But it can't be from Dolly Clackett. She gave me an Easter egg!

Hola, boys and girls! How is this Thursday afternoon treating you? I'm grand - I have just finished work for the day and it's been a good one, even though I did get drenched when I popped out at lunchtime to go to the post office. The drenching paid off though, as I was also able to pop into Berylune and buy some of their new stock - some beautiful Rashida Coleman-Hale for Cloud 9 fabric. Yay!

Anyway, it's been a busy week at work and a fairly productive one at home. Nic was away at the start of the week so I entertained myself by sewing and watching lots of TV boxed sets - I made a dress and binge-watched episodes of Law & Order, The Office (all of season 7, basically) and Hannibal, and I also got caught up on all four episodes of this series of Made in Chelsea. I was pretty TV-ed out by the time Nic came back and it was really nice to talk to another human being! With another bank holiday weekend on the horizon, I have lots more sewing lined up, including my wedding dress! Meep! Ideally, I'd like to leave it until slightly closer to the wedding to sew it, but this weekend is my only free weekend between now and then. So that's exciting, if a little bit daunting. I'm also going to pick the winners of Sew Dolly Clackett - I selected a (long) shortlist today and have shared it with my judging panel of Nic and Disha, and hopefully they'll be able to help me pick the winners from that. It wasn't easy, not least because all it has made me want to do is buy fabric! I hope to announce the winners over the weekend, so watch this space.

But you know, it's not like I have any shortage of dresses, is it? And I have a new one to share with you today. This is yet another By Hand London Anna dress - my love for that pattern basically knows no bounds. As with the Elisalex pattern, I had to get down to retracing it in my new size, as the pieces I had been working on are now two sizes too big. A happy task, if a tedious one. I've hacked this pattern every which way, but this time round I decided to sew up a straight Anna because, damn. She fine.

Deanna dress - By Hand London Anna dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

Yeah, I'm not really sure what face I'm pulling there! I bought this fabric when I went shopping with Char and Sarah in Birmingham at the start of February. It came from Fancy Silk Stores and they had all these bolts of it next to the till, and it was basically an impulse purchase. You know, like when you buy sweeties at the supermarket when all you went in for is washing-up liquid? Anyway - it was £4.99 a metre and it's twee as shit, and I wasn't altogether convinced that I actually liked it. But you know me - if it's ugly and I'm not sure that I like it, it generally means that I will like it. I bought two metres and had initially planned to make an Emery dress out of it, but when it came to cutting it out it felt like only Anna would do, so there you go.

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, FACE. Good work.

So, while the fabric looks like Cath Kidston threw up in a bin after eating too many sweets, it's actually by Hill-Berg fabrics. And I'm mostly joking with that Cath Kidston remark. I quite like Cath Kidston - I mean, I made my Madarch dress, and I have two Cath Kidston bags and a purse (all polka dots, obviously) and you'll have to pry my mushrooms mug out of my cold dead hands, but something about the relentlessly middle-class mimsyness of it just makes me crazy. Even though I kind of like it. I think that's what makes me crazy. I'm such a smug hipster that I think I should be above it but I'm totally not. Or at least, not completely.

Anyway. It ended up that I liked this fabric, even if it is disgustingly twee. It's green and pink, so it works with my lovely pink and green sandals. I made this dress while binge-watching episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation so it very nearly got called the STFU, Guinan dress. In the end I named if after Deanna Troi. I love to bag on her because she's quite shit at being an empath, but also I think she's pretty awesome.

I'm just going to leave this one here...

As I have made the Anna dress so many times before, I don't have anything left to say about it! I turned and stitched all of the skirt seams and pinked the bodice seams and waist seam. I didn't make any adjustments at all to the pattern and just sewed a straight size 8, but I think for next time I may have to take a bit of width out of the back neckline. I hadn't needed to do this before, but I think it would be a good adjustment here.

So that's basically the craic with this dress. And with this week, which has been grand but which I am glad is nearly over. I feel like I should have a bit more to say, but actually I have probably waffled on for quite long enough. So I'm out of here. Laters, gators.

Yo yo YO. Hiiiiii everyone! I am super jazzed this evening because I have samosa-stuffed baked potatoes for dinner tonight, I've had a wonderful long weekend, I made my wedding dress today and it's totally freaking awesome AND I've got eight amazing winners of the Sew Dolly Clackett sewalong that I hope to make happy this evening. Oh, and Nic just brought me a gin and tonic. So that's excellent as well.

But let's get down to business, here. It's taken a little while to decide on winners for the Sew Dolly Clackett competition because the quality of entries was so high. Like, ridiculously high. Frighteningly so. It's been weird and emotional and flattering for me to watch the dresses pop up across the sewing blogosphere. It's honestly a little bit unsettling to see that your style can be so easily emulated and even pastiched - but it's really touching to think that so many people care and wanted to take part. There are 198 members in the flickr pool, and an astonishing 585 photos. LOLWUT. So I'm incredibly grateful that my darling Nic and my good friend Disha stepped in to help me make this difficult decision. Both of them are well-qualified to judge - obviously Nic knows what I like, and Disha sits next to me every day at work so she has a good idea of what are the key elements of Dolly Clackett style!

I went through the squillions of entries and put together a very long shortlist. I sent this to Nic and Disha. Independently of one another, they whittled this down to a shortlist. Surprisingly and pleasingly, there was a lot of crossover. I had the final call. So, without further ado... the winners!

Winner of the Brother sewing machine and sewing kit, courtesy of Argos is...

Zoe B!

Agh! Isn't this perfection?! Sadly for everyone involved, this fabric is from a 60s duvet so it's not even like I can rush out and make my own. Nic said, "Everything about this rocks" and Disha said, "I can totally see you wearing this." Nice shoes and doorstep combination too, Zoe!

Winner of the By Hand London Anna and Elisalex patterns is...

Alex of Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks!

Alex describes herself as 'shit at sewing' but I beg to differ. I think this is only her third dress or something?! Anyway, I loved the fabric and, you know. AWESOME SHOES. Nic said, "This feels more 'Dolly Clackett' than a lot of the flowery prints" and Disha said "Awesome! Such a classic fabric." I totally agree. I love a bit of toile.

Winner of the Christine Haynes Emery pattern is...

Jenny from Sewing Pies!

Now, Jenny sewed about a million dresses for this competition. Seriously, she had 12 finished by the deadline and I think she's made a few more since. She really went for it! I loved them all, but the one that won it for her was this one:

Errr fabric? Awesome. Also, this is a mashup of the Sewaholic Cambie bodice and the By Hand London Charlotte skirt, and I need to get on this immediately if not sooner!

Winner of the Colette Pattern of her choice is...

Jenny Clark of Tea for Two!

This is an Anna dress with a gathered skirt, which is obviously a winner. I really love the fabric and so did Disha and Nic. Nic said, "The fabric and cut work really well together here - and the placement of the tree on the left shoulder is awesome" (I love that he notices this stuff!) and Disha said, "This just says SUMMER. Lovely." I couldn't agree more. Nice work, Jenny!

Winner of the Sewaholic pattern of her choice is...

Modiste Girl!

I love this fabric, and these photos are so sweet and summery that I was pretty captivated. Also, dudes. SHE MADE A MATCHING PARASOL. I mean, come on! That's unbelievably rad. Both Disha and Nic also loved the parasol, with Nic saying, "It adds a classy touch."

Winner of the $75 voucher for Harts Fabric is...

Heather B!

Heather actually entered a few dresses into the competition - I think she entered three in total, and I loved them all. There was some pretty awesome shoe action there too. But this one totally and utterly stole my heart:

I'm actually pretty much consumed with envy over this dress. And the shoes. In fact, I may have to buy myself the shoes. Anyway, all of the dresses in the Sew Dolly Clackett flickr pool are dresses I would wear, but this is one I'd be tempted to steal. Disha said, "Stunning. I would love to own this." BACK OF THE LINE, DISHA.

Winner of the £50 voucher for Berylune is...

Melody Mae of Bourbons and Bras!

ANCHORS THOUGH. This dress made me jump out of my chair and run into the next room to get Nic when Melody first posted it. I think it's heartstoppingly, outstandingly beautiful. I need to get some of this fabric! Also, excellent shoe choice once again.

And finally... I did say when Sarah announced the competition that I would donate a prize of my own. Nic and I are off to Paris in a few weeks on our honeymoon and I'm going to be doing some serious fabric shopping while I am there, so I decided that my prize is going to be some specially chosen fabric from Paris. And, the winner of that is...

Lynne of Ozzy Blackbeard!

Again, Lynne entered a few dresses into the competition and they were all beautiful, but this one is what won it for her:

Lynne is a great girl for an awesome print, and this is no exception. Check out the pattern matching too: impressive or what?! This dress is just so bright and pretty and cool. Disha pronounced it "totally fabulous" and Nic thought the fabric choice was "Exciting without being novelty" and I just love the combination of the pattern and the dress. Thoroughly excellent, and I'm excited about picking something fun out for Lynne in Paris.

I really wish I could give space to everyone who took the time to enter the competition. I am genuinely touched by the quality and imaginativeness of the entries! Everything in the flickr pool is something I would love to wear. More than that, though, Nic and I have been so moved by the warmth of all of your best wishes for our wedding and our marriage. People we have been lucky enough to meet and get to know in real life took part in this competition. One of my best friends did, and one of my colleagues did as well. And then there are all of you who I only know through blogs or through twitter - the good will and well-wishes are so gratefully received. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!

A special thanks should go to dear Sarah for having this crazy, thoughtful and generous idea, for organising the prizes and for cheering everyone along the whole time. There's a little gift on its way to Sarah as I write, but it's so minor in comparison to the gift she - and all of you - have given me. Thank you all so much!

There only remains a little bit of admin - could the winners please email Sarah at rhinestonesandtelephones@gmail.com - and she will sort out your prizes!

I'm going to go and finish that gin now. Once again, thank you to everyone who took part. YOU GUYS ARE TOTALLY AWESOME.

Hi all! I hope this week is treating everyone well? I'm absolutely knackered, having had two twelve-hour days at work - with no real lunch break, on my feet the whole time. It wasn't just me, it was my whole team and actually I'm pretty fortunate in that I was able to work from home today, but still. I'm TIRED. May is a beautiful month for many reasons but it's a pretty hideous one in my work calendar. Mega sadface. Thank goodness for that small holiday we have planned in a few weeks, eh?!

Anyway, that's been the craic around here for the past few days. Not too much fun, sadly! No sewing, a little bit of knitting, a fair few episodes of Law & Order. Don't tell me I don't know how to rock the party, eh?! As ever though, I am sewing faster than I am blogging so I do have another new dress to show you. It's yet another Christine Haynes Emery dress, but this time with a little pattern hack. Remember how smug I was about my 'self-drafted' pleated skirt? YEAH THAT.

Pawnee dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress with a pleated skirt and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

This fabric is so loud, isn't it?! It's a Pillow and Maxfield design for Michael Miller, and I bought it when Lauren and I went to the Knitting and Stitching show in March. There was one stall there selling Michael Miller fabrics for £6 a metre and I was fairly restrained and only bought this design.

I found with the last Emery dress that I made that it turned out to be too big so I retraced the bodice and sleeves a size down for this dress and I am really happy with the fit. Adding the pleated skirt was no difficulty and I really like the slightly different feel it gives to the Emery dress.

This great big smug closeup of MY MASSIVE FACE is for you, Sew Dixie Lou. I know you love that.

I was careful when cutting out the bodice that I didn't get one of those big flower/mandala things in an awkward place. That meant I had to look at them a bit more closely, and actually they kind of look a bit like lotus seed pods, which: BOKE. Well actually, I discovered when I was at home at Christmas that my mum has some dried ones in a flower arrangement and they're not so bad. But anyway, I do like this fabric despite the slightly bokey association.

I seem to spend a lot of time saying things like, "Well, I thought it was really ugly and I wasn't sure if I liked it but then realised that I did" because apparently, I have quite the taste for garish and ugly things and this totally applies to these shoes:

Nic hates these shoes. Well, he doesn't hate them and he's not horrible about it or anything, but he thinks they're obnoxiously ugly. I kind of do, too. There's certainly something totally grotesque about giant shiny red lips and toes together! Despite that, I do like the weirdness of these and I am glad I bought them (especially as they were super cheap on sale. No way would I have paid full price for shoes I thought were possibly unspeakably ugly) I wonder if I will ever develop a taste for, you know, neutrally tasteful stuff or am I going to be like that old woman in that terrible poem about wearing purple? Probably the latter.

I've since gone on to make another Emery dress with a pleated skirt and my mind is starting to wander towards pairing this lovely bodice with a circle skirt, or maybe the dipped hem skirt from the By Hand London Flora dress. I do really like this pleated skirt variation, though - it has the silhouette I am so drawn to, but it's a little bit more streamlined than a gathered skirt. Plus, it's a little bit less labour-intensive than gathering and that's no bad thing!

And as for the name - well, the flowers made me think of parks, which brought me to Pawnee. I think my love of Parks and Recreation is probably fairly obvious by now. It's genuinely a source of some sadness in my life that Ron Swanson isn't actually real. Or Tom Haverford. But not Jerry because DAMN IT JERRY.

Anyway, guys. I am super tired and while I often talk a lot of shit in kind of a charming way, I don't want to just start chatting actual shit. So I'm going to go and lie down and watch a bit more Law & Order. Donna says I should.

Hola! This evening's post is brought to you by chocolate, fizzy pop and paracetamol: a mild, but very well-earned hangover. And, thankfully, the day off! Yesterday afternoon after work - after a very long week and weekend of working - I hopped on the train to London to have dinner and drinks with Clare and Sally. Or so I thought. I met Clare in a pub on Dorset Street as Sally 'had a few errands to run' and after a gin and tonic, we headed to the pub on Marylebone High Street where we had planned to meet. I walked in the door and was greeted by this sight:

Lots and lots of lovely Spoolettes! It was a surprise hen party, with 16 Spoolettes in attendance. And I really was surprised - I had no idea that Clare and Sally were cooking this up, and I was totally overcome with shock and emotion that so many of my friends had come along to celebrate. It was amazing, and I played it very cool by immediately bursting into tears. Someone handed me a glass of prosecco and there were more tears - and then I was presented with this:

That badge reads, "Will flirt for gin" and Rehanon gave me a coaster that says, "This person is a gin whore."

It's my own personalised boke bucket, complete with a seductive picture of Alan. It was full of really amazing gifts too - individually wrapped chocolate penises, a bottle of champagne, a Tatty Devine gin bottle necklace, lots of sewing goodies and trinkets, some brilliant hen party paraphernalia and an astoundingly generous £100 voucher for Irregular Choice. So, yes, I cried again. If ever you were in any doubt that you can meet wonderful people over the internet, last night should shoo those thoughts out of your head. All of the women who came along to surprise me last night are people I have been honoured to get to know since I bought my sewing machine four years ago. I had no idea then that it would be a route for me to meet such kindred spirits, but of course I am so, SO glad that it has been.

Anyway, we got some tasty two-for-one cocktails into us before decamping to Topkapi, across the road, for more drinks and delicious Turkish food. If the owner was bemused to see me parading in carrying a bucket with a picture of Alan Partridge on it, he was kind enough not to show it. We ordered a few bottles of wine and busted out the teenie peenies that Elisalex had very thoughtfully provided:

It's not a hen party without penis-shaped straws, is it?

Anyway, all too soon it was time for me to dash through the rain to catch the last train back to Leamington. I'm sad that I can't adequately convey in words in this post how much fun I had last night, and how much it meant to me that Clare and Sally organised this surprise for me. It was the best gift I could have asked for. I really can't believe how fortunate I am to have such amazing friends, truly.

Thankfully, I'd had the presence of mind to book today off work. I was pretty wrecked by the time I got home - a combination of tiredness and the mix of alcohol I'd fired into myself in the few hours I had in London. I've been feeling gently crap all day, but it's been really chilled. I've caught up on Made in Chelsea (Mytton seriously needs to get off my fucking planet) and did some sewing and lazed around on the sofa. It's back to the old day job tomorrow, but who could complain after such an amazing couple of days?!

In terms of sewing - I will have to get photos of what I made today soon, because I love it. But in the meantime, here's another By Hand London Flora dress that I sewed last week:

Aoibhneas na Bealtaine dress and Irregular Choice IC O'Clock heels

Can we just talk about this fabric, though? My friends at Berylune have recently started stocking Cloud 9 fabrics. This is excellent, and terrible at the same time. Terrible for my bank balance, but fantastic to have another place to buy beautiful fabric in Leamington Spa. Even better that it can be from friends. I spotted this Rashida Coleman-Hale print when I went in to check the fabrics out a couple of weeks ago and didn't buy it immediately, but I couldn't stop thinking about it. It's a border print, but a fairly subtle one, and I couldn't resist pairing it with the beautiful Flora pattern.

Specifically, I loved the idea of the smaller-scale floral print of the edges running across the neckline of the bodice and the hem of the skirt front, like so:

To achieve this, I had to cut the bodice on the crosswise grain. As Sonja would say, it's a victimless crime. To be totally honest, though - I did notice a difference in how the bodice fits as a result. My usual size still fits but it's a slightly closer fit than I was expecting. No biggie, but this is not a dress I'd wear if I were planning to eat a big meal. In fairness that's no bad thing. I am a dropper.

Otherwise, not too much to say about the making of this dress - it was a very pleasant Saturday or Sunday afternoon activity a couple of weeks ago. The Flora dress has already become a sewing staple for me - in fact, I was wearing one yesterday, and I already have another one planned with some beautiful floral voile that Annie from The Village Haberdashery surprised me with last week. I tell you what lads, I'm totally spoiled here.

This photo included because vanity. My hair looks nicer here, although you can see the dress better in the other one. Blogging. So hard! Bloggers: SO BRAVE.

Anyway boys and girls, I have to go to bed. Last night's excitement and today's hangover have taken their toll on me, and I need to get the jammies on and watch an episode of something enjoyably shit like Blue Bloods before going to sleep. Night all!

Hello my loves! I hope this humid Tuesday evenings finds you well, and not too sunburned after the beautiful weekend (for my UK readers, at any rate. International readers: apply similar comments appropriate to the weather in your locale) I'm very well, having finished work until after the wedding - and after that, I only have three working days before we're off to Paris so yeah, things are pretty good!

The wedding is really close now - it's this Friday - and thankfully, everything is ready. I stayed up until midnight last night hemming my dress so that I'd have a couple of days clear to relax. I finally feel like I can enjoy the anticipation now that work has finished. May has been pretty hellish at work - the only saving graces have been that I mostly enjoy my job and I have pretty amazing colleagues - so I've deliberately not been thinking about the wedding too much. Looking forward to something was only going to make getting through work more difficult. But that's over now, and I can just get excited! Tonight, Nic and I are cracking open the bottle of champagne my darling Spoolettes gave us, eating pizza and celebrating in one of our favourite ways: watching cop shows. Hurrah!

So, I guess this is my last blog post as an unmarried woman. I probably won't change all that much after Friday, though. I'm keeping my name, and I already call Nic by his actual name on here, so it's unlikely that I'll give him a cutesy nickname like hubby or, ick, the hubster. It'll be business as usual, I swear. Business as usual but OMGMARRIED. It's actually kind of a weird feeling because I know that being married won't change our relationship, but also that it somehow will.

Anyway, enough soppy stuff. I will post next week with a few photos though, because I know some of you are pretty curious to see my dress. I have to warn you, it's pretty simple. I love it, but it's not some super-involved Vera Wang number or anything. Hey, my shoes are fucking amazing, though. So, basically, yay!

I think that's all the bases covered on my two main areas of thought over the last few weeks: work and wedding. Now onto the dresses! Naturally enough, I have been sewing recently with an eye to having some fun and cute new dresses to wear when we're in Paris. And if you've been reading this blog for any length of time at all, you'll know I'm pretty obsessed with Michael Miller's Eiffel Tower fabric line. So, a few months ago, I bought some in one of the few colourways I hadn't already sewed with. And you know, I like to stick with a formula, so I sewed another Christine Haynes Emery dress:

Douce France dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress with a pleated skirt, worn with Miss L Fire Woodie wedges

I had a hard time photographing this dress on such a bright day, so sadly I don't think these photos do this dress justice. You'll just have to take my word that it is cuter on. This colourway was a bit lighter than I was expecting. I bought it from Fabric Inspirations (which, I'm not sponsored to say this or anything, but I love that website. Great prices, amazing selection and really fast dispatch. Good stuff all round) I actually think the colour is pretty true on screen, but I have a terrible memory for this kind of thing so I thought it would be darker. Anyway, while I would normally shy away from less saturated colours, I do think I like this.

EIFFEL TOWER BEWBS

As you can see, I went for another pleated skirt. This time I experimented with wider box pleats. I hear a lot of people saying they think pleats are more flattering than gathers and I'm not totally sure I'm on board with this theory. I think it depends. In this case, I don't think the box pleats I used are especially flattering - I think they kind of make my lower stomach look weirdly wide, or something? It's not an issue for me - something being flattering isn't always a priority for me - but I do wonder if this dress would look better with an inch or two taken off the hem.

In summary: a cute dress, but not 100% a success. I love the fabric and I love the pattern. I do really like the dress, as well. It served me well for an afternoon in the sunshine followed by an evening of drinking prosecco and eating tasty food with Rick and Lauren, so I know it's going to do well in Paris too. I think I will take that hem up a smidge though, just for the craic.

I'm not in any way conflicted about my shoes though, which I bought on sale from Miss L Fire.

They're stripy (SO FRENCH) and have bows and have a random cut-out detail in the heel which is ugly and cute at the same time and although you can't see the insoles, they have pirates printed on them. Winner.

Yet another classic face.

That's everything from me for this evening. I have champagne to pour, pizza to eat and crimes to solve. Catch you all next week!

Reader, I married him.

Yay Jane Eyre quote! BOOM! Maybe that's lame of me, but whatever. Jane Eyre is my desert island book, and I love that bit. Jane's a badass. And also, Nic and I got married on Friday and it was truly, truly excellent. Like, honestly the best day we've ever had. The best weekend, in fact, because the celebrations extended into the weekend, and into today, in fact.

The festivities started on Thursday, when my parents and my brother-in-law arrived. Thankfully, Nic and I had everything ready so there wasn't really any last-minute running around. We needed to go to the tip, and to buy some flowers, but the rest of the day was just chilling out and having fun. It was like Christmas Eve, but not as cold!

I won't give you a blow-by-blow account of Friday but we did have an amazing day. The ceremony was brief and intimate. We only had seven guests to that part of the day, and it was perfect. I surprised myself - and my parents, I think - by getting a bit tearful during the ceremony. Immediately after the deed was done, we were met outside by our friend Fiona Murray, who had very kindly offered to take a few photos. I'm underplaying this a bit - as well as being a good friend and a lovely person, Fiona is an extraordinarily talented professional photographer. It was unbelievably kind of her to volunteer her services, and I think you'll agree that her photos are stunning:

Yes, we found another blue door to pose in front of! In my defence, this was Fiona's idea.

Nic and I had no plans for professional photographs - mainly because it seemed like it would be kind of a faff (and it has been at other weddings I've been a member of) so I really can't thank Fiona enough for giving us such a beautiful gift. It was a lot of fun taking the photos - she's great fun to be around anyway and I think she captured us really well!

Our wedding party - don't we all scrub up well?

After Fiona had finished taking the photos, she took my brother-in-law to the station (he had to get on the train to Folkestone as he was going on holiday to France that night) and we all went for a celebratory drink... in Wetherspoon's. I know, classy! We were all very over-dressed for Wetherspoon's on a Friday morning, but it seemed like it was worth it.

After lunch, the wedding party decamped to Kayal for Business Lunch. I'm not lying when I say that Business Lunch was one of the major attractions to getting married on a weekday! Also, you know, I'd just closed a pretty major deal so it felt appropriate. It was pretty cool because not only was the food delicious, but it gave my parents a proper chance to get to know the rest of the wedding party - our dear friends JP and Hannah (who were also our witnesses) and Viv.

After lunch, we went to our reception venue. We wanted the wedding reception to be low-key, relaxed and fun so we had booked the function room at The Royal Pug. It's a beautiful room with its own GIN BAR. Yes, you read that correctly! We had invited around 60 guests for the evening party, and quite a few of them brought food for the buffet. Our good friend Rick provided the music - a few weeks earlier, we had gone round to his house to compile a playlist, with the thought that an ipod of music would be pretty cool. Rick went one better and actually DJed the evening, which made such a difference. The music was pretty much solidly 90s pop and indie (I'm a child of the 90s after all) and it was brilliant.

The buffet, mid-party

Quite a few of our friends are musicians. We'd deliberately not asked them to play at the wedding - not because we didn't want them to, but because we didn't want them to have to work on the evening. Despite this, our friend Tom took us to one side and asked us did we want a band because they'd all brought their equipment, and, voila, we had a live band!

The surprise band. Yes, we had an accordion at our wedding. Isn't that awesome?!

The band played for around an hour and included a guest set from Nic's friend Ian on vocals - this was especially cool, because Ian hadn't sung for about four years. After the band packed away, Rick got the DJ set up and running again and the dancefloor really kicked off...

Dancefloor action shot

The brilliant thing about the wedding reception being so small is that Nic and I got to spend time with all of our guests and to dance our asses off on the dancefloor. Some of my favourite memories from the night are from the dancefloor - like the fabulous moment when my old housemate Carter and I had a heartfelt singalong to Mr Jones by Counting Crows, or when Lucy and I pogoed to Boys Don't Cry by The Cure. Then there were those songs that brought the whole room together - most notably Business Time by Flight of The Conchords, Ignition Remix by R. Kelly and - best of all - when everyone busted seriously interpretive moves to Wuthering Heights. Amazing. Nic and I didn't have a first dance, but we did have the last dance of the night to At The Indie Disco by The Divine Comedy. It was perfect.

You make my heart beat the same way / as at the start of Blue Monday / always the last song that they play / at the Indie Disco

The whole day was everything we had wanted it to be and even more. Everything went so smoothly and we had so much fun. It was wonderful to be surrounded by so much love. Our friends are amazing. Really, really amazing. Everything was so stress-free, and in no small part because our friends contributed to the day in such special ways - giving of their time and talent as well as being there to celebrate with us. In addition to the beautiful photographs and amazing music, we had friends providing us with delicious food! We had two wedding cakes baked by lovely friends - an incredible lemon and blueberry drizzle cake baked (and decorated) by Denise and a delicious raspberry Victoria sponge baked by Sarah. My parents were astounded by the generosity and all-round wonderfulness of our friends, and so were we.

My dad and Fiona

Another dancefloor action shot. These are our people! I can't remember what we were dancing to here but it was clearly something awesome.

By the time we finished the night at closing time, Nic and I were exhausted, emotional and extremely happy. We'd partied our heads off - I actually limped home because I'd danced so much - and it was the best start to married life I could have imagined. I feel incredibly lucky to have such a wonderful family, amazing friends and of course, such a darling and handsome husband.

And now the bit when I talk about what we wore! Isn't Nic's suit beautiful? He got the suit from Debenham's, the shirt from TK Maxx and the waistcoat came from a local tailor via a charity shop. The pocket watch had been given to him by his grandpa and I made him his pocket square (I'm sure Mark Francis would disapprove!)

My dress is a By Hand London Flora dress with a straight circle skirt rather than the pleated one that is part of the pattern. I knew I'd want to wear a petticoat with the dress so this seemed like the best thing to do. I used Carline rose print Liberty tana lawn, which I had bought from Fabrics Galore at the Knitting and Stitching show earlier this year. You might be surprised by my choice - I must confess that I was, because I've never been a big fan of Liberty prints. However, as soon as I saw this I fell in love and I must admit that it was a joy to sew. I made my bouquet myself from gypsophila. It's pretty and simple, and it's also the flower that both of my sisters chose for their wedding bouquets. The pink ribbon around the bouquet came from the boke bucket that the Spoolettes gave me at my surprise hen party, and my headpiece was a gift from Sarah from way back when we did our first swap a few years ago. And my shoes are Karl Lagerfeld for Melissa, and... just LOOKIT. They're fabulous:

I love these shoes. They're business up front and party in the back.

Fiona found me another fancy door to stand in front of!

I really, really love my dress. I wanted to make something that felt like me, and that I'd wear again. I certainly will wear this again - I was really sad to take it off before I went to bed! It was perfect for the day we had and I felt amazing in it. In terms of sewing - yeah, it's probably not perfect, but I loved making and I loved wearing it. Nic loved it too, and really, that's the main thing.

So, yeah. That was our wedding. We loved every moment of it and had a truly beautiful day. I couldn't be happier with my new husband. Life is good! We had an amazing weekend too - we went to Folkestone the following day to visit Nic's parents and grandparents - but I'll have to tell you about that another day. For now, all that's left is for me to thank everyone who has commented or tweeted or emailed to congratulate us on our wedding - it's been beautiful. Thank you! We'll be off to Paris on our honeymoon soon so I might not be around for a bit, but I'll be back before long with many more dresses and shoes, don't worry!

Anyway. I need to go and watch a cop show and regain some normality around here. Night all!

LOLWUT. Married.

Bonjour mes animaux! Remember me? It's been a few weeks. I did actually bring the laptop on holiday, with the thought that I might do a little bit of blogging on a quiet evening. That resolution dissolved in wine and we ended up only using the laptop to watch S4 of Justified (which turns out to be excellent after a slightly ropey start, JSYK) So yeah. Life kind of got in the way, there. But I was back to work today, so life is back to normal, so here I am again.

Thank you to all of you for such warm wishes and kind words about our wedding. We really did have the best day. And Paris was amazing! I won't blog about our honeymoon exhaustively because, you know, other people's holiday photos. Also, I have lots of unblogged projects and adventures to catch you up on. I'm good like that. But I mean obviously I am also going to tell you a bit about Paris because we had an amazing time and took millions of photos.

The Eiffel Tower, seen from the top of the hill at Montmartre. This is as close as we got to the tower, I'm afraid.

So, we had 11 days in Paris, and had a total blast. We were staying in the same cute little studio apartment in Montmartre that we stayed in last year. This was great because it meant we knew exactly what to expect from the apartment and we knew the area. Also the apartment owner, Rafet, had treated us so kindly when we stayed last year we wanted to give him the repeat business.

Our street

We didn't do many of the cultural or especially tourist things in Paris, I must admit. Most of our time was spent exploring the 18th arrondissement and everywhere that was within walking distance of our apartment. We walked so much that Nic knackered his ankle, and I made my toes go numb, but it was good because I guess it balanced out all of the bread, champagne and pastries. Just wandering the streets made me feel so happy. One of our favourite walks was down the Boulevard Magenta to the Canal Saint-Martin, with occasional rambles further to the Marais district.

One of the many pretty bridges over the canal

I really loved this area. The canal was really beautiful - especially on a sunny day when its banks were lined with people eating lunch, drawing or just socialising. There were also lots of very cool bars, cafes and shops on the nearby streets. It was just a very beautiful and restful place to be, especially on a hot day.

Ice cream on a sunny day in Paris. This was a happy moment in my life, I must admit.

One of the places that we kept going back to was an awesome bar/cafe/community centre called Le Comptoir Général, on Quai des Jemmapes. Nic had read a review of it that described it as being 'Holy Fuckballs Amazing' and, you know what? It totally was. I want to go back for one of the evening events next year, but this time around we were happy to visit in the daytime for lunch and coffee.

Inside Le Comptoir Général

The other excellent place we found for lunch was Pink Flamingo, on Rue Bichat. You can eat in the restaurant or you can have your pizza delivered to you at the canal. They give you a pink helium balloon to help the delivery guy find you. The pizza is pretty good - not quite as good as the pizza from Trattoria Pulcinella on Rue Eugène Sue - but good. You can get an 8-cheese pizza named after Eric Cantona, which obviously Nic ordered.

Pizza tracker! His face was even happier after he'd eaten his pizza.

As the area was so scenic and the weather so beautiful, I thought it'd be a good place to photograph a newly minted dress. This is one that I cobbled together some time to sew during May because I wanted to wear it on honeymoon.

The Frog Princess dress, Swedish hasbeens'Ornament' sandals and yellow Zatchels satchel from Berylune

Yeah, it's another By Hand London Flora dress with a circle skirt. I loved wearing my wedding dress so much that I wanted to make another version. The fabric is the floatiest, softest, most delightful cotton voile from The Village Haberdashery. Back at the start of May, I ordered some Moda cotton from them and Annie very kindly surprised me with a gift of a couple of metres of this voile, saying she thought it would make a pretty Flora dress. It was the sweetest and most thoughtful gift, and most unexpected. I was so touched by it that it made me cry, and I really love the resulting dress. It was the perfect dress to wear on what turned out to be a really hot day in which we did a lot of walking.

When the fabric arrived, I thought I may have to underline it or line the skirt as it's so light - but thankfully it's not at all sheer. So on this dress, as with my wedding dress, only the bodice is lined. Admittedly, the dress probably looks better with higher heels than these low-heeled clogs, but I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking!

A little close-up of my massive face, so you can see the pretty print on the fabric. Looking at this photo, I might need to take a tiny bit more width out of the neckline again but, you know, shit happens.

This is the goofiest picture of me I've ever put on the internet. Wevs. Now you can see the skirt in partial glory. Kind of. But I think the big silly grin on my face shows you how happy I am with my dress. Anyway, I did lots of fabric shopping in Paris and I have a couple of really cool lengths of fabric that are basically crying out to be made into a Flora bodice/circle skirt combination.

So that's my Frog Princess dress. I even managed to avoid getting pizza on it, which was a bit of a triumph for me, especially considering I was eating it on a wall next to the canal. Hurrah! I'm going to leave you with a few more pictures of the Canal Saint-Martin area and I'll be back later in the week. Bon soir, mes amies!

One of the locks along the canal. There are a number of these, leading right down to where the canal goes underground - from Rue du Faubourg du Temple to Bastille. One one of our visits, we watched a barge navigate the locks right until it went underground. It was really cool.

Nic on one of the bridges over the canal. Do you see the locks on the bridge? NONE OF THEM ARE OURS. While we were in Paris, part of the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight of those tacky things. Not our style.

While we were standing on this bridge, a very sweet man offered to take our photo. I mean, he could have been angling to do a runner with the camera, but the risk paid off. I think this is a pretty cute photo.

This is how I spent most of our holiday. Just straight chilling. It was TRES BIEN.

Hello again! Two posts in one week, I'm really spoiling you, aren't I?!

As I mentioned in my last post, I have something of a backlog of projects and adventures to share with you. This is why I am so late in writing about the lovely day I spent at the John Lewis Sewing Bee on 31st May. Yes, it was over two weeks ago. I suck. I know. But whatever, it was a good day!

I was very excited when John Lewis got in touch to invite me to take part. I was initially going to decline as it was happening the day before Nic and I were going to Paris, but when it came to replying I found myself writing OMG YES PLEASE, which was curious! Anyway, although the prospect of spending the day sewing on the haberdashery floor of John Lewis Oxford Street was a bit daunting, it was too exciting to turn down. The whole thing became even more exciting when I realised I'd be sharing the day with fellow Spoolettes Clare, Emmie, Fiona and Amy and meeting two other seamstresses I hadn't met before, Elena and Charlie.

Our brief on the day was to sew a dress using some of the beautiful fabric that John Lewis has produced in honour of their 150th anniversary. I loved all of them and was immediately drawn towards the floral print that Emmie ended up using, but in the end I couldn't resist the mid-century feel of the 'bacteria' print I chose. We had a choice of patterns to choose from and although I had brought my Emery pattern with me (as I knew I'd be able to sew her up in a day) I went for a Vogue pattern - V8998. This was kind of a risk as I have never sewn from a Vogue pattern before but I figured that if I came unstuck with the fitting I had many talented and knowledgable friends on hand as well as the wonderful Sew Over It ladies Lisa Comfort and Freia.

Me, trying to figure out which pattern pieces I need. Photograph by Michael Taylor

We spent some time taking over the haberdashery in the morning cutting out our pattern pieces and fabric - we were provided with an amazing sewing kit, which included some really badass sewing shears. Cutting out my pattern pieces felt like it took ages. The dress I chose had many variations AND was one of those where they have different bodice options for different bust sizes, so as well as having to measure everything to figure out the best one to cut, there were about 17,000 different pattern pieces to navigate. I wasn't on top form that day as I was suffering from a horrible head cold and sinusitis and hadn't slept at all the night before, so I did make one stupid mistake and totally forgot to cut out one of the skirt pieces! Thankfully there was lots of fabric available so when it came to assembling the skirt I was able to just cut out what I needed out of the remaining fabric. Still, I felt like a total dope.

Cutting out that pesky missing skirt piece.

The day itself was kind of a blur. As well as the pressure of sewing a dress to a deadline, there were lots of distractions. Really fun distractions like playing with a new sewing machine - we were given the use of a Janome DC3050 for the day and it was a lovely machine to use - and an overlocker. I've only used an overlocker a couple of times before, so it was fun to finally have the chance to get to grips with one. Of course the biggest and most fun distraction was the fact that I was sewing with friends and the day passed in a blur of chatter and laughter. Lisa and Freia did a good job of keeping us on task - and getting us all started again after a long and tasty lunch in the John Lewis brasserie!

Sewing bee!

I was pretty determined to get my dress mostly finished on the day, and I'm proud to tell you that I did. I totally ignored the instructions - the dress has a princess-seamed bodice, an inset waistband and a 6-gored skirt with some gathering. Nothing outlandish and I was confident I could use my previous sewing experience to work out the best method of construction. The pattern calls for the dress to be lined, but in the interests of speediness, I decided to line only the bodice. I self-lined it, because there was lots of fabric available! Going by the finished garment measurements (once I found them - they appear to be well-hidden on Vogue envelopes) I cut the size 10 with the C cup bodice. I basted it together and - shamefully - tried it on over my dress. Freia and I agreed that I needed to take a couple of inches out overall, so I did this by taking in the side seams by an inch each (although I left the seams of the bust as they were.)

This is my 'concentrating' face

Getting to grips with a new machine and an overlocker was suprisingly enjoyable! - although it made me realise how much I rely on muscle memory when sewing with my own machine! The DC3050 was lovely to use - my own machine is a Janome so I could figure out the basics easily enough - and it was so quiet and smooth! I'm not ready to upgrade my machine yet (I am ridiculously attached to my totally basic little machine, and it does everything I need it to well and reliably) but something like the DC3050 would be a good next step for me, I think. I had very little previous experience with overlockers but I enjoyed using one on the day. I'm not in any immediate need for one, but I must admit to really liking the way my serged seams all looked so I might very well invest in one at some point this year.

By the end of the day, my dress was ready for a zip. I just whacked the zip in as quickly as I could so I could see what the finished dress looked like on, but then I ended up being too tired and overwhelmed to want to go and try it on. Still, it was really pleasing to see what it looked like on the mannequin. I am still not at all convinced that a dressmaker's dummy is for me, though. Those things seriously give me the creeps.

One of the highlights of the day was having our photographs taken in the garden on the roof of the building. I'm not sure if this roof terrace is open to the public, but it's just beautiful. Also, it was really nice to get out into the fresh air after an intense day underneath electric lights.

Me and my almost-finished dress, modelled by my much taller, sadly mutilated friend.

The biggest highlight of the day was getting to spend the day sewing with such lovely friends, and in such an unusual surrounding. We had the run of the haberdashery department, and were so well looked after. It was really lovely to meet the shoppers at John Lewis as well - we had some Spoolette friends drop in to see us, and chatted to customers and blog readers alike. It was brilliant!

I love the look of concentration on Emmie's face in this photo.

Organised chaos

The Sewing Bee Gang - from left to right - Freia, Lisa, Fiona, Elena, Clare, Charlie, me, Amy and Emmie

When we had finished and packed up for the day - leaving fairly well laden down under the weight of the fantastic Prym sewing kits we'd been given, along with our dresses, fabric, patterns and notions needed to finish - Charlie, Amy, Elena, Nissa (who had joined us) and I headed to the Irregular Choice shop on Carnaby Street. I had a £100 voucher that was a wedding present from the Spoolettes that I was determined to spend! The ladies helped me pick out some shoes and from there I dashed to Tottenham Court Road to meet my sister Kelly, who happened to be in London for the weekend. We had time for a quick drink and a catch-up before I got the train back up to Leamington. By the time I arrived home I was thoroughly exhausted and fit only to eat some toast and get into bed. My dress would have to wait until I got home from Paris to be finished.

So, when we got back from Paris (and I had recovered a bit from the journey home) I did finish it. I needed to sew the bodice lining down and hem the dress, but I wanted to also re-do the zip as it wasn't my finest hour. I did all of this by hand because I wasn't that fussed on getting my machine out.

Darkness Falls dress - Vogue V8998 worn with Irregular Choice Dippy Daisy shoes

Overall, I'm really happy with this dress. I must admit that when I put it into the bag at the end of the day, I wasn't totally sure if I was ever going to wear it. I didn't especially like the way it looked on the mannequin - but then, that thing is a totally different shape to me, so that's probably why! I'm happy with the fit, too - I know there are some wrinkles under the bust there in that photo, but that is really more my posture than anything else. I seriously need to learn to stand up straight one of these days.

The skirt on my dress isn't nearly as sticky-out as the one on the pattern envelope or in the sample photos - but this is because mine isn't lined, and also the dress in the sample photos is hemmed with horsehair braid. There is a nice bit of fullness at the sides and towards the back - the version I chose to sew has some gathering on the skirt pieces there. It's a very nice dress - similar to my usual style but I think the inset waistband is a bit different - and I'm pretty sure I'll sew from this pattern again. I think I actually need a little bit more ease so will decrease the seam allowances a bit the next time I make this - it's not too tight and it's comfortable to wear as it is, but it might get rid of some of the wrinkling. Or, you know, once the post-holiday chub has shifted I might not need to!

Bodice view. My posture really is terrible, but this photo is nice because you can see the fabric in better detail.

If I sound like I'm not overwhelmed with love for this dress - well, I'm honestly not, although I do like it a lot. I had a great time sewing it and it'll always have happy memories attached to it, and I'll certainly wear it, but it's not my favourite thing I've ever sewn. It does look good with my shoes, though, which are my Spoolettes shoes!

They have flowers on the front...

...and bows on the back!

So, that was my day at the John Lewis Sewing Bee! It was pretty freaking excellent. And I do like the dress really, because the fabric reminds me of one of the scariest ever episodes of The X-Files, and not just because Scully is dressed like this...

WHY, WARDROBE DEPARTMENT. WHY.

Oh! And before I forget - not only did the lovely ladies at Sew Over It invite me to take part in such a wonderful day, they also gave me a copy of their newest sewing pattern - the Ultimate Trouser Pattern - to give away to one lucky reader. I got a hilarious little note with the pattern saying they'll be interested to see how the Queen of Dresses will sell a trouser pattern but, you know, I know a lot of people like to wear trousers. And as trousers go, these are seriously cute.

These cute trousers could be yours! Dog not included.

All you need to do to win is leave me a comment telling me you'd like to win! I will post to anywhere in the world, and I'll leave this giveaway open until next Friday 27th June at 9pm BST. It'll be good. I promise you won't end up looking like this:

Girl, No. Just... no.

Hello dudes, me again, here to bring a little bit of excitement to your lives. I'm good that way. I hope this Tuesday afternoon finds you well. I'm grand - I got to spend the weekend doing some of my favourite things - drinking champagne, sewing, hanging out with friends and teaching.

So I'm back to show you another project that was completed a while ago. Try not to be too shocked, guys, it's another Christine Haynes Emery dress. I know. One of the things I really like about this pattern is how the simple lines mean it is a great canvas to allow gorgeous fabric to shine. So, when I found my perfect anchor print fabric, I knew it had to become an Emery dress.

Anchor print fabric from the Bartholomeow's Reef collection from Moda

And this fabric really IS the perfect anchor print. I squealed a bit when Annie from The Village Haberdashery put a picture of it on instagram, and I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I bought some straightaway. It's one of those prints I feel like I've been searching for ever since I started sewing. I have this beautiful anchor print dress from Vivien of Holloway, and basically I've been wanting to make a more everyday-friendly version of this.

Because gorgeous as it is, a halterneck dress with a boned bodice isn't the most casual of dresses (mind you, I have worn this dress to work in the past - with a cardigan on - but it's not hugely practical, even for me) This moda cotton looked like a perfect casual alternative, and it proved to be even more lovely when it arrived. It's technically a quilting cotton, but it has the softness and drape of a really soft chambray, so it's perfect for dressmaking.

Hand Over Hand dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress, worn with Office 'Love Me Tender' shoes

Nothing new to say about the construction of the Emery dress. I'm now sewing a size 2, with the only fit modification being that I ever so slightly increase the width of the darts at the back neckline. I omitted the pockets and used a gathered rectangle for the skirt rather than the skirt pattern pieces. For this dress I wanted to go a little bit shorter than usual as it's nice to get the old knees out in the summer! Oh, and I used a lapped zip rather than a concealed one in this dress - for no other reason than that's what I felt like sewing at the time.

I really, REALLY love this dress and I have worn it so many times since sewing it. It's cute and comfortable and I feel really good in it. I brought it with me to Paris and wore it for a day in Montmartre and an evening exploring the 9th arrondissement.

One of the things that Nic and I were keen to do on this last visit to Paris was to explore as much as we could on foot, and as the 9th arrondissement was within easy walking distance of our flat - just across the Boulevard de Clichy, really, we spent lots of happy hours wandering around the area. Nic read an article written by a Brooklyn hipster who had relocated to Paris which lamented that hipsters had ruined Pigalle - basically saying that people like him had made it easier to find kale in the 9th than prostitutes. Hm. I don't know how true that is, but I thought Pigalle was really cool. Nic and I found some very cool book and record shops - in one of the record shops I bought a 45 of Anthony Perkins singing French chansons, in French. It's weird and awesome, and ol' Norman Bates actually has a lovely voice.

Here I am in Pigalle, wearing my dress with a Hell Bunny cardigan and Miss L Fire sandals

We spent a happy evening drinking in two really cool bars, both on Rue Frochot. The first one, Dirty Dick, is a Tiki bar. I suspect that if you went on a weekend evening you'd have trouble getting in, but on the weeknight when we were there it was quiet and the service was wonderful. I wish I'd taken more photos of the interior of the bar - the Tiki theme is not faint-hearted, from the bamboo furniture to the lampshades made from puffer fish! The barman was English and once he found out that Nic and I were on honeymoon, he treated us to complimentary shots of rum that had been aged in cognac barrels. The cocktails were expensive but delicious, and served up in really fun ways - in Tiki god glasses with flaming sugar cubes in boats made from passionfruit skins!

Rue Frochot

Nic with a flaming drink

All I'm saying is, I wouldn't mind having this mural in my house.

After a couple of drinks we moved across the road to Glass, which was absolutely tiny and really, really cool. I had a negroni, which is their signature drink, while Nic drank boilermakers. I'm sad I can't actually say more about Glass other than it was one of the coolest bars I've been to without feeling like it was exclusive or cliquey - but we passed a happy couple of hours people watching, chatting and listening to the ambient electronica that the DJ was playing. It was brilliant, and it made me long for somewhere similar in Leamington. I suppose I'll just have to go back to Paris.

Inside Glass on Rue Frochot

I have also worn this dress to drink cocktails in a capital city on another, separate occasion! I wore this dress to London on 13th June to go shopping with Sarah and Char and to meet Christine Haynes herself at Ray Stitch. I'd actually already briefly met the lovely Christine, quite by accident, when Nic and I ran into her and her partner on Boulevard de Magenta!

With Christine Haynes on Boulevard de Magenta!

It was such a lovely surprise to bump into Christine in France, but even better to have the chance to meet her properly and chat to her at the Ray Stitch party. I was too busy drinking cocktails and chatting shit to people to actually take any photos, so I'm stealing this one from Christine's blog...

With Christine, Sarah and Char - all in Emery dresses!

So - you know sometimes when you finish a dress and you love it, but then you don't find ways to wear it? Clearly not at all the case here with this dress. In fact, writing about it has made me want to wear it again so I might very well wear it to work tomorrow now. Sadly, I don't think drinking cocktails in it will be an option in that setting, but you can't have everything. In fairness, my job is mad enough without throwing alcohol into the mix! Now, I have the flat to myself this evening as Nic is out at a gig so I am going to take advantage of the peace and quiet and catch up with some trashy television (Law and Order, most probably) and do some sewing. More Paris photos to follow soon, though, so catch you all later!

One last photo because I love my dress. Not sorry.

This is a slightly different type of post today. The normal schedule of ridiculous shoes and silly facial expressions will resume shortly, but today I wanted to talk a bit about a new independent pattern company. My lovely friend Sally - you might know her as Charity Shop Chic - has been working hard behind the scenes this year and her first collection of sewing patterns goes live today under the banner Capital Chic Patterns.

I count myself very lucky to know Sally in real life. Not only is she witty, clever and warm, but she is both an incredibly talented seamstress and a very sharp dresser. Her style is very different to mine - if I'm the froth and sugar of a pina colada, or one of those drinks with sparklers in them, she's the elegance and sophistication of a dry martini. Sally's style is smart, grown-up and totally cool. So I'm thrilled to help her announce the launch of her first line of sewing patterns.

If you follow Charity Shop Chic already (and if you don't, DUDE, sort that out immediately) you'll know that Sally is a talented pattern drafter who has a taste for innovation. This is reflected in her first collection, which is full of classic styles with a modern twist. Capital Chic patterns will take you from work to the cocktail bar, as the cocktail-themed names of the patterns suggests!

It won't surprise you to learn that the beautiful Martini dress is the star of the collection for me. This is far from my usual style but I love the elegant lines and the surprising detail of the crop-top style bodice. The Martini dress features some more intermediate sewing techniques, such as inserting boning and adding a zipper guard. I have a few weddings coming up this year and I already have visions of drinking a smart drink in one of these gorgeous dresses!

I won't talk in great detail about all of the patterns in the collection - Sally does this much more eloquently herself - but the other pattern that has (surprisingly) stolen my heart is the White Russian sweater. It's designed for pre-quilted fabric and comes with the option to applique or quilt a fox or a lion onto the front. I mean, how COOL is that?!

What I am most excited about, however, is the mission statement behind Capital Chic Patterns. These patterns are aimed at intermediate to advanced sewists who want to stretch themselves a bit. I'll be the first to admit that this isn't something I will readily do with every pattern I sew, but I do always want to learn more and to grow as a seamstress. It's to Sally's credit that she's ready to supply to this demand, and with detailed step-by-step instructions so that none of these techniques are too scary!

Also, I mean. COME ON. Who wouldn't want to look as cool as Sally? I know I certainly would.

Disclosure: I was not paid to blog about Capital Chic Patterns and I have not received any compensation for this blog post. I'm blogging about it because I think it's awesome, and Sally is a good friend and I'm really proud of her!

Congratulations, Sally! You rock!

Hello! It's taken me rather longer to get back to blogging than I intended. I had a weekend of socialising and binge-watching season 2 of Hannibal, and binge-reading Red Dragon so my head was in kind of a weird place. I don't know who is the trashier writer, Thomas Harris or Bryan Fuller, but together they make something sort of sickly and awful but also kind of amazing. Ugh, either way, I need to lay off the serial killer pop culture for a while!

So anyway, I'm back today to show you the rest of our photos from Paris. Don't worry, not all of them, just a little flavour of our holiday. The sun is shining and I'm listening to jazz so I'm feeling a little bit nostalgic, I suppose!

As I said in my last post on the subject, Nic and I mostly stayed within walking distance of our lovely little flat on Rue Feutrier. We did go further afield occasionally - we got rained on in the Latin Quarter (again! The exact same thing happened to us last year as well) and we took the metro and the RER out to Vincennes to go to an outdoor jazz concert at Parc Floral, but I confess that was the extent of our travels.

What I wore on our first full day in Paris - Bernie Dexter Frenchie dress and Miss L Fire sandals. This grafitti was all around Montmartre, and in different colours. I took this photo on Rue Muller, but we saw this everywhere. It was so cute!

The Sacre Coeur, seen from Square Louise-Michel. I know this is a total tourist photo, but wevs. Before we went to Paris, Nic and I watched Sandrine's Paris. It was excellent, even with the hateful faux-Amélie editing, but Sandrine was pretty disdainful of both Montmartre and the Sacre Coeur. Much like the Eiffel Tower, I get it that Parisians might think this monument is ugly. It's rowdy up at the top and it smells of piss, and the guys selling those hideous friendship bracelets are a bit aggro, but I love it here. Every time we got a glimpse of the Sacre Coeur from one of the surrounding streets, I felt a bit of a thrill.

One of my Paris-themed dresses, in Paris! This is the Pasteque dress (Christine Haynes Emery dress) worn with gold high-heeled clogs from Atelier Scandinave, and blue Hell Bunny cardigan. I've often heard that the people in Paris are unfriendly and rude, but nothing could be further from my experiences. It is a bit touristy to wear Eiffel Tower print dresses in Paris, but I received so many compliments on this dress, and got so many smiles! And not just from fellow tourists - I wish my French had been good enough that I could have more graciously replied to the girl in the Patisserie who said, "C'est jolie, votre robe!" These photos were taken on the steps above Rue Paul Albert, which I really think is my favourite place in Paris.

Rue Paul Albert

On the Sunday of our stay, Nic and I headed out to Parc Floral to listen to some jazz. When we were setting the date for our wedding, when we could go on honeymoon was a consideration. Well, I had to fit it in around work, too, but the fact that we could go to some Paris Jazz Festival gigs in June was also a good reason for bringing our wedding forward to May. This gig did not disappoint - firstly, the weather was gorgeous and Parc Floral is an amazing venue.

Giant poppies in Parc Floral. I guess they must water them with champagne or something, idk

There were two gigs - one was a guy playing the xylophone on a stage that was set up on a barge on a lake - no kidding - and the second, main gig was the jazz violinist Didier Lockwood. Nic and I initially set up camp near the jazz barge but had to move, mainly because the woman behind me was trimming her husband's toenails and I wanted to boke. SERIOUSLY. We moved closer to the main stage, set up in the shade of a tree and whiled away the afternoon reading, drinking champagne and snoozing, all with the soundtrack of an amazing live jazz gig. That day was like heaven - it was so perfect it was slightly surreal. The only thing that could have been improved on was our champagne could have been colder. But still. Talk about first world problems.

We had made the rookie mistake of not having a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge, so bought this on the way. It was a hot day and I suppose that carrying the bottle around fizzed the champagne up. I had only just unwrapped the foil when the cork popped out and straight up into the air. It must have gone about ten feet up because it took ages to come down - long enough for the people sitting around us to give us a nice (possibly sarcastic) round of applause!

What I wore to Parc Floral - Boum! dress (which I have altered since I made it, as it was too big. I took it in at the side seams) and those gold sandals again.

Drinking champagne was kind of the theme of the honeymoon. We drank a lot of champagne. But you know, if you can't drink champagne on honeymoon in Paris, what's the point?! I liked that you could buy champagne by the glass in most bars and cafes, but of course the quality of what you got varied. In this photo, I'm drinking a glass of Moet in the rooftop bar at Galeries Lafayette. Nic and I went for a wander down through the 8th toward the Gare Saint-Lazare without realising how close by Boulevard Haussmann actually was - it's about a twenty minute walk from Montmartre. Anyway, once we realised we were near some of the grands magasins, we decided to have a browse around Galeries Lafayette. It's free to get up onto the roof terrace here and the view is beautiful - you're high enough up to see for miles, but close enough to be able to see things in detail. As we were there, it seemed a shame not to indulge in some accidental glamour and have a glass of champagne.

Rue Caulaincourt - this photo taken from the terrace at Le Cépage Montmartrois, on Square Caulaincourt

Nic and I spent a lot of our time in Paris just walking around and looking at things - and then sitting outside cafes and looking at things! We'd been to Le Cépage Montmartrois on a previous visit to Paris and caught it a busy time. This time our experience of this cafe was much better and we went back a number of times to drink Sancerre and watch people going about their days. Well, I say watch people - mainly I was looking out for cute little dogs - there were so many cute little dogs in Paris!

Nic enjoying a glass of wine outside Le Progrès on Rue des Trois Frères

Place Jean Gabin - apparently, he was born in Montmartre!

Montmartre in the sunshine.

Sunset on Montmartre - I can't remember which street I took this photo on, sorry!

Colline d'Asie on Rue André del Sarte. Nic and I ate here twice in the space of 24 hours and had the same thing both times - vegetarian Bobun. Paris isn't the best place for eating out as a vegetarian - or at least, not if you want to eat traditional French cuisine. We had a few favourite places from previous visits (Au Relais Gascon on Rue des Abbesses for really tasty salads and Trattoria Pulcinella on Rue Eugène Sue for pizza) and we were able to have lots of picnic lunches and dinners, but this place was a real find - and just around the corner from our flat, as well!

What I wore... actually, I think I just wore this on a random day of fabric shopping and pottering around Montmartre - Aoibhneas na Bealtaine dress and 'Betty' clogs from Lotta from Stockholm. Actually, most days in Paris counted for me as 'fabric shopping and pottering around Montmartre'. I bought a lot of fabric. Our apartment was five minutes away from this...

Dreyfus - 'le temple du tissu', according to Dominique Corbasson - taken from Rue Charles Nodier. I won't show you all of my fabric purchases because I bought well over 30 metres of fabric - but here's a little taste...

Cotton poplin and cotton voile, both 3m coupons from Coupons de Saint Pierre on Place Saint Pierre. I think I'm going to make a maxi dress with the floral one - I got chatting (in halting French) to an elderly lady in front of me in the queue, and with the lady behind the till and they both agreed that it would be a pretty dress. As she left, the elderly lady wished me "bonne couture!"

What I wore on our last day in Paris - the Nana dress, blue Hell Bunny cardigan and those Atelier Scandinave sandals again. And a baguette, obviously. Nic took photos of me in this dress on the same steps last year, as well.

Paris by night, seen from the Sacre Coeur

Thanks for sticking with me through such a self-indulgent post! I promise that's the last of the Paris photos for this year. Well, unless we go back at Christmas, that is. I'm not promising that we won't. I might have sewn through my fabric by then, you see.

I'll be back later in the week to show you some sewing. Before I go, though, I drew the winner of the Sew Over It trouser pattern, and it's Norse Otter! Congratulations - I'll be in touch to arrange to send you the pattern.

Happy Friday, everyone! Regardless of what is going on in my week, or what is going on over the weekend, it's hard not to feel cheerful on a Friday. Today is especially good because I'm working from home in the sunshine, I don't have to go into the office tomorrow (as I previously thought I'd have to - but my manager told me I could give it a miss) I've had one pair of awesome shoes delivered and another are on their way (don't look at me like that, I don't even care) and I have beautiful fabric and time to sew over the weekend. What could be better than that?!

In my teens, Friday night was also my night for going out. From about 16, my friends and I spent most of our Friday nights, the very odd Saturday and the occasional Wednesday night at a local nightclub. It was called Clubland or, if you were a culchie, "Clublands" or if you were old and a culchie, "The Clubland" I think most of us have a place like that in our past - somewhere with sticky floors, cheap drinks, excellent (if occasionally questionable) music and many happy memories. I've had three significant boyfriends in my life, and I met two of them in Clubland. I met a fair few insignificant boyfriends there too.

Friday nights were called Backtrax, and the DJ's name was Andrew Gold. I say "was", it's quite possible that Andrew Gold is still DJ-ing away because Clubland is still there. Anyway, it was free in before 11 if you had a voucher - I had loads because I stole a whole bunch of them from the DJ booth one night - and shots were £1, and the music was 70s-90s and indie. You could predict the songlist each week - Andrew Gold has a playlist that he stuck to - and most of my favourite songs are still songs I danced to at Clubland. Most of our wedding reception playlist was solid Clubland classics. To give you an idea of what it was like, watch the video to At The Indie Disco by The Divine Comedy...

The Divine Comedy are my all-time number one favourite band, and this song is from their last album, Bang Goes The Knighthood. Nic bought me this album for my birthday a few years ago and it's been on constant play basically ever since. I especially love this song as it encapsulates a very happy time in my life, and Nic and I had it as the last dance at our wedding.

All of this is a very long preamble to showing you a dress I made! But basically it's because I'm a child of the 90s. I don't necessarily approve of 90s fashions coming back - the decade was not kind to us, fashion-wise - but as soon as I saw this fabric I wanted it. It's 90s in a good way, just about!

At The Indie Disco dress - By Hand London Elisalex bodice with a gathered skirt, worn with Miss L Fire Bluebird sandals

I'm pretty sure teenage me had a dress very similar to this - I think I bought it in Heatons in Monaghan! In any case, one of my favourite things to wear when I was 17 was a cropped t-shirt with a sunflower on it, and bell-bottomed jeans that had belonged to my friend Clare's mum in the 70s, with Gola trainers with rainbow laces. STYLISH. I wore that outfit to Clubland - along with a shoulder-length lilac wig I bought on a market stall in Blackpool when I went on holiday there with my best friend Emma and her family when we were 16 - a lot. So yes, when I saw this fabric, I really wanted to make a 90s revival dress from it!

The sunflower fabric is a Timeless Treasures quilting cotton. I bought it with a voucher from an online store and it was pretty overpriced - I think they were asking something like £16.50 a metre for it, but I had a voucher so I thought I'd get it anyway. The fabric took nearly two weeks to arrive, despite the fact that I paid for next day delivery, and the customer service was so rude and aggressive I'll never buy from this store again. It's a shame and it very nearly spoiled the fabric for me - don't you hate it when that happens?! But, the power of 90s nostalgia eventually won me over, and I am really happy with my finished dress.

Give us some Pixies and some Roses and some Valentines (and we're in heaven) Give us some Blur and some Cure and some Wannadies (we'll dance forever)

Construction-wise, nothing to say. It's an Elisalex with a gathered skirt, which is a lovely and comfortable combination. I used a lapped zip, which I inserted the Sunday before our wedding at the Berylune sewing social! I initially flirted with the thought of making this much more midi in length - but to be honest, it looked far less 90s-inspired and more like I'd robbed it from Clarissa Darling's wardrobe, so I chopped it to just below my knee. It actually looks sort of better with heels, but I'm just flat-out wearing my Bluebird sandals all the time at the moment so there we have it.

We've got a table in the corner that is always ours, under the poster of Morrissey with a bunch of flowers. We drink and talk about stupid stuff, then hit the floor for Tainted Love, you know I just can't get enough...

Wearing this dress makes me want to go out dancing, but sadly nowhere has ever really lived up to Clubland. I've never been in a nightclub since that has a tree in the middle of the dancefloor, a plaster panther in a cage or 'caves' - booths made from fibreglass to look like caves, complete with dodgy cave art. I've never been to anywhere else that does 'Blast Off' - at midnight for some reason, they lowered the light-fittings to the dancefloor, pumped in some dry ice and then raised them again. It was quite a spectacle. I've never been to anywhere else where the last song was Hey Jude and the challenge was to stay to the end of all the na na na na na na nas before the bouncers threw you you. Happy days.

She makes my heart beat the same way as at the start of Blue Monday, always the last song that they play at the Indie Disco...

In the absence of all the things that made Clubland so unique, I'm away here to dance around my living room to Mr Jones by Counting Crows, another Clubland classic. Happy Friday, everyone!

Evening! I hope this Wednesday evening is treating you all well. Mine is - after a tedious day at work and my train home being cancelled for the second day in a row, I went and had my hair done and then went to the pub and had some fancy gin. Yay! What's even better is that I have fancy gin here at home, so more gin. Yup.

Anyway. I'm having a tedious week at work but an otherwise busy and awesome July. I've been squeezing in sewing time when I can find it - after fabric shopping in Paris and London, and having been given some lovely fabric as gifts, my stash is getting a bit out of control. I have managed to sew a couple of my Paris fabrics, and I have a sewing day planned for tomorrow so, you know what that means. I will have more room for shoes in my flat.

The area of Paris we were staying in - just off the Rue Clignancourt and near Avenue Barbès - is a great place to buy African wax print cottons. The area is an important cultural centre for West African immigration in Paris so there are lots of beautiful fabrics available to buy, and lots of inspiration in the form of ladies wearing amazing outfits. I had good success in Tissus Toto last year so I made a beeline for both branches this year, and they did not disappoint! The first piece of fabric I bought was with Lynne in mind as her Sew Dolly Clackett prize. I bought a 5m length and split it with her. I believe she's planning to make a Deer and Doe Belladone with hers, and here is what I made with mine...

Le Comptoir Général dress - Colette Patterns Lily bodice with a circle skirt, worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon globe shoes

The very large-scale print seemed to call for a circle skirt, but I wanted to try something new with the bodice. I've owned the Lily dress pattern for over a year but I think I was put off it by my difficulty with fitting the Peony dress. I thought that fitting this wouldn't be quite as tricky due to the princess seams. I didn't toile it for that reason and the fit is okay - I cut the size 4 and took the princess seams in underneath my bust. The fit isn't perfect, but it's not too bad.

You can probably see from this photo that the fit is a tiny bit off under the arms. But whatever. The other thing I would alter about the fit if I were to make this again is to lengthen the bodice by an inch. I am pretty short in the torso and this still hits me just above my natural waist. I guess that works with the skirt that's drafted to go with the pattern, but when it's attached to a fuller skirt a slightly longer bodice would be a bit more flattering.

If I'm making it sound like I'm on the fence about this dress, I'm not! Despite a few small niggles, I'm really happy with it and I think the style works really well with the fabric. I really enjoyed sewing it - the instructions for putting the bodice together and attaching the neckline flap thing were typically excellent, and the fabric was gorgeous to work with. I've been thinking about getting an overlocker - and I might in the next few months - but I really enjoy finishing seams by turning and stitching them. For some reason, that was really enjoyable with this dress. I bound the hem with pink bias binding - I had bought it for the inside of the hem, but that little extra stripe of pink at the bottom seemed like a nice touch.

Although I am pretty accustomed to dressing up in everyday life, this dress does feel extra dressy for some reason. It might be to do with the vibrant colours or the bold print, I'm not sure. Maybe I'll feel differently about it when I wear it with sandals and a cardigan, though. Either way, while it might not be as Holy Fuckballs Amazing as the actual Le Comptoir Général, it's a nice reminder of that fabulous place. They have a shop on their mezzanine called Le Marché Noir, which sells secondhand clothes imported from African countries, fabrics and handmade clothes and crafts. Nic and I had a little potter around it on one of the days and it's very cool - but I had already basically blown my day's budget on fabric by that point, so we didn't buy anything. Still - it was excellent inspiration - especially the handmade dresses. The maxi dresses and panelled skirts have already inspired a few other creations, which you'll see on here before too long. The last four dresses I've made have been made from wax block print cottons. I just can't resist those beautiful colours and prints!

Inside Le Comptoir Général on a rainy day - and testing out the sepia function on our camera

Anyway, I'm going to leave you with one more photo. I was going to show you a picture of the back of the dress because the neckline flap looks really cute at the centre back seam. But I can't bring myself to do it because I have a seriously goofy back. I mean it! I always have photos taken of the back of a garment because, you know, I think it's the good sewing blogger thing to do. You know, it's good to see what the back looks like. But fuck it. I look enough of a doofus from the front without my back trying to steal the show. I thought I pulled stupid faces - but I actually have a stupid back. DERP. So here's one more of the front. And, in respect to the comments on a previous post, I'm also going to include photos of some of the other fabrics I bought in Paris. Then I'm going to go and make a Sloe Gin Fizz and watch the S1 finale of Blue Bloods because we got to the end of S2 of Hannibal and S2 of Elementary and are out of good crime shows to watch. TEN FOUR. COPY THAT.

I know it's hard to believe my back could look dopier than my face, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Heart print cotton lawn - I bought this 3m coupon in Coupons de Saint Pierre, I think it was €15. I think it's twee as fuck, but I love the colours.

Chinese vase print cotton poplin and floral cotton voile, both also from Coupons de Saint Pierre

Pineapple print cotton poplin, bicycle print denim and blue and pink polka dots, all from the same place. The bird print cotton lawn was from Dreyfus and I think it was the only thing I bought on the whole trip that I had cut for me!

Star print wax cotton and random hot air balloon poplin, both from Tissus Toto. I've already sewed the star-print cotton, but I have to get photos of what I've made! If you want a preview, you can see it on my instagram.

Afternoon, friends! I've had the day off work today, Nic and I are just back after a lovely long walk in the countryside and, if the rain holds off, we're going to the fair this evening. I don't ask for much out of life, really. Just the odd spin on the waltzers and maybe some candyfloss will do me. I have a stash of coppers too that I might put into those nudgy machines. It's all excitement in my life right now, what can I say?!

In fairness, Nic and I did have a pretty lovely weekend of fun in London. We headed down on Friday afternoon, checked into the Re Hotel on the Hackney Road and then hustled to Shoreditch High Street to meet Jo and Alison for dinner at Pizza East. From there, we took the train to Peckham to party the night away with the By Hand London girls to celebrate their successful kickstarter. It was a really fun night - although I would probably have been best to avoid the vodka jelly shots, and Nic definitely would have been best to avoid them - and I even had a new dress for the occasion. I'll give you the full reveal in a separate post, but I think this photo probably gives you an idea of the kind of night we had...

Not even sure what we were dancing to here - I think it might have been Smooth by Rob Thomas featuring Carlos Santana!

With my dearest Rehanon

Our weekend in London had a dual purpose - to go to this party, but also to go to the wedding of two very dear friends, JP and Hannah, in Hackney Town Hall on Saturday. Saturday morning was bright and hot, and Nic and I dragged our tired and emotional (not hungover, oh no) selves out of bed and along to Broadway Market for breakfast. We bought coffee, pastel de nata and toasted sandwiches, and took them to a bench in the shade in London Fields. It was gorgeous. The toasties were amazing, by the way - vegetarian haggis, cheese and rocket - and came from Deeney's.

The wedding was beautiful. Much like our own, it was simple and small, with a short registry office ceremony. Afterwards, we all travelled back to JP and Hannah's flat for a party and lunch, before ending the evening at the Clerkenwell Green. It was absolutely lovely. I had long planned to make a dress to wear on the day, and had initially earmarked some of the fabric I bought in Paris. However, I got a very exciting piece of post from one Ms Heather B last week and it kind of jumped the queue. You might recall that Heather was one of the Sew Dolly Clackett winners, with a frankly breathtaking By Hand London Anna/Christine Haynes Emery dress mashup:

Photo borrowed from Heather - you can read her post about this dress here.

I mean. I KNOW. Let's leave aside the issue of the CHERRY SHOES for now (because, OMG) and focus on the dress, shall we? That poppy border print totally and utterly stole my heart. I would have flown to wherever Heather lives and wrestled Froggie for this dress. But I didn't have to, because when Heather saw this fabric for sale again she surprised me with two yards of it. I couldn't quite believe it when I opened it, and all I can say is a massive thankyou to Heather for not only being such an inspiration, but for being so unbelievably kind. Because the dress I made with this fabric is - along with my wedding dress - probably the prettiest dress I have ever made.

I was on strike on Thursday and spent the day sewing. I wore the dress to the wedding on Saturday and we didn't bring our camera, so I had to put it on today to get some photos of it. Also, I just wanted to wear it again because I love it so much!

Poppy Heather dress, worn with Swedish hasbeens heart sandals and Ollie and Nic apple bag

After the fabric arrived, I spent a fair bit of time debating what exactly to do with it. I knew that I was going to be reasonably limited by the yardage and the fact that it has such a distinctive border print. I was very much inspired by the way Heather placed the print on the bodice, but I didn't want to make a straight-up copy. Also, I didn't want to take a gamble on beautiful fabric that was such a thoughtful gift. I decided to go with what has become a total banker for me, the Emery dress.

I have made a couple of sleeveless Emery dresses before but the bodice isn't drafted to be sleeveless. I made a couple of adjustments to the paper pattern and made a toile of the bodice. I brought the shoulder seams up and I re-drew the armscye to take out the ease that's been drafted in for the sleeves. I also added about 1/4 of an inch to the underarm so it wasn't cut too low. I didn't need more than that because I had brought up the shoulder seams. I was happy with the fit after these adjustments so, heart in mouth, I cut into my fabric.

I just loved the look of the multi-coloured dots graduating down into the green of the print, so I cut the bodice pieces first. Cutting this way meant a bit of a sacrifice of the border print on the skirt - there wasn't enough of what remained for the border print to work the same on the front and the back skirt. I reasoned, well, the front of the dress is more important to me. Also, you know, it wasn't really a sacrifice because I think the back looks pretty cool as well:

As discussed in a previous post, I have a derp back. Annoyingly, you can see my zip at the waist seam, which I promise you can't when I am standing straight.

I did waver a bit about whether this would look better at the front, but basically I decided that I wanted all the colour up front. Looking at this photo - derp back aside - I think I made the right choice, but I am also pretty pleased with how the back looks. Hurrah!

Goofy side view

The dress was really enjoyable to sew. I lined the bodice and used the old burrito method to get everything neatly enclosed, and I turned and stitched all of the exposed seams. The fabric was particularly enjoyable to sew with - it's a really crisp medium-weight cotton with a bit of body to it. I believe it's a Milly cotton, and it was so nice to wear, as well. It held up beautifully throughout a long and hot day in London on Saturday and I felt great all day.

Heather bought the fabric from Elliott Berman Textiles, and it came beautifully packaged, wrapped in mint-green tissue paper and tied in a bow with some lovely lace trim. I wanted to do something special with this dress, so I used the lace to finish my hem:

The piece of trim wasn't long enough to go around the whole hem, but it had two edges with this scallop trim so I cut them off and that doubled what I had available - which turned out to be just a little bit more than I needed. I sewed it to the right side of the hem, and then pressed the whole thing up and catch-stitched along the tops of the scallops. This took ages - longer than most hand-stitched hems; it took six episodes of Dawson's Creek to finish - but I'm so glad I did it, because I really love the way it looks inside the dress.

I have another wedding to go to this coming weekend, but sadly it's going to be a lot of the same people that were at JP and Hannah's wedding, so I don't think I'll be able to wear this again. I'm just going to have to sew something else, as this dress is pretty memorable - especially as I made Nic a matching pocket square out of the tiny bit of fabric I had left over! As I say, we didn't bring our camera on the day so I didn't get proper photos of our outfits (Nic wore his wedding suit again, and looked gorgeous) but, as we were walking through London Fields, I was able to get this little iPhone photo of me in camouflage against a wildflower meadow:

I wore it with different shoes on Saturday - some more Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes*

So that's my Poppy Heather dress. It's actually skipped the blogging queue - I have quite a few other things to blog about - but I think you can see why. I love it not only because the fabric is so beautiful, but because I am so touched by Heather's thoughtfulness and generosity in surprising me with it. It's been said many times that sewing bloggers are a wonderful bunch of people, and I find new evidence to support this all the time. Thank you so much, Heather. I shall have to find something equally fabulous to send to you.

Okay, I'm going to have to go in a minute to get to the fair. That candyfloss isn't going to eat itself, is it? But I am going to be self-induldgent and end on a couple of out-takes...

Nic told me to pull a cute face while showing my bag. Well, just look at the super-cute bag instead. I bought this just after our wedding after eyeing it from afar for aaaaaaages. It's pretty impractical, although it holds a surprising amount of stuff. I bought it from Aspire Style in Warwick.

Honestly not even sure what's happening here. I'll never be a fashion blogger, that's for damn sure...

Hola! It's Thursday and I've been having a stressful week. Ugh. I have Kate Bush on the stereo now, though, and Nic and I are going out for dinner tonight with our friend Lauren so, in the words of Kate... wowowowowowowowowowWOW... unbelievable! Or something.

I have a new dress to post about today but before I do, I'm going to interrupt with news about a fabric sale. My friends at the awesome shop Berylune have been stocking a small selection of Cloud 9 fabrics for the last few months, and at the end of the month they're planning on having a summer sale to make room for a new fabric order. The sale isn't starting in the store until Saturday 26th July, but the girls have offered readers of this blog an online pre-sale starting today.

As I said, there's a small selection of fabric available here, and if you use the discount code DOLLYSALE you'll get 35% off your order. You could buy the gorgeous Blossom Festival by Rashida Coleman-Hale, for example - I made this dress with it:

Aoibhneas na Bealtaine dress

I've not been paid to advertise this sale, and I'm not getting a cut of the sales, or anything - this is not a sponsored post! The ladies at Berylune are good friends, and these fabrics are pretty sweet, so I'm pretty excited about this discount code. Happy shopping, folks!

Anyway, back to dresses. Or at least, dresses you haven't seen before. After feeling a little bit meh about that Vogue V8998 I made at the John Lewis Sewing Bee, I thought I'd go back to the pattern. I have actually worn the Darkness Falls dress a few times since I blogged about it and I like it a bit more now, but I still wanted to try the pattern out again at my own pace. I had bought some more beautiful African wax cotton - this time from A-Z Fabrics on the Goldhawk Road - and it seemed like a good match.

Ankara dress - Vogue V8998 bodice with skirt from Gather Mortmain dress, worn with Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes and vintage wicker bag

I bought this fabric when I went to Goldhawk Road with Sarah and Char after I came back from Paris. I was just in a wax fabric place, I think. There were a few different colourways to choose from in this print, but I loved the way the royal blue and orange looked together so I bought four metres. I mean, afterwards I couldn't stop thinking about one of the other colourways so I bought that too, but this is the one that really grabbed me. I prewashed the fabric which was a good idea because the dye ran a fuckload - unfortunately ruining some other fabric that was in the machine along with it. But that's okay. It's only fabric.

I bought the four metres in two two-metre pieces so I subbed in the pleated skirt from the Mortmain dress instead of any of the skirt options available with this dress. It's pretty fabric-hungry! I think they're a good match and I was able to get this dress out of one of the two-metre pieces. I made the same adjustments to the bodice as I did for the Darkness Falls dress and lined the bodice only with white cotton lawn.

Bodice Dorp. Hey there, Starry Boobs!

I sewed this dress one evening when Nic was out, and it was pretty quick to come together. The wax cotton was really nice to sew with - it has a fair bit of body to it, even more so than the stuff I bought in Paris, but this means it's easy to press and very easy to work with. I used an orange zip and some orange bias binding to finish it. Just for the craic, like.

Dress innards

I didn't line the waistband - um, not sure why, actually - so I used some bias binding to finish the seam. And, as you can see, I used bias binding to hem the skirt. I did briefly consider using it on the outside of the dress but it seemed like there would be just too much going on if I did. Like, this fabric is loud enough.

Back view. I don't hate this photo. Yay! Also I didn't show you the scoop back the last time I made this pattern so, now you know. You might be able to see that the zip doesn't match exactly at the top but it's only slight. I was more concerned about matching the waist seam, which always feels a bit trickier with an inset waistband like this.

Now, the only issue I have with this dress is that I don't have orange shoes. I never thought orange shoes would be something I might need. Also I don't have an orange cardigan, which, ditto. That said, I think that as the weather gets cooler I'll be able to wear this with black accessories - god, maybe even opaque tights in the winter. Ugh, I hate thinking about tights. I might still look for a cute orange cardigan - although, does something like that even exist?!

So yeah, that's the Ankara dress. I'm pretty pleased with it, even if finding accessories for it might be a bit of a challenge - I mean, it is pretty unlikely that I am actually going to buy orange shoes to go with it. I really love the print, though, and apart from some slight wrinkling going on there under the bust I'm very happy with the fit. I just need to work out what to make from the other two metres I have of this fabric. Shit. Maybe I should buy some orange shoes.

I certainly like this pattern a lot more now than I did when I initially sewed with it. I've since made another one of the versions - it's currently hanging up, waiting to be photographed - and I think this pattern has a lot of potential. It's certainly made me more willing to give Vogue Patterns a try - maybe not some of the truly hideous ones that Lladybird blogged about yesterday. I don't especially want to end up looking like a refugee from the video for Walking On Broken Glass by Annie Lennox - but there's definitely potential in some of the designs.

John Malcovitch, you dog

I find it somewhat hard to believe that Hugh Laurie has the blues.

All right. I have stuff to do (ironing, mainly. Yuck) so I'm going to say goodbye. Catch you on the flippity flip!

Yo, friends. What is UP. I've been catching up with myself this week, after having a couple of busy weeks. Nic and I went to Lancashire this past weekend for a wedding, which was tremendous fun. The wedding was at Hoghton Tower, which is apparently the second most haunted house in England. We didn't see any ghosts, and didn't take any proper photos, but had a great time all the same. Even though three out of the four taxis we had to take over the weekend were driven by people who had apparently no knowledge whatsoever of the local area. None. One of them managed to get lost in the car park of our hotel for ten whole minutes. Good times.

Hanging out at our castle. You know. As you do.

Anyway, that's the craic with the weekend. It was good and I didn't drink too much, and I managed not to have a rage stroke on the train journey home from Preston on Sunday. All good things. I made a new dress to wear to the wedding (not yet photographed) and have managed to squeeze in a bit of sewing this week too (also awaiting a photograph) Actually, I was feeling a bit crappy this afternoon but seeing that written down and reminding myself of what I've managed to achieve over the last few days has cheered me up a bit. So I guess I should get on with my project backlog because you know: IF YOU DIDN'T BLOG IT, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

I'm still heavily into the old African wax cotton and this is one of two more dresses I have to show you that have been made from it. As with the Le Comptoir Général dress, I made this one from beautiful African wax cotton that I bought while in Paris. Oh! And on that note - go and check out what Lynne did with her Parisian fabric! I bought this 5m length from Tissus Toto on Rue Clignancourt after extensive - if somewhat incomprehensible - discussions with Monsieur Toto about which colourway I should buy (I didn't find out his name, like, but this is what Nic and I called him. Much the same as we call the proprietor of Royal Fabrics in Leamington Mr Royal Fabrics, and the owner of Kang's corner shop Mr Kang. Except, Mr Kang is actually his name) To be honest, I had my heart set on this pink and blue colourway I ended up buying, but bless him, he wanted to make sure I was making an informed decision. That shop is so fucking awesome. God, I miss Paris.

ANYWAY. Most of the fabric I bought in Paris was without a specific project in mind, but this fabric was already earmarked for another By Hand London Anna maxi dress. I'll tell you why: just before the pattern was released last year, I was totally gutted to have to miss their Club Tropicana party. Cruelly, I had to work that day (a Saturday!) and it was one of the worst days I have ever had at work. Anyway - I saw photos on instagram and blogs and that, and in them, Charlotte was wearing the most AMAZING dress. Yeah. It was an Anna dress in wax cotton. You can see some photos of it in Rachel Pinheiro's post about it here. So this idea has been percolating for about a year. I had the extra impetus to finally get it done when I knew I'd be attending the By Hand London Kickstarter party this month, so I finally made it happen. w00t.

Barbès-Rochechouart dress and (unseen) pink Maguba 'Rio' clogs

So. There is a LOT of pattern going on in this print, isn't there? It's kind of wild and I must confess that after I had cut the pieces out and started to sew them together, I worried a bit if it would be too much. It is kind of too much, to be honest, but I am really happy with it. I don't shy away from bold prints or bright colours, and this has a bit of everything.

I'm really happy with this dress, for lots of reasons. I love the fabric and, having made approximately 7,000 Anna dresses and dropped two dress sizes, I have pretty much nailed the fit, I think. There is a bit more ease around the bust now than I'm used to, but I can live with that.

I thoroughly enjoyed sewing this dress, as well. The wax cotton is excellent to work with - as I have said in previous posts, it has a bit of body but it behaves well. It doesn't fray that much and it presses well and it's just pretty nice to handle. It's good to wear, as well - the day of the BHL party it was HOT AS BALLS and although you might think that a slightly weightier cotton would be claustrophobically warm to wear, it wasn't. This dress withstood travelling across London on the tube at rush hour admirably well and I even got a compliment from a fellow traveller, who stopped me at the top of the escalator at Bethnal Green tube station to tell me how much she liked my dress. I call that a score. People aren't usually all that friendly on the tube.

Anyway - I took my time sewing this dress. All of the skirt panels look really similar and my advice to anyone making it is to be really conscientious about making all of the notches on the skirt panels. Also, it totally helps to have a system for assembling the pieces, if that makes sense. I worked from the centre front panel outwards and that stopped me from getting confused. I turned and stitched all of the skirt seams (I pinked the bodice seams) and I used a french seam to attach the skirt to the bodice - basically because it looks pretty and also it seemed like it might be a little bit more stable. I was kind of stressing the day we took these photos so there's none of the back (LOL, as if I'd use them anyway due to my derp back) but I used a concealed zip.

As I'd bought the fabric in Paris, I thought I'd accessorise with some awesomely tacky Eiffel Tower earrings - they're so big and heavy they'd make Pat Butcher be all LOLWUT - and a matching necklace. These were a gift from Mrs Needles at my surprise hen do. She tells me they're all the rage in Dalston. Finally, I'm down with the cool kids.

Pat Butcher Fucks Given = None

I made this dress to wear to a party and it's definitely not an everyday dress. But I have worn it since its debut - in this lovely hot weather, having a comfortable and fun maxi dress is really useful. Nic loves it when I wear a maxi dress, as well, so I have been wearing it a bit more often because it makes him smile. Maybe that makes me a bad feminist but please be assured: I wear whatever I want.

Crucially, this dress really fulfilled its party potential. It wasn't the only Anna in the room that night, and it wasn't even the only Anna on the dancefloor, but I like to think it held its own as I danced around the room with the elegance and poise that everyone associates with me:

Um, yeah. As I always say when I post an Anna dress - this will not be my last one. I did actually buy other fabric in Paris to make a maxi dress, and this is my default pattern. But - it is good to branch out occasionally - do any of you guys want to recommend an excellent maxi dress pattern to me? I know crowdsourcing is lazy as shit, but I genuinely am interested to hear your recommendations!

Right. This lady has got to move. I've had a long day and I need to go and lie down. More soon, though. See you then!

*Dramatic Eastenders drums*

Heeeeeeey! Hi everyone, happy Sunday! It's been a lovely sunny weekend here at Casa Clackett - I went to Stratford yesterday with Sarah and Char and bought some amazing Liberty fabric and some cheese (the cheese was for Nic) and I've been teaching today. We have a bottle of champagne chilling in the fridge and basically things are pretty sweet. Everything is lining up for old Dolly Clackett.

So, I'm still plugging away here trying to catch up with unblogged stuff I've made. This time you're getting two for the price of one, because I decided to take part in the Outfit-Along hosted by Lladybird and Andi Satterlund. I'm still not a stellar knitter but, having finished three Miette cardigans since December, I quite fancied the challenge and downloaded Andi's new Myrna pattern. I was able to knit it fairly quickly - I think in total it took me about two weeks - and I really enjoyed knitting it. It's not perfect - it's really far from perfect - but as it's only the fourth cardigan I've ever knitted, I can't be too upset about that!

Myrna cardigan by Andi Satterlund and Bedelia dress - Vogue V8998 in African wax cotton, worn with Maguba Rio clogs

Okay. Let's get my criticisms out of the way first. I should have made the cardigan a little bit longer - maybe about an inch - so that it hits my natural waist. As it stands it's a little bit too short. Also, I fluffed it a bit around the waist. I got right down to the ribbing, and then I had to frog the whole thing up to the armholes because I had got something twisted around (I don't know if there is a technical term for that. So Sorry, So Not A Real Knitter) and then when I was knitting the neckband, I think I might have missed some stitches or something, because it is tighter on one side than on the other. Sigh. You can see in the photo above there that it's coming up a bit higher on one side. That's exacerbated by me standing with one shoulder way up higher than the other, but it's there when I stand straight as well.

There's that dopey back again. Check out my keyhole, though.

So, being totally real, I might not wear this cardigan a lot. If at all. BUT I really enjoyed knitting it. It's a really good project for someone like me - it's quick because it's knitted mainly in stockinette, but there's enough shaping and lace work for it to not be really boring. I also learned new stuff - knitting and finishing the keyhole wasn't hard but it was an interesting challenge, and I LOVED knitting the sleeves - which are knitted and shaped using short rows. Myrna is a gorgeous pattern - a bit quicker than the Miette and maybe even a bit easier (you know, it would be if I hadn't made some silly mistakes) and I think probably easy enough to customise when I make it again. I'm thinking of knitting this again in a bright blue - similar to the blue of my dress - I just need to find the yarn. I used Rico cotton yarn for this cardigan and I have to admit, I kind of hated it. I'm not sure about the colour, and it's so fluffy! Pink cottony fluff everwhere, including in the back of my throat while knitting. Yuck. So, while this particular Myrna isn't a solid winner, the pattern itself totally is. Also: MYRNA. Myrna Loy is one of my favourite actors. This is my desktop wallpaper, and it has been since 2007:

I want to be Myrna Loy when I grow up

It's hard not to get frustrated with the fact that I'm not that good at knitting, yet. I'm pretty good at sewing, and I can make the dresses I make fit me (mostly) and look pretty cute (mostly) and I usually know what I'm doing. This is not at all the case with knitting and I have to keep reminding myself that I've not been doing it for very long. Anyway - I just have to keep going and will try to stretch myself with each project. I certainly enjoy the process, even if the effort/benefit ratio isn't on my side yet.

"Should I put this picture of my not-very-good cardigan on the internet? Yeah, fuck it, probably."

The dress, now. The dress. The fabric might be familiar, and that's because it's the exact same as the fabric I used for the Ankara dress, which I posted about last week. I bought the navy/orange colourway of this fabric on Goldhawk Road and the shop had this blue/pink colourway, and a red/yellow one too. Anyway, I bought the blue in the shop but then when I got home regretted not also buying this one. So at, like, one in the morning, I went online and bought this fabric on ebay and some Swedish hasbeens from Asos. And then I went to sleep, feeling happy to have spent too much money on frivolous things.

I'd be standing up straight if I wasn't too busy trying to get knocked down. Maybe.

It's another Vogue V8998, this time with the 8-gored circle skirt that the lady in the neon yellow neoprene dress on the pattern envelope is wearing. Only, without the horsehair braid in the hem. The fit on this dress is still not perfect - I'm kind of stuggling to get that inset waistband not to wrinkle, but again this is sort of exacerbated by my total inability to stand up straight. In honesty, though, this is the kind of thing I am pointing out because I think that I should. It's not because it bothers me at all when I'm wearing the dress. It doesn't.

You can't see the wrinkle in this photo but WTF is going on with my crazyface?

I enjoyed sewing this version of V8998 much more than the partially gathered skirt version I made at the John Lewis Sewing Bee. It's more time-consuming because of all the panels, but I have to say that I cannot fault Vogue's drafting. This skirt fitted together really beautifully and with no bother - all the notches in the correct place and all of that jazz. As with the Anna dress I posed about the other day, I worked as methodically as I could with the skirt pieces, starting from the centre front and working outwards. It's even more important here, I think, because these pieces really DO look all the same! The pattern calls for a full lining but, do you know what? On an 8-gored circle skirt?

I lined the bodice and called it a day. And I guess I caught up with memes from two years ago because I'm so cool.

As with the Ankara dress, I did consider using piping to pick up either the hot pink or the navy of the stars. But, it seemed like print was busy enough as it was, so I left it. I used a hot pink zip, but I'm not going to show you because I already have one dipshit photo of my back in this post and I think that's quite enough. I will show you my shoes, though, because holy shit I love them:

Maguba 'Rio' clogs in rose pink from Lotta From Stockholm - these are currently on sale! (and those aren't affiliate links, by the way, so click away)

I've been wearing clogs pretty much constantly this summer, having bought some Betty clogs from Lotta in May, a couple of pairs of Swedish hasbeens since (and have another pair on the way, welp!) and some beautiful gold clogs from Atelier Scandinave when Nic and I were in Paris. It's been so hot that the idea of wearing any closed-toe shoes just does not appeal, and I find the wooden sole to be very kind to my feet on hot days. I've had a few people ask about breaking clogs in - and I will say that the only ones I have had to break in have been the Swedish hasbeens, which seem to have very stiff leather. I put these Maguba clogs on and they were immediately comfortable, and I have been wearing them loads since. I love this shade of pink, too, and I think they look really cute with my dress - so obviously I thought them totally necessary to complete my outfit for the Outfit Along. Logic.

In terms of a complete outfit, though, my entry to the Outfit Along definitely isn't totally successful. However, I have also knitted a hot pink Miette cardigan which will look perfect - but I can't really count it for this challenge as I started it months ago. I will blog that soon, but I did want to show you my Myrna, even if it does fall a bit short. It's all part of the process. My next one will be better!

I'll leave you with the name inspiration for the dress. Nic and I binge-watched S2 of Hannibal and, if you've been a reader for any length of time, you'll know how much I love Scully. Bedelia du Maurier isn't quite Scully-level awesome yet but I feel the character is getting there. Also: THAT HAIR.

"My tasting notebook? Oh, do fuck off."

Hello! It's Sunday afternoon and a lovely one at that. I had an unexpectedly long weekend this weekend. I brought a laptop home from work on Wednesday to work from home on Thursday and Friday, only to find at lunchtime on Thursday that the wrong power pack was in the bag! We have shared laptops, you see. Anyway - my manager suggested that I could take Thursday afternoon and Friday as leave, and that's what I did. It's been brilliant! Work hasn't been super busy for the past couple of weeks but it has been a bit tedious, and I hadn't realised how much I needed a bit of a break until I got one. I did a bit of sewing, a bit of knitting, and Nic and I had a little morning out in Birmingham on Saturday. Today we went for a ramble and picked blackberries - I'm looking forward to making crumble later. Hurrah!

Anyway, I have been a reasonably busy bee and, having finished off an unselfish sewing project on Thursday I got back to what I do best - sewing dresses for myself - on Friday. I have older unblogged projects to share but I am kind of excited about this dress I made over the weekend so it's skipped the queue. How rude!

Last weekend when I went to Stratford with Sarah and Char, we each bought some Liberty tana lawn from Fred Winter on Guild Street. This is quite a random shop, but they do have a good selection of Liberty fabrics, and a small selection of other fabrics too. You wouldn't know it from the street, either - it just looks like your average gifts and homewards store for the upper middle-class, but if you're in the Stratford area it's definitely worth a look. It looks like maybe they sell online too but be warned if you click through to that website - it's weird and I'm not sure that it works. Anyway - they had a sale on and while I'm not usually fussed on Liberty prints (most are too ditsy and fussy for me) I have come around to the feel of the tana lawn after making my wedding dress from it. Also, I totally fell in love with one of the sale bolts - the 'Tresco' print from 2013.

At £16 a metre it was totally reasonable. I think I got slightly more than a metre and a half as well, as the dude on the till was highly amused by the three of us and was pretty generous with the cutting. Got to love that. This print is sort of random - lots of flowers and fruit, and those palm trees - and what really drew me to is was how lush the colours are, particularly the corals and lavenders in the print.

I couldn't wait to get sewing with it, and had bought it with a view to making yet another Emery dress with it. Which is what I did, but I decided to get slightly creative with the pattern. I was inspired quite a lot by the Sew Over It Betty dress that Marie blogged this week - particularly by the v-shaped back. I have the Betty pattern in my stash, having pattern tested it, but I wasn't especially happy with the fit of the bodice on me. So I hacked the Emery bodice, which does fit.

Monkey 47 dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

The process was reasonably simple. I made the same adjustments to the armholes and shoulder seams as I did for the last sleeveless Emery dress I made. I drew a diagonal line down the back bodice piece to where I wanted the zip to end, and folded it under. Boom. Now, it was slightly complicated by the fact that there is a dart in the back neckline, and I should really have pinched this out. I didn't, and I didn't muslin this either (because I'm fucking lazy) so I ended up having to sew two small darts into the neckline. No biggie on a patterned fabric, but I'll fix that when I transfer this adjustment to a new pattern piece of its own.

Nic helped me to get the fit of the back bodice right. He has a mortal fear of stabbing me or himself with pins, but he got in there and pinched out the excess fabric for me like a trouper. That's just the kind of fitting that it's too hard to do on yourself!

Otherwise, this was a totally uneventful make and I sewed it really quickly. Everything people say about tana lawn being a delight to sew with is right - it has a lovely hand, is very light and behaves well. The only issue I encountered was the zip. I had a green concealed zip in my stash - one that I had bought from the four for a pound zip rummage box from that stall in Birmingham rag market that's next to the dog food stall? Well, I thought I was being pretty cute. The zip pull broke off the damn thing as soon as I went to zip it up! That's three zips out of four from that place that broke. I should have known better. Luckily, I had another zip - a weird chartreuse one which I have no memory of buying - that fit and matched pretty well. But yeah. Cheap zips suck ass.

I should say: I didn't go rambling in these cute but impractical heels. My usual front door photo spot is too much of a sun-trap to be much good for photos on really bright days. All the detail gets washed out and you just get a bunch of photos of me squinting. This wooded little riverside walk is across the road from our flat and it had the bonus today of being basically deserted. Which is good because the last few times I've had photos taken on my street I've had passers-by gawping - GAWPING - at me as if the invention of the camera is news to them. I know I shouldn't grumble because maybe it does look strange but stopping to stare and point is just fucking rude. But you can expect to see more photos in this spot, because I really like the way they came out!

Bodice view - I really love this print!

There's not too much more to say about this dress except that I'm really happy that my little experiment worked. Having to add the darts in at the last minute wasn't ideal but it wasn't a problem - and now I have a cute v-backed bodice that fits me well. That's great because I think the Betty pattern really is adorable but this saved me from having to adjust the fit of it too much. Short-cuts FTW. I'm thinking of using some of the fabric I bought in Paris to sew this dress with a circle skirt so, you know, watch this space!

Selfie with my photographer/seamstress' assistant/husband (yikes: still finding that word difficult to get used to!)

I'm genuinely trying not to buy too much fabric at the moment because I have a bigger stash than I'm used to right now (due to all of the shopping that I did in Paris) but I am tempted to go back to old Fred Winter and buy some more sale Liberty. I'm not a convert by any means, but this stuff is nice!

Oh! And the name. You might be wondering, where are the monkeys. There aren't any. But the print is of a Botanical garden, and as I was sewing this I was drinking my new favourite gin, Monkey 47. I bought it as a payday treat from Leamington Wine Company and was advised to try it with cranberries - I haven't yet, but I can tell you that it's delicious with tonic water, strawberries and fresh basil. Here's a monkey gif, though, just in case you were disappointed:

Evening dudes, what's happening? Not too much going on here. I've been having a busy few days at work but it's been nice. I've worked at home for the past few days on data analysis and it's been good - it's been giving my brain a work-out, and I have the best desk buddy. It's really lovely to share a desk with Nic - particularly as he makes such excellent coffee!

I've been doing a little bit of sewing and I have been knitting my little heart out - I started my second Andi Satterlund Myrna cardigan on Saturday and I'm almost ready to cast off the body - it's such a satisfying and quick pattern to knit and I already feel like I have learned so much since I made my first one. I do have some more knitting to show you later in the week, but this evening it's all about the sewing up in here. Because, guess what. I SEWED A NEW PATTERN. I know, right? I'm shocked too.

I bought Simplicity 1419 a couple of weeks ago. I was ordering zips from Jaycotts and thought I'd have a little browse through the patterns section, and took a notion to buy one. Simplicity 1419 had been on my radar ever since Sew Dolly Clackett because a fair few versions of it popped up then - it has a fitted bodice and a full skirt, so you can see why people chose it! Julia from Stars And Sunshine made a few and they were ALL adorable. So anyway, I bought it and I made it.

This was a really quick and fun project, as well. I sewed it up on a day when I was working from home - I cut the fabric out before work, basted the bodice to check the fit at lunchtime, and sewed the whole thing together in the afternoon when I finished. It would have taken longer if I had made a toile of the bodice but I took a chance on the sizing because I have usually found that the Simplicity bodice block works on my body. Also, I was using fabric that I could stand to lose - a cute cotton poplin that I had bought for £2 a metre on Goldhawk Road. But enough jibba jabba: here's the dress!

Elaine dress - Lisette for Simplicity 1419 in floral cotton poplin, worn with Irregular Choice Dippy Daisy shoes

This is a really cute pattern and very quick to sew, partly because it isn't lined. Normally with a dress this sort of shape I'd check the instructions and then do it my own way but I did mostly follow the instructions for this because of the keyhole detail at the neckline. The instructions are really thorough and give a good finish - the only thing I'll change the next time round is that rather than sewing a loop for the button, I'll use some elastic. The pattern piece provided for the button loop left me with something that was a bit too chunky to practically use.

Bodice view!

The fit isn't perfect, like, but it's grand. There are a few adjustments I'll make to the bodice for next time I make this dress. I'm going to redraw the armholes slightly so they're a bit freer, and I'm going to drop the neckline substantially. The pattern comes with an optional collar which I'm never going to make (not my style) and I suppose the neckline is so high for that reason. It's okay at the front but REALLY high at the back:

You can see here why redrawing the armholes a bit will be good. That's a lot of coverage!

I'm not used to having the neckline quite this high, and thought I'd feel strangled. In practice it was fine, though. I wore this dress to my friend Adam's wedding a few weeks ago and it was a really long day - we left the house before 7 in the morning and weren't in bed until well after midnight, and no strangulation happened. And this dress was comfortable and cute for dancing in, too!

You can't see it because of the busy fabric and the bright light, but the skirt is reasonably full and pleated at the sides - it's just lovely and it was worth the price of the pattern alone. Well, also the pattern includes a really cute jacket that I might get around to making someday. While I don't completely love this dress I definitely like it enough to make another one. My main reservation is that the very high neckline and a somewhat unfortunate print placement sort of combined so that the bodice makes me look HELLA busty. Well, actually, it's not all that bad. It just makes me feel like I'm all HELLO WORLD. BOOBS.

So that's the craic there with the Simplicity 1419 dress. I named her Elaine because in the week I made this, the wonderful actress Elaine Stritch died. It's hard to believe she was even more of a badass than Colleen Donaghy, but she was.

I sort of wish I had more to say about this and there was a bit more craic out of me this evening, but there isn't! The height of excitement for me today has been doing the grocery shopping and then having a jam doughnut in the cafe at Morrisons. Life certainly isn't all glamour, but I tell you what, that was a good doughnut.

But anyway. I have to go because tonight Nic and I are watching The X-Files: Fight The Future. Yeah, that first X-Files movie. Despite the recent sequel being an incomprehensible pile of ass - you can read my summary of it here - I'm very fond of the first movie. I saw it in the cinema when it came out twice in the space of two nights. It's not that I was a major X-Files fan (or X-philes, as they used to call themselves. Jesus) but the nearest cinema was in the next town and only had two screens, and it was either that or The Horse Whisperer. Which, no. For obvious reasons. So you'll have to excuse me because OMG ALIENS AND BEES AND SOMETHING TO DO WITH BLACK OIL.

Hello beauties! How's the weekend been treating you? I was working from home yesterday on boring admin tasks, which was just as well as I was a little bit hungover after going out for dinner and prosecco with Rick and Lauren on Thursday night. I don't even think I had that much to drink, but this is just what drinking on a school night does to me these days. Man, I'm getting old! Thankfully I had recovered enough by dinner time to eat my dinner and then hem a pretty dress while watching a crappy film. The crappy film in question was The French Connection 2, and it was the only time I have ever had to say, "That film had too much Gene Hackman in it."

Today, Nic and I had planned to go to Rugby to check out the charity shops, go to the library (their library has a better comics section and a better craft books section than Leamington library) and visit a newly opened comics and milkshake shop (because WUT) but after almost an hour and a half of waiting for a bus that's supposed to come every half an hour we fucked the whole thing off and went to Birmingham instead. Really that was a much better plan, because it meant I was able to buy fabric, Nic was able to buy comics, and we were able to go back to Cherry Reds for that halloumi, mushroom and hash browns sandwich. A winner all round, I think. The plan for tonight is to watch a better film and I might crack on with knitting the sleeves on my second Myrna cardigan. I sure know how to have a wild Saturday night, am I right?! I'm fine with that. Leamington on a Saturday night is genuinely disgusting. I'll stick to Thursday night pizza and prosecco.

But on the subject of knitting, here's a cardigan I finished last month. It's another Andi Satterlund Miette cardigan, and the third knitted garment I have made (I showed you my fourth - my pink Myrna - out of sequence. Because I'm a maverick like that, I guess) For some reason, after the first Miette I made being difficult because I was new to it, and then the second one being straightforward because I was getting my head around knitting, this one was really difficult again. I made so many mistakes on this one. It's Difficult Third Album syndrome. This is my Fables of the Reconstruction/Reconstruction of the Fables Miette:

Fables Cardigan - Andi Satterlund 'Miette' worn with Blah Blah, Fishcakes dress and Maguba Rio clogs

I knitted this in the exact same Rico cotton yarn that my Myrna is made from. Basically I had an assload of this yarn because the lady in the wool shop totally oversold me. I wasn't keen on the bubblegum pink colour and I didn't like working with the yarn so I don't really know WTF I was at when I was buying it! I bought some flamingo pink Dylon dye and, when the cardigan was finished, I dyed it. I figured that as the yarn was cotton it would take the dye pretty well, and it did! I dyed it in a bucket rather than in the machine so it's maybe not the most successful dye-job - I can see where the colour isn't as even as it could be. But I'm okay with that - it happened because I wasn't stirring the thing every fart's end as the instructions suggested - so really I'm happier with a slightly uneven colour than I would have been spending my evening standing in the kitchen stirring something. My aversion to doing that is why Nic does basically all of the cooking in our household. Unless he wants to eat toast.

The cute floral buttons were a gift from Jo - they were part of my Hen Party Boke Bucket of presents, and they go perfectly with the cardigan! And, if I sound like I'm less than happy with my cardigan, I don't mean to. Making it was frustrating but worth it - a hot pink cardigan is going to work with many, many items in my wardrobe and I am really happy with how it looks. I'm getting better at accepting that I'm at a totally different stage with knitting than I am with sewing, so while this Miette definitely isn't as accomplished as many of the others out there on the internet, I'm still really pleased with it! I tell you what, though: no more Rico cotton yarn for me. Do not like. The wearing of it is fine but I found it really irritating to work with.

Here she is, buttoned up

In fairness to the cotton yarn, it is actually nice and comfortable to wear. This cardigan is pretty perfect for the current weather in that it covers me up and I don't boil in the sunshine, and it keeps the chill off me in, for example, aggressively air-conditioned train carriages. I wore this a few Sundays ago when Nic and I went for a walk through the fields to the Saxon Mill. I did wear those heels on the walk, but they were very comfortable. It wasn't some 'fashion blogger in fields' thing. I missed a chance to get a photo taken in the very pretty cornfield but to be honest, by that stage I just wanted to get to the pub. PRIORITIES, PEOPLE.

Goofy out-take!

Anyway, despite my love of a good repeat, I have put the Miette pattern away from the time being. Once I have finished my current project, I'm getting started on another Andi Satterlund pattern, the Agatha, in some electric blue Cascade 220 100% wool yarn. I did try this pattern earlier this year but couldn't get my head around the pattern, but some expert advice from my friend Char got me going on it. So, in summary: yay!

So, that's me for the evening. I have to go and take the fabric I bought in Birmingham out of the washing machine. I also face the very important task of putting my pyjamas on and picking out a silly film for us to watch tonight. But! If you're in the UK and fancy reading a bit more of my writing - I have an article in this month's Love Sewing Magazine! It's out in shops on the 14th August. In fairness, it's mainly what you get here but without the swearing, but there is a pretty cute pattern with the magazine this month, so, you know. I'll just leave that bit of info there. Have a lovely weekend, all!

Tell me. What is it like to stare into the eye of Satan's butthole?

Great job, everyone. The reception will be held in each of our individual houses, alone.

Look, we can dance all day but it's time to step up. Are you going to buy 4000 rubber nipples from me, or not?

Truth be told, all I want to do is go out, get shitfaced and have a curry and a fight down Caroline Street.

Who are the Allens and why are they out of spice?

If you walk briskly in a pilot's uniform, you can go pretty much anywhere. I've been upstairs at the White House while the Obamas were sleeping

One rage every three months is permitted. Try not to hurt anyone who doesn't deserve it.

Well, you were right about one thing. It definitely wasn't Bigfoot.

Question 17 was the three part question. The answers were Blue Peter, Wheel of Fortune and This Morning.

Would it be bad to have a Martini with my muscle relaxant, or bad in a good way? Introducing Capital Chic Patterns

Well, I was born Mary Patterson, but then I married and naturally I took my husband's name. So now I'm Neil Patterson.

Until mankind is peaceful enough not to have violence on the news, there's no point in taking it out of shows that need it for entertainment value.

Or can we agree that we're all just monkeys with suitcases trying to seem like people?

I found Aliens scary too. That Sigourney Weaver is a sweet girl but she really shouldn't go without makeup.

Who 'grabs' a coffee? Unbelievable. He thinks he's on ER.

Stop eating people's old french fries, pigeon! Have some self respect! Don't you know you can fly?!

Richard Nixon? I can't believe I'm dead. There was so still so much left on my bucket list. So many different kinds of buckets I wanted to own. Buckets.

Look, if you're gonna have some sort of rap, just be careful that you don't do a drive-by.

Oh, for crying out loud. You see, that's what feminism does. It makes smart girls with nice birthing shapes believe in fairy tales.

Like when I say "Men are blinded by my beauty". They're not really blinded. They get their sight back in a day or two!