Out of The Kitchen At Last!

As I mentioned in my last blog I’ve decided to take the plunge and embark on dress making – nothing like setting myself really hard goals hey?

This is my first project, the day dress. The party is late September so I’m hoping it will still be warm enough for me to get away with making the short sleeved version….. the long sleeved one has difficult seams on the skirt.

And this is the second project, the evening gown. I’m really looking forward to making this.

I have plenty of lining fabric to make a mock up with. Even though I have never made a dress before I am well aware of the little fact that 1930’s women weren’t 5ft 8″ and even worse my size is no longer a decent 14 but a sad size 20! Oh the shame of it. But I have a nifty chart showing me where to alter lengths etc. Of course having the daughter of a tailor as one of my train buddies helps.

So – wish me luck and I’ll try and keep a log of how it goes… ( if you hear lots of screaming over the next few weeks you’ll know it’s me getting frustrated with the sleeves! ). I do have something nice to do once I’ve finished… I have 14m of some lovely duck egg jacquard curtain fabric to turn into 5 roman blinds for our bedroom… I wonder why playing with soft furnishings doesn’t worry me one bit but making a dress terrifies me?!

For those of my friends who have followed Lost in France ( and screamed at their screens when reading his blogs )….

I was rather worried when I found he’d dumped his blog so gave him a quick shout… turns out he left his phone at the house…. I’m surprised the whole country didn’t hear the screams of indignation when ‘ EX ‘ found he had a blog.

Anyway, he’s alive, he survived the mental abuse – just, and wants everyone to know how much he’s appreciated our support.

So Mark, we will miss you. Good luck and I’m sure I speak for us all when I say please try to carry on building a back bone and stay strong.

xx

Ellie-Mai was born 7½ weeks early at stupid o’clock this morning…

I do hope everyone had wonderful Easter Vacations.

Mine was interesting to say the least, I promise not to post any photo’s but I suppose I feel the need to talk about it ( so sorry guys ).

Thursday was the big family get together to celebrate my father’s 70th Birthday, we were all staying a lovely mansion not to far from home. It was fantastic to have everyone in the same place.. even cousins and their children.. all in all a lovely day. Later in the evening we all gathered in the lounge and got nattering, the girls all ganging on me to help wedding plans etc, the men trying to bribe Brian into having a stag do.

Later as people drifted off to bed I was talking to one of my cousins about her recent traumatic times, we got deeping engrossed and it was quite an emotional time ( without going into too much detail she’s really punishing herself for recently loosing a pregnancy ). We finally realised time had run away and it was 2.30am.. way past our bedtimes.. so we said or goodnights she went to her room I surveyed the chaos that was left and ralised a mobile phone and jumper had been left so picked them up and went out for last fresh air etc….

As I was putting the phone in my handbag I stepped onto icey gravel and the next thing I knew I was doing a doggy paddle style trying to catch my footing across the frozen gravel until I ended up swan diving face first down the lovely stone steps that fronted the beautiful mansion. I came to about 20 minutes later in a mass of blood and struggled to my feet ( picking up the bloody phone along with various other items that had flown out of my bag ), I remember thinking I had to reach Brian so he could take me hospital and surprisingly made it through the house to our room without bleeding everywhere.

I was eventually allowed out of hospital Friday morning ( so not bad really ) I am now sporting some lovely looking blue stitches in my forehead and nose, they don’t quite go with the red / black / purple / yellow bruises that cover the rest of my face, neck, shoulders, arms, fingers and knees, but they are quite neat ( not as neat as I can sew but then I’ve never tried sewing living flesh! ).

I find out next week when I can have my nose rebuilt and hopefully if I can keep some of me teeth…. I’m hoping it will all be fix by the big wedding day.

So Easter, I managed to have 1 small piece of chocolate, other than that all food has had to look like baby food and administered with a teaspoon… I did have a few oh woe is me moments, but I’m trying hard to be happy.. In fact I can’t cry – my face feels like I’ve had a botox overdose!