Goin' my own way

I wasn't exaggerating about the full social calender in my last post - we have been away every weekend since my last post. Ca-rah-zee. It was my birthday on Friday though and my lovely husband whisked me off to Portofino in Italy for a surprise weekend. Fabulous or what! And I took an extra day off yesterday to do some URGENT fabric shopping for the coat sew along.

It was while I was meandering down Berwick Street towards Borovick's that I got to thinking more about the Lady Grey pattern. Delicious though it is, I tend to agree with Eugenia in her post on the matter that perhaps the shape of the coat won't be great on me. Now I am not teeny-tiny, but at 5'5", I can see how the swishy back of the coat might do a little too much ass-swamping. When I was in Peter Jones I had a look in some of the pattern books and found Burda 7735 - view A, in yellow in the photo here (which reminds me, why is it VIRTUALLY impossible to order Burda patterns online from the UK through the Burda site??). This will be much more flattering on me, I really suit this shape and also, the style has a lot in common with Lady Grey - princess seams, notched collar and all that. Plenty of buttonholes for me to practice on too (DOOM). So I think I'm gonna go with this one but follow the sew-along anyway...

I have accumulated the necessary for my muslin, but have only just roughly cut out the pattern pieces (there are, like, a zillion about twenty five bits for this coat) so plenty way to go there... I am going to use the muslin method that Gertie is using which looks like it might increase the chances of a good end result. I have also purchased my fashion fabric from MacCulloch & Wallis (£15p/m reduced from £25p/m) - pics to follow when I have figured out how to take proper photos of fabric - colour looks all weird.

Fabric splurge

Woops.

I won't even bother with the faux oh-how-did-I-manage-to-spend-so-much-on-yet-more-fabric apology. There was fabric shopping. The end.

But BEHOLD!

This paint splattery lushness I got from MacCulloch & Wallis on Tuesday. It was pretty spenny... and probably not to everyone's taste, but I thought so amazing! It is a cotton with something (cannot remember now due to excitement, but I did find out) woven on top, very slightly metallic. But isn't the print really Marc Jacobs or Matthew Williamson-esque?? I love it. It will make such a funky dress (or maybe summer coat - but not sure I'm brave enough to try a coat yet) - desperate to find the right pattern for it though. It has quite a bit of body (is that the right word?), I think because of the sort of two layer thing it has going on.
Any suggestions?


Then from Shaukat I got two pieces of Liberty silk - one funky peacock feather purple which I thought would make a nice sort of slinky but
not-too-clingy dress... Quite an unusual fabric I thought - but it felt amazing! I have never sewed with this type of silky silk before (as opposed to dupion type which I made Jackie from) so not sure how I will fare...

The second piece was a little more
conventional and I thought would make a nice tea dress - the print is actually quite small and in a pale blue - from a distance the fabric looks a lot lighter than in this close up shot. But how nice for Sunday tea or lunch with the in-laws, don'tchathink?

I need some pattern suggestions... I also picked up a load of cheap cotton for making toiles which the lady at MacCulloch & Wallis kindly sold me for 50p a metre as it was a bit dusty. So armed and dangerous! I acquired the Michael Kors Vogue 1117 which I am so keen to try but concerned it might be a bit advanced...?! The thought of cutting into this prime stash is pretty nerve racking... Though that's what all that cheap cotton is for, right??

Armed with fabric and certainly dangerous - roll on the next big sewing sesh!

Trimmings trimmings trimmings...

Yesterday on my way home from work (which was happily about six hours earlier than it has been over the past few days) I popped in to VV Rouleaux just off Sloane Square. Can't believe I haven't been in there before - it is amazing! Trim and trim and ribbons and pom-poms and feathers - oh the feathers... I am now desperately trying to think of something I can make which requires peacock feather trim. Think I might be setting my sights a little haute-couture-high... but a girl can dream. In the pic, which I took on the stairs leading from the ground floor to the basement, you can just about see the racks and racks of gorgeous ribbon and sparkles and frills and lace and... ok, I should stop now. I bought some purple velvet ribbon (purple is big this season - thinking of using it in my black velvet mini project), some gorgeous wide satin striped ribbon with lovely colours, and some cord. The cord has all the colours of a duvet cover and pillows I just got for our bedroom so thought I would make some scatter cushions. Annoyingly, I managed to pick the board which didn't have the little fabric edge for sewing it in like piping - and when I got home realised I'd basically come away with 5 metres of pretty rope. Damn it.

And I shall call her.... Lisa

Long time no post... I have been away on hols (hooray) but am back now and raring to sew... (geddit??). Jackie was a hit at the wedding - though annoyingly I soon found out that my strap adjustment was a little over-zealous... and the bodice wasn't as close fitting as it should have been at the back - forcing soldier-like posture to keep it all flat. Some pics to follow when I find some nice ones (could be some time)...

So today I wandered down to Goldhawk Road to buy some fabric for some of the millions of dress patterns I appear to have bought but been too nervous to try.... It's the first time I've been down there - happily it is only about 20 mins for me on the tube. There were some gorgeous Swiss voiles in one of the shops for £25 p/m, I was going to buy some but didn't have a good pattern in mind and am not yet feeling confident enough to draft my own.. but I managed to find a lovely maxi dress pattern which would be perfect for some of the bordered fabrics. Very Cavalli... I did managed to get some lovely blue cotton with a sort of woven stripe, and another blue cotton with a fine purple satin-y stripe. I thought it would make a lovely dress, but then realised loads of the patterns I have say 'not suitable for obvious stripes'. Goddammit. Also got a heavy woven cotton in lavender and a sort of aqua / turqoise colour. And some lovely wooly boucle type stuff of which I have grand plans to make a Chanel-style suit for the winter... Though given I have made about four things in total so far - none of them involving sleeves in any format - that may be a bit ambitious... Anyway onto the current project.

In a massive pattern splurge in Peter Jones on Sloane Square, I found Vogue pattern V8232 which I thought was a really nice simple design that I could make up in loads of different colours / fabrics. And it was in the 'Very Easy Vogue' section. Hurrah! I am going to make it up in the plain blue cotton (and think I will line it) and then maybe do some funky decoration-type-thang with grosgrain ribbon... And I shall call her 'Lisa'.

So far I have cut out the fabric - am about to start on the lining. I am sooooooo slow....