Hello!
Happy Saturday, everyone! After a pretty turbulent week, emotionally, I'm starting to feel on slightly more of an even keel now. Nic and I are having a quiet and relaxing weekend with nothing more taxing planned than going for a walk, watching a few silly films (so far, we've watched Red Dragon and Sex and The City: The Movie and Nic is currently trawling Netflix for something to watch later), making pizza and opening a bottle of champagne. It's been easy to feel like everything in life is totally shitty because... well, the news. I'm making a conscious effort this weekend to get a little bit of joy back. I started yesterday morning by watching this video, which, please. YOU MUST WATCH IT.
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Happy Saturday, everyone! After a pretty turbulent week, emotionally, I'm starting to feel on slightly more of an even keel now. Nic and I are having a quiet and relaxing weekend with nothing more taxing planned than going for a walk, watching a few silly films (so far, we've watched Red Dragon and Sex and The City: The Movie and Nic is currently trawling Netflix for something to watch later), making pizza and opening a bottle of champagne. It's been easy to feel like everything in life is totally shitty because... well, the news. I'm making a conscious effort this weekend to get a little bit of joy back. I started yesterday morning by watching this video, which, please. YOU MUST WATCH IT.
P STEW
Tell me that doesn't bring a smile to your face. Sir Patrick Stewart must be the happiest and cutest man alive. Seriously now.
I worked at home yesterday and got out at lunchtime to go for business lunch with our friend Charlotte. It was unexpectedly sunny yesterday (well, it rained in the evening) so I took the chance to get some photos of a new dress. A dress I did not make. It came from a shop, and I love it:
Tennessee dress by Sixton London*, worn with Topshop belt, Tatty Devine Lobster necklace and Miss L-Fire Rock Lobster sandals
The craic here is that a few weeks ago, lovely local boutique Lilac Rose got in touch with me and asked me would I like to try out a dress from new brand Sixton London. At one time, I was a hardcore Lilac Rose shopper - this was before I could sew - and even now, I can never resist stopping to see what they have in their window. The shop is very local to me - it's around the corner from our flat - and I have bought many, many dresses from them over the last nine years! They stock a few brands that I really like, including Emily and Fin, so I was curious to check this new brand out.
I tried a few dresses but I ended up being very taken - surprisingly so - with the Tennessee dress. This was surprising to me for two reasons: one of them is the fact that this dress has shirred panels in the back bodice (which is a feature I normally avoid. I'm not a fan of shirring, for some reason) and the other is that it's a solid colour. I think I have only one other dress in my wardrobe that's a solid colour! But I sort of fell in love with this one as soon as I put it on.
The dress is unlined and is made from a soft but structured cotton-poly chambray. I liked the raglan sleeves and the round neckline, but it was the skirt that really made me fall for this dress - the box pleats make the skirt really full and satisfyingly swishy.
The great thing about the solid colour is the potential for showing off fun accessories! I have worn this Lobster necklace from Tatty Devine lots of times since I bought it, but I haven't yet matched it to the Lobster sandals. This dress seemed like the perfect canvas for that pairing!
I was pretty impressed by the quality and finish of the dress. As I mentioned above, it's unlined, but that's fine in a summer dress. The neckline is bound, and the skirt has a narrow topstitched hem. It's all good. I'm afraid I can't find a size chart online for Sixton, but I'm wearing a size 8 (which is usually what I wear in most RTW) so I think you could say it's pretty true to size...although, as dress sizes vary so wildly I'm not sure that statement is all that helpful. The shirring across the back does add a little bit of extra ease, of course.
I'm already planning how I'm going to wear this dress next, so I think it's definitely going to get lots of wear this summer. It's also inspiring some sewing plans...the box-pleated skirt is very similar to the one on the By Hand London Zeena dress, which I have in my stash. I'm going to have to get the scissors and scotch tape out and start taping that PDF together!
But first, it's Saturday evening and there is pizza to be made and champagne to be chilled. I have a fair few handmade dresses lined up to blog about soon, so catch you all then!
*This dress was provided to me by Lilac Rose to review. I was not paid for this post and my opinions are my own.