds dress, I sat down and took this apart. It sat in my sewing box for a couple of weeks - for some reason the idea of sitting down and re-sewing it was pretty unappealing - but I finally got around to it on Sunday evening, with a couple of episodes of Luther for company.

I recut the bodice using the Elisalex pattern pieces I have re-traced in the last few months. This wasn't a perfect solution because the lines of the pattern pieces are slightly different across sizes, but it worked pretty well. I didn't recut the skirt pieces - instead I took it in at the side seams and matched up the box pleats by eye. I also cut about four inches off the length of the skirt because while the midi length worked when the dress had sleeves, I thought it would look better now with a shorter skirt.

HOLY FAT FACE BATMAN!

I'm so glad to have this dress back in rotation, seriously. I mean, I get that a dress with giant lobster all over it isn't exactly a wardrobe staple. Especially one with a ridiculously exaggerated tulip skirt! I know that a lot of people really don't like the skirt that comes as part of the Elisalex pattern but I'm very fond of it. On this particular dress, I think it just adds nicely to the overall crazy effect. In addition - this fabric just makes me happy. I got it at a swap at a Birmingham meet-up at the end of 2012 - I think it came from Marie - so I just have all-round happy feelings associated with it.

I've been able to wear this dress in this little late-summer comeback we're having. I think it looks really cute with my gold sandals! It's not going to be all that wearable when the weather gets colder but I did finally invest in some orange shoes this week, so maybe I can keep this dress in rotation through October, anyway. You know me, though. I'll be holding onto bare legs for as long as I possibly can. I'll still be running around in these sandals until there is frost on the ground. HUSSY FEET!

Anyway lads, I'm kind of at a loss for things to say this evening. I suppose there's not a lot to say about a dress I have made twice. That's the other thing about alterations - as well as being boring to do, they're boring to blog about! Isn't it funny though how boring alterations are. I had this dress in pieces - basically no different to having a new project cut out and ready to sew - but I really dragged my feet over it. I suppose I find the allure of the shiny and new just too much to resist. Which, you know, goes some way towards explaining the contents of my shoe shelves.

So, it's Saturday evening and I have gin to drink so I'm going to leave it here. I'll see you guys next week, maybe with a very serious, academic review of Scott and Bailey.

I engaged in sexting, texting, and tex-mexting, which is when you take a picture of your genitals from the restroom of a Chili’s To Go.

Hey guys! I hope you're all having shiny happy Mondays. It's all good here because I have been working from home and the sun has been shining, and ALSO there's a cafe in town that makes Mars Bar muffins. To be honest, they're not as gooey as you might expect but that's no bad thing.

I've had a pretty good weekend. Nic was away in Amsterdam at a conference so I spent the weekend doing some of my favourite things: drinking gin, sewing, hanging out with Lauren, drinking prosecco and watching trashy TV. In fairness, the TV wasn't all trashy but I did watch basically 11 hours of Luther. I know I'm late to the show and it's mainly because I find Idris Elba's real accent (or at least, the British accent he is doing in the show) incredibly disconcerting. I like a good trashy cop show more than almost any other kind of TV show (see also my recent binge on the truly terrible Blue Bloods) and Luther ticked that box really well. It seemed really strange to me to begin with but that's partly because I had watched an episode and a half before I realised I had started watching the third series rather than the first one. Derp. Do I always pay 100% attention to what I am watching?

I think my favourite thing about Luther is the conversations that his colleagues have about him behind his back. Someone tells Saskia Reeves that Luther is 'nitroglycerine' - like, excellent dialogue there, dudes. I'm not ashamed to say I was heckling the laptop HE'S A MAVERICK COP GUYS OMG JUST DEAL WITH IT.

HE JUST HAS HIS OWN MORAL CODE OKAY.

Anyway, my weekend-long Luther obsession is really just holding me over until Wednesday, when the new series of Scott and Bailey starts. I found this out on Thursday when I was standing in line in the supermarket to buy pesto, and I did a little happy dance. Hurrah!

I guess Gill likes reading books about serial killers almost as much as I do...

So. That was my weekend. It's really just as well that I don't live alone, to be honest. As I said earlier, I did do a fair bit of sewing, which was really nice. I made two dresses and I altered three: including finally getting around to remaking my Lobsterlex dress. So I have some catching up to do on the blogging front! Here is a dress I made last weekend, when I had a fun sewing day with Sarah and Charlotte. We started with 'brunch'. I use the word advisedly, because we ate at 9am, which made that meal BREAKFAST, but whatever. Then we spent the whole day sewing and talking crap and watching TV. It was really good fun.

Don't Tell The Mean Girls dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress with a midi-length skirt, worn with Swedish hasbeens Mimmi sandals

Soooo. The story of this dress is that I bought just over two metres of this border print fabric from Barry's in Birmingham when Nic and I had our little day out last month. I was drawn to the Marimekko-style flowers in the print and was tickled by the border print itself. It runs from the left selvedge to the right with the flowers becoming bigger in each row. It's a reasonably weighty cotton - probably a poplin - and I think it was around £5 per metre.

This fabric was kind of challenging to work with. I had a very specific idea of how I wanted the print to look on the skirt and on the bodice and in order to achieve this, I had to cut the whole thing on the crosswise grain. I also had to make the skirt significantly longer than I'd usually go for - it was either that or cut through the flowers themselves. I guess I could have made the skirt shorter by omitting that first row of flowers but I must admit, I kind of like the midi length. It's a bit different.

Cutting the bodice on the crosswise grain might not have been the wisest move. to be honest. It - unsurprisingly - affected the fit in an annoying way. There's no stretch at all so the bodice is very close-fitting and I had to buy myself an extra fraction of an inch by moving the zip out a little bit. I don't know how it looks to you guys - maybe it looks horrendously tight - and it's certainly closer-fitting than I would necessarily like. Still, it's wearable and I like it.

Back view - you can see where it's pulling a bit across the back. I certainly won't be wearing this dress to go out to dinner, or to lounge around the house in. Do you like my unintentional pattern-matching across the back, though? Look at that instead of the wrinkling, yeah?

Often I find that I like fabric much better made up as a dress than I did on the bolt, and I have to be totally honest and tell you that's not the case with this dress. I do like it, but it didn't really live up to the vision I had for it in my head. But, you know. You win some, you lose some.

I got some awesome new shoes, though. Check it outttttttttt:

I bought them in the Swedish hasbeens sale and these were a pre-emptive strike. I ordered them the weekend before a shitty week, knowing that by Thursday I'd be in the market for a shoe-shaped pick-me-up, and it totally worked. They kind of look like old-lady driving gloves, but they're hella comfortable and I love the colour.  And yay new shoes, right? I confess, though. My stressful week did result in the hasbeens sale taking another hit from me, but that's a story for another blog post.

Anyway lads, I'm away here. I have dinner to cook. I'll leave you with another Luther gif though because, while it's silly and everything, I'm only human and he is a very handsome man:

I like to think he's applauding his own extreme handsomeness here.

Ba-da Seuss, a palm caboose, and a panda hop, and pantyhose, you look buppity, buttons and bowwwws!

Hola! What's happening, folks? I have had an enjoyable midweek day off today for no other reason other than I could, and it's been lovely. I slept late, had lunch in the park with Nic, went to the library, had a nap in the afternoon and had a shiny new pair of shoes delivered. I had a mild and slow-burning hangover as a result of a slightly boozy evening with Sally last night, but nothing enough to slow my roll. Excellent day off fun.

Well, anyway, that's basically the craic with me! Thank you to everyone who commented so encouragingly on my last post about my too-big Cambie dress. In a fit of energy on Monday afternoon, I took it apart and basted it way in at the side seams. I didn't touch the darts initially because I wanted to see if just taking it in up the side seams would work - and it did! So that dress is now wearable and totally cute. Hurrah! I think I need to think about how to make the Cambie work better on me - I do think that if I make it again I will need to look at the darts - but I'm glad to have found a quick fix for my dress because alterations are BORING.

I haven't taken photos of the altered dress, but that's okay because I have a brand spanking new dress to blog about this evening. Whoop whoop! I made this dress on August bank holiday Monday, when it was so rainy and dark that leaving the house wasn't on the cards at all. Actually, I'd had such a fun weekend what with the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition and everything that staying in the house was no big deal and it was very good to have a nice big block of sewing time. I got down to sewing one of the lengths of fabric I had bought that Saturday on Goldhawk Road with the girls. Yeah - that whole not buying much fabric thing really isn't working out amazingly well for me, is it?! I bought two metres of this insanely patterned cotton poplin in A1 Textiles for £4.50 per metre. A bargain for 100% cotton and 60 inches wide, right?

Er. Yeah. Basically this fabric needs to sit the fuck down. I know I have joked before about twee nightmares, and this is kind of it - flowers, bows, fucking polka dot bows, POM POMS... I think you can see why I had to have it. Janene remarked that she thought I must have some kind of radar for very me fabric, and maybe she is right. I love it because I mean, look at it.

Two metres is plenty for me to get a dress out of and because this fabric was nice and wide I had lots to play with, so I reached for Vogue V8998 once again. It's a bit more time-consuming to make because of the 7,000 skirt panels, but I think it's worth it. I like the pattern so much I'm tempted to buy its sister pattern, V8997.

Buttons and Bows dress - Vogue V8998 worn with Irregular Choice Windsor shoes*

Ha ha! Oh, I don't know why I look so unsure in this photo but I am really happy with how this dress turned out. Maybe the slight rabbit in the headlights expression is just because I have a fairly stupid face. Anyway, after I had put the bodice together I had to do a little bit of tweaking to the princess seams in the front - I needed to take the seams in a bit over the top of my bust because I was getting a weird armour-plated effect there. I also pinched a tiny bit out of the front neckline which gives it more of a tank-top shape than it did previously, but otherwise the alterations I made to the pattern when I first sewed it in June stayed the same.

Back view! I love the scoop back on this pattern, I think it is such a pretty feature and it's something I'm always a sucker for in sewing patterns. I know I go on about how I don't like photos of my back - and dudes, I seriously don't, because I look so stupid - but I don't hate my actual back.

Here I am looking thoughtfully off into the distance, thinking about how stupid my back looks... no, seriously, I was probably thinking about what we were going to be having for dinner.

The absolute riot of colours in the print means I could probably wear this dress with most of the shoes in my wardrobe - as well as all the reds and blues, there are also pinks and greens and even black in the mix. Still, both times I've worn this dress since making it, I have paired it with these lovely royal blue heels - I think it's maybe that I enjoy the whimsy of wearing a bow-printed dress with actual bows.

I am such a dick.

But you knew that anyway, didn't you?

Not too much else to say about this dress, really. Only that it's probably not suitable for eating a large meal in - that seamed skirt probably wouldn't have room for a big burrito, for example. But I'd imagine that it's very good for dancing in...

Let's all go to a... taco show!