Joined the cowl bandwagon...

I have coveted the Vogue cowl neck dress that everyone but me (it seems) has made but I just cannot afford Vogue patterns unless on sale and I just can't buy one pattern so I don't go to the sales. (Didn't stop me buying 10 the other week when Simplicity were .99c with exorbitant)so when I picked up many patterns 2nd hand recently (don't need any of those either) I wanted to make a cowl neck dress that I got there for $1.

I went to Spotlight yesterday with my friend as she had been looking for some large white spot on navy fabric and I found some great looking sateen and also some nice drill when I went a few days ago looking for white wood blinds (for the newly painted bedroom). Even though I am in a self imposed fabric buying hiatus (just as I was when I went to The Fabric Store a couple of weeks ago and still managed to buy something)but I broke that and bought a stretch fabric for $3 per metre to make New Look 6154. It is an 'Easy' pattern and I think short of a rectangle elastic skirt; nothing could be easier.

It is the easiest dress I have ever made - all up I think it took me 2 hours and that includes cutting out the paper, adjusting the length fit and sewing it up. The thing that I like about this pattern and I think I will use in future patterns where I can, is the back pattern pieces were cut separately because they are curved at the waist. It was kind of fitted and it made for no adjustments for my sway back. I was using this cheap (but very nice) fabric as a wearable muslin (the only kind I make!) but I am thrilled at how well it has worked out. Now I know why people end up making two or three of these easy dresses. What do you think?

I'm trying to get better photos but lets face it Elle has nothing to worry about! I can't even take a photo of the back - maybe Tuesday when my friend comes over. This is a very flattering dress. I love the fabric. If you look just above my right hand shoulder that is a book in a photo frame. The book is called Sofie Metropolis ... save for the spelling of the surname - that is ME! Yes, even with that unusual name, it is in print. A friend who works on large private cruisers saw this in the US a few years ago in a second hand book shop and sent it to me with cryptic messages about a super surprise - and it was, I love it.

Have you got your name in print? Do you have a cowl neck dress?

Paris, river cruise 2022 - photo bomb!

(this post has been in my drafts since July 2022 due to life circumstances. I'm just going to write just a little and then just show some photos) My friend worked on a Superyacht for many years and through this connection was offered a friends and family deal on a river cruise in Europe. It was a deal too good to miss even though it wouldn't have been a first choice for me for a holiday. She had done this trip before but during the winter taking in the Christmas markets. We were going in June 2022. We decided to have 5 nights in Paris (where I'd been 5 times before) and 2 nights in Amsterdam where my friend lived for 2 years in her youth. We flew into Frankfurt... not because we wanted to but because these were the only flights we could get but we worked with it. Remember great deal! So ok, a short (5hr), fast ride on the ICE/TGV trains got us to Paris eventually (one was late which missed the connection to the earlier TGV but there was one a bit after). We knew that w

YFASMA - Fabric shopping in Athens

I promised this post in March! Fabrics from Euro1 per metre! I didn't buy anything in this shop but there was some lovely fabrics. I did buy the green and pink one above on the right. A satin finish rayon. It is lovely. There was a lot of lovely fabrics in this shop. It wasn't cheap Euro 8 p.m. but I didn't have a lot of room in my bag and I wanted something I would really love. I also didn't buy anything in Paris this time. I did buy the fabric for a table cloth just across the way from this shop. I also bought some orange/white weave linen fabric for Euro 4 p.m. at another shop, which I think I'll make some summer trousers with. As I was going to the airport, I saw this dress on the platform and I really liked it. Very easy to do too, I went to the Benaki Museum while in Athens. There is actually 2 locations. In this one I saw lots of Greek and Cypriot cultural crafts. This was a bridal bed in Crete. There was lots of clothing, embroidery and gold jewellery.

The saddest dress, then a few more.

Well hello. It's been a while. It was 8 months from the last post to the previous one to that and it's a bit longer this time. The last day I wrote was 10 Jul 2021. On 12 July my son and I were finally seeing Tim Minchin after booking it before we went to Europe at the end of 2019. It was going to be April 2020, but changed a few times and although it was a school night (year 12 for Alex) we went for dinner and sat in the show. My Mum had gone to hospital that morning and my sister was still at the hospital with her. Just after interval I got a message on my phone, "get to the hospital now". So we raced out and to the hospital where. although it was a lockdown and no visitors allowed, all 10 of us were allowed to see Mum as she was end of life. I won't go into the whole thing but Mum didn't die that night, but because of lockdown, we were not allowed to go and see her until a week and a half later when we were allowed just to discuss palliative care. By the n

Sew Darn Tired

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