Monday 13 October 2014

Flora in the best fabric ever!!!

So that's quite a statement title I've got there but I don't think it's too hard to live up to, I mean, just look at this dress! (However I reserve the right to say this about plenty of other fabrics in the future).

Parrots and ferns!  Awesome!

The fabric was this one from Fabric godmother and is hands down the most expensive fabric I've ever purchased but it was thanks to a birthday voucher from my Father so I didn't feel too bad.  I wanted therefore to make up a dress I had made before and knew that I liked and that fitted well so another Flora dress it was.



I made this dress up exactly as before as the first one fit perfectly.  It's fully lined in a cotton lawn and as the main fabric is quite thick, the whole dress feels quite heavy (I may only have noticed this as I was having to be strict about weight when packing for holiday). I wore this dress loads when I was on holiday and it was really comfy and made me feel great.  However now I'm back in the UK I feel far too cold to wear it which is why you're getting pictures of Rosie modelling it.

I never normally take pictures of the inside of my clothes as a tend to just finish seams by pinking them which isn't the prettiest of finishes. However as this one is fully lined its, really pretty on the inside and it occurred to me that if I'd fitted a double sided zip, it would be reversible.

Maybe I should make more effort with the insides of my clothes.


A final one in the sun, it seems so long ago already!

Thursday 9 October 2014

Belladone at Blenheim

Hello lovely people

I've been a bit absent for a while, this is partly due to a camera failure so I had a lack of pictures and partly due to me starting a doctorate course last week and being the most tired I have ever been in my life!  However, I'm back and I have a bunch of stuff to show you, starting with a Belladone dress.


I've had the Deer and Doe Belladone pattern in my stash for a while, I had a really clear vision of a dress I wanted to make with it.  However, I didn't get the fabric for it at the same time and am now on a self imposed fabric buying ban so I reached for my stash.   I got 6 metres of this navy and blue stripey fabric, which I think is a linen blend, at a junk shop in Hampstead.  They sold it to me for £5! I was so happy with this find that I made my boyfriend take this picture:

I made up the dress with no alterations, grading from a size 10 on top to a 12 on the hips.


 Pockets!!!



 I made no effort to pattern match on this so am really happy with the great chevrons that are going on here.

Ironically I made an effort to pattern match the waistband and its irritatingly just a little off!  The zip does not end wonky, its just the shadow of Rosie's alteration points.

I really like the Deer and Doe patterns, they're printed on nice sturdy paper which makes them good to trace off, they come in a pretty envelope and the instructions are great.  I didn't make any adjustments and am happy with the dress but I have some adjustments I will make for the next one.  There is too much fabric at the top of the back which needs to be removed next time.  I also need to lengthen the bodice and maybe grade up a size over the ribs.  All totally doable and I am sure I will do them for another version as I love this dress.

All of the outdoor photos were taken during a lovely day at Blenheim Palace (birth place of Winston Churchill) and I decided to get a bit snap happy so if you're here for the sewing and have no interest in seeing pictures of my weekend adventures, tune out now. 


To be perfectly honest I was a bit disappointed by the house as you get to see very little of it and the rooms that you do get to see are not particularly interesting, however the grounds were beautiful and we got really lucky with the weather.





 Cliched autumn photo alert!



 There is an Ai Weiwei exhibition going on at Blenheim at the moment, with his sculptures dotted through the house and grounds which I thought was great.  We tried to get an arty reflection photo in one of the spheres: 

The reason for this weekend in the countryside was that my boyfriend was running a half marathon at Belnheim Palace.  He did really well and I thought I would add a picture of him at the end of the run:

He doesn't even look tired!

Picture with one of his very cold supporters.  I really did not want to be touching someone this sweaty but it's a nice picture.

Have a lovely weekend.