Preparations for Hepcats

Morning Lovelies

I only plan on doing one blog post this week as I'm a little tight on time, so I decided to do it today (Wednesday, for those of you reading this later on) to split the week up a bit. Things didn't go exactly to plan yesterday, so the last bit was written on Thursday, (the builders went through the gas pipe yesterday oops)

This weekend is Hepcats, a dancing weekender that runs from Friday to Monday, and I am doing the last minute preparations for it, ie making sure that all evening outfits have a hat etc. I kinda feel that now I am calling myself a milliner I ought to have hat on whenever possible, so as well as dresses there are now hats to be made, and a rather nice pink loop collar shirt for Dr. J. that he is rather pleased with.  Loving the pattern..

I thought I was sorted on all the evening dresses I was planning on wearing until whilst sorting out the summer clothes box, you know the place where you keep swimming costumes and dresses that you would only wear on holiday with sarongs etc, I found a shift dress I made quite a few years ago when Dr J. and I had only just started going out, and I know he liked it. Don't know what it was doing in there, but it explains why I hadn't seen it for a while, and I only wore it the once anyway. Well since I was in the mood I tried it on and was pleasantly surprised to find that apart from being very creased it was ok and it still fitted, don't know why but I always assume that things won't fit.

The belt that went with it wasn't there so a new belt was needed and a hat. (And one of the other dresses would need to become a day dress now, it can be sort!) and I need to re-do the facing as I was horrified with the mess I had made of that, I must have run out of time badly when I first made it, as I'm sure my sewing wasn't that bad back then.
So jobs to do 1. draft new facings, 2. attach new facing, 3. draft new belt (I fancy a large bow this time) 4. make a hat to finish of the outfit, and 5, if there is time, make a bag to really finish of the outfit. Ok I'm out of here......


time passes off camera

.....
and back

1. and 2. Well drafting new facing, not so bad I used proper lining material this time and just used the ones I had taken out, as a pattern but making the neckline a little lower.

3. A new belt made in same material as hat to help it match, and I had none of the original material left at all. I decided that I wanted to have the bow stand a little so I added support inside of it, a rectangle of canvas.

4. hat I will make this into a whole post one day as people are often interested in how these are made.

5. bag, here is where I often cheat a little if there is limited time. I make a little bow out of the material and attach it to a standard bag with a safety pin, so this bag makes it into lots of outfits. And no photo as the phone memory is now playing up and I've got to get this post out, I can't mess around any longer, so may be next time.

Well till next time when I will hopefully have some photos from Hepcats to show you.  Have a good week, and weekend all. Bye,

Hugs and Kisses

Ally