Beach Huts

Hell Bunny Paloma Cardigan: Tiger Milly | Beach Huts Dress: Handmade (Simplicity 2444; fabric via Hobbycraft) | Heels: ASOS | (Only just visible Headband: Seamstress of Bloomsbury)

It’s seemingly impossible for me to get good pictures in the snow at the moment – it was fine when we lived up near Richmond and lived with snow on the ground for about 3 months solid, but I had such a palava with these, and not just in terms of photography. We’ve had on and off snow for a few weeks around us, although not as much as everywhere around us it seems strangely – we now live in the vale of York, which is a lot flatter than the area around it, and while we can almost constantly see snow on the hills around us, it just seems to melt during the day for us. Fine with me, but I would like a good day of proper snow – nice to have one every year!

Anyway, of course, being me, I decided that since there was snow on the ground it would be an excellent opportunity to get some photos taken in it. And of course, the only obvious choice of clothing for this was the completely seasonally inappropriate dress I’d just finished making that week with heels. Of course. I should also mention that it was very windy this weekend too…And these are the resulting photos, the only usable ones – and I’ll be the first to admit that these are not the best outfit photos I’ve ever taken! My first issue was getting the lighting right, since everything was reflecting off the snow or hugely dimming the picture. My second issue was something else entirely. I set up the tripod in the lane outside our house, finally thought I’d got my settings right, focused on the spot I was going to stand on and set the timer going. I slowly hobbled my way to the focused spot, only to turn around, grinning at the camera as you do, to find a gentlemen out on his morning walk strolling casually towards me. Now, I’ve had this happen before – people seeing/watching me doing outfit photos, but this was a little different considering that it was snowing and I was wearing a dress covered in beach huts and heels. Fortunately he took it in good spirits, uttering a hasty “Hello there” to me before carrying on his way, but I only managed to take a few more sets of photos before retreating to the safety of the house and snapping a few pictures in front of the fireplace, hence the massive change in scenery. I’d really wanted to show off the collar of the dress, particularly from the back too, so the indoor pictures were necessary, but the headscarf (won in a giveaway on the Seamstress of Bloomsbury’s Facebook page) and my hair disagreed in the meantime due to the wind, so that was out for the indoor pictures, resulting in the mishmash of an outfit you see here!

Anyway, I was really pleased with this dress – I’d planned to save it till summer, but of course I couldn’t do that! I used the Simplicity 2444 pattern that I used for my Lighthouse dress here because the shape and style of it worked really well for me. This time I took off the sleeves (replaced with visible navy bias binding round the arm holes because I’m too lazy for facings – this is very messy though and will probably need to be replaced at some point!), and added the collar from the pattern. I technically changed how it’s supposed to be done, since I sewed it with the wrong side of the bodice facing right side of the collar, then flipped it over and top stitched it in place – again, another lazy tactic, but it worked! So now I’m going to try to save it to wear in summer – good luck with that! And the cardigan is another of the Hell Bunny Paloma ones I’m obsessed with at the moment – I featured my initial black one here and I’m wearing the green one today!

I’ve got a busy week coming up now – I’m getting my CRB sorted for Brownies tonight, choir (hopefully – as long as I don’t have too much to do again) tomorrow night, Harry Potter night at Brownies on Wednesday, then I’m going to London for the weekend on Friday with my sister! We’re going to see Matilda on the Friday evening, then have booked into the Tower of London on the Saturday, and will hopefully be visiting lots of markets and independent shops that we don’t have up here – I’m planning to do a bit of fabric shopping while I’m there too, apparently it’s so much cheaper, exciting! Any recommendations of anything to do in London? I’ve done a few of the bigger things (museums, shops etc.) before, and am wanting to visit more independent or unusual places, so any ideas are welcome 🙂