The belated Valentines outfit

I did wear it out to dinner with my husband on Valentines day but never took any pictures of the whole outfit. I was too distracted by my very handsome date. I hope you understand.

I ended up making another blouse I liked better and wore that with the skirt.

I bought this swallow fabric recently and had plans for it as a blouse. It's the same shape as blouse number one but with white collar and cuffs for a little contrast. I really like the fabric and might get it in other colours.

I could have ironed the skirt, huh...but it is a lazy Saturday here ;-)

Without the belt. I seem to wear this with everything at the moment. I boned the waistband of the skirt. I like my waistbands to be very high (trousers and skirts) so the boning holds them up and keeps them in shape better when sitting down.

This is blouse number 1, which was meant to be the Valentines blouse but after the heart shaped pockets never happened the whole shirt never did. Oh well, there will be a day I wear it. I promise.

Some twirling action and stupid face to go with it. (You've got to have one of those twirly pictures when presenting a circle skirt!!!)

Or you can wait for the wind to do the job and blow it up. This however doesn't seem to happen when ready to shoot the picture....

And this is how I'm wearing it today. Hidden away under a jumper, looking like a school teacher.

kitty picture of the day

And this was me and my handsome date before we had too much wine and too much delicious food.

Thanks for your time. Let me know what you think. I know it ended up quite different from the Lena Hoschek look but it was just an inspiration, I didn't mean to copy it. Have a great weekend.

Ruffles everywhere for Valentines day... a little tutorial, design fail and spare hearts

I have been busy with my Lena Hoschek inspired Valentines Day outfit, as far as personal sewing goes, and finished the blouse today. I had the skirt done several days ago and now I can't wait to wear it. I won't be posting any pictures until Valentines day. We have finally booked a table at a local restaurant.

Since I haven't blogged about any sewing details other than finished items some work-in-progress-pictures are in order. I have never done a tutorial before so I hope I am making sense. If not, I am happy to answer any further questions.

The Lena Hoschek blouse has lots of lovely ruffle detail around the collar, button front and the hear shaped front pockets. This is how I tried to copy it.

My initial idea was lace around the pockets and other bits.

I cut 2 hearts out of the blouse fabric. I wanted to turn them inside out later to avoid any raw edges.

Then I used one of the two layers right side up and pinned the lace ruffles facing inwards around the heart.

stitch everything down within your seam allowance(stay close to the edge)

then pin the other heart shape on top right sides facing (the lace is now sandwiched in between the two hearts) Don't stitch all the way around!!!! Leave about 2" on one of the straight sides of the heart unstitched so you can turn the heart inside out later.

You end up with a little poofy heart. Turn it inside out.

Press it and topstitch around the heart close to the lace edge.

I ended up not liking the lace version. It looked too much like a toilet seat cover ;-) in my choice of fabric. Then I decided to make the ruffles in self fabric as they are in the original design.

I did prefer this look but attached to the blouse I just didn't look right. Now I am going without the hearts completely.

I did however keep the ruffles around the collar and button hole panel.

I made them exactly like the hearts, pleated the ruffles between both collar pieces, before sewing them together and between the front panel (button hole side only) and the facing.

Any ideas, what to do with my two ruffly hearts? I suppose I could stitch them on a card for V-day and match my card? Then we don't really do cards and all that. Just food, just another excuse for eating out, you see. And for making outfits of course.

 Any other ideas?

Rainbow coloured roses. How do they do it?

I thought these are so worth sharing with you readers. When I got back from my weekend with my in laws last Monday I had a big box sitting outside my door, waiting for me. I didn't order anything so ???

It was a bunch of the cutest roses send to me from my husband, who is currently on tour in Afghanistan. How thoughtful of him to send them on Valentines day. I am such a lucky girl. Aren't they amazing? Some of them have multi coloured petals. How do they do that? I now you can colour the water and if you put white roses and tulips into it, they soak it up and change colour but multi coloured petals???? Very clever and I am certainly impressed. They are keeping well and I am still enjoying them a week later.