Another Astoria… #Coletteseamworks

Regular readers probably saw this one coming, but yes, I needed one of these in navy blue 🙂

Again I cut a size medium, adding an additional inch to the length of the bodice. What more can I say? I absolutely love this version too! Please be warned, this may not be the last Astoria you see around here…

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Summer Holidays #sundaysevens, Week 2

Sunday Sevens is hosted by Nat over at her site Threads and Bobbins, and is a round up of the week’s smaller events and achievements, that otherwise wouldn’t merit a post of their own. To join in, head over to Nat’s site to find out more.

My children have still been at school this week, so I spent the majority of my week days on my exam marking, now finally finished, hurrah! As a result I’ve been a little ‘creative’ with my images this week, spreading my photos from the weekend out a little…

Monday saw the arrival of my ‘treat’ fabrics and tailor’s ham from Guthrie and Ghani’s online shop. The cream I’ve already broken into, see here. And the others have all been carefully thought out, to hopefully, become wardrobe favourites. On Tuesday one of my ‘breaks’ from marking was to get some long-neglected hand washing done, something I don’t actually mind doing when I have a bit more time. Finally I can see the bottom of our laundry basket!

On Wednesday I had a go at making Deliciously Ella’s raw brownies. I still can’t quite believe that these are actually healthy :-). On Thursday I did some errands at our nearby town, and managed to pick up these from a charity shop. I only read Du Maurier’s Rebecca a year or so ago, even though it’s one of those books I feel that I should have read years ago. So I was delighted to pick up her other great novel and a sequel written by Sally Beauman.

At the weekend we went to Tatton Park Flower show with my husband’s parents. Above left is one of the lovely, water-feature gardens and on the right is the procession which our children loved. I also managed to locate a lovely, craft stall in one of the exhibit tents, below left. I’ve been meaning to get a couple of these Oliver and S patterns for my daughter for a while, so this seemed the perfect excuse…

That’s all for this week. The children finished school on Friday, so next week will be more about keeping them occupied. The weather looks dreadful though, so will have to get my thinking cap on…

Hope everyone has had a good week too,

Teresa.

The Seamworks Astoria, Mark II

I LOVE this top, in fact I’d go as far as to say it’s possibly my favourite make to date! 🙂 While I didn’t get it right first time around, I knew Colette’s Astoria was worth a second attempt: this time in the right size and in a beautiful fabric I treated myself to with some of my marking pay.

The fabric is ‘cosy colours cream multi fleck’ in a sweatshirt weight. I bought it from Guthrie and Ghani’s online shop. It certainly wasn’t cheap, but so, so worth it! It’s a beautiful quality with lovely, multi-coloured, tonal, fleck details. This was my first experience of buying fabric online and I can highly recommend them. I managed to somehow delete one of the fabrics I’d wanted in my online order, so telephoned them early the next day to add it back in, and the assistant who answered couldn’t have been more friendly and helpful 🙂 The parcel arrived quickly (I’ll post details of what else I ordered in my Summer Holiday #Sundaysevens post over the weekend. Let’s just say I may have treated myself a fair bit…) and it also came complete with a personalised ‘with compliments’ card, commenting on their own experience of trying a pattern I’d purchased, which I thought was a lovely touch.

This time I sized up and cut a Medium, which seemed incredibly big for me (I buy an 8 or a 10 in RTW and usually cut a Small in patterns, but do have what my Grandmother would have called a ‘BUST‘, she had a much more impressive ‘BUST’ herself… if that helps with sizing at all for any would-be makers of this top). But I’m glad I did as the fit was spot-on: fitted enough to be flattering, but avoiding the Incredible Hulk impression my previous version created, never a good look, funnily enough… I also added an inch to the length of the bodice, even though I’m already pretty short, which worked perfectly whilst still keeping it ‘cropped’ in style. Because the fabric is fleece lined, I made the long-sleeved version this time around. It’s beautifully soft and warm.

I just happened to have my yoga stuff on when I tried this on and it matched perfectly, but I also have a fair few bits of costume jewellery in these colours too, so it could easily look a lot smarter as well. This is exactly the sort of top I’d readily buy RTW, so I’m incredibly happy that I can now make it. I love how my list of ‘things not to buy when I can make them perfectly well myself thank you’ is steadily growing 🙂 I can already see a whole array of these in different fabrics: both different colours and weights.