My aeroplane-free top

This is the finished top that I showed mid-construction in my post about trimmings. It's inspired by an Orla Kiely top that I spotted on her website, complete with amazing aeroplane print - I did contemplate feeding my children on stale bread for a month in order to buy it, but in the end a fear of rickets won out. I often find that although I feel I can have a good attempt at pulling off a wearable version of a coveted off-the-peg garment, finding the right fabric to do this is trickier. But I love this cotton, which I spotted in The Cloth House a while ago - the very stylised print reminds me of the type of design you might see on the clothes in the Orla shop. However, I'd still love to find a source of end-of-bolt Orla Kiely fabrics.

I kept true to the knife-pleated yoke on the original, but I actually wish that I'd followed the Orla Kiely design more slavishly now, as although the cream picot trim was fun to sew, it doesn't feel as beautifully minimal as Orla's perfect-in-every-way aeroplane top.

Sometimes it's so difficult to balance out the fun of sewing with what I really want in my wardrobe...this time the fun won. 

I had huge (yes, really, huge!) amounts of fun with the bias binding maker that I used to make the self-binding for this top.

I always make my self-fabric bindings by cutting a bias strip and then folding and sewing it by eye. However, this bias maker means that you can make pre-folded bias tape pressed crisply with an iron, making it as easy to apply as shop bought binding.

This post holds the curious thing of photos that are not simply Florence-standing-against-a-cream-wall, but Florence-sitting-against-a-cream-wall! I find it really hard to find places in my house where I can be photographed...anywhere other than a blank wall seems to have too much clutter as a backdrop.

Taking photos for dressmaking posts is quite different from any other area of sewing. It requires you to a) put photos of yourself in the post, with or without your head depending on how weirded out by the whole Internet thing you're feeling on that particular day b) to discuss fitting issues and, if you want to be helpful to other seamstresses when sewing from a widely available pattern, the odd body quirks you have and how you negotiated sewing for them c) publicly face the fact that no matter how well you might have sewn the garment, it simply may not fit well (it may actually be a sartorial blancmange) - not something one has to cope with when making quilts! d) attempt to make those photos something that won't make you cringe if you happen across them by accident on Pinterest.

How do you feel about the photos of yourself that you put on the Internet or do you avoid it completely? After six years of blogging I still don't feel blasé about putting photos of myself online - quite frankly it still feels downright freaky, but I find it difficult to tell if that's because I'm a super-reserved sort of person or if it's because this is an odd period in technological change where we're the first generation where it's become wide-spread to do so. I wonder about whether for my children's generation having some form of online presence will be as natural and unquestioned as having a postal address.

Florence x