Just Desserts Dress: Lisette Portfolio - Simplicity 2245

Trifling with the idea of making another Portfolio dress, I spied Fabric Land's pudding patterned Cake Stand heavy cotton (from their own-brand Hill-Berg range) at £3.99 a metre – it would've been churlish not to buy some to make this dress with.

Novelty print linen-look heavy cottons are a Fabric Land favourite of mine, and while they may be intended for craft use, I find them most suitable for dressmaking. The dress I made from their Berlin Macaroon fabric washes and wears well and still looks as good as the day I made it, as do the two Ticket To Ride dresses. They're a perfect weight to wear layered during the winter and the fabrics feel cool enough for summer too.

The Hill-Berg Cake Stand fabric features images from Mrs Beeton's 1861 Book of Household Management including illustrations of meringues, chocolate cream, blancmange, jelly, trifle, stewed pears and tipsy cake. The fabric is available in three colourways but I liked the blue best.

Illustrated puddings from Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, 1861

Fabric Land's Hill-Berg design Cake Stand printed cotton

Sewing a second Portfolio Dress I decided to try the short turn-up sleeve version this time. The instructions state that you should apply fusible interfacing to the sleeve bands, however, in the orange needle corduroy I used this has made them feel a bit too chunky to turn back, so I'm leaving them down. Next time I will skip the interfacing step. The corduroy is another remnant from my stash.

I think the finished dress is splendid, and the fact that it cost me less than £10 in materials to make is the cherry on the cake! 

Postcard from the Moselle Valley

The rolling hillside banks along Germany's Moselle are covered in vineyards – hundreds and thousands of terraced rows of neatly planted vines rising up to the sky all the way along the sides of the river. It's an industrial landscape, a lush green factory floor for one of Europe's smallest wine regions. 

Traveling by boat was best way to explore the quaint towns stretched out along the river. We visited Bernkastel with its cobbled streets, pretty colourful timber beamed buildings and tasted excellent kaffee und kuchen in Cafe Hansen; saw impressive Roman remains, enormous ecclesiastical architecture and stained glass windows in Trier; and while perusing Jungenstil villas in Traben-Trarbach chanced upon Handarbeitsstube, a fabric shop and needlework emporium with an impressive selection of bright organic printed cottons. I did not leave the shop empty handed!

We stayed in Ürziger Würzgarten where my friends are campaigning to halt construction of the B50 High Moselle Bridge. The proposed gigantic concrete structure is the largest bridge being built in Europe and is planned to span a four-lane motorway across the middle section of the Moselle Valley. The project would severely damage the ancient Moselle landscape and have catastrophic consequences for the vineyards and villages in this region. 

For now the valley remains as pretty and productive as my pictures show, but in ten years time, who knows? 

On Highdown Hill

The day after Saint Jude's storm saw calm blue skies with bright puffy clouds over Worthing. I headed up to Highdown with friends to breathe some South Downs air and hike across the breezy hilltop. Our children scrambled through long grass, explored ditches and climbed trees while we marvelled at the splendid views across Worthing and out to sea – blighted only by the sight of a sprawling Asda superstore.

As the air began to chill we gambolled back down the hill to Highdown Tearooms and refuelled with huge glasses of hot chocolate with whipped cream and generous portions of cake before investigating Highdown's chalk gardens. 

The children disappeared in a game of hide and seek and we could've stayed another hour enjoying the rich autumn colours but were driven out by the sound of a ringing bell warning us that the gardens were about to close.

Scissor Sister: Sweet Dress Book - Coat dress W

Tucked away at the back of the designs in Yoshiko Tsukiori's Sweet Dress Book is the bell sleeve coat dress (pattern W). It's easily the loveliest garment in the book - a front buttoning A-line coat with fairytale sleeves. 

I found the perfect fabled frock coat fabric in this grey linen-look cotton printed with French dressmaking notions (including slightly sinister scissors) at C&H Fabrics in Chichester. They couldn't tell me who produced it and there is no name printed on the selvage but it's similar in design and texture to the Berlin Macaroon fabric I made a dress from last month.

I thought the coat dress would be more like outerwear if I lined it, so used a floral print Japanese cotton which reminds me of the wallpaper in BBC TV's Peaky Blinders and gives the finished coat a charmingly retro feel. 

The flower-print wooden buttons are from Etsy shop BerryNiceCrafts - well worth a look for button bargains (I've also got my eye on these and these).

The coat has one front patch pocket and by fluke I managed to line up the pattern exactly.

I'm not sure the photos really do the garment justice, it's such a beautiful thing in real life. I wore it to meet friends last week and they all gasped in excitement at the fabric and ever so feminine flounce of the sleeves! 

Sweet Dress Book is worth buying for this pattern alone but for added cuteness the book includes an almond cupcake recipe and several pictures of this lilac colourpoint cat.

 

The Berlin Macaroon Dress: Simplicity pattern 2363

 
This patisserie design fabric was a surprise find at Brighton's Fabric Land and cost £4.75 a metre. It's a heavy cotton printed with vintage cake recipe illustrations and is available in two colourways: there's a pale pink and cream Paris Macaroon version, and this one, the Berlin version with strong greens and blues on a beige background.

 

Undaunted by the hideous illustration on the cover of Simplicity 2363 sewing pattern, I decided to use the fabric to make dress D. The cut of the bodice reminds me of Anna Maria Horner's gorgeous Painted Portrait Dress – a pattern I've dithered about buying as it's not available for sale in the UK (the price of international postage makes it a very expensive purchase for a single pattern). Simplicity 2363 will have to do for the time being.

The Simplicity pattern was straightforward to follow, I'd say the sizing is generous. The finished frock has a roomy fit, more like a tunic than the fitted dress on the illustrated packet but it's so comfortable to wear I think I'd probably make the same size if I use the pattern again. The fabric has a linen/canvas feel and is a little crumply after wearing it for the day but I've decided this adds to its olde worlde charm!

I intend to wear it to visit Cocoa Patisserie which has the most delicious display of macaroons in the window. I hope I won't be mistaken for the menu. 

Lost and found in the village

As a resident of Worthing Village I went along to the Sidney Walter Centre for their packed Heritage Open Day. 

Fascinating to map the changes Worthing has undergone over the last 150 years.  Changes of the kind that lead from Broadwater Cemetery resident Richard Jeffries to today’s obsessions with psychogeography.  A good place to get lost, and then find yourself again with a cup of tea with wedge of cake for £1 from the Sidney Walter Centre kitchen.