What I wore: to lunch and the cinema and some general nerdiness

 

 

This is what I wore to see the epic disappointment Batman: The dark knight rises yesterday. I won't go on too much about how bad the film was, but just say that it is SO BAD, that me and my boyfriend feel the need to re-watch all the old Batmans in a desperate attemempt to wipe it from our memories, it's only saving grace being that Christian Bale ran around without a top on quite a bit! To be fair all the actors gave great performances (with the exception of Michael Caine, who as usual, just acted like Michael Caine and whoever did the incredibly irritating voice over for Bane) which makes me feel a bit sorry for them that the writing and direction let them down so badly. There weren't even any particularly cool explosions and Batmans new transport 'the bat' was some really weak hover-craft thing that looked like a giant aphid and hoovered around the place unimpressively, a real anti-climax after the super cool motorbike in the last movie. Anyway...

This is possibly one of the most high-streetish outfits I own, it's pretty unusual for me to have so much high street crap on at any one time but I think it looks ok... I'm not anti-high street shops on principle particularly, I just rarely bother shopping there are everthing tends to be so cheap looking and unflattering, especially if you're curvy and/or tall as I am! Hence the reason I have come to love dress-making so much, making tailored clothing that fits like a glove and is designed to showcase ALL your lumps, bumps and not so lumpy bits in the very best light possible is such a great thing to be able to do. At this stage, after making most of my own clothes for the last year and a half, I feel pretty horrible in anything mass-produced with nothing more than cheapness and ease of production incorporated into the design. But like I said, I think this actually looks ok, despite being much more untailored than I usually like!


 Dress: Savida by Dunnes
Tights: Accessorize
Cardi: Pennies
Shoes: Dunnes
Hat: Vintage Laura Ashley, a present from my mum x.
Bow clip on hat: A-wear
Satchel: Thrifted vintage
Belt: Accessorize
Ring: Accessorize (no prizes for guessing where I work!)

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One the upside of the day, I finally (after much enthused ranting and raving by fellow nerdling friends) started my collection of The Sandman comic book series, naturally with volume 1: (Preludes and Nocturnes) written by my favourite writer Neil Gaiman. You might know Gaiman as the talented man (who happens to look a little like Bob Dylan and has the British Isles sultriest accent) that wrote the stories behind the movies Coraline and Stardust as well as many other dark, adult, novel-sized fairy tales.

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From the official Neil Gaiman website, volume one contains issues 1-8 of the origianal comic book series first published in 1989 and tells the story of:  'A wizard attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. Fearful for his safety, the wizard kept him imprisoned in a glass bottle for decades. After his escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On the way, Morpheus encounters Lucifer and demons from Hell, the Justice League, and John Constantine, the Hellblazer. This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings" which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl, Death.'
 
After running out of novels written by Gaiman to read, and as a pretty fanatical fan of his in general I'm very excited about getting started on these! Adding the the excitement for fans of the series is the fact that Gaiman has finally decided to conclude the series with one last installement, twenty three years after he wrote the last issue!

Hope you had a fun and less rainy weekend!

Recent Ramblings

We’ve been living in a glorious kitten filled haze for the last week and a half, nothing makes a cat fanatic as happy as having a naughty, frolicking kitten galloping around the place. After getting over the inevitable excitement that comes from rescuing an adorable helpless little ball of ginger fluff from the middle of a busy main road we’ve accepted that as much as we would love to have him, we have neither the time nor the lap space for another cat in our home and so he moved to his new home in the country and his new mum (my mum) today. Mum has a serious soft spot for stripy ginger cats and my parent’s home is a pretty idyllic safe haven for cats so it’s a happy ending for everyone concerned, even us though we’re more than a bit heartbroken by it all. Here are some of his cutest moments:

Falling asleep mid-assault in the cushions

After his bath, he managed to get inside our disused range and got covered in soot!

Trying to kill yet another house plant.

 In other news the weather still sucks here. I hear recently, that it's been the worst June in fifty years and I find that very easy to believe, everyday it’s grey out and what’s worse is it’s just warm enough to know that if the clouds just buggered off for a minute there would be a gloriously sunny day waiting behind! Everyday we hope for sunshine, but everyday is grey, I've given up on summer this year and am looking forward to a nice Autumn instead!

Inevitably I suppose, I’m getting pretty bored with my clothes, I’m mainly still wearing my Autumn and winter clothes (I can’t belive I’m still in tights everyday!), and have only gotten to wear my summer dresses a handful of times. The exception to the boredom  being the few things I get the time to make. Here's some stuff I've been wearing lately...

 I found this little bicycle ring when I was returning stuff from the fashion show to New Look not a shop I would usually bother with (along with pretty much the whole rest of the high street) but I do love this little cutie!

I made this dress using Burda 7494, after being inspired by this lovely ladies version with a half circle skirt, I decided to have a go myself and adapted the pattern to use the Linda Skirt from Burdastyle. Instead of using facings (as per the pattern) I decided to fully line the dress as my cotton was so light.

 Although I LOVE the circle skirt (I always do!), after wearing it once I’ve realized I’m not crazy about the fit of the bodice at all, the neckline at the centre back seam gapes quite a lot and there is a lot of excess fabric across the collar bone, although this may be an inevitable effect of the raglan-esque sleeves.

The princess panels on the bodice also need to be deepened a lot more for my shape, as it is it’s a bit formless around the waist and bust.  I’m going to have a go at re-fitting it, but it is a bit late in the process so I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to manage. I don’t know why I didn’t see it when I was trying it on for fitting ages ago!

This wrap dress (butterick 5030) which I finished yesterday turned out a lot better! The pattern was really straightforward to follow, with lots of info on the pattern pieces themselves (which Burda suck at!) and you could probably make this in a day if you got up early enough!

I used some beautiful soft, drapey vintage cotton I got on Etsy added a belt, wide-brimmed felt hat and the result is a super-chic 70’s style little number. My only qualm about the pattern is the neckline gapes quite a lot on the wrap panel, so you need to wear a little camisole underneath for modesties sake!

In my opinion an overlocker (I use an Elna ) is kinda necessary to finish the seams on this pattern if you any bit the perfectionist. All the seams of the dress are exposed, and although they recommend using a zig zag stitch to finish them off, that would (I know from experience) look really crappy and not wear very well over time. 

All in all though this is a very flattering and comfortable dress, I love the wrap around circle skirt, the giant lapels and the ¾ length sleeves are just the right length, very Farrah Fawcett indeed! I think I feel a seventies style dress-making extravaganza coming on… I’m not sure what I’m going to start next, I have some pretty wild patchwork print vintage cotton I’m dying to use but I have no idea what sort of dress it would look good as!

 Other stuff I’ve been making this week… a kinda kitsch photo garland for the sitting room, that’s my mate Dave looking super cool  (as always) in the first pic.

Face muffins, make ‘em of your nearest and dearest, the aim being to offend as much as possible, so much fun!

Decoupage brooch pins.. featuring cats.. of course

Sewing enthusiast’s felt brooches..

I’ve been trying to practise my photography lately too, I just bought myself a Mini Diana toy camera (for taking cool retro style shots) and I’m trying to get a grip of all the different  settings on our digital SLR before I start shooting my first roll of film (*exciting!*) I've ordered all sorts of very cool and very expensive film from Lomography.com so should be ready to start clicking some extremely retro shots in the next few weeks. 

After being inspired by Selina Lakes book; Homespun Style, I’ve also been out foraging in the charity shops for mix-matched kitschy floral china (after years of just collecting blue and white, which suddenly seems so boring to me!) and am stacking them haphazardly in random corners of the dining room/sitting room.

Work is a bit manic at the moment, what with preparing for the summer sale and the like, so I won't get a chance to do much for a few days, I did  however, get some pretty sweet cupcake making kit today though, so I’m dying to get a recipe post up soon, first chance I get promise xx.