12 March 2014

Craft - It's All Just Sew Dolly Clackett

My plans for doing different types of posts on different days was obviously foolish! My inability to plan what will bubble to the surface should have been more obvious to me from long experience... So, today I am back on the craft/creative bent again. I have got another Pearl's Pantry post in mind and shall be putting that up as soon as I remember to buy the ingredients and do the tutorial!

Today, I mainly wanted to tell you about a couple of books I bought at the weekend whilst buying yet another (bigger) pair of school shoes for madam. She's on her 3rd size since September, when will her feet slow down? 13.5 is nearly as big as quite a few of my friends and their teeny feet!

Anyway, books... I have a bit of a thing for DK books as they are genuinely some of the best reference books I've come across and are always well laid out and easy to read. I've been lusting after some of their Step by Step series for ages and have been putting off buying because, well, I'm skint.  

The ones I'm interested in are the Knit, Crochet, Sew and Stitch books. And it's those last two I managed to get. They were on sale at The Works for £2.99 each so I snapped them up despite my mum rolling her eyes next to me and complaining I didn't need any more books and where was I going to put them? 

One day I will post pictures of all the book piles/bookshelves stuffed full that my mum owns and let you work out why I found that statement hypocritical. 

But as you can tell I paid no heed and merely joined the queue and happily paid out for my new prized possessions. I sat and read through both of them on Saturday evening - my rock and roll lifestyle showing there... For those who have never read or heard of these books, Sew is about dressmaking and mending and Stitch is about embroidery and decorative stitching. 




There is another, bigger, version of the Sew Step-by-Step which is called Dressmaking Step-by-Step and includes some projects to have a go at, but it's way out of my budget, sadly. Even in The Works! 

I am particularly interested in learning as much as I can about dressmaking because I still feel very nervous about taking the plunge on my own to make an actual garment. I really want to take part in the Sew Dolly Clackett challenge and have to just give it a go and get on with it... But, but, but... ugh. I know Roisin herself would be telling me to just have a go and do the best I can.. It's about the taking part, after all!

The idea is to make a Dolly Clackett inspired dress, like these, modelled by the lovely Dolly Clackett (Roisin) herself...


Blanche dress - Christine Haynes Emery dress

Madarch dress - By  Hand London Elisalex bodice, Simplicity 2444 skirt.


I used two examples as I couldn't pick just one! And I adore that mushroom print! And if you click on the photo it'll link to the post about the dress (I'm starting to get technical with this blogging malarky...) 

So, I have to find a (simple) dress pattern that will actually fit my plus-sized and gorgeous self and then some impressively wonderful printed fabric to use. The print is the defining thing about Roisin and her dresses. And quite frankly being big and beautiful lends itself to some funky prints. Ditsy prints look stupid on me... 

Um, yeah, so this post started out about books and ended up about sewing love, wasn't sure how to categorize that, went with craft! (Is there a category that I could invent for mindless rambling from one topic to the next?). Anyway, that's enough from me. I'll update you on my #BLCreativePrompts next post...

Love, Pearl.

4 comments:

Tabatha Tweedie said...

If you'd like any help I'd be happy to lend a hand. You could even bring it here one Friday to make in my sewing room as I am now child-free on Fridays! :-)

Unknown said...

That sounds like a fab idea! I'm usually free on Friday mornings :)

Tabatha Tweedie said...

Cool. When you have the pattern and the fabric, let me know!

Roisin Muldoon said...

Thank you so much for featuring me - I'm really excited that you've decided to take part! I love the pattern you've chosen as well :)