Saturday 15 January 2011

The weekend is here! and sewing is planned!

Well its 2011 and I have started by doing lots of sewing, I finished my wedding outfit and had a fabulous day celebrating with my friend and her daughter and family. The wedding party looked so elegant and beautiful, and the day passed off well, with lovely food, plenty of friends there tocatch up with and finished with a great disco, that all ages joined in to dance the night away. Proof of this was my hobbling to the car in my lovely evening shoes that are made primarily for looking at and admiring rather than wearing!!

This the Tune-king and I before we left for the wedding, my dress is ankle length and I felt very comfortable and elegant in it, I hadn't quite lost as much weight as I would have liked but I've lost a significant amount since last January and feel so much better so I was ok with that!!


And this is with my fur jacket, I'm very pleased with this little number, the fur is really soft and drapes well so is ideal for jackets and would even be suitable to make something for a child. It came from Fabricland and was a real bargain. It has a pleat in the back with a bow detail and the hem dips at the back. I used a vintage hook and eye clasp from my collection, which I picked up somewhere in my travels, I think a french broccante when we holidayed in Brittany.

The dress fabric came from croftmill and is called Times Square, I lined it as well as it was quite a fine drapey fabric and I felt it needed the support, the lining fabric also came from croftmill. I was very pleased with it, for although it is man made fabric it is very fine and drapey, and didn't affect the movement of the dress fabric. So often, linings these days are acetate and too stiff, they work well on a wool skirt in a straight or a-line style but if your design has any movement or fluidity then I find that lining just destroys that feeling.

I ordered both fabrics before Christmas and despite snow and delivery difficulties they arrived within a week so a good service from both companies. I ordered zips and other haberdashery stuff from Jaycotts which is a fab service, pretty much return of post whatever the weather!!

So onto this weekend, I have some tartan knit fabric that I'm going to make up in the same pattern as evening dress but knee length version, this time I'm going to be brave and cut a smaller size!! The evening dress was fine but I did cut a bit too big and had to make some alterations! The pattern is see & sew B5168 and I think I got very cheaply on one of the many websites I wander through, but sorry I can't remember which one!!

Last week I also attended my big brother's wedding, his third to the same wife!! It was actually a lovely occasion and my usual non-emotional big brother was quite teary through the service and my sister-in-law had a beaming smile, they looked so happy, even better than 40 0dd years ago when I was bridesmaid at their first wedding. I wore a dress I had bought from a friend's dress agency, I've made a slip to go under in matching jersey, as the dress is totally see through!! I will be making more slips like this as they add a bit of warmth and stop any clinging. Talking of under garments, for both weddings I wore Trinny and Susannah magic knicker tights!! They are a bit of a fight to get on but are really comfy to wear and they meet your bra so they keep everything in with no ugly overhang!! I got my reduced in good old TK Maxx, so I was doubly pleased with them!!

Anyway, I'm off now to walk the dogs and then get on with sewing my tartan dress. You enjoy your weekend too!