Saturday 18 December 2010

Dressember epitomised!






Blimmin 'eck, it's a bit cold!

I have been waiting for an excuse for ages to put my favourite dress on, when I spotted on the Facebook dressember page that there was a themed day approaching.

And then the snow came! Perfect!!


Sunday 28 November 2010

Dressember anyone?

I was very pleased when some online friends decided to set up a facebook page to have a bit of fun with our wardrobes this December. A recent men's campaign called Movember was the inspiration.

So what's it all about?

It's quite simple really, aim to wear a dress a day for the whole of December. I think lots of us buy dresses that we rarely wear, for whatever reason. We want to keep them for best, we prefer our jeans, they don't go with our wellies (actually I think they do, you can deffo rock the festival look!). Now me personally, I am a bit of a dress fan, and I do try to wear things in my wardrobe as much as I can as I think it's such a shame when you dig something out after years and it looks more old fashioned, moth eaten, or ill-fitting than it was at its last outing.

I am picky with my shopping, if I try and on and I don't love it, I don't buy it. So if I have trawled the shops to get the perfect fit it would make sense to wear the outfit as much as possible, right? When I am getting ready for work in the morning and put on something that suits me, that might even result in a compliment from a friend, then it gives me that bit of confidence to go out there and have a good day.

So for me, dressember will be about really pushing my ideas to the limits, being a bit creative perhaps with mixing and matching. For some, a couple of dresses a week instead of the school run combats might be just enough to make them look and feel great. It sounds shallow I guess, but scratch the surface and it's quite empowering really.

Who says you have to wear trousers to wear the trousers?

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Wedding gift

I made these for my friend Olivia's wedding, from a tutorial here

It's a set of 6 rectangular napkins with a linen pouch trimmed and lined with matching fabric. The napkins are double thickness with white cotton on the reverse. I would have liked to keep these, might make some more!BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Upcycling jacket

I had an old corduroy jacket that was looking a bit "studenty". I had recently read an article about using bias binding so I thought I'd give this little project a try.Just about to sew the final edgestitch, you can see the first row just underneath With binding you have to first sew the underneath edge to the wrong side, then you fold it over to the front for a neat edgestitch. Because it's a jacket with lapels the right side swaps over where it buttons up, so I had to improvise a bit and do both my sets of stitching in two parts. Anyway, I think it looks great now, it's given it a new lease of life and looks a bit boden-esque even. I added a quick yoyo rosette for a finishing touch. The finished jacket, purple needlecord with magenta trimsBlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop

Sunday 28 March 2010

Well it's sort of restful?

So I have had a rubbish feeling for the last few weeks. I think work life is getting on top of me and I have felt that the essence of "me" has gone and I'm just this person who is randomly completing tasks but who is a bit unfocused, a bit lost. And very tired.

Jason could have gone one of two ways with it really. Either I would really get on his nerves and I'd cause a lot of stress at home with all the mess and chaos. Or, exactly what he has done, which is to treat me like a princess and understand that it will pass in time.

So as I was mulling over my plans for the weekend, and wondering if I could muster up the energy to tackle the food market AND the Chorlton Green Festival, I got a call from Jason. "Hi love, you don't mind if I go away with the lads this weekend do you, we are going to try and walk up Snowdon?". Well if course I said of course, he's had a lot to put up with lately. I was a bit disappointed that I would have to face the market with the three of them in tow though, much as I love the little darlings! So he asked me if I would be able to get out of work early, something about Tesco, so I said I would try and get out at 3.15. I didn't actually get out until 4pm due to a parent accidentally forgetting to pick up her child, as you do.
But then of course the truth came out: I had ten minutes to pack my bag, the car was loaded up with sleepover stuff for the kids, a couple of walking poles newly purchased following a friend's recommendation (thanks Bing!) and my mum was on standby to look after the children for a couple of nights at her conveniently based house in North Wales. Yes folks, we were on our way to Snowdonia!

To be continued...

(Note- this has been sitting un-published since feb 2010!!) BlogBooster-The most productive way for mobile blogging. BlogBooster is a multi-service blog editor for iPhone, Android, WebOs and your desktop