ta-dah!

So at long last my apple skirt is finished!

And I mean properly finished – with a hook and eye and finished seams and everything.

I am really pleased with it. And the learning journey has been fun too! Though I have to admit, learning from one’s mistakes might be useful but it’s lovely to have a dressmaking success at last to show for my hard work.

I made a ric rac flower brooch for it, which can either be popped on the pocket or pinned elsewhere on an outfit to compliment the skirt. Can you spot it on my cardi in the first photo?

My tutor even decided to photograph my efforts, to use in the poster she’s putting together for her summer skirt-making workshop.

Which made me very proud indeed.

And just to prove that it does actually fit, here’s me wearing it!

I have two more weeks of sewing class left in which to undertake another dressmaking project.

It’s not long, but I have the inkling of an idea…

It could be time to mess up that fabric stash cupboard again!

trim-triminy

I have to admit it, I’m a bit of a trim-aholic.

So when I spotted a multi-coloured scraps-and-trims de-stash listing on Etsy recently, I just couldn’t resist.

They’re only tiny bits, but perfect for pockets!

The only problem is, there’s only enough giant yellow ric rac for one pocket, not two.

So I think the pockets on my skirt-in-progress might end up being a bit of a mix & match affair, rather than identical twins.

One happy surprise though, I found something in my button jar that I forgot I had…

Bought on the other side of the world from the fabric, and over a year before my apple skirt was even a twinkle in my eye, it’s funny how things come together.

Some trims are just meant to be. ♥

statement made

I find I often forget about things once they’re finished.

They have their moment in my mind, usually when I’m first all fired up with an idea, and then they either work or they don’t, and I move on and forget all about them.

So it was with my statement necklace.

I spent quite a while making extra buttons and sewing it all together, but then I forgot all about it.

I think it’s because I haven’t found an occasion to wear it yet.

It started life as a few buttons left over from making other things. I decided to “utilise” them, as I hate wastage. The ribbon was another bit of salvage – it arrived wrapped round some pyjamas bought for lad from Primark!

So I didn’t start out by choosing fabrics to fit with my wardrobe – which means it doesn’t, really.

Three of the buttons are offcuts of a frock adapted from an Indian salwar kameez made from Liberty lawn. I found it in a local charity shop – a most unusual and serendipitous find for £3! 

I wore the frock in Australia. If I wear the frock, I could wear the necklace with it.

But it’s a summer thing.

It’s still just too darn cold for it at the moment. I am writing this sipping hot tea, swathed in the thickest cardi I own, my legs swaddled in woolly tights. When will Summer finally deign to arrive, I wonder?

My necklace also suffers from being a little bit floppy. I think I need to stiffen it up a bit by stitching on a backing, so that it doesn’t droop when I wear it.

After all, it would be no good making a limp statement, would it?!

not quite enough

As you may know, vintage fabrics are my first love.

But I do occasionally find my head turned by brand new pretty fabrics (especially cheap ones.)

Which was exactly what happened when I was in Australia, on a trip to Spotlight.

I found myself overcome by cheap fabric beguilement. And I bought a few yards of the nicest of Spotlight’s stock, without any specific plans for it.

Recently I have been attempting to master rudimentary dressmaking. And failing, on the frock front at least. My most recent frock project has proven a problem too far. It resides in the “rethink at a future date” pile for now. I have not quite enough enthusiasm to keep going at it.

So I am in need of a new project…

But what to do when both funds and confidence are lacking?

Answer: revisit the Spotlight stash – and the A line skirt pattern that I managed to succeed with at first attempt.

But unfortunately, having no project in mind whilst fabric-buying has created another problem. Not only am I short of confidence, I’m also short of fabric.

I know that might sound ridiculous when I have a cabinet full of the stuff!

What I mean is, there’s just not quite enough of the one I want to use.

Because upside-down apples wouldn’t be any good, would they?

Bah.

The situation calls for some creative thinking and pattern adjustment…

My cunning plan is to add a band of contrast fabric at the hem to cover the shortfall (and a tad more of my legs).

So out comes another bit of Spotlight goodness, for it’s moment in the… well… spotlight!

I’ve drafted the required extra pattern pieces myself. But I’ve decided to run them past my dressmaking guru in class next week, before chopping into the bit of fabric I do have.

Not just because I’ve not quite enough confidence to go it alone.

But also because I’m not quite daft enough to risk wasting any more of my precious stash, vintage or new!

dolly mix fix

I lost my blogging mojo a bit this week, I’m sorry to say.

I’ve not been feeling 100%. I haven’t done any sewing. My energy levels have been very low and I’ve not felt up to much at all.

So I haven’t had a lot to blog about.

What energy I have had has been employed sorting out presents and treats for my partner’s birthday. I baked him a cake and we had lunch out – his favourite all-you-can-eat curry buffet at Shivalli in Leicester, where vegan food is cheap, plentiful and very very good.

And afterwards (purely out of the goodness of my heart of course!) I took him to one of my favourite vintage clothes shops, Dolly Mix Vintage.

If you’re ever in Leicester, you must visit this box of vintage delights. It’s like stepping into an eccentric aunt’s attic dressing room. There are two floors of delights to explore…

Just look at those shoes! (Alas, they didn’t fit me or they would’ve been mine).

My partner almost succumbed to the lure of a pair of very classy brogues, but those didn’t quite fit him, either.

But I found I had left my willpower at home.

Consequently, despite having no intentions to buy anything, I cheered myself up with a new crimplene frock purchase from the rails of gorgeousness…

Vintage frocks are like vintage fabrics; if you find the perfect one, you can’t hang about – because they won’t.

So I didn’t.

I think I’ll need to step up the summer fitness regime a bit, as it shows every bulge.

But I figured that if I could just about get away with it after consuming my own body weight in curry immediately prior to trying it on, it was certainly a frock worth purchasing.

And a cardi hides a thousand sins.

It’ll look nice with the bargain summer plimsolls I bought from the clearance rack in TK Maxx the other week, too:

Like the musical box at the beginning of Camberwick Green, they hide a secret inside (a pleasant one, I hasten to add)…

How cool is that insole?!

So now I’m all fitted out with a fix of flowery flummery.

Hopefully, my moth-eaten mojo will soon find itself on the mend.

If you’re very good, I’ll show you the other thing I bought, tomorrow… ♥

bobby dazzlers

Oops I did it again, as Britney used to say.

I had to buy brooch pins in town, so I had to walk past That Shop again. The one with the bargain basement jam-packed-full of vintage goodies. And yet again, it did not disappoint. It’s getting to be a habit.

It’s a good job I don’t work in town, or our house would be drowning under a sea of crimplene frocks by now.

These two bobby dazzlers are my latest purchases…

The one on the left reminds me of party balloons.

It’s exuberance is toned down and made just-about-wearable by the navy side panels and back. This makes it flattering, as the eye can’t help but ogle that pattern, thus skimming over any navy-clad lumpy bits in one’s peripheral vision.

The green one on the right is an altogether more elegant affair, with fabulously wide bell sleeves.

I LOVE bell sleeves!

So languorous and classy  - even in crimplene!

At least, that is until Primark nicks the idea and they become as ubiquitous as rude slogan T-shirts. Honestly, I took a short cut through there today and I have never seen so many things that I would NOT want to wear at ANY price.

But I digress.

I also bought another, even classier item. Not for me this time, but for my niece who is also a vintage clothes fan.

(Just don’t tell her that I’d have had it for myself if I’d been several sizes smaller or it had been several sizes larger).

I can’t show you that particular purchase since she might be reading, so I have taken a few photos and you will have to wait until it has made it’s journey across the world and is safely in her possession.

I must stay away from That Shop for a while.

My vintage bargain habit is getting out of hand. I must not buy any more crimplene frocks. God knows when I’ll have occasion to wear these bobby dazzlers.

I must henceforth resist the urge to “just have a look as I’m passing”. It’s always fatal.

A change is as good as a rest they say.

And a little break will give them time to restock those bargain rails with another lot of goodies.