Bridesmaid dresses

I'm bridesmaid for one of my friends in April. Given the dire state of run of the mill "bridesmaid dresses", and the massive price of normal dresses that might be suitable for bridesmaids, I am considering making them. Fortunately it's only me and another girl who is a vaguely similar size... so perhaps it won't be too much work.

I loooove these silk tulle dresses and it's semi tempting to try to make something along these lines. 

Willow

Lanvin

   

What do you think? Does anyone have experience in making bridesmaid dresses or am I just asking for drama? Any idea where to buy silk tulle that isn't white/ivory? 

 

Sadie the cleaning lady

I started this dress a while ago, but haven't done the hem yet because every time I try it on, my boyfriend sings "Sadie the cleaning lady" at me. He makes a good point. What do you think? Mad Men work chic or cleaner's uniform? Should I hem it or bin it?

 

Thanks so much to Melanie of seamstress: poppykettle for her excellent tutorial on welt pockets. I've been wanting to try them for ages, and they were surprisingly not that hard to do. I'm usually really lazy with my technical skills, but it is my new year's resolution to try out more.

Yay for decent fabric!

Jenny Gordy of the excellent Wiksten is selling her fabric on Spoonflower!

Vienna!

Guten tag from Vienna!

Sorry about the crappy iPhone photos and no outfit shots, but I am having technological issues and I´m all by myself so it´s logistically difficult to take a photo that is more than my arm´s length away.

Vienna is an absolutely beautiful city. I wish I had some company but I´m still having a good time. I haven´t even got lost yet, which is a miracle in itself. There is a maze at the castle I am going to tomorrow that I´d love to see... but I´m afraid that if I enter it I´ll never return... I much prefer travelling with someone who can take charge of all navigational matters!

I was pretty excited about doing lots of shopping here but I´m a bit disappointed. I bought a beautiful vintage top from the most fabulous vintage shop ever but everything else is either H&M or Versace and nothing in between. Oh well, I´ll save all my money (and suitcase space) for England.

I´m going to be settled in England on Monday, so hopefully I´ll be able to do a proper post then.

Hyperallergenic necklace

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post. It's so lovely that anyone is still reading my blog when I have been so lax with my updates.

Here is another one the dresses I made for my upcoming trip. It's a blatant rip off of the not-terribly-original Wiksten Anna dress (except mine is lined, is more fitted and has more interesting sleeves). I wanted to go for the casual chic look... however I'm a little worried that it looks like some sort of standard issue garb given to me when I got too old to live at the orphanage!

I thought accessorising would be the key. Although I'm useless at that and own almost no jewellery. I think it looks quite good with my $2 charity shop necklace... but I can only wear it for 2 hours at a time as I am completely allergic to any metal that isn't frightfully expensive. (This is perhaps the reason why I don't own jewellery.)

I have been organising my travel wardrobe and it's not as dire as I first expected! Stay tuned in the next few days for outfit pics, tips for dressing for winter travel and ... *drumroll*... my travel itinerary.

I am never sewing velvet again

Greetings!
My absence has been long, but, as usual, I have returned to post some lack-luster new outfits.

I'm going to Europe for 8 weeks next week (Aahh! Typing that makes it seem so real!). Since I have no winter clothes (as evidenced by my untimely mid-Self-Stitched-September departure), my mission is make at least 3 warm outfits to get me through a week or so before I can buy up big at Topshop.

I've made a few things but I'm not 100% thrilled with any of them. I'll post them all over the next couple of weeks, plus some Europe photos, hopefully, although I'm not quite sure where I'm going to get a camera from...

I've been completely obsessed with silk velvet lately, but I haven't been able to find any affordable stuff online other than the undyed variety from the excellent Silk Wholesalers. After spending 3 years dyeing everything for uni I swore I'd never ever dye anything again, but I caved, and dyed it a gorgeous dusky pink (it was supposed to be red... but the colour is more gorgeous than I had planned).

Unfortunately, as I should have realised, velvet is a bastard to work with, especially since you can't iron it. Apparently you can get some kind of miniature bed of nails, so you can iron without crushing the pile... but I was in a hurry and couldn't be dealing with that malarky.

I don't think the style of the dress takes full advantage of the gorgeous drape of the fabric and I think a simpler, less fitted design would have looked better. But the dress is wearable, I hope.

Does anyone have any good velvet-sewing tips?

The offending dress

I tried my new dress on this morning and I've decided it's fab. I think I was being a drama queen the other day and my issues with it were mostly unfounded. Here it is!

It's got the same frill/sleeve situation as my new white lacy top. The colour's not quite right in the pictures; it's quite a lot duller and not at all shiny... but you get the idea. I made it from a silk/linen that I've had lingering in my spare room for years. It is lovely fabric, but it does crease like a bastard... but I think if I wear it in a casual setting on a hot day with the Swedish Hasbeens I'm about to buy online, it'll be fine.

I'm solvent again so I went shopping today and bought some new green suede shoes, because a girl can never have too many pairs of green shoes! I am also going to the hairdresser on Monday to try and sort out my hair colour debacle. I hope she doesn't make it worse.

I've got some more SSS pictures, but I have dodgy hair in them so I'll add them another day.