Summer is here, people!!! After the longest winter in the history of the earth, and the shortest ever spring, I am so very pleased that summer has finally arrived! Hooray!
What better time to enjoy a picnic in the sun by the Thames? For a change of scenery, we visited the lovely town of Marlow, and sat by the Marlow lock, watching the world go by.
As soon as I bought this beautifully bright cotton fabric (all 5 yards for £5! can you believe it?!), I knew that I wanted to make a copycat of Betty's floral dress which was worn in two different episodes in Season 2 of Mad Men:
Photo from http://www.tomandlorenzo.com
Having looked through my pattern stash, disappointingly I could not see anything that fitted the bill. So with sleeves rolled up, I drafted the pattern with a simple gathered rectangle skirt, with a princess lined bodice. I then added self-fabric spaghetti straps, with a couple of little bows as decorative details. All in all it took me a day to complete this project, and I had to wear it to my own picnic today!
I also made the picnic blanket last week, in one of the evenings. I used a 1.5m x 1.5m piece of cotton fabric which was leftover from my peplum dress, matched by some hardwearing outdoor fabric of the same size to make it more stain/water-proof. I stitched all four edges but about 10cm with right sides together, clipped corners, turned around and top stitched the edges again. Basically I made a baby blanket again, but with non-baby friendly fabric this time!
I love both the dress and the picnic blanket! I never thought of making a picnic blanket before, but now it makes perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Yes the blanket was super easy to make - by the way I would've happily used an oil cloth/pvc for the backing, but I managed to find this hardy outdoor fabric from the remnant bin at John Lewis for £1 (on the roll it was £24 per metre!) so I was a happy bunny!
DeletePerfect summer dress, so cute!
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind :)
DeleteGorgeous dress . . .
ReplyDeleteLovely dress :) And a coincidence as I watched that exact Mad Men picnic episode a couple of nights ago (I hope you didn't leave as much mess after your picnic as they did, lol!)
ReplyDeleteHaha! Yes, I remember thinking the same after that picnic scene. There was actually a lack of bins where we had the picnic, but we were very good citizens, and carried our rubbish around for ages before chucking them out ;)
DeleteI remember seeing a tutorial once where they sewed little triangles to the corners of their picnic blanket to put weights in so it doesn't blow away, I think the idea was to find rocks where you were picnicing =]
ReplyDeleteYour dress is gorgeous as usual =] very happy fabric
What a neat idea! I would never have thought of that :)
DeleteHi Alice, Such a pretty dress and a very practical picnic blanket.
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind ;)
DeleteWhat a cute dress!
ReplyDeleteThank you! I love the fabric - just looking at it makes me feel happy!
DeleteForgot to ask, did you get my address? hope I dodn't email to incorrect email address lol
ReplyDeleteReceived today thank you.
DeleteSorry it took me quite a while to put it in the post (I have had a super busy month or so...) and you comment was a timely reminder :)I'm excited to see what you make from the pattern!
DeleteThis dress is so cute and really suits you. Makes me want to buy ditzy floral fabric and get sewing.
ReplyDeleteLinda.
http://daisycreatesinsussex.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you Linda! This has become one of my favourites, and I've got loads of wear out of it already :)
DeleteOh, this is ever so pretty! It just sings summer, and picnics, and warm weather! Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by, and welcome to Moonbeam! I'm so pleased that you like it :)
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