Oooooh! Lookie lookie!!

When I arrived home from Belgium on Wednesday night, there were several parcels waiting for me on the kitchen counter. As I'm sure you'll agree, there are few things as exciting as having unopened parcels (not normal, boring mail) enticing you to rip them open and unearth the untold treasures they may contain ... yarrr, me mateys! There's real gold in them caves, not fool's gold, but real gold!!

Ahem. In my case, I had to delay parcel-opening gratification until today - almost a whole week later! - as Himself & I went away for the weekend with our lovely friends and were, quite tragically, too ill-prepared for this trip to allow even the 5 minutes I needed to explore the goodies I had ordered! So. Look at what arrived in the post 'today':

1) The Clover Double Tracing Wheel, which I may have first read about here on Gretchen's blog ... but it's bothering me that I'm sure somebody else posted about how great these are for Burda patterns and I can't remember who it was! Anyhoo. I've been yearning for one of these puppies for months now and finally took the leap after my 'ugh' moment tracing the Burda 107.

2) How to Design Your Own Dress Patterns by Adele P. Margolis, which Gretchen blogged about ages ago, tempting fate. I had to have this book.  Plus, while I was searching for an image of the dust jacket to show you here, I spotted images of Gretchen & Carolyn & Sunni ... So clearly a well-referenced book, and IMHO, the best which Mills & Boon ever published!

So, after opening the post, I watched Julie & Julia this afternoon (and goodness me, isn't it wonderful?!) and then breezed through a couple of sections in Mrs Margolis' lovely book. Not only do I suddenly now understand slashing & spreading darts (whoda thunk it?) but I also want to hug the lovely lady who wrote a table entitled 'The Eight Bulges', and this lovely dedication:

"I want to thank particularly:

Nathan Margolis, my husband, for his encouragement and understanding (usual, I suspect, for husbands of career wives) and for all the finished art work of my drawing (unusual, above and beyond the call of duty for any husband). This book, literally, could not have been done without him."

So, on a 'Julie & Julia'-meets-Adele Margolis note, here's to the boys whom we all love so much. xxx

[original posting]

Not that I'm one to get distracted or anything, but ...

... The lovely Burda 107 is a little bit on the back burner (and yes, I have mostly back burners and very few front ones) while I attend the Fashion Antidote's Pattern Alteration class this afternoon.

I have SO many books about doing pattern adjustments, and have read SO many blogs on the subject ... but I clearly just perform better when I'm working in the right atmosphere/environment/whatever. As the sewing room progresses from 'mess' to 'usable', this will hopefully shift the balance of burners from back to front! :)

Anyhoo. Himself & I are attending a wedding in late July and I am determined to bloody well make my dress myself. The bride & groom have gone to great lengths to make their wedding different -- and, while this is pretty regular feature in most wedding planning mindsets, I think they're doing a damned fine job. The wedding has a festival theme, and will be a 3-day camping trip on an organic farm in Dorset (I think??). So, not exactly a 'kitten heels & fascinator' kinda day!!

During Karen's recent Fabulous Fabric Fandango (AKA Goldhawk Road shopping trip), I found the PERFECT fabric ... and then immediately settled on one of the 6 potential patterns I'd taken along for inspiration with some great moral support from fellow shoppers/sewists/bloggers! So, it's V2961 in Skull & Roses cotton print (£4/meter), with black cotton for the contrast halter (£1.25/meter).

YAYYYYY! Now. Need to go tidy up the leftover buttons lying on my sewing room floor so that at least one of the button tins is organised (more on button tins & other miscellaneous sewing inheritances in a later post, promise!) and I can actually get to the stuff needed for this afternoon's class!

Yes. It's been mostly like this since we moved in over a month ago. Three guesses as to how much sewing has been done??? Argh. 

PS. Oh, my giddy aunt!! Karen linked to my blog in her post about the Fabric Fandango above. Goodness. My first blog mention ... *whispers* I think I might faint. 

Burda 107 05/2011

So, what happened was that I drove straight to Antwerp from Brussels and got stuck into work the minute I walked into my hotel room.  And then forgot to move my hire car ... so when, two hours later, I rushed out the door in a blind panic, I had no intention of ending up in the local haberdashery, buying the May edition of Burda. It honestly was a complete mistake! Really!

(OK, I fib. I did check whether there was a Veritas near my hotel ... and felt very dumb for not realising it was less than a 10-minute walk(!) ... but then I did remember the car and decided it was a 2-birds-one-stone situation).



<>

Isn't it just gorgeous???



So, ANYWAY. I bought Burda May 2011 (which I was dangerously close to missing, as it turns out the June edition is just about to be released) and had a quick flick through. At which point I also bought (more) tracing paper and (another) tape measure so that I could trace the lovely PINK 107 while on my lonesome in my hotel room.

I really will have to fight hard with myself NOT to go out and buy exactly this lovely hot pink fabric to make an exact replica of the dress. :)

So ... depending on how moody I'm feeling tomorrow, I'll take some body measurements and retrace the pattern in my size. And then I might just get down to doing an FBA. Holy crap!