Beautiful Sunshine, Butterick Sale, new fabric, and progressing with the Swing Dress

This weekend was so lovely wasn't it? We made the most of it, heading to Hunstanton on Sunday (which is a bit of a trek in the car for a 3 and a 6 year old - the boys we're complaining mightily by the time we arrived) It didn't seem that sunny when we got there, but it was warm enough to play on the beach. My freckles even made an appearance!


This is the boys before they got covered in beach mud. It didn't take too long ;)



On Monday, Grafham Water had an all day taster event. Sadly Noah was to young to do anything, and protested loudly at this, poor boy. I don't blame him - the sailing looked really wonderful on a sunny day.

However Joey got to have his first go at a real climbing wall (as opposed to local playground climbing walls) and he is amazing. He just monkeyed up them like a rat up a drainpipe. I'm looking into his joining the climbing club as he really enjoys it (and to find something he enjoys other than lego is always a bonus!) That's him in the green t-shirt. He did the wall on the left of this one, and the wall to the right too (which is an overhang - arrgh!)



I also made some progress with the swing dress. Unfortunately its a case of one step forward, two steps back. Firstly I realised after attaching the waist piece, that whilst it looked ok hung up, it really didn't do me any favours when 'on'. I'm short waisted anyway (and have already made the adjustments for this), however it just looked wrong on me, so I had to unpick, hack a chunk off it, and re-sew. You can see the photo on the top is the original, and on the bottom is the modified version. I suspect with someone less dumpy the original version would be perfect.

I also discovered to my horror than I am much fatter than I thought. I have had to add side panels in order for the dress to fit.

On the up-side, I only have to attach the sleeves, sew in the zip, and hem it. Yey!





Also, I have been buying again. Minerva Crafts have a 40% sale on butterick patterns. It was tough, as there were many I would have bought had I endless dosh, but I kept it to 4 that I know I will wear, rather than patterns I hanker after but probably won't either make or wear (like Gerties coat and dresses).

Butterick 5748. I have a sundress that I modified which I bought from Peacocks for a fiver, and I want another one. This is a fairly close approximation of the pattern, and I think I'll use the cheap fabric I bought on ebay for it.



Butterick 5837 Really simple, but so cheap I couldnt resist. I will probably make a shorter version




Butterick 5030 I love this style, and I'm not sure what I want to make with it, but I know I want it in my pattern stash!



Butterick 5846. I've been umming and ahhing over this pattern, but the sale sealed the deal. I really love shirt dresses, although I would probably make mine longer as I don't like my knees showing (having said that, this model is probably 6ft and my knees won't show anyway!)



The one I can't afford:

Vogue 8577. Its £12.95, so its on hold. I love the shape and I love that it has pockets.



Other fabrics I bought over the weekend are this one:

which I love. I have New Look 6183 View A in mind which I have already.


This one was a wildcard. I have no idea what the fabric is, but theres about 5 metres of it, and it was supercheap. We shall see! I hate that there are no fabric shops near me, or market stalls that I can get to. Relying on ebay takes the fun out a bit.