IM NOT ALL CAR BOOTS AND COLLECTIBLES.....

Though if you have read my posts just lately you would think that I was...

No my first love and the one I return to again and again is sewing...and not just cushions and bunting and needlecases but what I really love........dressmaking.

It all started many years ago, no doubt encouraged by a mother who made just about all my clothes, by hand, and I mean by hand as she never owned a sewing machine. But at the time like most kids I didn't appreciate it and especially as I reached my teenage years in the '60s'.

Twiggy, mods and rockers, (I was a mod..DH a rocker !!) Mary Quant, and so needless to say, to a trendy teenager, mum's best 'homemade' didn't really cut it.  It's funny to read though years later how Twiggy herself with all her fame made many of her own clothes and still does!

Well I was fortunate enough to meet a girl just as we started High school who also had an interest in fashion and like me no cash to splash....and her mum had a sewing machine!  And no that wasn't why I became her friend...and still am to this day, meeting every Wednesday evening for our own version of 'stitch and bitch'. Usually one of us sews and the other bitches about the rubbish on the tele.

Anyway we started by making simple skirts and gradually copied all the latest trends by either starting from scratch or remaking something we already had.

Oh we weren't brilliant by any means and I dread to think now what the finishing was like, but it worked, we enjoyed it and the seed was sown.

So many years on I still feel the need to sew. Sometimes because I just can't find anything that fits properly, sometimes because what I see in the shops is so shoddy for the price they're asking and sometimes just because I've found the perfect fabric.

Well the urge is upon me again. Having spent a few months doing swaps and giveaways I wanted a complete change so out came the patterns.

Well it is almost summer...and we have had some sun!

Over the years I have bought many patterns, but because I nearly always have to adjust them, I find I buy ones now with more than one option so that I can use it several times without appearing to always wear the same thing.  I am the classic English pear shape.....if you turn me on my head!! 

I found this natural and white spotted fabric in my stash and thought it would be perfect for the straighter style..

Just doing the final fitting and minor adjustments

...Zip gone in Ok (not pressed yet so don't look too closely) and waist seam nicely aligned...

All it needs now is the bodice lining attaching and the hem to be finished and I will show you a picture of the completed article.....and then of course there are the other styles

Fancy this one with a white band round the top, very 50s..

And this one for my holiday in France in September...now I wonder what fabric I should use...

Can you spot a bit of a theme here........ perhaps I'd better look through my stash again........perhaps ditsy roses ....or stripes..Oh no! imagine the problems matching that over my womanly curves!!

Too late to do any more now and so before I really do get spots before my eyes I will have to pack up. I will be back though to show you the result.

Hope you have all had a good weekend

TTFN

Jenny xx