Pottery Print dress: Colette Peony

You're only 45 once, so I thought the occasion merited a special birthday dress. The fabric came first, bought on holiday last month at Rainbows in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight. It's from Michael Miller's Jug or Not? range and this design is called Retro Kryptonite.
 

It's reminiscent of two iconic mid-century textile designs, Stig Lindberg's 1940s Pottery fabric (below left) and Sanderson's Hayward (below right). Hayward was originally designed in the 1950s but was reissued as part of Sanderson's Revival collection a few years ago. I made my first ever ukulele gig bag out of it! 

My fabulous fabric suggested a 1950s or 60s style dress and was therefore a good excuse to try out Colette's Peony sewing pattern.

Having Googled other people's Peony dress makes I wasn't sure how I'd get on with making the bodice which comprises four notorious darts. I sensibly made a toile of the top half of the dress and found the tight, darted bodice too stifling. Really I should have learnt my lesson from attempting Simplicity's 1800 Amazing Fit dress before choosing another fitted dress pattern. Realising that I'd be extremely unlikely to wear something so constricting (I burnt my bra decades ago), I minimised the front body darts to give myself room to breathe and slouch around. I found I could easily get into the bodice with the back seam sewn up, so cut the dress back in one piece (kinder to the fabric design) and dispensed with a zip. Finally I added a good five centimetres length to the skirt pattern piece, then cut into the precious Jug or Not? fabric.

The Peony was easy to sew and I loved making the matching belt. It feels comfortably soft with a bit of ease, so doesn't strain at the seams even after eating large pieces of lemon drizzle birthday cake.

Postcard from the Isle of Wight

This drizzly day in Worthing seems an apt time to post a few pictures from the Isle of Wight. We traveled to the largest island of England two weeks ago (though it already seems much longer) by train and ferry. 
 

The journey took two and a half hours in total and couldn't have been smoother. There's a direct train from Worthing to Portsmouth where the ferry terminal is reached by walking down a ramp inside the train station. The ferry ride was an all too brief 20 minutes and an absolute joy on a bright sunny day – we felt like we were going abroad! From Ryde Pier Head we hopped onto the Island Line railway (comprising old stock London Underground trains) for a scenic route down the eastern side of the island to the Victorian seaside resort of Shanklin - our destination. 

A few days on the island transported us back to a 1970s vision of England. We walked along the under cliff from Shanklin to Sandown – a sleepy resort in April – had an excellent cup of tea at Harrigan's seafront café and gift shop where my daughter was dazzled by the plethora of figurines and trinkets on sale (and I succumbed to a souvenir tea towel) then trekked on past boarded up buildings and neglected playgrounds to Dinosaur Isle. 

A trip into Ryde showed us glimpses of previous Victorian splendour in a town mostly in decline, a complete contrast to lovely Ventnor with its dozens of restaurants and cafés, wealth of excellent second hand clothing and book shops and the wonderful Rainbows fabric and craft shop – haberdashery heaven.

  
At Ventnor Haven we took a stunning coastal tour with Lucy and Sean Strevens of Cheetah Marine in a boat they'd impressively designed and built themselves. They kindly let my 9 year old drive the boat back at high speed – thrilling experience of a lifetime for her and a terrifying but amazing one for me! My favourite adventure of the holiday was a ramble up and around Shanklin Chine, resplendent with fabulous flora and waterfalls. We must return soon.