For the last few months, I've been working my way through a collection of patterns that I've acquired; some were free in magazines, others in my fave shop in Chepstow 'Serendipity' so I hadn't spent loads and I always enjoy trying to match something in my existing fabric stash to one of these patterns.  A couple of months ago I was lucky enough to collect many many big bags of vintage dress-making fabric courtesy of the friendliest estate agent in Bath, what a coup!  I rummaged through and whilst it was was all lovely, mostly plain cottons, corduroys and some viscose, there wasn't anything particularly hippyish or what I was hoping for from those crazy days.  However, when I spotted this gorgeous white fabric with cute lemon and blue flowers I knew I'd found my treasure.  It's super thin, so I'm not sure what it was intended for but I used it on Simplicity 1609 as it has a retro look to it and I knew the style would set the border off well.  It was a straightforward pattern and apart from lengthening the front facing to protect my modesty I love the dress!!  It's a very fitted shape, with 2 pairs of front darts and a long rear zip.  I had to purchase an M&S full length slip to go underneath, you know, like your mum used to wear, but I have to say, it's one of the most comfy pieces of lingerie I've ever owned!! Who'd have thunk it?!  Please excuse the criminal photo below…

For this dress I was mostly listening to: Burning by The War On Drugs

This week I got down and dirty with jersey.  Yep, and I can fairly safely say I will not be doing that again!  I found this gorgeous brown/pink/orange jersey fabric recently and when I saw The Great British Sewing Bee's (TGBSB) pattern for a tea dress, I though they would make a perfect combo.  Cutting out was ok using a rotary cutter, but sewing was, well, not without frustration.  I'd read up on tips on how to sew jersey and I thought that having mastered oilcloth, I'd get a handle on this stuff easily enough.  Using my ball-point needle and walker foot I began cautiously in the appropriate stretch stitch and whilst some of it went ok, most of it was very messy indeed and prompted rather a lot of swear words that filled the shed.  I carried on regardless, desperately not wanting to add to my pile of ufos and actually, in the end, not peeking at inside seams at all, it has turned out fine and only took about an hour and a half to put together as it has only a few pieces (front, back, facings and sleeves).  It fits, it's comfortable and I still LOVE the fabric.  This is Nancy showing it off above, named by my daughter and I think it suits her.  Said daughter is a little perturbed by her not having a head and begs me to give her the blue one that lives in my shed… relax it's polystyrene and generally just looks dandy sporting a venetian mask as I don't find myself at many fiestas around here.
Anyway, I digress… someone very kindly gave me an overlocker last year but I haven't yet tried it out; I'm sure that would have whipped through jersey without a hiccup, but I haven't yet plucked up the courage to use it. The GBSB pattern instructions were very clear but since I made the dress from jersey I avoided the need for an invisible zip, so I'll tackle that with my next project.  Job done!

I also made these in the week, they're my hi-top bags in matt black oilcloth with deckchair and pink geo linings.