Isn't it great when the two go together? Postal fabric buying is always a gamble, but this time it paid off really sweetly...
Last week I acquired two nice new customers: a bride and a professional woman.
The bride is a teacher (so still a professional woman, but a bridal customer!), getting married in March, and she wants an adult bridesmaid dress and two little ones, plus a head scarf for the adult, hats for the kids, and a waistcoat and bow tie for a page boy. The bride is lovely - sweet and sensible! NOT a common combination in brides! She has chosen a wonderful pattern, Butterick 4018, in a dark burgundy velour (so it will look JUST like the pix in the catalogue!). The little girls (one six and one two) will have a long sleeved version of the Pink Bridesmaid little girl dresses I did back in the spring, with burgundy velour bodices and sleeves, and cream crepe skirts. The dresses will all be lined.
Although this is a knit poly velour, it's very stable, with almost no stretch in it - about as much as the crepe! It looks and feels very like a velvet, with a slightly longer pile. UNlike velvet, it's almost impossible to crush the pile! :D. The crepe is a 'heavy melange' crepe also in polyester. The two will look and feel very good together, and will wash nicely! We felt that with little kids we needed something washable, as they are bound to spill things and dry cleaning a child's velvet dress is no joke! I will be documenting this project, just as I did with the pink lot.
I ordered the fabrics from BL Joshi UK ltd (details on my Fabric List), and as usual they did an excellent job, sending a metre extra because of an almost invisible fault (Only really shows if you hold it up to the light!) and matching the lining really nicely. I rang them Tuesday morning, and it arrived Thursday morning.
The second customer is the financial director for a local large fruit farm. Like me, she has recently lost weight, and wants to lose more. Meanwhile, she's in need of several business suits... Oh, nice work, and a nice change from brides! NOT that my recent brides have been anything but exemplary, but the contrast is good, as is the chance to use some of my other sewing skills (pleats and vents rather than ruffles and gathers!). We chose fabrics from Hartley's Mail Order: a nice suit weight poly crepe, and a wonderful cream suit weight slightly herringbone weave slub silk! The silk is only 36" wide... Old looms or very old stock! Not sure which, but the fabric is truly scrumptious and was VERY cheap (£31.50 for a 6m length!). It was ordered on Friday and came today. It has been scrunched up in a tight wad in the parcel and come out with hardly a crease!
I also managed to sell on a bit of my stash to this customer: this is similar suit/dress weight crepe fabric that I bought a few years back when I thought I was going to return to classroom teaching, and needed business type clothes... Ha! No chance! So my damson crepe, my pillar box red crepe, and my cerise linen weave suitings will find a new home! :) The cream linen jacket and skirt can be mixed and matches with the skirts, jackets, dresses and trousers we make from the black crepe, the damson crepe, the scarlet, crepe and the cerise linen weave, and she will have a fine selection of things to look good and businessy in! This is a lady a little older than me - and a Power Granny! I will save the cash from the fabric to buy new stuff when I've lost more weight!
You can see that I am really looking forward to the New Year and the New Sewing. With luck the new projects will remove the last of the sewing blues I had most of the summer and autumn... And meanwhile I have Little Sis's bronze crinkle satin sexy evening gown to do (Vogue pattern
1367 in the long version) to make for 12th December, and my Christmas stocking course to teach - Saturday the 6th and 12th.No time for depression now - I also have a pile of Christmas cakes and puddings to make this week! If you see smoke rising, be assured that it will be a mix of steam from the cooking and smoke from the sewing machine pedals! You may see a little less of me for the next little while... The kitchen is filling with the smell of chocolate, brandy, and oranges as I make the famous chocolate Christmas cakes!