Pockets, pockets and pockets

I made another dress last week.  It is 100% cotton, 3/4 sleeves with two front pockets.  At first, I was convinced the fabric was too thin but will all the sweeps and three layers for the big front pockets, it hangs very well and doesn't cling to parts of mine like my other two dresses that I made recently.  It's always a weird thing buying fabric and hoping it will conform to the ideas that I have in my head about how fabric should look and feel.  

I got an amazon voucher from my dear brother for my birthday at the end of March.  It was a truly lovely suggestion but I'm clueless what to buy with it.  I know fabric would be the obvious choice but I like to see a piece of fabric in real life and to touch it as well.  I need to see it and feel the weight of it to get some idea IF it will work for me.  I'm quite picky about fabrics.  Also, I find amazon's search features for fabrics, well, frustrating to say the least.

I haven't been as creative as I would like to buy as my dear son wants to go for long walks lately and really, it is England after all and when the sun is out, you really have to take advantage of it.  Yesterday's walk was just over 8 miles from Silsden to home.  We haven't done that walk before and it was definitely a winning walk.  Stretches of nice houses, woods and views of the countryside and very little people.  We definitely decided to include that on our list of walks for the future.

Apart from that, I had a job offer but I'm waiting for references still.  I imagine it will still be some time as it is the Easter Holidays now and my references I supplied are teachers as obviously, I was in education for 7 years.  SEVEN years.  I'm still desperately trying to escape that unhappiness.

I am now going to cut some pattern pieces for my next project, pictures will follow:

You can visit my Facebook page for more details on this dress:

Dresses and Changes

I have many reasons for making my own clothes.  For starters, I was so disappointed in the lack of variety, poor quality material and fabric...it actually started to depress me going into clothing stores.  I wanted better, my own style, natural fabrics so I started to make my own clothes.  Granted some of my earlier clothing is still in great shape but my tastes have changed.  I feel like it has been a voyage for me, learning who I am again and what I like.  I've discovered that I am not a fan of trousers, that I love dresses, I love patterned tights, I love coloured shoes, that I love cotton...and more importantly that I love to sew and knit and I'm not bad at it either.

I have also discovered on my voyage of making my own clothes that my skills have improved, along with this, the quality of my own clothing has improved.  I am able to modify and adapt patterns to fit me now, I add french seams to my tops and dresses so I have no messy frayed edges inside, I have an overlocker that makes me feel like I have a finished, tidy object.  

For my knitting, I am understanding more about lace knitting, I am able to look at a pattern, dissect it and reassemble it into something that I love and this has been a wonderful thing.  I still feel like I'm growing older but happy with my new identity, my new look.  I've forgotten that I'm not defined by boundaries that other people put in place, that I am still me, I am still that individual that never fit in at 18 and now that I'm 50, why should that be any different?

This dress is for sell in my Etsy shop on special order.  I love the fabric and hope I can find it again as it is a beautiful cotton needlecord.  I wear it all the time and it has never faded or lost it's shape.  It is my favourite dress in my wardrobe at present and I plan to make more.

It has been a while

I haven't blogged for a very long, long time.  I've lost touch with the blogging world as my world fell apart around Easter this year.  I had to walk away from my job and completely just shut off for a while.  However, there was a silver lining in all this upset, turmoil and conflict in my life...I began sewing again and even sold my dresses.  

I published pictures online in a group on Facebook and received some orders for my dresses and sold about 7 items of clothing.  Then, I thought at last!  And it just fizzled out.  I don't know what to do next.  I'm not very good at promoting myself.  I know I need to improve this, but my self esteem took such a kick in the guts this year, I really have struggled to pick myself up.

I want to be positive again, creative and have a better work life balance.  I keep getting emails from former colleagues and my tutor asking me to return to teaching and not to give up.  I really don't think they understand what it was like me for me at my last school.  I just can't do it any more.  However, I am starting to job hunt again.  I will rebuild that confidence that I once had.  I will also publish another knitting pattern and hold more competitions to win prizes!  I will blog again and share my projects and create an Autumn collection of clothes to buy in the shop as well.  All of this will happen.  It has to because I realise now that if I'm creative I'm at peace with myself and my life does fall into place then.

I thought I'd post some pictures of dresses and tops I made.  Maybe it will inspire people to buy something from my shop!

My friend Carol looks stunning in my change of hearts dress

A simple wrap dress, the fabric is 100%

I have two versions of this top, one with little sleeves and one that is sleeveless

Tops!

Last week, I went to the Hepworth Museum in Wakefield with my son.  I wasn't overly impressed (beautiful building with mediocre exhibitions) and we both saw everything there was to see in 45 minutes so we decided not to eat in the cafe there (who pays £8 for a BLT sandwich???) and go to Leeds instead...especially since it was on our way home.

It turned out to be a worthwhile trip as we had a super cheap lunch for £4 for the both of us and I got some lovely fabric for £6!  It wasn't enough for anything big and exciting but just enough to make a sweet little top.  Here are the results below:

Lovely soft cotton

It only took me a day to make, in between various jobs around the house (heaven forbid I stay focused on one activity at one time...that just seems to be beyond me.  I get so easily distracted.) ...so I'm pleased with the results.  I hate tight fitting clothes on me but equally, I have this fear of things looking like tents on me.  Yes, I'm closer to fifty but that doesn't mean I have to wear clothes that make me look shapeless and without any personality!  I'm starting to gain more confidence with modifying patterns to suit me more.  A nip here, a tuck here, etc.  It's been a process but a worthwhile one.  I have another top I'm making and will, hopefully, finish today.  Then I can post those results as well.

I've been looking on pinterest for sewing and knitting inspiration as well as tumblr.  I have to say I like the look of tumblr better than pinterest but pinterest wins hands down for dress inspiration.  I found a wonderful clothing designer with lovely timeless dresses in Liberty fabrics and my head was spinning with ideas for clothes for the Autumn.  I really need to be on the ball for the Autumn.  I keep reading up on my dress code and course expectations and I really, really, really do not want to be in bland, awful, dull clothes but still look smart!  I want colour, I want timeless, I want dresses, not plain black trousers, black cardigans and plain shirts.  Oh my.  I do have a lot of work to do, don't I?

Finished Dresses

As promised, two photos of the finished dresses.  Both are pink flowers.  One is a lightweight fabric and the other one is a sturdy cotton.  I added belts to both of them to stop them looking like tents.

For your viewing pleasure, I give you dress number one:

Yes, I make a rare appearance in this photo

And now for the second dress (minus me):

A pale pink but heavy sturdy cotton.

I have to say I like the second one better than the first.  I think that mainly because the second one the fabric is a good quality cotton while the first one, I'm not sure what the material is but it is very lightweight and feels flimsy in comparison.  I'm sure that both will grow on me.  I'm getting there with my hand made wardrobe...slowly but surely!