Another linen dress and petticoat

Hello and welcome to a sunny evening on Appletree Bay, the perfect backdrop for my newly finished linen dress and petticoat. I've been labouring over this version for some time now and at last it's finished. One of my followers and fellow sewers, Pat, said a very wise thing to me when she was on Tresco recently, "It'll be beautiful when it's finished, and if it's not beautiful then it's not finished." Many tiny adjustments and tweaks later and I'm happy to say that it is indeed beautiful.

So, this is me on the way to the beach, the dress having its very first outing. I wanted to show you this before the rest, as after doing lots of sitting down and moving around on the beach the petticoat ended up hanging down much lower, but the fit ideally looks like this.

There's no point in have a frou-frou petticoat if you don't show it off, is there!

And this is the finished petticoat. I want to make one more version of this in orange to wear under a green dress that I've had for ages. Every time I make this I learn a little bit more, so hopefully the orange one will be equally successful.

Someone had made this big shell shape, a fish maybe, on the beach which was perfect for my photo shoot. I took my little tripod and used my timer to capture these shots. Appletree Bay is great for evening shots as it faces the setting sun.

This is my beach of choice for swimming at the moment. We have a predominantly east wind blowing meaning that Appletree is tucked in out of the wind. I swim the length of the bay and back most days. Sometimes I have the beach to myself (early mornings) and other times I have to weave around the small boats and dinghys that are anchored up along the shoreline.

 

When I bought this aqua linen fabric I imagined this setting for wearing a summer dress - the shade is exactly the colour of the sea when you swim across this bay on a sunny day.

I opted for neutral shades and various tones of turquoise to complement today's outfit. The stretch woven belt was from Primark last summer, sunglasses are by Radley London, rings are both old and preloved, the short cowrie necklace and long dancing girl pendant were both bought from Gallery Tresco. Natural coloured suede platform sandals were from TK Maxx many moons ago.

Reluctantly, it was time to go home. I'm so aware of how lucky I am to be able to wander off to the beach after work; a ten minute stroll and I'm on a golden stretch of sand, a haven all to myself to relax and unwind. Summer is here and life is good. See more about my beautiful island home of Tresco here.

                                                                                         Anna x

Frilled To Bits our SNA challenge for May

Hello there! How are you this fine Bank Holiday Monday? So, here's our Style Not Age challenge for May, as chosen by yours truly. Frills are all the rage with me currently, so why not share this penchant with my style sisters?

Gail from Is This Mutton is sporting her blend of citrus brights - the frilled blouse is from eBay, crops are from Roman and sandals are from ASOS. It's a fab summery look, isn't it!

Jacqui's frilled wrap dress is from Izabel Clothing and fits the bill perfectly. Sage green and paisley print are a winning combination! Catch up with Jacqui's backstory on her blog Mummabstylish. 

I love the pink frilled and pearly top of Emma's! This was a happy purchase when she was in Funchal recently. See more from her on Style Splash blog.

Hilda's frilled dress is from Whistles, a fab thank you for contributing to a recent fashion feature in Good Housekeeping. Catch up with her story on Over the Hilda blog. Hilda's perched on the balcony of her daughter's house during her child-minding stay - what a view!

If you're a regular to the blog, you'll recognise the frilled petticoat as one of my recent sewing successes. I've just altered the length, shortened it, so that it sits better under my orange dress. (See the whole outfit here in case you missed that one.) Today's offering is more vintage than new - the frilled blouse was bought in a vintage shop in Exeter many years ago and the skirt must be at least 20 years old, from good old Dorothy Perkins. 

The boots are new, bought especially to wear while I'm in my pink and orange phase. I found them on ASOS, see here. They're available in three colourways but this one is perfect for my summer trend.

Nothing new today with my accessories. Sunglasses are from Radley, belt is old as are my rings. 

My friend Fiona volunteered to take the photos when I told her about my fab new cowboy boots. We had fun as we always do during these sessions, with me doing lots of bossing about while she heckled from the sidelines. The evening sun was soft and flattering to the skin and the new walkway to the bird hide made a great catwalk. The view from the hide was glittering in the evening light.

Hope you're basking in the early summer sunshine too. Looking forward to seeing you again soon. Please leave me a comment if you've enjoyed today's post.

Have a super week!

Anna x

The orange linen dress at last!

At last, here's my homemade linen dress and petticoat! After many alterations the dress finally fits, but as you progress through the photos you'll see that the petticoat is a tad too long. This has come about due to the fact that I had to take almost 2 inches off the bodice, hence the length of the dress is shorter than when I took my measurements at the start of this venture. But this too can be altered and will be in due course.

In celebration of the showcase event I decided to add my floral headband - well of course you'd expect nothing less from me eh?

As I'd mentioned previously the neckline of the dress wasn't sitting properly so I took it off to my sewing teacher and she did a fitting on me which revealed that the length of the bodice was causing the problem. After much tweaking and resewing I finally made the adjustments and now it fits like a glove. Dress number two, in aqua linen, is now undergoing the same amendments and hopefully will be ready to wear soon.

I bought these pink suede sandals from Vinted to wear with the outfit - that was £5 well spent! They're very comfy and are a great colour match. 

The only problem with wearing a frothy petticoat is that I want to do lots of swishing it about!

I did a search online for an orange and pink necklace finding this one on the Zara website. I'm having a real thing about pink and orange together at the moment so this will be popping up on the blog often I'm sure! My rings are both old but perfect for today's look. The pink stretch belt is rather ancient too, but does the trick.

I'm so very pleased to have turned this little lot into this - 

Many thanks to those of you who have taken an interest in my first foray into the world of dressmaking. During lockdown I took it upon myself to make new covers for my sofa and chairs which seemed to be an impossible task, but I somehow achieved it. After a lapse of three years I'm back in the sewing groove, living and breathing old reruns of The Great British Sewing Bee and loving the new challenge of dressmaking. 

                                                                                        Anna x

Another week, another trouser suit

Hello, how are you? Did you watch Eurovision? I'm afraid I opted out this year as I didn't think we could possibly repeat last year's success. Instead I went to bed for an early night with my book. I've just read The Lovely Bones for the second time and was so pleased that I had forgotten most of it, apart from the perfect murder weapon. I'll put it back onto my book shelf now that I know I can reread and enjoy it again.

This week's favourite outfit was yet another trouser suit and this one is from Boohoo, but I bought it from Vinted last year. I'm a huge fan of the trouser suit as you know - the brighter the better - and what could be better than grabbing a bargain for a brand new buy? I paid half the list price for the still-with-tags-on purchase which gives me a real rush of pleasure. I added my Orla Keily handbag to compliment the psychedelic print to good effect, don't you think?

The white ribbed vest was new last year from H&M and the white patent boots are from Deichman. Orange and white make such a fresh look and one that you can bet I'll be wearing often this summer. Weather-wise we're still waiting for summer, but at least we're getting the odd sunny day which does give a sense of hope. 

I've made a couple of adjustments to the trousers by way of taking up the hems and also sewing down the front pleats to give a smoother front, but seeing them here I think I probably could do with taking a little more off the length otherwise they'll get dirty and scuffed over time. Get me eh! Talking as if I know my way around a sewing machine now.

I went with my gold coloured chain belt and necklace (both old from Primark) along with orange resin rings (pre-loved) and my John Lennon type sunglasses (old from River Island), to complete the outfit. Feedback was good again this week with lots of flattering compliments from customers.

Apologies to those of you who are waiting to see my finished orange dress, but I still need to make adjustments to it. I've discovered that the length of the bodice is too long which means I have a lot of unpicking and resewing to do. It also means that the second version of the same dress in aqua will have to be redone too. I'm on a steep learning curve at the moment, but I suppose that's the whole point. So, sit tight and I promise I'll showcase it as soon as I'm finished.

I've been to the dentist this week as well as the hairdresser, but not much more than that to report. Somehow I managed to be two hours late for my hair appointment, but luckily I was still fitted in! I written the wrong time down in my phone, so I suppose that's more a senior moment than anything else...

Thanks for dropping by. Please leave me a comment if you can as it's lovely to have your thoughts and feedback.

Have a super week!

Anna x