Acquisitions

No sewing this week (apart from the proper shoulder pads for my latest Vogue 2787, which is hardly exciting). My excuse is that I've been busy with other things but really, I'm putting off starting a project which I've wanted to do for a while, but which I know will be very challenging - possibly to the point of failure.

Probably a bad idea, for many reasons

So instead, here's a post about a few things which have arrived in the workroom recently.

I had a day out to Liverpool last week. Other than various hospitals, it's the furthest I've been for months - and a great deal more fun. It was the perfect combination of somewhere different, but also somewhere familiar. Although I was going to a museum, I just happened to pop into John Lewis en route. The fabric/knitting/haberdashery section has been banished to the top floor and is tiny, but somehow I still came out with a whopping seven metres of fabric!

How did this happen? Well, a couple of weeks ago, I fell in love with this dress in Fantouche Vintage.

You can take the girl out of the 80s, but . . . Images © Fantouche Vintage

I would prefer just below knee-length, but I really liked the clean lines and the way that the beading is in toning colours and just on the tops of the sleeves. Plus, the gunmetal colour is perfect for someone who Doesn't Wear Black. Unfortunately, it was a UK size 10, and I am not. However, I reasoned that I could frankenpattern the design, and I still have an extensive stash of beads from my days of making dance costumes. All I needed was fabric. (Oh, and a reason to wear the end result. All this rather overlooks the minor detail that I never go 'out' out these days, but never mind!) Amazingly, John Lewis's less-than-extensive collection of fabrics included a grey peachskin which looked like a possibility.

It turned out to be perfect. Shown with beads from my stash.

The lighting in the store was atrocious for checking colours, so I had to lug the bolt over to the prams section, which was the only part of the entire floor with a window. On the way back, I spotted the 'reduced' stand, and this fabric caught my eye.

With a well-disguised 6" ruler for scale

I've no idea what I'll use it for, and it's satin, which I'll doubtless live to regret, but I decided that I would regret not buying it even more.

I doubt if this is going to turn positive by 31 December

Thankfully for the state of The Stash, my other purchases have been patterns, not fabric.

It's been a while since my slip-making adventures at the start of the year, but I want to make more, especially from different periods. Which is how I came to buy this.

1930s slip pattern from Simplicity

The seller's description just said "1930s", so I looked it up on the Commercial Pattern Archive. It's from 1934 but oddly, there were two versions of it (image taken from Etsy).

Same pattern, same number, different illustration

The figures differ, but the slips remain pretty much the same. A second view has been added on my version, along with two extra pattern pieces.

The pattern pieces in my version

However, it looks as though this view could have been made from the original pattern, by following one of the sets of perforations on the pattern pieces.

The slip can be "cut straight across" - image from Etsy

Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous. Two long-running themes on this blog are 1979 Style patterns, and "squirrel" projects. Which are perfectly combined in this.

Meta squirrel! Style 2778, from 1979

Yes, my workroom is going to look faintly bizarre with a furry squirrel in it, but I fear that at some point it has to be done!