This Sunday was our first wedding anniversary and I must say, I am so looking forward to many more years with my wonderful husband.
We were going to Long Melford for a medieval event and food fair (I was mainly into the food fair idea) but that got cancelled and we didn't find out until we got there. We spontaneously decided to go to Bury St Edmunds instead which was a great idea because it's a lovely place to spend the day. We had a little picnic in the gardens around the old ruins and just a wonder about. Found another sewing book in a charity shop....as if I haven't got enough yet. I wore my red polka dot dress during the day and got some cute pictures. I might consider that for my next made to order style for the etsy shop.
In the evening we went to a very nice meal in Colchester and I got to wear my latest dress out. It's a beautiful mint green brocade with bright pink flowers. It looks very shiny in the pictures but it isn't in the flesh. I burned it when I attached the bodice to the skirt. Right in the front/middle between the pleats. I was close to crying because I bought the fabric on my last fabric shopping spree to Walthamstow and didn't have enough to make another front panel. I fixed it by making up a bow to cover up the burn mark. It worked although I would have preferred the dress without it.
I went for a vintage inspired updo.
Tomorrow Dave and I are off to Germany for 3 days to go around the Nurburgring. I hope I can squeeze in some fabric shopping. Need to investigate where the fabric shops are in Koblenz, which is where we are staying.
This is what I wore to work today. I made this dress on Thursday. I went for a very simple design for this very busy print and it turned out very 60s mod. I am sure Edie Sedgwick would have liked something like this. So I decided to go for a little bit of beehive to finish of the look. I got some nice compliments at work. Thank you ladies, I know some of you have a peek at this blog every now and then.
Tomorrow will be the day of my 1st wedding anniversary. We've planned a day out with a romantic dinner in the evening. I made a dress to wear for the meal. I am very exited to wear it. I mainly make little cotton dresses at the moment as they are the most comfortable to wear in the summer but for this special occasion I decided to go for a beautiful brocade. But more about that next time.
On Sunday Dave and I decided to use the day and go out on one of our little geeky day trips. The Bristish Herritage membership had to be put to some more use so we decided to go to Languard Fort in Felixstowe. He always wanted to go and it's only fair to do what the hubby wants to do for a change. I must say, I had a good time myself. There were lots of bits and bobs of old equipment everywhere. Perfect probs for some serious silly picture taking.
Tilly blogged about the Horrockses Fashion exhibition in London a few days ago and suggested to use this opportunity for interested bloggers to meet up and go together. I thought this is such a brilliant idea. Ever since Gertie blogged about the blogger meet up in New York, I wondered when there would be a chance to do this here in the UK.
We decided to go on Sunday the 1st of August and meet at the cafe at 3pm for coffee and then enjoy the exhibition together. We are still looking for more people that would like to join us. Please check your diaries and contact Tilly at tillyrose [at] gmail [dot] com
I have been very busy sewing the past two weeks and quiet a few dresses to show. I just haven't been very good this week catching up on blog posts. I went fabric shopping on Thursday with the aim to buy some ivory silk for a wedding dress I have on order (I know a wedding dress, how awesome is that. One of my customers fell in love with one of my dresses and was inspired to base the design of her wedding dress on said style, but more about that soon) Anyway, I left the shop with three different pieces of fabric and neither of them was ivory silk.Very successful day huh? I fell in love with this red and green tulip print cotton and sewed it up into this lovely number the same day.
I used two different patterns for the dress. The skirt was supposed to be a gathered skirt but instead of gathering it, I decided to go for pleats. I did a centre pleat in the front and a pleat below each back seam. It doesn't show very much in the pictures but I hope you get the idea.
I wore it to work on Saturday and got many compliments. One lady came into the shop looking for a dress and pointed out she was looking for something like that (pointing at my dress)...hopefully a new customer?? Who knows.
I hope everyone had a great weekend. I certainly did. My husband and I decided to go up to Leicestershire to visit his family this weekend. I love going up there. We always have a great time and since we will be going over to Germany twice within the next few weeks it's only fair to see his family as well.
I spend the whole weekend in nothing but self made clothes, which was great. All accessories were either gifts, thrifted, won on ebay or vintage. How very green of me. Unfortunately I left the camera at home so I haven't got may pictures to show.
After we got back home I asked Dave to take a picture of me wearing one of my new dresses I haven't blogged about yet. This one is sewn from one of my recent ebay wins. I decided to make version 2 (the green one) from the first pattern shown. I prefer version number 1 but didn't have any contrasting fabric I liked to go with the red and white and impatient as I am had to just sew this dress. I shortened it by about 5" and I also had to add about 1" to the waist.
I love the fullness of the skirt and will make this again with the ties. I still have navy spotty print which I am planing to use.
I have some amazing news to share with you. At the last vintage fair at the Cressing Temple Barns Julie and I got approached by a couple owning a vintage shop in Chelmsford, Essex if we were interested in them stocking our clothes and accessories. Now, does the bear......in the woods???? Of course we were. So we went to meet them last Thursday to see the shop and discuss business and tatatatatatataaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa, they are now the first stockist of Butterflies and Hurricanes vintage inspired clothing and accessories. I can't describe how chuffed to bits I am. May many more come.
I thought I'd share some pictures of the shop with you.Truly Madly Vintage is a lovely little shop in Moulsham Street in Chelmsford. It's a great street with all independent shops. No big high street bullies. That's what I like to see.
Anyhoo, onto the pictures.
I have also realised that I am approaching 50 followers. Thank you so much for your interest and support. I want this blog to be as interesting and inspiring for you. If there is anything you would like to read about, please let me know and I will do my very best. To celebrate my 1st stockist and 50 followers (once I have reached that point) I am planing a give away of some sort. More about that once we get there.
A few days ago, the lovely Sassy Lassie from Sassie Lassies Vintage Life send me 8 questions to answer on my blog. Thank you Lassie for taking such an interest. I am more than happy to answer all of them. I hope it's not going to be too boring.
1) What outfit from a movie would you love to re-create? My husband answered that question with Darth Vader but I think I'd rather recreate something a bit more delicate. There are a lot of outfits I would love to re-create but I am not sure if I will ever get around to doing so. This might be a good idea for a challenge some time. I think I would like to recreate the a lot of Rita Hayworth's costumes from various movies. I love her. If I had to pick one right now I'd chose the black dress from Gilda.
2) Tell us about your sewing spot/room. What is your favorite thing about it?
I posted about my sewing room before. I just love everything about it, especially the fact that it is entirely dedicated to my hobby/mini business. My favourite thing about it is my assistant seamstress cat Jenny who snoozes away while I am creating my little tops, skirts and dresses.
3) Where did you learn to sew? Who taught you?
My first sewing projects were all sorts of clothes and home furnishings for my Barbie dolls. My mum and mainly my grandma taught me the basics. I had a children's sewing machine which I barely used and a kids sewing book with little projects that I loved to make. In my later years in school I was mainly into re- fashioning clothes I already had or found on flea markets. Then I completely stopped making things for many years. I did the odd crochet projects (usually scarfs) but that was it. I finally re-discovered sewing after I finished my studies and got really into it after moving to Colchester. I was working freelance from home at the time and since I didn't know anyone here and didn't get to meet anyone working from home so I spend my free time sewing. When I started working in the bridal shop (I gave up freelance work from home because I prefer working with people around me) I met my friend Julie who is into modern millinery and we decided to start Butterflies and Hurricanes which took sewing to another level. Now I sew for myself and to sell at vintage fairs.
4) If you could have dinner with one person from the past, who would it be? That's a difficult one for me. The list is long but if it was dinner tonight I would really like to dine with Coco Chanel. I need some inspiration and she inspires me a lot. So does Karl Lagerfeld but I hope he stays around for a lot longer. I'd ask him to join me and Coco for desert.
5) What/Who inspires you? A bunch of things. Old movies and movie stars, pin ups, other sewing blogs, French Haute Couture (not that I can ever make anything like it but I am mesmerized by the collections by Dior, Chanel etc. I always loved Valentino as well but now he's retired I lost interest a bit. I am also inspired by travelling and generally interesting people in the street. Every now and then I spend a day in London with Julie browsing through Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges to see what's out there.
6) What will always make you laugh? My husband. He never fails to make me laugh. He's great!!!
7) What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mint chocolate chip and pretty much anything by Ben and Jerry's
8) What is something you would like us to know about you that you have never shared on your blog?
Um, I don't know. If I wanted to share it I would have done it by now I think.
I hope this didn't send you snoozing away. Thanks Sassie Lassie.
I think I'll pass this list of questions on to Andrea, Molly, Zoe, Tasia and the slapdash sewist
I went to see Juliette Lewis live on Tuesday night here in Colchester. Nice to have a decent gig just around the corner. Usually it's London and that's it.
But anyway, Dave and I went to see her and boy did she rock. Worth every penny and more. Plus the support band THE FEUD were pretty amazing too.
Long story short, we did a lot of jumping, singing and dancing and had a great time. After the gig we decided to stick around for a little longer in case she would come out. I packed one of my tops to give to her which I did. I hope she likes it and runs out of clean laundry on tour so she has to wear it. I need to keep stalking her website, twitter and so on in case it appears anywhere. Probably not because I would think she owns a lot of designer gear but you never know. Unfortunately my picture with her plus top turned out blurry.
