The plum pudding skirt; a dior inspired suit

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a month for all sorts of reasons, but back now and here is a brief round-up. I completed a skirt to match my Dior jacket,  worn here with my new Faux fur collar from Joules, snuggly!

The fabric is boiled wool, and believe it or not the most expensive fabric I have used so far.  It also stretched like mad even though I used stay stitching.  The pattern is the 6 panel skirt from Gertie's New Book of Better Sewing blogged about here, and pictured below.

Check out my bling too a 1950s Christmas broach which I bought from America on Etsy.

 

The skirt is lovely to wear and very warm, especially as I fully lined it, just the thing for winter weather.  I love this skirt pattern it's so flattering and will definitely make more.  So far this is my favourite outfit  I have made and I have already worn it quite a bit to work!  Very brave.

I've been busy completing a cardigan, a hat, another cocktail dress and almost completed a jumper, so pretty busy and future posts will cover these.

I had a lovely two week holiday just at home.   It started with the staff Christmas party, yes that is me being wrapped as a parcel in the middle (wearing my handmade Vogue cocktail dress - they had great difficulty trying to wrap my puffy petticoat).

We all enjoyed our Christmas: the dogs sported bandanas for the day (can you tell there were treats just above).

There has also been some ridiculous dressing up of dogs (can I point out this is not something we usually do!).

The cats loved the wrapping paper ..

Dan made all the Christmas lunch (Quorn in case you are wondering as we are all vegetarians) including yummy    squash tartlets.

The weather was actually good for a while so we had a lovely walk

The sun didn't last though and 10 minutes after this we were absolutely lashed by hail.


I turned 58 on December 29th, with lovely wrapped parcels ....

... a trip to Lancaster Antique Centre and tea and cakes of course

Traditionally we go to the cinema on my birthday evening, but a dearth of good films meant we stayed in and watched Star Trek into Darkness which I had seen but thoroughly enjoyed.

Obviously I am now well back into work and busy; this week I have been on radio Cumbria talking about New Year's resolutions (no I haven't made any), been to a Burns' night, unfortunately vegetarian haggis is not my kind of thing but the Crannach was yummy.

After all this I'm ready for a quiet weekend with plans for some blouse sewing and jumper knitting.  So till the next time (and not a month away) enjoy your weekend and week.

Holiday adventures

Back from my travels in Lewes and what a wonderful time I had.  I visited my oldest friends Katie and Bob and its always so good to see them.  Even when I haven't seen them for ages it just feels completely comfortable to be together.  I've known Katie and Bob for 30 years when they worked for a company in London I was sent to as a temp.  Seems another life time!  Anway after a 5 1/2 hour journey I arrived in Lewes on Friday and we spent the afternoon in their glorious garden in the sun!  What a treat after the awful weather in Cumbria.  Katie's garden is glorious and I was spoilt for choice for photos to take and Katie gave me lots of advice about my own garden plus some seeds.

Saturday we visited Anne of Cleves house in Lewes and what a great visit that was.  There were no room sitters, photos are allowed and lots of activities for children (or rather older children in our case) to do.   So wonderful to be able to actually touch the ancient wood and sit in the chairs where so many others had sat before.   I love the Tudor and Elizabethan periods and you really could feel the history in the house.

                            

Lunch in a park ... the food wasn't much to write home about,  but I do love a bit of park watching with all the children happily playing in the sun and the flowers were glorious  (excuse a few more flowery photos!).

(Hope you spotted the beetle).


Then some more culture.  This time Virginia Woolf's house; Monk's house in Rodmell.  I have to confess to never having read any Virginia Woolf and know little about her life but learnt quite a bit this weekend - especially the rather active partner swapping which was difficult to keep up with!  Monk's house is also where she walked to her death from.

 

More olympics in the evening with a fantastic 5000m final; Mo Farah was just stupendous - though its a good job it wasn't any longer because we were close to having heart attacks.  Great to see Tom Daley win the bronze too.  Really going to miss the olympics I think it's been such a great 2 weeks of not just sport but people's stories and sharing the most wonderful emotional times.   Rachel didn't get in the medals but did get a fifth and sixth in two finals and she made a really good effort - looking forward to Rio.  A relief  that it all went so well and there were no security issues.

Sunday was another lovely day.  I've never been to an open garden before and I think I probably started with one of the best.  We went to a garden which was beautiful, eccentric and abslutely packed.  Plants crammed in banks of colour with sculptures and textures everywhere ... and as for the cupcakes!! 

I really enjoyed sharing this garden and it gave me lots of ideas.  I also went completely bonkers myself by buying 2 vintage cup garden candle holders ...... you know how it is when something seems a good idea at the time .... and then you have to carry them home without breaking them.  But clearly hanging cups in your garden is an absolute must!  Far too gloomy to photograph them though I'm afraid.

We then continued with our Bloomsbury group tour by visiting Charlston House which was lived in by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant.    This is rather a crazy place where they have painted most of the surfaces and although the art was mostly not something  I really appreciated (except I did like the cat by Duncan Grant) it was a fascinating visit - no photos allowed inside though.

                                      

While I was in Lewes I bought a couple of Moda charm packs; Papillon which is my favourite current favourite and also Reunion which feels quite nautical and has some bunting in case you are feeling a bit deprived now the jubilee and olympics are finished.

It would make lovely cushions or a picnic quilt (though I don't need either of those).   

No finished items to show you this week, but will hopefully next weekend. 

I'm still on holiday this week, but its back to the wet weather and it's absolutely pouring down here.  This has been a bit of an epic blog but that's what a few days sunshine does for you!  Have a great week.