My new re-invention project...

This is a dress I picked up in a charity shop on my Cornwall adventures.

Its rather large, but I fell in love with the pattern, the colour and the collar :)

Here's the dress in all it's large glory. Keep an eye out for the after pictures...

:)

A dress for a wedding party :)

Oop, I keep making things and not posting them!

I made this a while ago for my cousin's wedding party back in May.

A wanted a nice summery floral number that wasn't too fancy, and could be worn to many other occasions.

I used the Basic Dress Sloper Pattern that I used again whilst making this dress, adapting the neckline and armholes.

I improvised a little bit with the skirt, making this shape x 6:

Which is quite easy to draw yourself using a large ruler onto a piece of newspaper.

I then attached the 6 skirt panels together and onto the bodice part of the dress and made a waistband from cream satin.

I hand stitched up the arm holes and the hem, and put a zip into the back!

Here is the finished dress :)

A little close up of the fabric. Its an old-ish looking floral pattern, with a teal/turquoise background, bought from my local saturday market for about £2.75/m!

It suited the occasion quite well. I hope I have an opportunity to wear it again before the winter comes!

:)

A little embroidered beach bag

Before I went off on my camping holiday to Cornwall with my boyfriend & his family, I spent a few evenings doing a bit of embroidery :) I did the design freehand, which made it abit messy... (I like to call it 'adding character')

I then stitched this onto some heavy duty calico that I had left over from my university fabric stash,

and made a simple rectangular tote bag with 2 straps.

I stitched around the edge of the square of embroidery and around the edges of the handles with blanket stitch in blues and greens :)

It is a little creased in the pictures, because it was very well used on holiday! It was the perfect size for my swimsuit, suncream and sketchbook.

I'd love to make some more of these in different designs to sell!

:)

Giveaway?

I was shocked to come back from holiday and find that my blog has reached 90 followers?! That's nearly 100?! :D

I never thought that anyone would ever read it, and it has shocked me that I have as many readers as this!

Although I am very pleased. So pleased infact that I thought I would do a little giveaway of one of the dresses I have made.

They are both 60's mod-inspired, and are a UK size 8-10.

This one, or this one?

What do you think?

I'd only do the givaway if people actually wanted the dresses, so your opinions will be greatly appreciated!

:)

A similar dress...

Hello again :)

It has been a while since I did any posting on here, I've been enjoying myself rather too much on holiday in Cornwall...

I recently received an email from one of my blog's lovely readers, Paolina.

She has made her own lace collar, using the DIY I made in this post :)

It's really wonderful, check out her little post here! It really made me smile getting such lovely feedback from a reader, Thank you Paolina! :)

But back to the post...

I made this little dress a while ago now, but I seem to have taken a rather long time to post about it!

I bought a rather huge denim maxi dress from a car boot sale, reduced the hem a considerable amount and took it in by making darts front and back to give a more shapely fit.

I then added some lace around the neckline to create a peter pan collar (...I really must stop making things with peter pan collars, I have too many!!) and popped a little cameo brooch in the middle. I have worn it a couple of times with a brown zara cardigan, and my mum's old leather belt that she has had since she was 12!

:)