To Europe to Europe, I'm going to Europe

Pardon my post title. I did not know what else to name this post.

I am going to mainland Europe ( I like to think of myself as an Islander here in the UK) end of July, for three weeks, and I have plans of going to Belgium-Netherlands-France, maybe squeeze in Germany. More specifically I am thinking Antwerp- The Hague - Amsterdam- Paris and finally Cologne if my cousin has some spare time. She's a doctor, and apparently Doctors are overworked in Germany.

In Belgium, I do not have plans to do alot of fabric shopping because last time that I went to visit my cousin in Antwerp, I did not really see any shops worth going back to. I am not saying they are not there....they probably are, but I did not know where they were. Is anyone reading this post based   in either Brussels or Antwerp who knows of cool fabric hide outs?

What is on my sewing table?

I know I have not been posting much but I am working on something I promise.

The proof? I 've got plenty.

Are they finally listening?

Ok, so its past midnight, and I should be sleeping, BUT, I could not help myself. I checked my email just before going to bed, and what did I see? An email from McCall's, announcing their Autumn patterns. As usual, you love some, and have WTF moments with some of them. What caught my eye this time though, were extra pictures on one pattern, giving "creative guide options".....that sounds suspiciously like the type of information you would get from an indie company like Colette Patterns or Sewaholic.

So this pattern : M6599

So where are our experts?

I want to be able to sew beautiful things. I really do. I go to shops like Wallis and John Lewis just to look at the finishing on the clothes there. They are so well made, and I want the things I make to be like that. I have numerous books on professional sewing techniques and couture sewing techniques like  this one

And now for the head......

Thanks everyone for all the lovely comments about my last dress. I was so happy to know that you all loved my fabric choice.

This weekend I decided to make some fascinators. I had all the supplies at home, bought last year when I wanted to start millinery classes. As you all know, I was unable to attend the lessons because of pregnancy related complications.

Simplicity 2444 at last

Have you ever had one of those projects where you know it should not take long to sew but you find yourself working endlessly on it? I had just that with this dress. It is Simplicity 2444, a really simple but nice pattern. I first saw it here, started working on it, got side tracked and made another mission maxi dress, then saw this, and knew I had to crack on.


I love this dress, and I know I shall be making more before summer is over. And I shall make more come autumn and winter, and next year spring. Crazy right? I seem to be loving every pattern I work on these days. Lets hope my luck continues. Maybe the fact that I had a period of not making anything is making me more appreciative of every project I complete.

Mission maxi to the rescue

I made another mission maxi dress. I swear I am more in love with this pattern after this new make. This one took about 10 minutes to sew. I cut out this fabric immediately after I made the last one, and was just looking for the right time to sew it. I used my overlocker this time, so it made it extra fast.

I was working on Simplicity 2444 all of last night for an event I had to attend today and after a dreadful zip insertion, decided to go to bed at 4am. This morning, I logged on to my Susan Khalje couture class on craftsy to find learn how to do a hand picked zip. 1 hour later, I had the zip inserted, but I still had to do the sleeve and hem. At this point, it was becoming increasingly obvious that I wasn't going to finish the dress on time. So I did what any self respecting person would do...no, not buy a dress, I reached for my mission maxi pattern. 10 minutes later, I had this dress.