Festive frock 2017

Yikes another year is almost over. It has been a year of ups and downs. But mostly the upside thankfully.  Family wedding and travel being the major ups.  I've definitely enjoyed making my place very festive this year.  A new tree and some fresh new decorations.  I shall be sad to put it all away next week.  Shall also be sad to have to go back to work next week, but that's not until thursday so plenty of days of recreational activities and some lazing about.  This years party frock come courtesty of vintage Simplicity pattern 7332.  

This is my second outing with Simplicity 7332. I decided to use just plain shoulder straps, rather than use the frill and, even though I liked the v-shape I decided to do something different from the previous dress.  

The material is a cotton sateen from Lincraft. When I first made it I thought maybe I would also wear it on Christmas day as well as the work Christmas party.  However, it was a sorching 36 degrees on the day so glad I made a few other options.  I did wear this a second time for a friends birthday last Saturday.  It's a good special occasion dress for the summer, as long as I'm in air-con.  Damn summer!!!!

I also made a second wreath this Christmas.  This time it's an equine theme.  My sister-in-law's family run a saddlery, and even though she never had a pony herself (outrageous I know) she does appreciate things with a horse theme.  

And finally, I got some lovely presents from friends this year.  And not suprisingly quite a few were cat themed.  I received a beautiful Oxfam cat mat from my dear chum Anna, also a cat book and a green bag from some other friends, and these fabulous Cat Bowie earrings from my friend Steph. They come from the home of accessory whimsy, Erstwilder. Funnily enough I'd bought myself a Cat Elvis brooch a few weeks before Christmas. But I love cats and I love love loved David Bowie so totally pawsome.  

Signing off from 2017.  Hope 2018 is a brilliant one, fingers crossed. 

xx

Frock from Christmas past

It's hot, it's summer in Brislandia so it must be almost Christmas.  To be fair we've had a fairly mild start to summer this year, but that has changed and it will no doubt remain steamy from here on in. Ah, I could whinge about the heat endlessly, but I digress.  This post is for last year's Christmas day frock. I only wore it the one day and then put it away in the cupboard. With festive celebrations starting, I decided to dust it off and start giving it a showing this year.  I bought this fabric on Etsy from Hearts and Found after seeing a green version on the By Gum By Golly blog.  The fabric is just lovely, but being 100% cotton it loves a good crinkle.  

I used McCalls 2444.  With such a lovely feature fabric you don't need anything fussy with the design of the dress.  I also chose to do gathers rather than pleats.  I bought another fabric from Hearts and Found which features a tiki theme.  I'm still on the fence about what to do with it because the fabric will probably be a crush fest like this one.  Still you can't have too many lightweight summer frocks here in the southern hemisphere. Add that to the list of summer sewing projects.  

The only slightly annoying thing with this dress is that no matter how much I iron the neck section, it still has that slightly bubbly appearance.  Everything else about the dress was a breeze to sew because it's a very simple pattern.  

Amongst the many sewing projects I need to get started for the festive season and the summer I've been really getting my craft on this year.  I decided to finally make a Christmas wreath. I was initially inspired by all the lovely decorative pieces you could buy for wreaths. However, it occurred to me that I didn't want just some ordinary looking wreath and my love for all things whimsical led me to create the Jurassic/Fantasy wreath. Sure maybe I should have just picked a theme, like the fantasy one or the one with the dinosaurs, but I'm pretty chuffed with my creation.