The Sunday Times (Late Post!)

Hope you've all had a great weekend, and have settled back into another working week!

I had a great time on Saturday at the Historic Dockyard with Alex looking at all the ships we have on display here in Portsmouth. I finally got to wear my 1940's dress out, although the wind did keep me paranoid that I would flash everyone.

I've lived here in Portsmouth for 6 years now and I can't believe I have never been to the dockyards before! It was a lot of fun going around the museums they have down there, and we particularly enjoyed one that took you on a tour of how they made the ships and set them off, and also featured a lot of artifacts either rescued or donated from previous ships. Here's all the photo's from our day:

The Sunday Times

Evening All!

Hope you've all had a lovely weekend!

I had another busy one yet again! 

Friday night saw the opening of my fiances architecture exhibition which gave me the chance to see what he's been up to all year whilst he's been spending late nights at his studio! It was a pleasant evening (made better by free beer & wine) which was then followed by a trip to the newly opened 'Jamie's Italian' in Gunwharf Quays. 

Saturday was the opening day of a two day tattoo convention happening in the main square here in Portsmouth. I had a great day wondering around the guildhall (below) meeting other tattooists & enthusiasts

Source

from all over the UK & Europe. I also got to watch my fiance get tattooed by our regular tattooist as he very bravely sat for 5 hours while getting his ribs done! 

Today has been a day of catching up with my sewing/designing whilst beginning another new project.

I quickly sketched this out this morning from an idea i've been carrying around in my head for a while. I decided to catch on to the bandwagon of having a cutout back, but went for a more subtle deep scoop instead of a heart or a diamond. It will be made more interesting (and more girly) by including some straps into the bodice which will be tied into a bow. 

I've started on the bodice which is being made in a grey/pink floral cotton i've had sitting in my stash for ages, and is lined with plain black cotton. The bodice parts are all ready to be joined together at the neckline which i'll carry on with tomorrow night!

I've also put a couple more dresses up on Ebay for auction this week, 

1960's White Mini Dress

1960's Lemon Shift Dress

and I managed to find this beauty also on Ebay which I'll be using when i've created my Forties inspired patterns!

I'm still working my way through my new Forties Fashion book, which I plan on sharing at some point this week! Hope you all have a great start to the week!

The Sunday Times...

Hello!! How was your weekend?

Mine has been particularly awesome.

As previously mentioned this Saturday I took part in a local Boutique Market, and I have to say it went a lot better than I could have hoped for. I was a bit apprehensive at the start as to be honest, I had no idea what to expect. Luckily my friend Beth came along with me as support and helped me set up etc..  ready for the day ahead. There was quite a steady stream of customers which I found surprising for a relatively new event in this area. I bought along with me around 30 items of clothing, 25 or so purses and some stuffed owls/pillows/birds.

I ended up making just a couple of pounds shy of £100!!! This was so much more than I was expecting!

I've decided to try and book in again for August time and go halves on a stall with Beth (she makes handmade bags/baby things).

This has also spurred me on to branch out and create more handmade clothes to sell. With my new confidence in pattern making I really want to create a 1940's inspired line of dresses. But this at the moment still has to take a backseat until I've sold a few more dresses in order to fund the fabric!

Speaking of fabric....

This is taken from Burda Magazine 06/11, and is a piece inspired by Brigitte Bardot. It's supposed to be a bathing suit, but I would get more wear out of it as a type of sleepwear set. I've been eyeing up this mint polka dot cotton in the fabric shop for a while with the intention of making a dress but this 2 piece would just look so cute with this fabric!

I also managed to pick some other bits to go with the patterns I recently bought.

Another cotton material this time in a charcoal grey, with what looks like black/white berries printed on it. This is going to be made into the green playsuit/romper at the bottom of the pattern.

This is an amazing Chinese silk brocade that i'm hoping I will successfully turn into a 1940's night robe. I'm going to make version B (blue) but with A's sleeves.

Ahoy There!! I just couldn't leave this on the shelf, its just too nice. I'm not entirely sure what this will end up as but I bought 2 metres so I imagine most likely a dress, it's cotton viscose by the way!

Plans for this week are to make the polka dot sleep set, and to make a start on the playsuit so I'll keep you posted on how everything goes! I'm now going to make some vegetable risotto!