Here is the second part of the post about the Biba Exhibition, this might confuse people not from Southend but the second hale is housed in the original ‘old’ library which is the museum.

The part housed in the museum was housewares and makeup, Biba apparently had a finger in all pies, as far as I can work out they were eventually housed in a very large department store in London.

while I was looking at the dresses a lady was in there with me she was very nostalgic while looking at all the merchandise, and informed me that at home she probably had more at home than was included in the exhibition, she remembered fondly that the price of the bus fare was probably more than she and her friends bought in the shops, the makeup was very cheap.

you must admit the eyeshadow sets do look fabulous….

The also sold household from matches to dinner services all with the black and gold motif

there were these really great art deco signs

and here is the ending plaque

One of the ladies in the Museum said that she thought it was one of the best exhibitions that had been put on there and I think she was right, she also mentioned that it all came from one mans collection.

if you have any great memories of Biba I would love you to share them in the comments.

I’ve finally finished my fourth pair of Birkin Flares, I cut this pair our the same time as the last pair which were finished and taken on holiday with me back in May.

There were no surprises in the making of theses, however there was a surprise when I put them on.

Considering they were cut out the same time as the last pair from the same fabric, they feel completely different. I’m not sure why, they feel softer and some what roomier.

I decided to go with the red top-stitching which I think looks really good, on this pair I decided to decorate the pocket which I have decided that I prefer.

As the previous pair seems to have shrunk some what, I decide to put a teeny tiny hem on them, I do like my trousers to practically drag along the floor. At the moment they are doing fine but I’m not sure how long they will stay long so the next pair that I make will probably be cut longer still.

Bye for now…..

I’ve just got back from a trip to New York, which is why I’m a bit late in posting, withe Florida I had time to sit back in the evening and take total advantage of the free WiFi, so I could post as I went along, the WiFi in our hotel was a bit slow and not free!!

We flew out of Heathrow, the Premium economy isn’t as good for New York as for Florida, I assume it is something to do with the size aeroplane, it seemed smaller and more cramped. we were driven over to Manhattan in a cab with the smallest amount of legroom ever.

I should have taken some photos on the way over but I had left my camera in my carry on, which was in the boot of the car. This is my 4th/5th trip out and I always smile on seeing the ‘spaceships’ from Men in Black (1965 worlds fair observation decks)

We stayed in a hotel near Central park and we had a few things that we had listed to do. Number one was go and get pizza at Angelos, which we did on the first day and fourth and fifth days.

day 1, it was raining, usually when we go to New York it is dry and sunny for most of the holiday and rains on the last day, this year it was the other way way round. It was forecast to rain the whole time we were out there but we were lucky it just rained on the Friday.

We walked down over to Macy’s, stopping at Gap on the way, Simon likes their Jeans. Because of the poor exchange rate and the fact we had already spent quite a bit of money earlier in the year, we weren’t planning on spending too much.

I did however go to Mood fabrics, wow!! I have never seen so much fabric in one place, it is on 3 floors and the fabric is floor to ceiling, there are a lot of staff, so you find the fabric you want and they cut it for you and price it up as you go along, then once you are finished you take your ‘pile’ of fabric to the front desk on the 3rd floor and they tot it up and Simon hands over his credit card, obviously he wouldn’t do that for just any one, only me. 🙂 that trip I bought some denim and a piece of silk crepe, I did have something in mind for each bit I bought.

For dinner that day we went to Red Lobster, we had discovered a liking for crab legs while in Florida and Simon found a Red Lobster just off Times Square, yippee!!

More later….

I debated about not doing this post, and to be honest I’m not one of those, ‘lets put all our feelings out on the internet’ type of girl, but Denise has been such a big part of my life in recent years and we have known each other for over 20 years.

Last Sunday, Denise, my sewing buddy for the last three years and before that my card-making buddy, and before that my very dear friend lost her fight with Cancer. Denise had suffered with ill health her entire life.

She had to give up work in 2006 due to pulmonary hypertension, and had a very successful Liver transplant the following year. Three years ago she was diagnosed and beat cervical Cancer, earlier this year they found another growth this time by her lungs, she was told this was a totally unrelated Cancer to the first. After treatment for this they found another lump, which was hiding behind the other one.

Feeling better but unable to walk far, we made our plans, Denise had wanted to go to the Knitting and stitching show at Olympia this year but had been feeling too unwell to go, so I checked with Cooks Coachs and we could go to Alexandra Palace in October, we would take her wheelchair and Denise announced this meant we could buy more ‘stuff’  because we could hang it on the chair and not have to carry it.

In and out of hospital over the summer with pneumonia, she was still looking forward to our trip in October, then while on holiday in August she lost the use of her legs, they found another tumour, this one pressing on her spine, she then spent a couple of weeks waiting to be transferred back to Southend from Chichester.

Once back in Southend, I visited, the trip wasn’t mentioned, I think we both knew it wasn’t going to happen. she was in a lot of pain but still showing a brave face now talking about plans for having a real Christmas tree set up on her decking, Denise loved Christmas practically the whole of December her house was an obstacle course of Christmas Trees, I’m sure last year there was at least 5 and that was just downstairs.

13th September I bought her some books and we talked Lynsay Sands and Argeneau Vampires, she was having difficulty concentrating she said, so wanted something not too brain tiring, she was also worrying that she wouldn’t get home to see her cat Poppy again. I arranged to come back to following week.

The following day she text to say they were sending her home, but she wasn’t happy about it as the Respite Team had said maybe the following week. The Hospital changed their mind, when I asked the following day if she had gone home, she was still in the Hospital.

She passed away on Sunday, she had fought so hard and overcome so much that I suppose I thought she would come back from this, that she was indestructible.

The  beginning of the year she had so many plans, we had so many dressmaking plans, we were going to complete some fitting classes on Craftsy, she had just found the Swallow fabric that she had been hunting for, and we were going to dress up for the Knitting and Stitching Show – Big Vintage Sewalong.

Denise had a large circle of friends, a passion for life, Star Wars, Harrison Ford (not sure if those two are related :-)) and she was always making plans, doing something, going somewhere, she wouldn’t have been happy being bed-bound, but she would have got on with it, she would have been there with a smile and a positive attitude, and I would have been there trying to keep her amused and maybe make her laugh.

Good bye Denise I will miss you.

I have a new dress to show you, I made it from Gerties Ultimate Dress Book, If you remember when I made the Dress for Liz I had a problem with the waist, well it turns out it wasn’t all me not cutting the dress on the fold, there is something completely out with the sizing.

The first bodice I made was size four going to size six, I did a small bust adjustment, but instead of taking all the fabric out of the side dart I decided to take half out of the waist dart. These darts are huge to start out so I thought it would be best. It was too small in the chest and in the waist, I measured myself again, the waist size should be fine if anything it should be too big, I have a 27 inch waist and the pattern was supposedly for 28 inch, at this point I thought I had miscalculated when redrawing the waist dart,

my second attempt was a straight size 6  SBA this time I took all the fabric from the side dart. I made a second muslin it was a bit tight, but it got done up I didn’t think any more of it.

I made the changes to the bodice pieces as per one of the posts on Gertie’s blog, cut into my fabric and made up the dress. It went together really easy, I basted the zip in tried it on and couldn’t get the zip done up. 😦 miles too tight I took the sideseams apart and used a 3/8 seam allowance a bit better but I still couldn’t breath or sit down once it was done up, then I did what I should have done in the beginning, I measured the pieces, they added up to 26inches, the waist on my supposed 28 inch waist pattern was 2 inches out and that was without ease what was going on here, so then I got the pattern sheet out and measured that and sure enough that was also out 2 inches.

I didn’t have enough fabric to re-cut the bodice pieces so I had to steal the extra out of the 4 waist darts, I can now get the dress done up and move about in it, I do need to revisit the alteration to the side seams as one side appears to be a bit wonky but other than that the dress went together very nicely.

I had read on the internet that the midriff piece was wrong, but it looks like it could be affecting all the waist sizing. I had already been slightly concerned because the skirt didn’t seem particularly long, I’m 5ft 2″ (and a bit) it come to just below my knees and the bodice didn’t need shortening, though I did take about 1/2 inch out of it in the end.

I am concerned though that the publisher hadn’t checked the pattern sheets before printing, especially seeing there is a printing error in Gerties first book and I’m still not convinced on the sleeve pattern for the shirtwaist dress. I have the second book as well but I haven’t made anything from it yet.

I am going to make the same dress but use the bodice pieces from sew many dresses so as I can do a direct comparison and give you my thoughts on both books.

There isn’t a lot I can say about these Jeans that haven’t already been said, I still love them and they are really comfortable.

No 5 is a little bit different, in that I bought 3 metres of white stretch denim, what is that I hear? you say not white? well it isn’t white any longer I cut in half and dyed one bit purple and the other bit green.

I used the Dylon machine wash dye, no need to add salt, it is all in the packet, you wash the fabric first, check then add the dye then the fabric wash it, wash it again, then run the washing machine with nothing it.

The fabric came out mainly alright, both the green and the purple had some weird spots at one end, luckily because the fabric was so wide, I have been able to cut around them, but I wouldn’t have been very happy other wise.

It is quite weird, the Purple has come out on the photos quite accurately but the green not so much, the green is a vibrant forest/emerald green rather that this wishy washy grey green.

As in most of my starts this year I haven’t got very far….

I decided I wanted pink top stitching, but couldn’t find the exact colour in topstitching thread, but i have seen a few people say that they just doubled up on the normal thread, I think it has come out very nicely.

more soon