Whoops

Yes, again.

"At the Sign of the Three Squirrels" - Goslings Bank *

At least it gives me a chance to use this photograph I took last time I was in London. (And yes, we have reached the stage where I take photos of squirrel-related things when I see them, because I know they will at some point be useful for this blog!)

This is what I should have been working on.

Exhibit A

And this is what I am working on.

Exhibit B

The two are actually related. When I am making a bodice toile, I always struggle to get the length right. What seems fine initially can change completely once a skirt is attached. To get round this problem with the bodice of the pineapple dress, I decided to use a skirt which I had acquired in a box of sewing stuff bought at an auction. It appeared to be part made - two panels of batik fabric sewn together at the sides and hemmed, with what I'm guessing was a very haphazard channel for a drawstring at the top but no drawstring. I had unpicked the top, closed up the misaligned drawstring holes with tape, pressed under the top edge to a uniform length, and got no further.

Drawstring holes (I assume) from right side and wrong side

It has been folded up in my workroom ever since, until I had the idea of using it as a 'mock skirt' by pleating it roughly to size and basting it in place.

Attached to the bodice mock-up

It worked very well for checking the bodice, but you can guess what happened - it looked so good that I immediately wanted to make it up as a dress. To speed things up, I decided to use the bodice pattern I had just drafted but with the neckline of Simplicity 3662. Unfortunately, despite having lots of plain blue cotton in various shades, none of them really worked with the skirt fabric. So it was back to the fabric shop to look at yet more plain blues. While I was there, I spotted a roll labelled "original vintage cotton". The staff couldn’t tell my anything about it, but the fact that it is only 90cm/36" wide, has a proper woven selvedge instead of a modern fluffy one, and also has some discoloration along said selvedge makes me think that it is indeed vintage deadstock. Either way, the colours blend perfectly with the skirt.

Such neat selvedges!

So now I have not one but two dresses on the go, and more fabric.

Another 1.6m

* - Goslings Bank was a very old bank on Fleet Street, which eventually became part of Barclays. While geese might seem more appropriate for the sign, squirrels were chosen for their thrifty habit of storing nuts for the winter. Sadly all of this history did not protect the branch from the onslaught of online banking, and Barclays closed the branch in May this year. I wonder what has become of the sign?