Best wishes for 2014!

We hope you will make beautiful memories in 2014!

'The years go by so fast, let's hope the next beats the last.'

Smith & Burrows - When the Thames Froze

a Winter Peony

When I went shopping for my Poncho-skirt, I found a gorgeous piece of green wintery bouclé on the remnants table for 10€. SCORE! I knew I had to make a dress out of this! And here it is.

 

My second Peony. After the crazy flamingo's, this one is a little more subdued, I would even dare to say it looks classy (untill I put it on, all class vanishes in an instant, because I am not frail and fragile, but firm).

But it still is a nice dress. 

I should have made an alteration to the front darts and taken out some excess fabric at the neck, but I didn't. For one obvious reason: Laziness, my favourite pastime.

I did make a few changes to the construction. 

1. I repositioned the zipper to the left side seam. I don't know why patterns call for zippers center back. I for one hate them.
When I lean back in a chair, the zipper starts to hurt and maybe I am not nimble enough, but I can't manage to open or close a zipper on the back on my own. It always ends with me in tears curled up the wrong way around on the bathroom floor in a very abnormal bodyspasm, trying to reach the tiny, tiny zipper pull on the back.

2. Because of the side zipper, I only have one pocket. One pocket is better than no pocket. I know I said last time that the pocket didn't do anything special for me, that I was impartial toward it, but since then, I have totally changed my mind - what can I say, I'm a girl! Pockets in all dresses PLEASE!

3. I made a full lining for this dress, because wool bouclé is itchy. Big time. The lining doesn't eliminate all the itchyness, but most of it.

I bought the lining in a little fabric store here in Santander. It cost me 15€ (yes, more than the bouclé) and it is some sort of cheap polyester that I really, really hate. But it gets the job done...

The dress was put to the test in Barcelona and it held up perfectly! Luscious breakfast, walking through the rain - a lot of rain, museum visit and flight home. I love this dress. I feel very ME in it. And that is always an important consideration.

And now because I think there are more interesting things than my dresses I give you Sun, Sea, Surfers and Palm Trees. The weather has been so great the last few weeks, I wanted to share... And because the above pictures are the only ones I have that are decent. Time for my photographer/husband to get back home from his trip.