Emily play

Oh my how the past 2 weeks have flown! So many things keeping one occupied and exhausted but I always make the time to sew!

This particular dress was made from a lovely pink/peach print I ordered from Spoonflower.

Straight out of an 1883 dream and plunked into 2013 kicking, screaming, and reaching up for the sun, comes this fine scale retro Victorian paisley in shades of salmon and coco. There is no white in this version. The areas that appear white are more creamy.

You get ultra fine scale stripes, twists, and bubbles, buds, and dots, hearts, and twists galore. The feeling is Victorian, but all the elements are actually modern. No actual Victorian artist really used anything in this.

The designer is Edsel2084 and her designs focus mainly on Victorian and Arts and Crafts style designs. All of her intricate and highly detailed designs are hand drawn as a larger drawing, and a small segment is scanned, cropped, tessellated and multiple colour ways are made before being uploaded. Edsel has over 4000 designs which completely blow my mind every time I check her page. The descriptions for each design stand between truth and fantasy. Some evoking Alice in Wonderland type dreams and some taking you to the library of William Morris himself

The pattern I used for this dress was McCalls 8917 from 1967. A teen dress in 3 different versions ? all featuring an inverted pleat at the front, with a choice of collar, buttoned yoke or long bishop sleeves.

I chose the collared version with short sleeves. Initially I had the long sleeve option set, but they were too short and the pale colour of the design didn't suit the long sleeves and high neck. It?s now more a spring dress than winter.

I also had some trouble with my machine ? the top stitch was pulling as it fed through and I ended up with the tension on the front pleat a little too tight ? if you look really hard at the seam on the pleat, it kind curls out at the end. This is because once you've sewn something with the wrong tension; it can be really hard to straighten even with an iron - unless you undo the stitches which I obviously wasn't bothered to do.

Poor Dolly ? she?s not doing too well lately, so she?s currently at the repairman?s. I?m currently using my boyfriend?s sister?s machine while she?s off gallivanting around the world ? thanks Nicole!

Yes, the pattern center doesn't line up with the pleat. Poo poo

Otherwise the dress is lovely and I think will be really nice to wear in the warmer weather instead of right now in Winter, so I will put it away for a few months.

I try to sew for the season I am in, so that I can wear things straight away, but alas ? not this time!

A little highlight of this weekend was picking up this 70s modular plastic picnic kit at the local church opp shop for $1.50! It has all its pieces except for one small bowl and 1 knife. I love a good picnic and have built up a little kit over the years for BBQs and such. I can?t wait to set up a picnic spread with this bright orange kit!