I’m very much loving the vintage feel about this seasons dresses and skirts, but how HARD is it to get a decent floral pattern in a high street store?

So I’m thinking of attempting to make a few of my own dresses in the patterns I’m looking for.

However, since most fabric shops in Dublin are lacking in decent variety of material and designs I’ve turned my attention to the internet.

Mmmmmmmm internet.

Liberty prints have SO MANY lovely floral patterns that I’m itching to turn into dresses and bedclothes (click on the two patterns below), but there are some bargains on smaller sites, such as the bottom pattern there…

This could go SO horribly wrong, but at least I’ll have something to post about either way!!!!!

but is is slow to arrive. Another beautiful, sunny day today and I have even found the first spring flowers of the year in my mother’s garden.

At the barn on the other hand (which lies a critical few 100 metres higher) everything is again covered in snow.
I have again spent the whole weekend sewing, making a spring dress for myself. I made it on my beloved vintage treadle (that baby rocks!!) except for the button holes and the inside seam finish with zig-zag stitch (I drove out to my mom’s house to use her Pfaff for that). It’s nearly completed, I’ll just have to sew on the buttons by hand tonight and then I’ll do a big dressmaking post

The cats have spent the day sleeping in the sunny spots on the floor and while I have no photos of that, here’s a recent one of Murphy in all his sweet, anxious little self.

Wow, has the weekend flown by! Can’t believe it’s already over again. I had planned to finally tackle Cal Patch’s wonderful book “Design-it-yourself-clothes” and make a top pattern for a dress. For one I am totally in love with the gorgeous dress Anna did based on that book and also I need a paririe dress for a charity event which is planned at the barn in June (1880’s country fair). I haven’t got any fabric for it yet but figured I could already draft the pattern and make a muslin on Saturday morning.

Two days and three handbasted muslins later (thank goodness for all of those old Ikea pillow cases, or I wouldn’t have had enough cheap fabric!) I was getting pretty frustrated because it just wouldn’t fit and the armhole was making me cry. My boyfriend said ‘Well, you didn’t think it was going to be easy, did you? Why did you think nobody does it anymore these days?’ to which I stammered ‘I thought people were just being lazy’.
Fast forward to a fourth draft and muslin and things are looking a whole lot better. Still not super duper perfect but good enough to be a satisfying finish to the weekend.

Totally unrelated but we’ve also been having a terrible storm today and all the way to the barn the streets were littered with branches and leaves. I took the highway on the way back but even there it was pretty scary with the sudden strong gusts of wind…I was glad to be home again and watch the rest of the storm from my cozy living room!

Something which I have on my list of things to do (but which can wait until a day when I really feel like sewing so that I make a good job of it) is to make this short jacket (Butterick 5251 view C)  in purple crushed velvet  (which I still have to buy) for my friend Lyn.

She is getting married in September and wants everything to be unique, the way she wants it to be, very creative, very personal, very individual (like she is) and with help from her daughter and friends!  I am really looking forward to the wedding as it won’t be at all conventional.  She is even planning to sing with her band afterwards.  It will be really lively and lots of fun!

Which I guess is why she’s one of my best friends.

More catching up.

Also a year ago I said I would make a cord skirt from a Prima pattern I had.  Well I did make a winter skirt from this pattern but did it in a different colour, a lovely warm rust coulour cord.

Then I made the plum cord up in an a-line pattern from a few years ago (view C).  The pattern is out of print but can still be found online from some vintage and out of print pattern suppliers.

Happy with both skirts and both in use.

Well it must be the warm weather that has me inspired I feel like sewing for Spring. The thing is I need a dress pattern that fits well and is flattering to my body shape…pear shaped…. tall order? maybe ..but I believe we all wish for it and some are successful and others are not. I am certainly in the latter category more often than not. I have made very few items of clothing for myself that I like!
So to-day is a new day and I have taken a pledge to myself that I will not buy new clothes but use the ones I have, re-design them and also use the stash of fabric that I have, you know the one I mean….like yours… we collect beautiful fabrics and somehow run out of time or energy to create. Well now is the time. There are so many fabulous sewing blogs out there in blogland that I have been totally inspired. I have purchased a pattern from Sew Mama Sew and when it arrives I hope to still be inspired and make myself a dress that I will wear many times. Oh the pattern…..the Rooibos Dress by Colette

So far, my journey down Fashion Design Lane has been MARVELLOUS, and I’ve been learning a whole lot each day, just by browsing the net and reading up on different techniques. It has however been a battlefield up in my mind, as years of trapped design ideas have come flooding through making it hard to concentrate on one theme to move forward with.

I may have mentioned in other posts that I would love to do a bohemian-like collection with slouchy, flowy dresses and tops made of soft jersey. Well, this has been finalised… again… in my mind and will DEFINATELY be the route I take for my first designs for Fly&Fuchsia. This means I can splurge on some more fabric! YAY.

Looks like I’ll be adding some images to my website in a few weeks time! Now, all I need os a gorgeous model!

So far, my journey down Fashion Design Lane has been MARVELLOUS, and I’ve been learning a whole lot each day, just by browsing the net and reading up on different techniques. It has however been a battlefield up in my mind, as years of trapped design ideas have come flooding through making it hard to concentrate on one theme to move forward with.

I may have mentioned in other posts that I would love to do a bohemian-like collection with slouchy, flowy dresses and tops made of soft jersey. Well, this has been finalised… again… in my mind and will DEFINATELY be the route I take for my first designs for Fly&Fuchsia. This means I can splurge on some more fabric! YAY.

Looks like I’ll be adding some images to my website in a few weeks time! Now, all I need is a gorgeous model!

Doubleganger is the short film directed by Josef Krcek that I am working on.

A short with a lot of symbolism that promises to be a good experience. I have the script with me and guidelines from Josef for costumes.

So here I am, sketching some outfits ! and window shopping.

Yes, window shopping can be part of a job !!! I know, you think “fun-afternoon-with-my-girl-friends” window shopping. but no ! when you are styling, clothes hunting for a job, it is an other  kind of afternoon you spend… sometimes a nightmare to be honest with you – if there is nothing matching with what you had in mind !

Back home, I took my favourite pen and my sketching pad to draw. because yesssss ! I am designing a dress for one of the characters. A red sexy dress… something maybe like that :

oh, and what about my window shopping session for today you wonder ?! it went very well