Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack Giveaway

Made by Rae Jackpack Backpack GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Go on over and try and win! Rae makes great patterns. Do you remember the buttercup bag at the start of summer?

window shopping

I found these 2 dresses on the Toast website.

iona shift dress

It's not easy to see on the silk one, but it has a wide neckline (boat style? is that the term?) and then it's sewn in 2 parts, the bodice and the skirt, both with darts and pleats. I like that look, looks comfortable to wear. The downside is the price £155. Yeah right!


Next up is this dress, the amor, slightly cheaper at £135. Still not in my budget range. I especially love the sticky out collar, what a cool detail. This has an empire line, which is flattering if the skirt isn't too flared, so you look pregnant! Ha!

Obviously there is something I can do! That's right, make my own. Now on my supersaving spate of late I want a pattern to replicate these 2 dresses! But why pay for that when the fantastic burda style has one for me! The Danielle dress is as near as I've found to the checked dress. So I may well have a bash at it. The downside, with all my quilt making, my dress fabric buying has been non existant! I'll have to see what the fabric shops have to offer aftr pay day!

Things to do

I'm really busy at the moment making a quilt, using these instructions. So far it is going well, and I am loving it. Too much. You see it's not for me, so I mustn't fall in love too much, as I might not let go when I hand it over, wrapped in a pretty paper with ribbon! That would be embarrassing! Of course, I could pop on one of the lovely labels that Amy Karol has designed.

So I thought I would share with you some lovely things that YOU could make, if you have time on your hands, and are so inclined!

Scrap Fabric Flowers from Heather Bailey (see her make them here)



Apron Tool from Sew What Bags by Lexie Barnes featured on Etsy.

Parchment Flowers by Jeffrey Ruddell

Jewellery Stamping by Lisa Niven Kelly

Have fun if you try any of these things!

I've just found this site www.sewmag.co.uk, it's a new sewing magazine, but more importantly it has a great website, that you need to log into and can watch how to videos and so on. I've watched the how to do a concealed zip, and can genuinely say I learned something new!

Wardrobe Planning

I've been thinking about my clothes, and I'm trying to be more organised and practical in what I buy. So I'm just making an inventory of what I've got and any gaps in my wardrobe. I need to stop being a magpie, and have a more uniform style, if you will.

Janie Dress from Monsoon £60

Having said that, I need a few long sleeve tops and some knitwear, in the colours that would go with the bulk of my clothes, which are mainly deep pinks/ purples, greens and brown. Well it looks like these are NOT the "in" colours of this A/W collections, as it seems to be a lot of black, grey, coral in the shops - oh no!

Tess Tie Neck Dress £55 - Monsoon

I used to wear black ALL the time, from my teenage years into my mid 20s. I have made an active decision to mainly keep it out of my wardrobe, and go for more colourful items. So this leaves me with a bit of a dilemma, as I do need a cardigan and 1 or 2 long sleeve tops, but obviously I need them to match my other clothes! Admitedly half the time I wear jeans, and I also have an A line denim skirt, so they do go with any colour!


I did see this amazingly cheap grey jersey dress with 3 flower details from Next for £22. That does seem very tempting! Yet again, I can't pull pictures off their site, but it's worth a look! It also comes in black! I know, I know, it is NOT in my colour spectrum! But it's so cute, and a bit more exciting that I usually go for!

Favourite Crew Neck £39 - Boden

I have ordered an orange cardigan/semi jacket from Boden (this was at a muched knocked down price of £22 - from £75) and a stripey purpley jumper.

Sasssy Fit Cardigan - Boden Sale (looks better on, in the photo!)

I know all these clothes look a bit disparate, I guess what i'm after is like a core wardrobe, of mix and match. I'm happy to have other clothes that are outside of this, but I want to sort out my key elements, so it's a lot less hassle getting dressed every day!

Obviously I am skint after the summer holidays, so I have plenty of time to continue my window shopping, and work out my my clothes etc for Autumn and Winter. On the sewing side, I am making a quilt at the moment, and I am going to make an A-Line skirt from some material I picked up last year, I think it's an embroidered brown corduroy. Anyway, very autumnal!

The only reason I'm doing this is because last week it went all cold here, but of course this week we're back to the summer sunshine! Hooray!

Catching my eye

Apologies for blurry image, but I've just discovered these kits over at AMH's shop. I love the dress in the Drawing room fabric, Volumes in Gold. It costs $63 which includes the fabric and the pattern. I think I'll save up and get that for next spring, if I still like it! (I'm pretty sure I will).

And I loves these green shoes from Next, £45. Ok, I don't have a huge amount of green in my wardrobe, but I'm sure that can be changed!

And I've been enjoying the new Boden catalogue. I bought a raincoat in their sale, and notice they do a winter version, that looks identical, except it has an inner fleece to keep you snuggly. I bought it as it had a hood, a must have with a buggy! Mine is in a brown fabric with a lovely contasting lining. Boden makes me feel a bit grown up, and smart, which can come in usefull with all those yummy mummies at the school gates!

Sharing Summer

Sorry I've been away for so long. But I have been having a great summer with my family. So August has been very relaxing and great fun.

For the first week of August we all went up to Yorkshire, and went on various trips to the Dales, to York and so on.

Then my husband and I returned to Brighton (leaving our 2 offspring with their grandparents) and we had a very pleasant and quiet week. Sleeping in, tidy house, peace and quiet at ALL times of the day, and a general feeling of rest fell upon us! And we managed to oversleep on quite a few occassions!

In the third week I returned to Leeds and split my time between my dad and my sister's houses. During this time I saw old friends and had more day trips. And I have to say the weather smiled on us during August, and it was pretty much dry and sunny every day.

My sister and I took my boys to the York Maze, which is a maze of maize. This was a fantastic day trip, as apart from the maze (theme of maze changes annually) they had a huge playground, drag cars, the farm and other bits and bobs to do and see! They also had an onsite cafe and obligatory gift shop! I took my youngest son (he's 2) on the drag cars and I was in hysterics the whole way round, it was so funny! We all had the best day.

We also went to the Royal Armouries, which again is a fantsastic day out.


They have loads of live interpretations as they call it, to bring the place alive. Plus falconry displays, done by an amazing man, and jousting!!! Absolutely fabulous, and incredibly reasonable. All we spent for 4 of us to see the falconry and jousting was £7.50 and the museum entrance is free. A bit more money was spent in the gift shop, certain small children wanted a knight on a horse!

We also visited Hebden Bridge and we went to Hannah Nunn's shop Radiance. And we met Hannah, who is a lovely woman, as is her shop. She told me she does the artists open houses in Brighton. So I may well go along and see her in the Spring when she is next down here! I also popped into Circus Circus for some ribbon and the world's best sweet shop also deserved our custom! Another good day!