winging it

Another sewing creation for the blog today. I can't get enough of my sewing machine at the moment, it is without doubt my new 'bf'. In fact it's becoming such a love affair that if the honeymoon isn't over soon, the family will surely starve!

Another reason for my increasingly insatiable appetite for stitching is the Sew Mama Sew dressmaking challenge which is taking place all this month. The only requirement is that the garment must have been made during June and can be for an adult or a child. That's it. So, if you too have been stitching like crazy these past few weeks you may like to post your piece on their flickr group pool here. SMS say their intention was to encourage people to dust down their sewing machines and get creative and I can tell you, it's worked a treat with me!

Japanese fabric that's been hoarded - nuff said! Japanese pattern, same old story. This one is pattern N from Stylish Dress Book 3, from the hugely successful trilogy.

I had such a lovely time sewing this one, which has quite an unusual style in that the front of the dress is made of two parts, the lower section incorporating deep apron-style pockets. I've got a 'Toast' dress from way back with similar pockets, quite roomy but not gaping thankfully, and sometimes it's good to just dig your hands right on in, don't know why. The instructions couldn't have been clearer which helps soooo much too.

Because of the horizontal separation in the dress, I took the time to match up the fabric which thankfully worked pretty well and I had enough material to do that, which I achieved by juggling the order of the pattern pieces. Even so, the dress took nearly all of the 3 metres I had but do you know something? I absolutely love this dress, enough to sacrifice even more had the need arisen!

But by far and away the best bit is the cutesy sleeves which I did issue warnings that you'd be seeing again fairly shortly. So sweet and almost mini wing-like, not to mention girlie too, these sleeves are actually sewn on the outside of the dress right at the very end.

I wore it to a party earlier this week, an outside school 'do' where my mini wings and I remained cardigan-less throughout the entire evening. We could well have been in the South of France.

Which is how it feels today too, don't you think?

And last, but by very definitely no means least, it's my father's Birthday today. Daddy, I love you so much, I wish I was with you to celebrate this day but will raise a glass this evening you can be sure of that! Kate X