Just some pictures of things I have been up to.

A chevron skirt packaged up. 

Just finishing this dress for an Etsy order - different version of my Brandy Snapp dress.

I had to take another dress into Conker on Friday.

Was so nice to see some of my Battenberg dresses hanging there.

I am having a super SALE on screenprinted sweatshirts as well!

When I lived in London I was sort of obsessed with Liberty. I hated all that Oxford Street stuff, but I'd love to walk through Soho & up Carnaby Street & just wonder around Liberty gazing at beautiful & expensive things I will never be able to afford.

 {image from Google}

Last week I walked passed an antique shop in a near town & saw the most lovely lovely roll of vintage Liberty print fabric. I rushed in & said I must have it! Then later that day when in another anique shop - sort of addicted - I saw a gorg little Liberty print dress. Well I sort of had to have that too. Then, when I went back to collect the fabric today my eye caught a skirt, don't actually know if it's Liberty print, but I know I love it. So, well, it's been rather a liberating week...

Little pink dress.
Simple skirt.

I will be making the vintage Liberty print material into very special bespoke dresses - please get in touch if you are interested :)

The weather has turned back to drizzly & wet & grey around here. This morning I lit the fire at 9.30! It's quite nice to be able to just stay in doors & finish some orders, sort out my studio without feeling too guilty for not being in the sunshine.

So this weekend I didn't go anywhere - but I did do a lot of baking.

I made a few loaves of bread - one with olives & peppers. Rob made nettle soup.

 I baked this gluten free cake for a birthday. It was pretty intensely choccy.

 I made this dress last week - It's fully lined & has a lovely weight to it - It's made from an old curtain fabric I bought. I might have to keep it for myself.
{Etsy listing here}

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend, & it's more sunny wherever you are.

Proper Job is an amazing place near where we live, it's sort of a privately run recycling/non-profit organisation that is jam packed with amazing furniture/clothes/fabric/book/everything you could ever want (or we want). We normally go on a Thursday after we finish at Chagfood.
This is what we found today:

This weird hand painted parrot plate. I love parrots & I'm collecting plates. Perfect. £1.50

These amazing vintage maps. £1 each.

 A funny old book about zoo animals. "To Bunty". £1

As I said in my previous posts - I'm going to start working my way through my fabric collection & making up dresses as I go along. One of a kind dresses. Totally unique. I made one yesterday & one today - it's been very lovely.

They are already up in my Etsy shop!

This one is made from sari fabric I bought in India in about 2007?

This one is made from really gorgeous fabric I bought a long time ago from The Cloth House in London - I remember when I was about 15 going on trips to London & buying bits of fabric & dreaming about working in the shop when I was older.

It's amazing how Spring cleaning makes such sense. Something in the air makes you want to open all the windows, pull back the dusty covers & throw out old clutter. I'm feeling this a lot at the moment, literally, but also when it comes down to life & business & all those other sorts of things.

So, even though we are now long into 2012, I'm starting again with some (not) New Year resolutions:

A timetable - I've realised how important it is to structure time when you're 'self employed', if it was up to me I'd spend all day lounging around & then at about 10pm realise I have loads of work to do & end up staying awake until 5am getting headaches & drinking tea. It's really not a good plan. So. I've made myself a brief outline for a structured week that includes blogging & drawing & also time off. Otherwise you end up not enjoying your work, & working in your free time. Which doesn't make much sense at all.

30 minutes of drawing every day - I'm really awful at fashion illustration, but I'm not that awful at drawing when I sit down & concentrate on it, I've always just got so worked up about the fact I don't have a 'style' & end up giving up & getting pissed off & not getting any better. Well practice makes perfect, so I'm making myself (from today) sit down & do half an hour of drawing, copying from Vogue or an anatomy book.

Re-doing my blog or getting a proper website - Still trying to work this out, but I am definitely redesigning the look of my blog (photos). I'd really like to have a very simple, proper website that feeds off my blog & visa versa, but I'll have to think about it more as the whole thing rather confuses me.


New designs, new makes, lots more sewing - I'm just going to sew anything I feel like. I want to make as many individual & different pieces as I can. It keeps things interesting & makes more special pieces. I feel stuck in a rut with using the same fabrics & shapes but my personal way of designing is just sort of making it up as I go along. So by doing more sewing, I hope to create more & more ideas too.

(These are purely I Know goals - I also need to sort out other personal goals - but they are too hard - learning to drive, learning to speak French, doing exercise, read more. The usual)

What a rambler! I'm all talk & no action ehh. Oh deary me.

Here are some starting points for new blog design:

Bonjour mon ami. Sorry for this lack of blogging. Over Easter we crammed 9 people into our trusty old VW van & drove all the way from Devon, to Dover, to Calais, to Toulous & then to the Canal du Midi... It was pretty intense, but so so lovely. We hired a canal boat & drove along the canal eating bread & drinking coffee & pretending we know anything about wine. Anyway, now I'm home & back to work. Well, maybe just one more day off so I can go & buy bits to do up my bike! (I've only just learnt how to ride at the grand age of 21, I always lived on a big big hill).

Hope everyone had a super Easter :) My head is full of new ideas & exciting plans for the summer.