Do you take milk and sugar?

TIME FOR A TEA DRESS BREAK

The film 'The Edge Of Love' is released in Australia this week and our shops are about to be flooded with pretty tea dresses in time for spring. And I, for one, can not wait! I'll always have a little inner nanna!

I found some GORGEOUS dresses on a website for UK store Oasis only to discover they don't ship overseas. Oh I could just cry, but that's ok. Oasis do the dress featured at the top of this post. I adore the bow details and the fabric! They also do these:

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Seeing they won't ship overseas, I've decided I'm just going to have to draw on them as inspiration and make some myself! Custom fit to my measurements, skimming just above the knee so I can wear them with flats and look more fabulous than frump...

I think some adjustments to these patterns will do just the trick. I plan to have a whole new wardrobe by the time it's warm :)

Butterick B6582

~~ Fancy another cuppa? ~~

History of the tea dress and how to wear it

Raise a cup of Earl Grey to the tea dress

Top 10 Tea Dresses

Livin' off the fatta the... city

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Call me a freak, but my memories of my first trip to London will forever be beautifully warm days, blue skies, and a city full of colour! Not at all what I expected.

I was blown away by the amount of greenery in the city. I had always pictured London to be somewhat bleak and a billion different shades of grey. Grimey buildings and pollution. And constant drizzle. I think we really happened to luck out for our week in London and it might not have been the authentic London experience, but I don't care, I'm happy to go with it.

It was such a joy travelling on the overground trains and peering into everyone's backyards and seeing the amount of veggies patches - on rooftops, community gardens as well as gardens.

When taking a stroll through St James Park, we stumbled across a wonderful veggie plot display called DIG FOR VICTORY. It demonstrates how people managed to live with rations and food shortages during the Second World War, by planting their own veggie plots. Check out these photos, my mouth salivates just looking at the gorgeous produce.

You can find out more info about the Dig For Victory project here.

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Pretty In Paisley

Simplicity 3823 E dress

Well, it wasn't so bad afterall. It's been a few months since I revisited this project. I was dreading going back to it because from memory, it ended up a slight mess. But trying it on again this weekend and looking at it again with fresh eyes, I decided it's FINE and just needs finishing off the seams and hem and though it's not perfect, it's good enough to wear.

I started this dress 'Simplicity 3823 E' just before going overseas, as a good excuse to procrastinate packing. As usual I started out paying meticulous attention to all the details - especially seeing the fabric was so expensive, even though on sale (Japanese quilting fabric from Spotlight). But as I went on and grew impatient to finish it off and be able to try it on, I became a bit slack when it came to the bits of the dress you wouldn't be able to see from the outside. The lining was somewhat hastily cut. The side zip laps the WRONG WAY and took some turbo steam ironing to make it close better. An invisible zip would have been much better. Sewing piping into a dress that is gathered AND has lining was a bit ambitious and took a few goes.

LINING is such a troublesome thing to cut. So next time I am going to make sure to use the tips in Burda Style's 'HOW TO cut slippery fabric'.

I'm definitely curious to know how the rest of you go with lining your garments. Do you always use slippery fabric for your lining or are there other good alternatives? I love a jacket with a secret prettily patterned lining cotton. I suppose it depends what your garment is made of. If it's a summer dress, cotton on cotton may stick to each a bit and sit funny? Or perhaps a light cotton would breathe better than a man made type slippery fabric. My understanding of textiles could definitely do with some work.

A Sewing Room Of One's Own

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I've spent way more hours than I care to calculate, staring at Ikea catalogues and photos on the internet for things to help me organise my sewing room. I want something a little more space efficient - the room's only small - 3m x 3m and it's meant to be a study/ guest room/ sewing room. And I've been determined to find a more affordable alternative to the $500 Horn sewing and cutting cabinets - which as amazing and space efficient and storage mind-boggling as they are, are incredibly expensive!

I have bought so much fabric since I started sewing last November, and have been storing it in plastic tubs - and pretty much completely forgetting what I have purchased until I open it to addsome more purchases! This can't go on.

Just when I thought I had found the perfect solution at Ikea, I discovered the adjustable sawhorse table legs I wanted that would mean I could have a normal height desk that I could raise to a decent cutting height so I wouldn't have to stoop over patterns and get a back ache every time I cut out a dress, aren't actually being made any more. Argh! Look, it would have been perfect!:

So, I am so pleased that I just managed to buy a Craft Cutting Table on ebay that folds down, and for $40! Here it is:

Anyway, I'll keep you posted. I'm trying to sell my beloved shabby chic couch to make a bit more room, and in it's place I'm going to get a single futon sofa bed which I'll make a custom cover for so it's not so Ikea looking. And some serious STORAGE shelves to store my fabric in which I think will make a nice display and also inspire me to make something out of it! We also picked up a bunch of removable decorative wall stickers and bits and pieces to decorate the room and house with when we were in Paris so that will add a nice splash of colour. Watch this space!

In the meantime if you're looking for some ideas to revamp your own sewing space here are some great links I found:

Ruler Storage and cutting table come light box (genius Ikea hack! - YES I have spent too much time staring at online Ikea. I am speaking Ikea nerd speak)


Table Talk from Sewing Diva

Craft Room: Cottage Style Ideas From IKEA from Cottage Magpie (for those with a serious budget!)

Craft Room Tour from Fuzzy Noodle Knits (I think mine is going to look more along these lines)

My New Cutting Table from Gorgeous Things' Blog

A beautifully light and bright space from Craft Addict

Dahlia Delight in Madrid

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The magnolias and cherry blossoms are in bloom here in Melbourne - isn't that supposed to herald the end of winter and the onset of spring? Seems a good enough excuse for all the fashion stores who are beginning to advertise their flirty, breezy spring outfits.

Then how come there is HAIL forecast for tomorrow?

Time for some garden posts from my trip away. It was such an eye opener for me, to be in countries that clearly had no idea what a drought is. And even in hot Madrid, there was plenty of greenery in the city centre which we didn't really leave in our 40 hours in the city.

We spent an afternoon at the Botanical Gardens and wandered through their gorgeous dahlia collection. Dahlias as big as your hand - BIGGER! In the most scrumptious of colour combinations, or explosions rather:

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