Daisy dress

 

Finally, I have sewn a creation again. It has been a while. This was made with Simplicity 1803

More specifically, this view, without the waist tie

Alterations: I dropped the waist in the front by about an inch, and had to take in the seams under the bust for more definition to the bodice. I also opened up the split in the neckline at the front because it sits rather high, and was creating the dreaded mono-boob. 

Apart from that, I made it in size 12 and it fitted pretty well...

...except for the front. It pokes out over the stomach, which is the one thing I try to avoid with all my dresses. I tried pressing the gathering, and it still pokes out. This is just how the dress sits:

Yick. That is not my stomach. It's all dress.

I do like the neckline though.

And how GIRLY is this fabric?? Not only is it covered in daisies, it's also covered in strawberries, AND polka dots, like OMG.

 

Am going to try belt variations to deal with that stupid waistline at the front.

And in other news... I'm now on Facebooks. I gave in, and joined the masses (and some of you already found me! Hoorah!). There is now a big blue F on the right hand side of my blog you can click on to follow and be my BFF, or you can just click here...

https://www.facebook.com/miss.claire.whitelaw

 

A day with Miss Fisher's 1920's costumes

Yesterday, along with Jay and Mumsie, I visited the Rippon Lea estate to see the Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries Costume Exhibition.

The exhibition features many of the beautiful and glorious costumes from the television series based on the books by Kerry Greenwood. I love, love, love the books and the series is, well, good enough I suppose! I'm the sort of person who likes books to be adapted into series and films with nothing altered. The series is light and silly and it's fun to see the characters come to life.

 First stop, tea and scones. And some photos, of course.

 

Dress - ASOS

Boots & tights - old

Cameo necklace - gift from Jay

Cameo ring - (old) Samantha Wills

Upon entering the mansion (a situation in which I find myself every day, darling) we were delighted to discover a rack of coats, capes and feather boas, accompanied by a bowlful of fascinators and headbands, available purely for the purpose of dressing up and getting into the swing of things.

 

 

How could we resist?

 

One of the actual costumes is shown behind us here.

   

    

As you can see, I was not enjoying myself at all. And is that an admirer in the background? 

One of my usuals, no doubt.

Time to get down to business and see the exhibition. Sadly, no other photography was permitted, so here are some of the costumes we saw, as shown in the souvenir booklet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 If you are not able to visit the exhibit I can only highly recommend watching the series to see more of the costumes, as they are quite exquisite. 

The exhibition was spread out through several rooms, with headless bodies and large (fake) knives lying around in abundance. I'd never been to Rippon Lea before, and seeing the house was as much of a treat as seeing the costumes.

 After the exhibit we took a stroll around the gardens. We couldn't have picked a better day for it.

I was very excited by everything we saw. 

"A bridge! Someone take my photo with this bridge!"

"A tree! Someone take my photo with this tree! It's huge!"

"OMG! A seat! Wait! Wait! I need a photo with this seat!"

I ended up with almost 200 photos. I was a happy little black duck.