The "Rosie/I am a complete idiot" Ginger skirt

Well as you may remember, I was feeling pretty cocky when I planned the Ginger skirt. I am not a complete beginner, I have made plenty of stuff from patterns, and this is just an A-line skirt, and one with excellent instructions to boot. Clearly this was going to be easy...

Well they say pride comes become before a fall, and this skirt has definitely proved that true. And it wasn't because it was hard. But because I repeatedly proved myself an idiot. This skirt proved that a) I cant measure, b) I cant install invisible zips well, c) I cant read, and d) I cant hem. But apart from that....! I do really like it though, now that I have managed to get past my own stupidity!

Firstly, I measured myself, got the usual measurements, cut out my pieces etc, and when I tried on the basted version, entirely failed to notice that the thing was too big in the waist. 2 inches too big. This skirt fits on the upper waist, or is meant to. Had I made in and inch bigger it probably would have worked lower down, but I had managed to make it just the wrong size. Of course as I didn't notice this at the time, I went on to sew all the facings, lace, piping etc on before I noticed. At which point I had to take a chunk out of each side, as if it were a ready to wear I had refashioned. Urgh.

Secondly, after reading various online zip tutorials, I finally got my head round invisible zips. It still took me 4 attempts and still isn't very good. But its wearable, and the sides match, and hence its an improvement on every previous invisible I have attempted!

Thirdly, after battling repeatedly with the zip, I had to put the waistband facing on. The pattern has excellent instructions for this. Which are super clear. Except that I didn't read them properly. so I ended up sewing down the wrong bit and having my zip sewed inside the seam. Consequently, after unpicking and stuff, the top of zip is not as shiny and neat as it could be!

Also, I did the hem in a hurry and it is not fantastic.

Apart from these "minor" niggles. I like it a lot, it's a lovely skirt and a lovely pattern. I also used it as my first attempt at embellishment (just in time for the Sew Weekly challenge!) and added piping (which I didn't put in in the easiest way (as I gathered after reading Sunni's guide) but which worked fairly well for a first attempt!) and some lace (it's actually some kid of crocheted thing, but its very pretty).

So all in all, I would highly recommend this pattern, and will probably make another, just this time I will actually read the instructions!

It is a little see through though, so I get a chance to wear my handmade slip!

Thoughts..on my boring upper half

I was toying with the idea of doing Me Made June, wearing something everyday that I have made myself (including refashions). I haven't decide yet whether or not I will. What was apparent when I made a list of everything I have made, is that I haven't made a single top. Nothing. It is all either dresses or skirts (not counting the half made Pendrell homage of course but I don't see that materialising soon).

Interesting. I should probably consider doing something about this. As it is a little lame.

I think the reason is that I tend to wear simple fairly tight stretchy vest and tees, which I cant make and don't see an awful lot of point trying seeing as they are about £4 each. Now that I have thought that however that seems rather dull. I am very concious of not looking fat or pregnant or shapeless, and any top that has ease or isn't stretchy tends to do that to me. Also almost all my tops (tees or jumpers) are plain colours. Even though I love patterns..Perhaps I have got into a bit of a rut... Do I mind? I'm not sure.

I considered finding some kind of style icon to emulate and become slightly more interesting. I had a little trawl of some fashion/outfit blogs and I am less sure than ever. I was talking the other day to flatmate Lindsey about the tendency of outfit bloggers to focus on a style which seems to involve wearing as many clothes as possible. This is rather nice and they look amazing, but it is not at all me. I tend towards the basic and slightly sloppy looking in clothing.  I do however like Kendi's style (along with a great many other people!), she wears a normal amount of fairly normal clothing items, but looks stunning as they are all really jolly bright colours and patterns, and really suit her. Also she looks different everyday but manages to have a consistent style. I look pretty much exactly the same everyday. I am going to have to try slightly harder I think. Just a little bit. I don't think 30 for 30 is going to work for me though. I pretty much do that already. Everything already goes with everything, as it is all very similar.. I think I need to work on the opposite somehow.

Roswell Week Summary

Well I am done with Roswell Week finally.

Overall I can say I am pretty impressed with my results. I haven't made much progress on some of the larger UFOs, but I have totally cleaned up all the small jobs, several of which I had completely forgotten and I would ever have made a priority normally. Today I had a little blitz on projects and I feel pretty sheepish about how little time it all took n the end but also quite proud!

So lets go over the list.

COMPLETED

Green dress refashion.  - the unusually tropical dress, 

Flowery dress refashion.  - the preloved dress

Napkins. 

Black skirt repair. 

Agnetha. 

90s skirt

Christmas dress 

Jersey skirt for Spring Palette challenge – So long Sarong. 

INCOMPLETE BUT PROGRESS MADE
Glee Dress for Charlotte – not finished. I have unpicked the ropey seams, but need to fit it back on her. 
Shifting skies skirt – I need to hem both, and put on fastenings. I want to let them hang a bit longer though. 

ABANDONED
Silky cami top - it was just never going to work without completely reworking the pattern and recutting it out. 

INCOMPLETE
Pendrell homage.  I didn't even try and do anything to this, I didn't have time for the fitting.




All in all, not bad, I have a much smaller pile!

Roswell week day 7 (sort of), So long Sarong, Agnetha's legs and other stuff

Ok, so I fudged this, as I couldnt get anything done at the end of the week, I included Sunday afternoon too.

Roswell Week Day 7

Item completed - So long Sarong

State before Roswell Week - taken in at the waist but not shortened

Reason for abandonment - The hem was all over the place and I couldn't be bothered to get my flat-mates to try and fix it on a stretch material. I also thought the waistband looked terrible, but on reexamination, it actually looks fine. I think the stretch fabric had warped my mind a little!

Time spent as an UFO - about 4 months

Time used to finish - about half an hour, after I had fixed Agnetha (see later)

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - not too bad, whilst I only had to re-hem it, it was MUCH easier when I could use Agnetha. 

This is yet another item from the productive Shelter trip when I first started sewing. When I picked it up I thought it was a skirt, but I then realised that it was actually a rather odd sarong. I say odd, because more than half the material was in the front fold, so the whole thing was really weirdly unbalanced wight wise, and I am not really sure why you would want such a heavy jersey sarong.. (it would make more sense as a wrap skirt but that wasn't the way it was attached at the front. 

I cut it off the waistband, and cut the skirt into a rectangle without the odd tie bits from the front. I then sewed it up with a side seam, and reattached it to the waistband. So far so good, except that I somehow had managed to sew it on totally crooked so the hem was all over place. Plus I had forgotten to shorten it. At this point I gave up. I think my fear of stretch fabrics got the better of me. 

And so it sat for several months, even through the previous Spring Palette Challenge, when I planned to finish it and then continued to ignore it! 

But Roswell week was the line I wouldn't cross! I was puzzling at how to fix it, as my flatmates are a little cautious about hemming things, and the stretch made it more difficult. But then I had a brainwave, which I shall come to later, and managed to make Agnetha a stand! so I just popped it on her, chopped off the bottom and zigzagged it. Result. 

It isnt a very complicated refashion or skirt for all that delay, but it is a pretty cute jersey skirt, and I still love the colour and fabric. 

Item completed - Agnetha

State before Roswell Week - body made, but no stand (body phase 1, body phase 2)

Reason for abandonment - I couldn't think what to make a stand out of, I was considering a hat stand or something but I hadn't got round to doing anything, plus I couldn't think how to attach it. 

Time spent as an UFO - only a few weeks since I finished her body

Time used to finish - about 10 minutes once I had worked it out!

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - ok, plus if I had tried before we got the new beds I wouldn't have had lots of spare plastic packaging to use. 

I couldn't work out how to make Agnetha a stand, which made it tricky to do dresses or skirts on her. We have been moving stuff round our flat a lot and as I shifted and tidied I found a lamp that I didn't need in the hall. It was just a standard IKEA lamp, but it had a very heavy base, and I realised that it would probably be robust enough to support Agnetha without continually falling over. Also, as it had big lamp bit on the top, I could use that to anchor the whole thing. I just stuffed the top of Agnetha with some plastic bags (we had some beds delivered and so we have had a lot of plastic packaging lying around!) and then popped her over the lamp. I then just filled up the gaps round underneath with more plastic bags and taped up the bottom. She leans very slightly backwards but is otherwise perfect! Also I marked my knee height on the pole with tape to make hemming easier. I am extremely pleased, she looks very fine and isn't as scarily huge looking now that she is the right height (though admittedly she now does appear to float magically in the air..).

Item completed - Napkins to match the Christmas picnic rug 

State before Roswell Week - had made one, 3 left to do

Reason for abandonment - Ran out of time before going to give them to my bro, and promised I would make the rest later

Time spent as an UFO - since Christmas

Time used to finish - about half an hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - high, I should have done these ages ago, they aren't even slightly difficult. 

I also finished pinking the seams of the Christmas Dress, which was shamefully overdue. 

Celebrations!

I just realised looking at my Blogger dashboard, that my previous post was my 60th, and this weekend I got to 30 followers! And when I looked back I worked out that its just over 6 months since I started this blog. So its YAY all round! Thankyou to you to all you lovely people who bother to follow my progress, it means a lot.

I also noticed that the post I was doing about other blogs I contribute to is still sitting in my drafts, so a big belated shout out to the lovely vintage sewers over at Sew Retro, and the equally lovely refashioners over at the Refashion Co-op. Both these blogs (well the previous incarnation of the Refashion Co-op) were some of the first blogs I read, and I loved the different things all the contributers came up with.

Rosie Ginger fabric update

Here is a better picture of the fabric and trim that I am going to make my Ginger skirt out of.

The Rosie Ginger

Sadly, despite my best intentions, the last two days of Roswell week were a complete failure. I did no sewing at all. I went to a friends house to watch Twin Peaks one day and the pub the next. Oh dear. However, as I had stated that pub trips were a reasonable excuse, I have decided to include a bit of the weekend as Roswell week just to get some of the smaller jobs out of the way and finish stuff up.

This is also due to the fact that yesterday before the pub, instead of Roswell sewing I was breaking the rules and planning another project (well purchasing fabric for it actually). Sunni (formerly the Cupcake Goddess, now over at a Fashionable Stitch) is having a sew-a-long for Ginger, Colette Patterns' new A-line skirt pattern. Now this is a beginner pattern, and I have made A-line skirts already, but they always end up a little fudgy and not perfect. I have decided to get one with really good instructions (and they are really detailed!)  and do everything properly. It is also a really nice pattern, with several wide waistband options, and my waistbands are always terrible. And it has an invisible zip, which I tend to avoid. So all in all it should be good. I was visiting a school the other day and the teacher was talking to the class about consolidating their learning. This skirt is going to be my consolidation.

I have bought some lovely fabric to make it with, Delilah Toss Rosie Blue by Tanya Whelan. I think I am going to make the curved top waistband and add on some pre made piping (I have never used piping before-I thought I would practice putting it on before I made my own) and some cream knitted lace stuff. It should be very pretty!

RW day 5 - working on the shifting skies skirt

Roswell Week day 5

Well, OK, I said I would post a lovely item everyday, but I haven't finished anything!

Glee Dress  - I had finished this, but the back seams, gathers and zip were all wonky. This was mainly due to the stretch of the material, and I just couldn't get it straight. After putting it back on Charlotte to see how much I need to alter it, it turns out she has also lost some weight, so it was even worse than it had been! I have unpicked the back now, and will pin it all back together on her, possibly basting everything in situ so that I can try and beat the stretch fabric! I just keep missing her in the daylight though, and I need it! It was back enough unpicking it in daylight. I hate black on black.

Shifting skies skirt
This was one of the big jobs, and it continues to be a bit of a trial. I have finally finished french seaming the joins on the ruffles of the underskirt, (horrible job-dont even attempt this on slippery lining). Frankly its a mess, I have caught different bits along each seam, and this rucked up all the levels at different points. I pulled some of it out again and redid it, but the fabric just wasn't having any of it, so after a certain point I just carried on. I did this so many times that it is now fairly level as all the errors have ended up canceling each other out (ish)!. I think if I could go back in time I wouldn't try this again, even on better fabric, I have now made 3 petticoat like skirts, and all of them have been a nightmare to make, and been underwhelming when done. (a white muslin underskirt for a Red Riding Hood costume- I kept attaching the pieces inside out so all my seams were the wrong way round, and a net skirt for Charlotte that drove me mad with jamming my machine and then turned out to be too small!) I may just buy them in future!

I have also got round to cutting out and assembling the outer skirt. It is made out of the soft cotton I was going to make my Weeping Angel costume out of before I accidentally dyed it too dark and too blue! It is just a basic circle skirt, and I pinched out a back seam and have (half) put in a zip. I seem to have put the waistband on wonky somehow (think I got carried away when working with a sensible fabric!), but I shall tweak the back seam to fix it easy enough. They are now both hanging up to stretch out. I am NOT looking forward to hemming ether of them, but particularly the stupid underskirt, which has 3 hems, all about 10 m long, and super frayed. sigh.

So progress.. if not anything actually finished... Its not looking hugely like all the list is going to get done.. but its getting there.

RW day 3 and 4 - the 90s skirt

Roswell Week Day 3 and 4

Item (s) completed - The 90s skirt, (also fixed pencil skirt seam, and abandoned the silky cami)

State before Roswell Week - taken in at the waist but not shortened

Reason for abandonment - I think I realised it was very full and I couldn't be bothered to hem it!(pathetic aren't I!?)

Time spent as an UFO - about 2 months

Time used to finish - less than an hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - high, I had already done most of the work, pure laziness!

Well I have to say that the weekend wasn't as productive as I had planned (I'm not sure mind you that in the history of weekend planning I have ever been early as productive as I intended to be! I always forget that my ideal weekend involves lounging around the kitchen with the flatmates watching terrible/amazing films randomly on tv (this weekend-the Spanish Main -some fine pirate action, followed by Calamity Jane! I quite fancy Calam's yellow dress, before she falls in the creek!). 

Anyway I kept doing bits and bobs but nothing was really coming together, I cut out bits, and drafted bits. but no final outfit. I also realised, after hacking at it a bit, that the silky cami is just not going to fit, I think I need to completely redraft the bodice if it will ever work, the gathers are just all wrong. So that is off the list altogether. I did resew the back seam on my pencil skirt, but there seemed little point photographing that (though I am pleased to be able to wear it again).

Then as I was looking through my fabrics for muslin I found another UFO- a turquoise skirt that I had started to refashion but had then not finished. YAY (not exactly ticking stuff off the list, as it wasn't on it, but progress none the less). The skirt was originally an awkwardly long quite full skirt that was about 3 sizes too big. I had already taken in the side seam to make it fit widthwise, but I hadn't finished shortening it. I therefore chopped off about 8 inches, about 10 off the lining and hemmed it (quite badly actually in places, the material kept stretching at the wrong moment, but it makes it quite flippy)

I realised after I did the bad hemming that I had also made it slightly shorter than I had intended (Roswell week seems to have become about making mini skirts and dresses for some reason!). But I like it, It reminds me of the flippy flowered skirts I used to wear in the 90s, but much fuller and less limp!

better sense of the fabric than the overly yellow shots above.

RW day 2 - The Pre-loved dress

Roswell Week Day 2

Item (s) completed - The Pre-loved dress

State before Roswell Week - half sewed, not fully taken in 

Reason for abandonment - couldn't decide what to do

Time spent as an UFO - as before, about 6 months..

Time used to finish - 1 hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - Medium. Well it didn’t take very long, but mainly because I gave up on making the neckline higher. It wasn’t so much the work as the decision that was necessary.

Here is me wearing it on the lovely Meadows in Edinburgh. It was a little chilly and the wind kept trying to blow it over my head hence the slightly tense pose!

I bought this dress in the same Shelter shop as the tropical dress just after I got my sewing machine. It was one of those amazing charity shop trips where you just walk in and want the whole shop! This was the dress that made me walk in; I could see it hanging up through the door and I just loved the vivid colours and print. The dress itself was slightly underwhelming, as it has clearly been very heavily worn before. It was a basic empire line babydoll tunic, but the scoop neckline had become very very stretched and misshapen. The dress was about only 2 sizes bigger then me, but with the excessive ease and stretched neckline, the top of the dress was about 15 inches larger than me, even including my substantially larger than b cup upper half! When I put it on the neckline exposed my entire front torso and hung down below the bottom of my bra.   Clearly something had to be done. As I started this before I considered having a blog, there isn’t a before photo, but hopefully you can picture it from my description!

The main problems were the width of the bodice, and the neckline in general. In addition, it was very short, so I didn’t want to cut the skirt off and reattach as I didn’t want to sacrifice any length, as I know from experience that I don’t wear tunics. Therefore, my method of taking it in, as most of the excess was in the stretched front section, was to fold the front so that I took about 10 inches out at the empire line in a massive single pleat and made the scoop neck into a curved v. I just sewed the pleat in along the empire line seam and down the edge of the fold across the bodice, so that the width remained further down the dress. I had partly sewed this already, but I had stopped because the neckline was still a bit low, and the waist still a little baggy. I couldn’t pull it in any further without distorting the sleeves to a stupid level, and there was no fabric spare to raise the neckline. I can understand why I left it, I think I thought inspiration might strike me at a later date. But it didn’t. After considering several other half-baked schemes, I made the call to just wear a vest underneath it. I therefore took a further tuck out of each side to make the waist fit better and finished the sewing up.

I like it a lot; I don’t really have any problem wearing a vest underneath, as the fabric is very thin and it makes the whole thing seem slightly less see through! It is slightly short, but it’s ok for summer. I also noticed when I wore it that the previous owner, who had clearly worn the dress a lot, had fixed a ripped hole in the back with a matched pieces of thin fabric so that it looks like part of the pattern, so well in fact that I hadn’t noticed until I caught it with my hand when wearing it. This dress has definitely been well loved in the past, and I am glad to continue its life!

RW day 1 The unusually tropical dress

Roswell Week Day 1

Item (s) completed - The unusually tropical dress

State before Roswell Week - cut off neckline, slightly pinned 

Reason for abandonment - cant remember.

Time spent as an UFO - about 6 months, it was one of the first things I planned to do.

Time used to finish - 1 hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - high, it was really easy, and more than half the time was just spent redoing stuff I had already done but the pins had fallen out. 

Now I know I said that this one was ready to sew up, all pinned and darted. I was wrong, over the last 6 months of chucking it around and stuffing it in cupboards, pretty much all the pins had fallen out. So I had to do it again. I don't have a real before pic, but it was a loose dress with a slightly odd scoop neckline (one of those "should either be higher or lower" necks). There was absolutely no shaping below the neck and sleeves, just a straight sack. But I liked the pattern and lovely bright green colours. This is a picture of it on Agnetha which is a sort of before pic-  before I put any tucks in (though after I took the neckline trim off-which actually made the neckline look slightly better than it did originally). It is also longer than it looks here, but its tucked underneath her. 

My main approach was to change the neckline using the belt as a trim, and to sew in a few gathers around the waist to give it some shape. Here are the gathers pinned, I put a big one under the bust at each side, and a small one down the each side of the bust to take some flab out of the under arm area. I then did 2 small ones on the back to pull the waist in there.

I wanted the neckline to be slightly lower, so the whole thing was less balloony, and a V neck. I could probably have bodged the original neck trim into a curved V but the dress had a simple self fabric belt so I decided to use that instead as it was much easier. I folded the trim to make the bottom point of the V and then placed it on Agnetha and worked out how I wanted the neck to go and pinned it on.

This is a really simple rough refashion, and therefore I used the traditional rough finishing method - pinned gathers and topstitching. This method won't win any construction prizes, and depending on the fabric can look a bit rubbish, but in something this busy you can't tell at all.  I pinned where I wanted the gathers to go (keeping them short) and marked with a pin at each end where to stop sewing. You then just sew a top stitched line between the pins (taking care to not sew it to random other bits of the outfit-its so easy to do that on refashioned things - luckily on this I only did it once!) On the big gathers at the front, because I was taking in so many bits of gather, I also did a 1cm cross stroke at the top and bottom to get them all in (like a I). Then the stitching is just a small line. It all worked perfectly, except I had to go back and length the gathers at the back as it poofed too high up originally
.

I then just sewed along the both edges of the neck binding to hold it on.

I wasn't really sure about how this was going to turn out, I was slightly worried it would end up too short once I had done the gathers, and also that I wouldn't be able to get it over my head as it doesn't have a fastener, but it was all great! I now know that if I can squeeze it over Agnetha, it will easily fit me (benefits of having skin and the ability to bend I guess!

Its a slightly unusual dress for me for a couple of reasons. Firstly the pattern is more tropical than the prints I normally choose-I feel a bit like I'm wearing a Hawaiian shirt. It is also somewhat short, particularly as something I could wear without tights. Most importantly however, as I tried to stick to the spirit of the original garment, and keep it slightly blousey, it is now pretty much the only item of clothing I own which has proper ease. Most of my clothes tend to be very tight. I really like it though! and don't feel at all like I am wearing a tent, the shaping works really well. It just feels like a very relaxed dress. I immediately threw on some tights (it had got a little chilly) and went to the pub in it! Here are the finished pics (thankyou to the lovely Lindsey for acting as photographer!). All in all, an excellent start to Roswell week!

Decluttering

I haven't been up to any sewing this week so far as my room was a bit of a state. I had far too much stuff in my wardrobe and drawers (and they wouldn't fit!), lots of which I don't wear. The vast majority of it was it was too small or not quite right fit wise. I had a very thorough cull and chucked about a third of it. (well I say chucked but the vast majority is going to a charity shop of course!). I seem to have been a bit wimpy in previous clear outs as an awful lot of rubbish and REALLY old stuff was still hanging around. A few items though I actually felt a slightly pull getting rid of (even though I had forgotten I still had them!) including this bag that I bought when I was 14. Oddly, despite me having lugged it around almost every day for about 3 years, and then occasionally for a several after that, and then it being thrown in and out of cupboards for several more, it was in immaculate condition. It is now off to the charity shop for someone else to use.

I also rearranged my sewing supplies (previously stashed all over the shelves of a bookshelf in various jars) into a wooden drawer set form IKEA that has been back at my parents house for years. It is great! I also finally got a bobbin box so that they aren't all tangled up (though I have far less than I thought, a may have lost some in my washing basket or something!)

my newly tidy sewing area, the boxes on top have current (ish-ok just unfinished!) project bits in them

ribbon, interfacing, binding etc

buttons and zips

thread

Also, in an aside, I am in love with the Roland Mouret dress Dita wore, thankyou Gertie for pointing it out. I am going to have to try and make something like this one day. It's just stunning. I may make it very slightly less plunging though!

The "Sookie" dress

Now, as I still have a huge pile of UFOs, I have restrained myself from doing any more "I'm just starting this project" post which never gets a follow up! However, with the warmer weather we've been having, I couldn't help my mind wandering towards the dress I wanted to make a few week ago when the Sew Weekly had television characters as their theme. I (and several others by the look of the forum!) immediately thought of Miss Sookie Stackhouse from Trueblood, who wanders through a vampire ridden Deep South wearing pretty girly sundresses and looking like (as the brooding Bill says) "vampire bait". Now that would probably have been the end of it with my motivation levels recently, had it not been for a yellow flowery cotton remnant I had picked up which was perfect. Of course there was only 1.2 x 2m of it, which was a slight problem. I waded through all my patterns to find one that didn't use more than that and settled on Butterick 2434, which had the advantage of being proportioned for different heights, so I wouldn't have to lengthen the bodice.

So here we go, with the standard Sew Weekly format.

The Facts

Fabric:  2m Cotton Remnant, I think bought from Edinburgh fabrics.Patterns: Butterick 2434 view C
Year:  doesn't say-presumably 60s
Notions: pink invisible zipper (that the lovely Zoe of So Zoe sent me)Time to complete: Too long, about 4 hours in front of tv reworking pattern and fitting and about 4 hours sewing (mainly through fitting again -its a very simple dress)First worn: today!Wear again? Yes definitely! 

Total Cost: about £4

Now yet again I am insanely jealous of all you folk out there who can just make up a garment from a pattern and it fits, sadly, unless I want to wear a sack, that isn't going to work for me.  I cant stand how long it takes to do the FBA, and then muslin it up and then alter the waist. This time I tried the Y method from Fit for Real People, which adds volume in in a more general way (its quite similar but there is another slash line-it's more like doing a FBA on a princess seam) if you need more than 1-2 inches extra. Frankly, I can't say I'm impressed, as the whole thing just ended up enormous in the muslin (though this is almost certainly my fault!)

Luckily, this is where Agnetha came into her own, as I just gave up on the pattern, seam ripped the darts and just worked it out by folding. I then copied the new pattern onto paper.


When I got the whole thing put together, I had managed to drop the waist somehow, and the skirt was very odd. Unless I cut it wrong (entirely possible!) the side seams of the bodice and skirt don't match up.. which seems wrong. So I had to fix it, which luckily took out the gathers at the waist (which I wasn't that keen on anyhow).

But I like it! It took far too long, but I was rather distracted by watching tv whist making it. I feel very like Sookie in it. I think it may be my favourite me made item ever! (EDIT-helped by discovering pleasantly that after sitting down in it for several hours that it doesn't seat or go weird in any way)

To celebrate I went out in the sun and visited Greyfriar's Bobby Kirkyard to take pictures in a creepy setting. Of course it wasn't actually creepy as its a beautiful graveyard and full of people having ice cream, but still! I felt like a bit of an idiot, taking pictures of myself with a self timer and no tripod, but just about pulled it off! They all ended up slightly over exposed however due to the lovely sunshine so I've darkened them down to look more mysterious (the pretentious faces are also the result of having to take very few pictures, very quickly before people started to stare!)

And here are some non moody shots to show what it's really like.