Another Rusholme Skirt - with cherries on

Hot on the heels of my first version comes my second Rusholme skirt from A Beginner's Guide to Making Skirts. This time I omitted the front centre pleat, making this an even easier skirt to sew - it barely took an hour in actual sewing time.

The fabric is the cutest cherry print needlecord which Marie kindly picked up for me from Leicester market. I love it! Because needlecord has a tendency to stick to your tights I lined this version with some lovely quality Venezia lining, gifted to me by Jo Sews when we met up on Goldhawk Road last year. I used this method for adding it, simply deducting the length of the facing from the top of the skirt pieces when I cut it out.

It's such a perfect little winter skirt, I know I'll be wearing it a lot. And as the background colour to the cherries is navy, it will match everything.

Obligatory hands-on-hips book cover shot!

Next up....my gold disco top! I'll be road testing it tomorrow and will report back on Monday. I'm hoping it will perform well on the dance floor (ahem!) Have a good weekend. x

The Polished Button summer giveaway and discount code

School's (almost) out for summer and the sun is SHINING, so what better way to celebrate than with a giveaway! I've teamed up with The Polished Button to offer you a lovely hand picked treat to kick start your summer. The Polished Button is run by Ruth, a former costume designer and vintage clothing dealer who has put together a small, but perfectly formed selection of vintage inspired sewing goodies on her website. The idea is to offer a 'one stop shop' for sewers including authentic and retro style fabrics, vintage and retro patterns (including a great selection of 1970's sundresses) and haberdashery all in one place. 

It was a tough job choosing items for the giveaway as there are some lovely pieces in stock, but somebody had to do it! These fabrics caught my eye…

1950's floral barkcloth

Red and white floral striped cotton with lace trim

Nautical print polycotton

…as did these darling 1930's floral buttons….

But you all know I have a weak spot for a cherry print, or indeed anything cherry inspired, so in the end I settled for this crisp, summery cherry print fabric. 

Ruth is very generously offering one winner a metre of the cherry print fabric, along with a metre of this lovely cherry bias binding. 

To enter the giveaway all you have to do is take a look at The Polished Button website and leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite product is.  The giveaway is open internationally and closes at midnight GMT on Sunday 28th July. The winner will be chosen at random.

But that's not all, if you're not lucky enough to be the winner, don't despair! Readers of my blog can still claim a 10% discount on all purchases from The Polished Button. Hoorah! Just enter the code Jane10 when checking out of the site. The 10% discount code is valid until the end of August.

Thank you so much to Ruth from The Polished Button for offering this awesome giveaway. Good luck everybody! 

Seasonal sewing?

Good morning. I know it's traditionally British to talk about the weather, so being traditionally British, that's what I'm going to do. Even though the sun is poking its head out today, the weeks and weeks of non-stop rain has put a serious dampener (see what I did there?!) on my summer sewing plans.  I've already made two dresses this summer (here and here) and was all set to make a further two sundresses that I've been really excited about.  But waking up on Monday to yet another cheery display of pissing rain, made me seriously question whether I should bother making the effort. It's not like I'll ever get to wear them this year....  

In my mega sulk on the subject, I even wondered whether to start work on my autumn wool jacket as it's more weather appropriate.  I may still stick to this plan (or at least make a start) as I think I need to take my time on this make.  I'm using the Abbey Coat pattern by the way, has anybody made it? Any tips?

Back to the dresses. Even if I'm not 100% sure I'll be making them or not, I can still describe them to you can't I? Because I'll burst if I don't....

First up is this off-white polka dot linen blend which I found at the bottom of a scrap bin at a vintage fair.  I plan to make my own version of a strappy 1950's sundress using Casey's tutorial.  I want to use black bias binding as a contrast trim, blatantly copied from Karen after seeing her lovely Sorbetto.  I've already worked out the bodice block, I just need to see what kind of skirt I can make out of the fabric.

Secondly is a cherry print halter neck dress, inspired by Marilyn Monroe's dress from The Misfits.

I wasn't even aware her dress had cherries on it until my husband alerted me to the fact one day.  He's a picture editor* and was editing some pictures from the film when he noticed it.  Dutifully he informed me at once (he knows I love anything to do with cherries) and I've been obsessed ever since.  I'm going to use this fabric...

... which is a lovely silky cotton I found on the internet for £7.  As I didn't want two dresses with strappy shoulder ties, I thought I'd make the cherry dress as a halter neck.  I've already got the perfect pattern in my stash - Vogue V8727. There's only 1.9m of cherry fabric, which is exactly the amount of fabric required for Version A.  So on this occasion I'll have to make a muslin...

Actually, having laid my plans bare has made me want to sew the dresses even more.  What do you all do in this situation?  Do you just sew what makes you happy, regardless of whether it's going to be worn straight away or not?  Or do you dutifully sew what's appropriate for the season and weather?  I know that the process of making them and finishing them will make me VERY happy, so my instinct is to just sew them anyway and not give a monkeys about the weather. I'll still have two lovely dresses for next year, should the sun decide to shine at all.  Sometimes, I think how a finished garment makes you feel is more important than how wearable it's going to be. Please chip in, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

And finally, one thing that made me feel totally cheery and summery (despite the evidence outside my window yesterday) was seeing this beautiful dress by Roisin, posted here.

She's only gone and named it the Oh Jane! dress in my honour, because of my well documented love of gingham!!!! It's probably the highlight of my sewing life. Thank you Roisin. x

*If there are any David Bowie fans out there (and I know for a fact that there are!), check out this post and accompanying photos my husband Jon wrote for the Getty Images Archive blog.  I LOVE the fact that the great man dons a full Ziggy Stardust outfit to do the decorating in!