New project/s

Ok, so with the broderie anglaise dress finished, what's next??  I have a number of ideas floating around but I really want to focus on learning in areas where I have no experience, or am less confident.

Here are some areas I'd like to work on:

• Sewing stretch fabrics - I've not really worked with these and would like to learn about the challenges these fabrics pose, and how to deal with them.
• Drafting a pattern - I've attempted this before but found it very hard work. I think a simple pencil skirt pattern will help improve my confidence by going back to basics on this.
• Underwear - I'd really like to try making some knickers!
• Camisole - I'll be needing something to wear under the sheer blouse I made recently. 
• Zips - I really want to get zips 100% perfect so I need to do a bit of research on better methods and then practise, practise, practise!

I *could* make a pencil skirt from stretch fabric using a pattern I've drafted, and that would cover 3 out of 5! But I think stretch fabric plus self-drafted pattern equals potential sizing disaster! I might go for the pencil skirt using some stash fabric first, and see how I get on.

Red & pink for Valentine's Day

So everyone's been going on about Valentine's Day, I'm not really into it myself (and no I'm not single, so don't accuse me of just being jealous!), but as expected there's been a huge Twitter / Facebook / blogging buzz about it. Lots of heart-shaped crafting going on in the online sewing world, but I'm not too into that sort of thing either. Just one thing caught my attention - Everybody Everywear is doing a feature on outfits combining red and pink as block colours. Now I would never have considered wearing red and pink together like this, but after looking at some of the posts and a little Googling, I think I *might* be a convert! Check out these 3 I found on Google:

Ok so the last one's a bit odd but I do like it :)

I have yet to discover where I stand on re-posting people's own photos from their blogs so I'll just give links to the ones I really liked from Everybody Everywear:

- this one from Knocked Up Fabulous, I really think she looks so gorgeous! Smart but cool.

- this one from Marionberry Style, which again is pretty smart workwear that I really love

- I found a few like this one from Rachel Sayumi where they'd gone for a much paler pink with the red, and that seems a lot easier to wear and very pretty. Not quite as striking though perhaps.

I really enjoyed looking through all these, and I definitely have been given the confidence to try this combination! Having said that, you've definitely got to be careful. I sifted through *plenty* of no-no outfits. I wonder what everyone else thinks of these celebs, but I think they could have done better! There were much worse out there, mind! You should go check it out on Google, I just searched 'Red and pink fashion'.

Happy Valentine's Day one and all!