The Summer Party

Last Friday saw the work summer party arrive. Planned by moi and my ever-awesome pal and colleague Catherine, it was a bit of a new venture for us. We have our respective Christmas parties for staff and volunteers but this was a chance to have a great big mid-year thank you for all our fabulous team and get all the staff and volunteers together in one place. We had a cracking year in 2014 and this year is shaping up to be even better (fingers tightly crossed for the next four months, obvs) so it definitely seemed like party time.



Look at that lovely lot! Volunteer management is not the easiest thing in the world but it's very good fun at times like these. The amount of conversations I had about petticoats was fantastic!

We had a photographer there to record the evening which was amazing (only partly because he captured the funniest photo ever of my boss) but on the unfun side, I loathe all the photos of me and have basically been looking through them in absolute horror about how much my arms look like ham shanks. 

Note to self, don't stand between a glam babe of a professional singer and a glam babe who's the pretty brunette at work.

Oh well. My new dress is nice, right? And petticoats and snazzy green heels always make me feel spiffy, even if the pics don't reflect that.

We even had our own bakeoff competition but I was so busy hostessing and compering that I didn't get any cake. WAAHHHHHHH. This is most unfair.

I made one, mostly so that the fellow special-needs-food people could have something to eat, but I didn't get any of that either. Instead I got to do some tidying up and then get changed out of my party frock and go and scrub the loos with Catherine. Oh, it's a glamorous life...

Sparkly frog shoes one minute, scruffy Converse the next...

Dress - Lady V London
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Party shoes - Irregular Choice

A Festive Frock

I made my Christmas party dress this year. Hark at me!



Mooching around Dunelm in October, I came across Christmas fabric and rather fell in love with this vintage inspired print fabric. I pondered hard - the house is sucking up all my spare cash at the mo and really, I could have just worn a frock I already had, couldn't I?

However, Christmas needs new clothes. It's the law. Honest it is. New pjs for Christmas Eve are an absolute must (this may perhaps be a Scouse thing but I reckon it should be an everyone thing) and you have to have something pretty to wear on the big day itself. Same rule kinda applies to the work do.

T'was an excellent bargain as it turns out. The shop assistant and I were both in rather dozy form and I waltzed out of the shop, went home and only then discovered that although I'd asked for 3m, she'd given me 4m and only charged me for 2m!



As for the final result, I freely admit that the satin trim did not work properly. I might have had plans for the frock in mind since the autumn but I wasn't organised enough to buy any proper bias binding and this ribbon did not want to get pressed into service as makeshift bias binding. I ended up just stitching it straight on and it's gone all wonky. The girls assured me that it looks like it's meant to be a ruched sort of trim neckline and I'm going with them on this.

I made it in a day though, minus the time spent going into town for lunch and to watch a live screening of The Crucible (and holy heck, that's a long play!) and I'm pretty impressed with myself for that. I haven't sewed anything for months and I thought I might have forgotten how to do it.




Dress - handmade, Simplicity 2444
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Heels - Shelly's



Also, yes, not great pics. I take so flipping long to get ready for a night out that there's never any time left to set the camera up and take proper outfit photos.

The frock goes smashingly with a beard though!

Polka Dots and Petticoats

I'm all shopped out. There was not a scrap of shopping enthusiasm left within me when the time came to think about what I was wearing to the work Christmas do. Luckily I'm not the sort of person who finds it essential to have something new for every occasion! I've got about 4 dresses suitable for evenings so I was pretty sure it was going to be one of them that got hauled out of the wardrobe and matched up with a pair of party shoes.

Then I remembered the petticoat I bought for the wedding outfit. It turns out that with the addition of loads of frills an everyday dress can be magically transformed into something fit for a party.



I made this frock back in the summer and it takes a petticoat rather well, doesn't it? The other big benefit over the plainish green frock I was going to wear is that I could go mad with the red accessories rather than sticking to basic black. Any opportunity to whack on the MAC Russian Red lippy and strap on my ridiculously clompy Shellys heels is much welcome!




Dress - I made it
Petticoat - Vivien of Holloway
Blazer - Warehouse via Oxfam
Shoes - Shellys
Clutch - c/o Matalan
Earrings - New Look
Ring - Dorothy Perkins sale
Bracelet - vintage

The thing I love most about petticoats is swirling round in them. Obviously. But the second best thing is when you step out of it and the entire carpet is a sea of frills. Such fun.

The Wedding Outfit

*SOUNDS THE WEDDING KLAXON*

My brother got married on Friday. It was a truly marvellous day from start to finish and I'll be blogging properly about it all later on in the week but as I have a bajillion photos to sort through, you may have a quick outfit post in the meantime.

I knew what I'd be wearing ages ago - hark at me blogging about it in June but I'm so pleased that my plans turned out well. I LOVE this dress. Even more so after I made the bold move to chop 4 inches off it and alter the halterneck a wee bit. Isn't it pretty? And the shoes are gorgeous too. And the seamed tights. And the bows. And, well, everything really. Told you I loved it!

The venue was flipping beautiful but as is the way with old buildings, somewhat on the dark side. Also I was in a hurry and had to rope in the mothership to be my photographer, hence the photos are all a bit dark and not fantastic. Just ignore the slightly dodgy pic quality and tell me I look gorgeous, plskthx.

Oh my god, how fun is it to wear an enormous petticoat? No-one told me about that part! Ok, you need more space to sit down but it looks ace and dancing is way more fun than usual!

You know what else is fun? Sparkly accessories! Lovely Sophie at Crown and Glory made me a big old bow to go in my hair and a matching tiny one to go on my bag. How cute are they?!

Dress, petticoat, belt and jacket - Vivien of Holloway
Shoes - Vivienne Westwood/Melissa Lady Dragon
Bag - New Look
Hair & bag bows - Crown and Glory
Jewellery - inherited and charity shop!
Seamed tights - M&S


ps - I would totally dazzle you with a picture of my beautiful makeup here but Blogger is playing silly buggers with some sort of Halloween "fun" thing and whenever I attempt uploading the photo, it turns my eyes black. I am quite annoyed.

The Big Day

My big brother is getting married in October. Too soon to start planning my outfit? I think not!

I already have my heart set on this dress:

50s halterneck polka dot dress by Vivien of Holloway.

As I've been reliably informed that someone my height will have to have a VoH frock shortened, it's best to get it bought in plenty of time, isn't it?

I'm much less certain on the subject of accessories. I think I'm fixed on the plan of making them black - I don't want to be head to toe in green, plus it'd be really hard to match specific shades without either going mad searching the shops or getting things specially dyed. It's the style that I can't decide on.

In the footwear department, do I go for something a bit frivolous like these Melissa Lady Dragon Westwood shoes seeing as it's a wedding?

Or maybe something a bit chunkier but still very cute, like this Shelly's pair?

I really like them both. Argh.


As the constant battle to cover up my awful upper arms rages on, I'm also trying to decide between sticking with the 50s theme and getting a Vivien of Hollway bolero:

Or looking for something else.  I'm inclined to think that a cardi would be too casual and a jacket/blazer wouldn't work in terms of shape, but I'm struggling to visualise it.

Help!