Sandie

Ahoy hoy readers! I hope you've all been well? 

I have some rather exciting news! I bought a car! A red Fiat 500 to be exact, to be named Fiammetta the Fiat. She's very cute and little and doesn't have much grunt but that's ok, I'm still on my learners so I'm not allowed over 80km/h anyway. I can't drive it on my own without an instructor yet so for most of the time I just sit in it and listen to music and visit it in the garage and do funny things like that. Did you do that when you bought your first car? 

Hopefully I'll have my provisional license sometime next year so I can go on opp shopping trips and be able to bring home all those large heavy items I usually pass by with a heavy heart. 

Any way - it's time for me to post up a new dress! 

Sandie - as named after Sandie Shaw is a lovely little number, sewn up from a baroque printed rayon I found at Spotlight last year. I used view 1 of Simplicity 9861 from 1972 to sew this up. I also really like view 2 so I'll have to sew that also one day.  

I have to apologise for the funny oversaturation of these photos - I had bought a new computer and my new one couldn't support my old photoshop license so I was using some freeware to edit the photos and I had no idea what I was doing! Anyway I hope you can forgive me?

The front has a row of very small box pleats from the empire bust line down to the waist and then opens to the hem. 

I did actually keep my chapstick inside one of the pleats when I wore this to work because I didn't include pockets. Clever yes? 

For the collar I used a small amount of silk lycra that I grabbed out of the remnant bin at The Fabric Store. It was fluid and soft enough to match the rayon so I didn't interface it.

It does flop around a bit when I wear it, but that's ok! 

But it otherwise produced a very crisp neat collar! 

The cuffs of the bishop sleeves are simply gathered with elastic. It was nice to do something so simple for once - especially because before making this dress, I made about 3 garments with button cuffs and plackets, so I was getting a bit tired of all the fiddling that sort of cuff needs. I'm still not very neat at it, but I'm getting there 

It's far too cold at the moment to wear this dress! So excluding the 2 times I wore it in Autumn, she'll have to wait till spring to be seen again (along with my legs)

It's so bloody cold, I keep wearing the same sort of clothing every day I am a little to scared to get up from the couch away from the heater to the sewing machine. I don't know how I would ever handle England or Europe in winter! I know 11 degree winters sound tropical in comparison to some of you, but when you're used to 40 degree summers, you're bound to become a withering little human ball when it's that cold. Central heating isn't common here! 

Anyway, I'm going to go put on all the woollen items I own and have a big mug of Lindt hot chocolate. Yummy!

Till next time!

Cat xo