"Improve Your Dressmaking"

Hello Everyone,

Happy weekend...and happy Bonfire Night for those in the UK! As i write this i am listening to lots and lots of fireworks being set off outside...the poor cat is not very happy :(

This week we had a couple of friends stay for a few nights while they were having work done on their house. As a thank you, i received this gem of a book, entitled "Improve Your Dressmaking".

I must admit that I had not heard of Ann Ladbury before, but a little bit of googling has taught me that she was very well known in the 60s for a number of television programmes which were dressmaking "how tos". Imagine that, TV sewing courses! Fabulous! I even found this article which refers to her as the "Delia of dresses". So there we go!

Back to the book. The edition i have was published in 1978 and the best bit about it, in my opinion, are the fantastic line drawings which appear throughout. Aren't these just great??

 As well as the illustrations, there are step by step instructions on a whole host of techniques, some of which look incredibly complicated, but all of it will no doubt come in useful! You can't really see it in the photo, but here is an example...

 In other news, here is what we did in this week's knitting class...

You may not be able to tell, but trust me when i say it is supposed to be the neckline of a jumper! This was the most complicated bit of knitting i have ever done as it involved putting some stitches onto a stitch holder whilst we shaped the neck and then picking the stitches back up again from the "ladder" between stitches. It sounds complicated and it was, but i am very pleased with the result so far!

I have also made a start cutting out for some Christmas presents and have high hopes that i may begin a muslin for my Colette Pattern's Crepe Dress. Hopefully more on this coming soon!

K xx