When in doubt, make stuff

I have been off work for the last week, for medical purposes, and have not been wasting my days. In between work emails [I can't just leave it all alone, the sky will fall in if I do...] I have spent much time at my sewing machine and dress form. The combination of that and my continuing lack of a camera cable is not helping my blog's cause, and for that I apologise. BUT! It will not all be in vain.

I am making:

- a backless mauve silk top, slightly 1930s style - a little like the top half of that dress that Keira Knightley shags about in for a couple of scenes in Atonement



- a crinkled mauve and green silk dress - initially documented here, it has been modified and will soon be finished. I toy with the idea of putting epaulettes on the shoulders, to lend structure and bash a bit of the softness out of the dress

- a Japanese silk drawstring purse, to replace one I lost last week. More people should carry their money about in pouches, for to fling them at surly innkeepers and tavern wenches in return for their mead or silence. There's a medieval elegance to it that's sadly missing in our shiny, seedy society.

- The trousers to end all trousers. A while back I waxed lyrical about these Paul Smith beauties:



On Sunday I bought several metres of beautiful pinstripe wool-cashmere. Unfortunately I was fleeced, and paid over the odds - had I waited a day, I could have bought it in Shepherds Bush for a quarter of the price. Curses! Still, I got my lining nice and cheap, and saw Henry Holland mooching about in A1 Fabric Stores looking very VERY quiffed and blond.

So that's what I'm up to for the foreseeable. No expensive nights out for me... just hard graft over a hot sewing machine. The credit crunch, they say, is a-coming, and by God I'll be ready and well-clothed when it does.