Last week I had the unusual pleasure of meeting not one but two fellow sewists who were visiting London, separately, and on consecutive days!
First the amazing Dilly came to the boat, bring not only cake but this incredibly luscious silk twill!
Silk twill is something that is really difficult to find in London (unless you want it white and/or £50+/m!), and the monochrome nature print is so me, too. This definitely falls into the “too good for linings” category, so I think I’ll need to narrow down some of the amazing blouse patterns Manequim’s been printing and sew this up.
After hours of chatting and showing her around the moorings, I think I left her with a desire to live on a boat, and she left me with a renewed fire to go visit CERN! I’m also very impressed that she’s been keeping up with her own Burda Challenge this year, too!
Then, on Thanksgiving Day I met up with lingerie sewing guru Norma for a visit through the new Isabella Blow exhibit at Somerset House. I always find it’s best to see this sort of thing with someone who can share in your total geekery for seam lines and fine details, and there was plenty to geek out over, too! Really, this was an early Alexander McQueen and Philip Treacy exhibit, as those were the majority of the designs. They even opened up the back room upstairs for this, so it was much bigger than the recent Valentino exhibit there.
Afterwards we gorged on Mexican food and exchanged gifts (and, err, had a quick “tell me how I can improve this bra I’m wearing” reveal in the women’s loo)! Norma brought me a treasure trove of lingerie sewing goodies:
There’s some gorgeous, black dotted tulle for layering over pretty much any fabric, quality metal rings and sliders, white rigid cup liners, and enough butter yellow and baby pink stretch lace to make a full set!
This week has been no less busy, mind – I had a fabric-filled lunch with Claire yesterday, and then for James’s birthday today I gave him the gift of a To-Be-Sewn version of the famous Sherlock coat! So as if I wasn’t busy enough with a massive project (to be revealed next week), I’ve added a fully lined wool frock coat to my holiday sewing plate. Only for my wonderful man…