Bags and flowers.

Well now I've dispatched my doll swap (only 6 months late!! The Shame!), I can now throw myself into a bit of dressmaking. As the old adage goes, have cash, will shop, so I have!

First stop was Betsy Ross
to buy the beautiful charmed dress pattern and the raglan top. I bought the A line skirt pattern about a year ago and made a charming skirt out of a pair of my nans old curtains but, as I tried trimming the hem with a pair of 8" shears, I managed to snip a hole in it!! Still I've kept the skirt because a) it was my nans old curtains(and they remind me of her and b) it was my first attempt at a skirt. I've made a few since but I found this gorgeous summery fabric in a shop in Walthamstow for the princely sum of a quid a metre, so I bagged a couple of metres along with some lining and I am planning to make another glorious skirt with it, minus the mistakes this time.

Speaking of old curtains, I needed another stash bag so I knocked this one up (out of, appropriately) old curtains. For some reason, the photo doesn't really do it justice (tis much nicer in the flesh), although I misjudged the firmness of the curtains and should have interfaced the whole thing, not just the top. But it will do nicely for stashing my work uniform in, when I want to indulge in a little light morning retail therapy and I'll still have plenty of space for a yarn project and some purchases.

This gorgeous blue floral fabric was hidden in my stash, much to my excitement, think I got it from Hitchin market and is going to become the main body of the Betsy Ross raglan top. There is only a metre of it, so I've carefully measured it up and worked out there is enough for the main body and the facings, I will do the sleeves in a plain material for a bit of contrast, am undecided as to whether the contrast should be blue, white or cream, so I will have to do some side by side comparisons to see which looks best. Although I think plain cornflower blue cotton would work a treat. Must remember....TRIM WITH EMBROIDERY SCISSORS ONLY!!