Anna fanna bo-bana, me my mo manna, Anna!

It's an Anna dress! 

Yay. I'm happier than I look here. I promise...

Ok, that post title was weird sorry. But I started saying Anna over and over in my head, and then the Name Game song got stuck, and well, there we are!

Right. So. I have finally made my first BHL Anna Dress! There's a lot of love for this dress (and it's various hacked versions) on the interwebs, and it's pretty clear why. So flattering, so pretty, so comfy, just, so! I actually have a sort-of-Anna cut out and half made on my dress form (and have done for months now) but this one has beaten it to the punch. I really need to start finishing all the damn projects I start...

I treated myself to this utterly gorgeous double gauze fabric a few weeks ago when I was feeling down/grumpy after a shitty few days of work. I've never bought double gauze before, and couldn't quite envision what exactly it was like (or what all the fuss was about), but I totally get it now. SO SOFT. I sort of want to live in double gauze. It kind of feels to me a bit like flannelette sheets that are super old and worn and they're no longer fluffy, but have a particular softness to them? Or they feel like those muslin cloths people use to wipe up baby grossness. Whatever - it's bloody lovely to wear!

And it's great to sew with. I made it over 2 days at the weekend, but really it was probably about a day in total. Being cotton it presses super easily, and I had no issues sewing it up. Someone on Instagram advised starting with a new sharp needle, so I did that, but other than that, I didn't have to take any particular care with the sewing. I think I'd have been faster, except that I decided to do French seams everywhere because A. there's a tutorial to show you how on the BHL website (yay) and B. the double gauze will fray like nobodies business as the two layers come apart so it seemed like a sturdy finished seam would be sensible.

So for those few people who aren't familiar, this dress has kimono sleeves (my fave), pleats under the bust, and a 6-panel gored skirt, and can be made with a slash neck or v-neck, and midi or maxi length. I went with the short one (because I only had fabric enough for it!) and the slash neck because I don't love a v-neck on me, and I cut a straight 10 I think (must check that) based on my full bust size. I could probably come down a size truth be told (that seems to be a trend for me lately!!). The underbust pleats sit perfectly (and are such a pretty detail!) but I did have to take a lot of excess out of the back (which is admittedly fairly normal for me to have to do), and the dress is definitely not over-fitted. I was aware that unpicking this fabric would not go well, so I was careful to check the fit as I went. I basted the zip in and decided I needed to take even more out of the back, and then I sewed it. I could have been braver probably but I didn't want to go too small! To me it looks like a decent fit (ie. it has a proper shape and gives me a waist) but not over-fitting it means it's still comfy enough to wear everyday AND after a big meal. These things are important! Breathing, you know?

I did shorten the skirt by about 2-3 inches before I cut it out (I'm about 5'2), and it has come up quite a nice 'lady-like' length (HA. I am not at all lady-like!). It could be shorter, but I rather fancied a knee length skirt for a change. There's also a bit of excess in the front neckline which doesn't really bother me that much, although I know it shouldn't sit out like that. Because the fabric is super drapey I can get away with it (I think!) but a stiffer fabric would probably have required me to brave a hollow-bust adjustment?  I might try that in the next version. Is anyone familiar with that adjustment, and have any great web tutes to refer me to??

Oh, I also added in-seam pockets because I totally regretted not putting them in the Hello Kitty dress, and I'm very glad I did here. I didn't have enough scrap fabric to make them in double gauze so I found some shitty navy polycrepe scraps in my stash that I was able to use. For the side seams and pockets, I overlocked the seams instead of French-seams because I couldn't work out if it was even possible to do French seams on a pocket. I think not. The overlocking was fine!

I'm wearing this today (because it's the last day of Me Made May, so I have to go out with a bang!) but not as pictured (with my other new sandals!) because it has once again gotten cold and miserable here in Britain. Instead I'm wearing it with tights and flats - and it's SO comfy. First dress with a zip that I could honestly say gives the Washi or Moneta a run for their money. The gale force winds mean I'm very likely to end up flashing people, but I don't care because this dress is too damn pretty not to wear! Marilyn gets it...

Way, hey, it's Washi Day

Surprise! I made another Washi dress! And I have to tell you - I seriously LOVE this dress! Lots and lots of love.

It's made in a utterly delicious bamboo viscose fabric I bought yonks ago from Fabric Godmother. It looks black in these pics, but you'll have to believe me when I tell you that it's actually an incredibly dark navy. Navy is right in my comfort zone of course, but I quite like the colour ambiguity here - I could probably get away with some black tights and boots in winter. (update: I just checked my old order email confirmation and it's black. Which is rather a pain as I've totally sewn it up in dark navy thread!! Oops. Oh well. I won't tell if you won't).

So the fabric has lurked in my stash for ages, because I seem to find it impossibly hard to use my favourite fabric! How ridiculous is that? I'm working on getting over this stupidity. I had in mind to make this into a BHL Anna maxi dress but I didn't have enough for that. I did, however, have enough for a Washi! Win!

You'd think viscose might be too soft and drapey for a pattern designed to be made with quilting-weight cotton, but I really like how this has worked out. It feels...fluid? Does that make sense when talking about clothes? It just feels incredibly floaty and quite dressy actually. But being a Washi dress (and having no fastening - hurrah for shirring elastic on the back!) it's also super comfortable. Like pjs. For the day-time.

If I'm honest, it has come up just a teensy bit shorter than I'd normally feel comfortable with, but I don't think it's indecent? Plus it's (theoretically - I live in Britain) going to be summer time soon, so I can be forgiven for showing a bit more leg.

I've decided that the pockets sit better if you cut them separately and attach them, rather than cutting them out as part of the skirt pieces. That was why my last one was 'poofy' in the pocket-area. The pattern gives you the option for both, so this will be my preference from now on. Otherwise, everything was made up the same, except I remembered this time to use a wider seam allowance on the side seams - it's meant to be 1/2in and I used 5/8. It just brings it in a bit tighter around the middle which I prefer for the shape. I whipped this up so quickly. It was pretty much done by lunch-time, bar the sleeves and hemming. And my hand-stitching must be getting faster because it only took me one episode of Grey's to invisible-stitch the binding under the arms/sleeves!

Oh, and how cute are my new shoes?? I bought 2 pairs this week (I'm calling these my 'compensation sandals' - my partner accidentally THREW OUT a pair of my boots a few weeks' ago, and he promised to replace them. I figured he could buy me some sandals for now and I'll deal with the boot loss later). These are faux clogs (ie. not actual wood because I can't be doing with soles that have no flex) and they're so comfortable! Like little cushions on my hooves. This whole outfit might be the most comfortable thing I've ever worn!

By the way, do you love my new conservatory tiles as much as I do?! So pleased. 

Oh, hello Kitty!

Miaow!

Remember when I was talking about needing to sew practical things - like stuff I'd wear when working at home?

Well, this is NOT that! And I'm not sorry at all.

This is a half-circle skirt sun-dress in HELLO KITTY FABRIC. Yeah, Hello Kitty fabric. The Japanese cartoon feline overlord is officially part of my wardrobe. Hurrah! And of course I made it with matching Hello Kitty buttons. Because if you're going to use Hello Kitty fabric, you might as well go all out and get matching buttons, right?? (my Instagram peoples agreed with this logic when I did a little informal poll over the weekend...)

I bought this cotton poplin fabric from Guthrie and Ghani AGES ago (so the dress does fill one of my criteria in that it uses stuff from my stash) but I could never quite figure out what to make. It's yellow, for a start and that's not a colour I wear very often, and I could never work out what to make that wouldn't look insane. So it languished in my stash, destined to eventually become dull like pajamas or some-such.

And then I made the Adelaide dress and started pondering on the whole concept of button-down shirt-dresses and the idea for the Hello Kitty Hawthorn was born.

Ta Dah!

Please forgive all the rubbish in this pic. We're about to get the conservatory re-tiled, and soon it will be tidy and perfect for indoor blog pictures! Also, I couldn't crop them because the update to my stupid work laptop has caused Microsoft's photo editor to vanish. Must fix that issue...

Full disclosure, I'm totally unoriginal, and am plagiarising the amazing Kat's Hello Kitty dress here. I loved Kat's version when she made it last year, but I've never really thought I could wear stuff that buttons down the front. I've never quite mastered the FBA and I assumed I'd have to do that on any nice shirt-dress patterns. I have also had a serious fear of buttonholes. This is madness, obviously, but ever since I got my 'new' machine (which is over 18 months ago now), I've been unable to work out how to do them. It's a 1 step buttonhole function, so it really should have been easier than on my old 4-step machine, but the last time I tried to do them it went Very Badly, so I was too scared to try again.

But for some reason, I decided I really really wanted to make a Hello Kitty Hawthorn dress. I figured could conquer my fear of buttonholes, and try the whole shirt-dress concept out. Hawthorn seemed like a good entry-level version...it's a flat collar and a faux placket, and Colette patterns are great for talking you through new processes, so it all sort of seemed like a good starting point.

I really like this dress!! It'd be hard not to like a Hello Kitty dress I think, though this did make it a bit hard. The buttonhole function was totally mastered (it really isn't hard, who knew?!) Fit though...oy. I made a toile of the bodice in a size 10 and it seemed to be fine. There was a bit of excess on the side seams, but the bust darts fit spot-on, so I figured I'd just use a bigger seam allowance on the sides and it'd all be tea and crumpets. Alas, it was not the case.

Damn did I have issues with the fit on this! I made it, attached the skirt and when I tried it on, I realised the bodice was way too long on me. That's never happened - I don't think I'm short-waisted - but it was clear that I needed to shorten the bodice by a good inch. And there was at least an inch of excess in the side seams of the bodice. Grr. This was annoying because naturally I'd already overlocked the waist-seam. Cue an intense period of unpicking on Sunday!

Anyway, blah blah blah - I made the adjustments, stitched it all back together and tried it back on. I don't know. I think I need to make a size 6. It's ok with a belt, but it's still fairly loose-fitting and I feel like the shape would really suit being properly fitted, you know? In saying that, if I went to a size 6, perhaps I would need to do an FBA? I think I'll make another one in a 6 but just use the size 10 dart...will that work do you think? The dart really is in the perfect spot and this pattern is drafted for a C-D cup which means it does have plenty of room. Ah well. I reckon Hello Kitty needs a belt anyway - it adds definition and breaks up all the yellow.

It's really really cold here today. Back down to a high of about 11 degrees, and I have the heating on, so we are not in the midst of sundress weather at all. Kitty needs a cardy at the mo! But as soon as the sunshine is out, I'm going to revel in this dress. Fit issues aside, it's still a dress made in crazy Hello Kitty fabric and you can't help but kind of love that!

Post-script: I tried to take a video of me twirling around in this (because a half-circle skirt needs to be twirled) and I made myself actually sick. Like crawl-to-the-bathroom-and-vomit sick. Blergh. This is what comes of the madness of taking photos for blog posts! (And having issues with my inner ears and balance). No more twirling for you Ms Kitty! 

Me Made May Week 2 Round-up

Well, it's the 16th of May which means we are officially over half-way through Me Made May already! Crazy.

I wasn't as consistent last week at taking a pic every day of what I was wearing. Partly this was because I got sick of it, and partly it was laziness and/or slopping around the house in something that didn't need to be photographed! On days which are not photographed here, I was either wearing my Moji pants or my new feathery Washi dress which I posted about last week. Still me-made, but around home there are starting to be some wardrobe repeats. I don't mind that - I wouldn't expect to wear a different thing every day of the month whether I bought or made my clothes. I guess what's interesting will be which items get the most repeats!

I was determined to wear my Adelaide dress on Tuesday, even though it wasn't that warm! Worked well with leggings and a cardi (RTW) though! 

Drama Dress worn on Wednesday. This dress makes me sigh. It had stretched out in the bodice again already, so before wearing it, I unpicked the underarm hem, took it in by 1.5cm each side, and then restitched the hem. I could probably afford to lift the shoulders too, but am getting sick of it. It's SO annoying because this dress is perfect otherwise - so cosy and warm and comfy! 

On Friday (or was it Thursday? Losing track...losing my mind) I wore my Linden Sweatshirt which definitely qualifies as a favourite make. I LOVE this contrast jumper. It has all the comfort of Linden, but is just fancy enough that you can wear it with heels and lippy and feel dressed up. Perfect! 

We went out for tea on Saturday and I wore my crepe Laurel dress. Not sure I've blogged about this one but I love it. That dress is so different when made in drapey fabric. It's super comfy and easy to wear, and I love the bright print. The bust darts are really too high on this, but non-sewing people don't tend to notice so I wear it anyway. The other pic is the giant bunch of flowers I took to the friend - almost the same height as me! ;-) 

Weird Rambly Thoughts/Reflections from Week 2:
 - I definitely find dresses (certain kinds - Moneta and Washi being high on that list) to be more comfortable than jeans. I'm increasingly much more likely to want to wear a dress with leggings on a day that will be spent largely at home sitting at my desk or on the couch in the conservatory, than I am likely to want to wear jeans. I am sloooowly adjusting my brain to accept that wearing a dress is not weird or overly 'dressy'. This feels like progress, and a positive use of my hand-made clothing!
 - After making the Adelaide dress last week, I've realised how much I love the idea of button down garments. I've honestly not worn a single button down garment since high school (and the button-down shirts we had to wear as part of our uniform)! I can't buy RTW shirts or dresses with front-buttons because of the boob situation (ie. I'm a 12 in the bust, 10 in the waist and an 8 in the hips), but at some point I obviously decided that I also didn't really like the style (maybe it was a 'if they don't like me, I don't like them' thing). It's actually really delightful to realise that I can wear them if I sew them myself, and I that like the look! I have plans a-foot for my first shirt-dress, and another Adelaide.
 - I said I was bored of taking photos, but I'm not sure if it's boredom exactly. I think I feel a bit embarrassed of taking so many photos!! I've never been very comfortable in front of the camera, and I LOATHE a candid photo (death to anyone who dares to take a candid shot of me and tag it on Facebook without checking with me first!), so I've found it quite unsettling to spend so much time taking photos of myself, and thinking about taking photos of myself. I can't decide if it's making me feel more or less confident! Also, you should know that the photos I do share are usually the one good shot of about 20 bad ones (...and that quite frankly, I wish I looked like the girl in my Instagram pics! Is that me?!)
 - While I'm bored senseless of taking photos every-day for MMM, I am genuinely loving seeing everyone else's photos on Instagram. Sewing people - you are SO creative and amazing!! It's properly delightful to see such an incredible range of gorgeous handmade garments, and to see everyone celebrating them. It's a little bit awe-inspiring. The work and skill that goes into all this sewing is wonderful and I feel proud of not just my own makes, but pride in this talented community more generally! You guys rock!  

Sewing Against the Clock (or: filling the dress-sized gap in my wardrobe, Part Deux)

I fancied a day of sewing last Wednesday, and thought I'd try to make another dress to fill this summer-dress gap in my wardrobe. In light of my Me Made May pledge, I wanted to be able to make whatever it was from my stash, and given we didn't know how long the weather will stay nice, I wanted it to be quick! (sew, sew, quick before the rain comes!*)

I've posted before about Seamwork patterns. They're from Colette's online sewing magazine, and are all designed to be made in roughly 3 hours or less. Perfect for a quick make. I love my Mojis and my Astorias, so why not try another one?! The Adelaide dress is Colette's pattern of the month (which means discount!) and while I wasn't drawn to the pattern originally, I'd seen a couple of versions pop up that I properly loved. This one in kitty fabric is amazing. I'm still tempted to splurge on that fabric and have it sent from the US. 

So on Wednesday morning I decided to make the Adelaide. We had a friend coming over on Wednesday night for dinner, so I figured I needed to finish sewing at 5pm in order to have time to clean up and cook tea. That gave me plenty of time, even for a new pattern! Oh, did I mention that I hadn't actually printed the pattern out or pieced it together yet?! The 3 hour time suggestion doesn’t include the pdf faffing, but I reckoned I should still have plenty of time. I finish printing the pattern (37 pages) by 10.15am, and....I'm off! 

I manage to get the pdf cut out, taped together, and cut out again in just over an hour, but then I hit a glitch and had to race back down to the bloody craft shop as I’ve realized the pattern needs interfacing (which isn’t listed in the notions!! Grr!) and I’m out. This is my second trip to Hobbycraft for the day, as I'd been down there at 9am to buy bias binding and the snaps required for Adelaide. I furiously cut out the pattern pieces when I get back – I’m going so much faster than normal! I’ve got Netflix on in the background, but it’s washing over me and I couldn’t honestly tell you what has happened much in this series.  By 1.30pm I’m done (and have also made the pie filling and the pastry for dinner, and made and eaten my lunch). At 2pm, I finally start sewing. 

The sewing goes really well. In reality, there’s not that much to the dress (3 pattern pieces, darts front and back), but the placket is something I haven’t done in ages so I take a bit of time getting it right. The dress is shaping up! By this stage it’s 4pm, so I still have an hour to go to meet my own deadline of 5pm (which is also the 3 hour mark), and I reckon I can do it! I’m about to sew on the belt loops, but I decide to try it on first... 

...Doom! The dress is great – I think it’ll look really good, BUT the armhole is at least an inch too high. It’s unwearable – so tight and totally cutting me off under the arms. So frustrating. I start unpicking, but I’m out of bias binding, and by now it’s 4.15pm…there’s no way I’ll be able to redo the armholes and finish the rest of the dress by 5pm. My 3 hour challenge is a failure.

***

I finally get a chance to return to the dress on Friday evening. It's mostly done. All I need to do is cut down the armholes, make some bias binding (I need to stop buying the premade shit. It's so convenient but so expensive!), and then make the belt loops and belt (and hem the dress). Well. I don't know what kind of voodoo sewing magic other people can manage, but it takes me about a bloody hour just to turn the stupid belt loop piece out the right way! I'm wrangling a metal skewer in the end. But I've long since given up on the 3 hour thing by this point anyway, so I just concentrate on finishing before bed. In all I think I probably end up spending another 3 hours on the dress, so the 3 hour challenge didn't pan out - but the dress is still great! 

I made it in cotton swallow-print fabric I had in my stash, and realistically, I think it probably would be better in something with a bit more drape (as recommended). But I really like it! Perfect warm weather attire.

Being a dork and trying to pose cute with sunglasses and heels...and then realising you can see the ironing board against the window #classy

Bare feet, no ironing board, and happy in my Adelaide dress! Can you see how it doesn't sit flat at the top? Flaps a bit where I feel like it should sit flat. 

Alterations? I hacked about an inch and a half out from under the arms as discussed, and I cut a size 8 but used the size 10 dart. That worked well actually - the dart sits in the right spot but I think perhaps I need to lower the neckline a bit in future versions. It flaps a bit, and that's mostly boob-fit related. If it were an inch lower in the scoop, I think it would sit flatter on my chest. Or maybe it'll sit flatter in a softer draping fabric? Thoughts/advice? I'll also make the belt wider next time - the 5/8 seam allowance meant it came out quite skinny. 

The dress fastens with poppers rather than buttons which is partly how it can be considered a 'quick' make. I love the poppers, I do - so quick and convenient. BUT...I think I might try and use buttons instead on any future versions. The unfortunate thing about poppers is that they pop open easily. Like when you're bending down or getting in and out of of the car! Mostly it's only the bottom couple that pop open, but I've had a few situations when wearing this where, if I hadn't been wearing leggings, I'd have properly been flashing my undies. Eek! So buttons might be a tad less likely to result in wardrobe malfunctions! Also snaps are really expensive. This dress needs 13 of them (I used 12, not bothering with the bottom one), which is 2.5 packets of the Prym ones I bought. That means there's about £10 of poppers in this which frankly is more than I care to spend on notions for a dress. 

I have to say I'm really pleased with this dress, and glad I decided to make it. I've never worn a dress in this general style before, and it's got me thinking that maybe I could do the whole shirt-dress concept. And now that I know about the arm-hole fit thing, I'll be able to make my next Adelaide a lot more quickly. In fact, I have ordered my first fabric buy of the month to make another one! Hooked on Adelaide. 

Let's just hope all these summer dresses don't provoke the weather gods and send the sunshine packing! 

*Post-script: The rain has come (I'm now back wrapped up in my flannelette Mojis and Opal cardigan!). Clearly this run of summer sewing has tempted the weather gods. Sorry Britain - my bad! Oh well. If the sun comes back, I'm ready! 

Filling the dress-sized hole in my wardrobe: Part 1

So, as I said in my last post, the weather has finally started warming up here in the UK, and it immediately makes me want to swish about in dresses. And yet, when I went to my wardrobe to find a relaxed dress to throw on, I found I had very few to choose from. That surprised me to be honest! I figured I must have loads. Nope! I have my Washi dress, which is perfect in warm weather, but there's not much else. All my Monetas are quite wintery, and my Cocos are mostly too short to wear without leggings. Similarly I have a lovely crepe Laurel dress (which I don't think I've blogged about actually) which I really like, but A. it's a tad short without leggings, and B. the bust dart is too high (that bothers me most when I know people who sew will see it. Non-sewists don't realise or care about such fit issues I don't think!).

What I need are a few more dresses which I could wear with leggings and a cardy if the weather turns back to our normal 'moderate' but which will also be nice to wear while baring my arms and pasty-white legs when things warm up.

When I went to get dressed yesterday, I was faffing about unable to decide and thought I was going to have to break my MMM pledge and wear a RTW skirt and top. Then I remembered I'd mostly made another Washi dress a couple of weeks ago, only to decide it didn't look right (too 'poofy' in the skirt) and had left it unfinished. I gave it another look yesterday and decided I did quite like it after all. And all it needed was some bias binding around the arm holes (I'd decided against sleeves for this one) and hemming.

20 minutes later, boom - new dress!

This version doesn't sit as nicely in the skirt as my first one. Not sure why exactly. It's the pockets - they stick out a bit. I would say that it's because I'm using a medium weight cotton, but the pattern is drafted for that type of fabric. I think the next one I make (there will be more!) I'll cut a size smaller in the skirt piece because I always end up taking it in. Maybe less fabric will keep the puffiness to a minimum.

Anyway. First dress-sized hole in my wardrobe is plugged! This is the perfect summer dress for me. Fitted enough to have some shape, but comfy enough that I don't feel constricted or uncomfortable.





Sorry you have to see my scarily white legs. I'd like to say they'll get less white as summer wears on, but that would be a lie. They will stay this particularly vivid shade of blue-white no matter how much sun they see. Not sure I really care anymore! They are what they are!

Me Made May Week 1 Round-up

Right. We're already over a week into May (argh) so I thought it time to have a little moment of reflection about the Me Made May business. I won't do this every week I don't think, but it's nice to sit back and think about what, if anything, I've learnt throughout the process.

1. I'm already SO bored of taking photos of myself. Does everyone on Instagram/blogs feel this way? Some people seem to have mastered the art of taking photos and selfies. I have not.

2. Despite saying in my last post that I probably needed to make fewer dresses, I've realised I actually don't have enough! The weather has turned warm this week (properly so the last two days) and I found myself struggling to know what to wear. I wanted to wear dresses - light, floaty, summery, comfy dresses, but actually, I have a real lack of these in my wardrobe. Now, obviously I live in Britain, so there's no need to go too bonkers with the summer dress making, but this is a definite gap that needs to be filled. I have a couple of makes to post later today which are starting to remedy this, and a few more planned. Stay tuned!

3. On days that I don't want to wear dresses, jeans are the logical other option. Much like every other woman in the Western world, I hate buying jeans. The very thought fills me with dread. I'd actually rather go swimsuit shopping in winter. I don't fit jeans that well. I'm short (and particularly short in the leg) and my waist is slightly wider than my hips which means I need a short-legged size 8 in the legs/bum/hips, and a 10 in the waist, and they don't sell jeans like that. Making them then, seems a sensible thing to do! While the thought of making jeans fills me with considerable terror, I guess it's not impossible. The Ginger Jeans pattern does make it seem feasible, so I'm going to start slowing psyching myself up for this. My Mum thought the idea sounded good too, so maybe we'll do an international mother-daughter jeans sewalong!

4. Did I mention I'm so freaking bored of my own selfies?

Here are some pics I've posted to Instagram during the last week, plus today's outfit (and a face which shows just how bored I am of the photo-taking!)

Day 1: My fave Emmeline tee in amazing lightweight tropical print crepe 

We were painting the spare room on Day 2: failed Anima pants and a stretched out Coco dress (hacked into a top) are my 'work clothes'

That favourite Coco dress with RTW leggings was the working-at-home look on Day 3

Day 4 and the weather properly warmed up, so I swanned about in my Washi dress (which FYI, is the most comfy dress ever. This fabric is linen-y and gorgeous)

Day 5 and I was rocking my other favourite Emmeline Tee. I love this print - lets me be in my safe zone of black but still have splashes of lovely colour

Day 6 and you have to look closely to see what I'm wearing because I forgot to photograph it, but it's the flannelette Moji pants I've blogged previously. Reading a truly wonderful (work-related) book about how people wear and use their clothes. It's really really brilliant. I highly recommend it to everyone! 

Day 8 (sorry Day 7 missed being photographed) and it's hot. The pasty white legs are officially OUT. This is a new Washi dress which I will blog about shortly! 

Day 9. My face on the right says it all. Bored of looking at photos of myself now! (wearing a Coco dress with a collar)