Fabric Shopping in Amsterdam

I was lucky to have a little weekend in Amsterdam last weekend. Although the weather was absolutely miserable it didn't detract from what a beautiful city it is. While I was there, I took the opportunity to do a just a little bit of fabric shopping of course!

I was only in Amsterdam for the weekend when the largest fabric market (Lapjesmarkt) turns into a farmers market so I visited Albert Cuyp Market instead. Lots of the fabric stalls were actually shops which had some fabric on a stall in front of them. There were some truly gorgeous fabrics for sale.

There was one particularly beautiful shop which sold catwalk fabric and had accompanying swatches of what it had been used for. The fabric was truly stunning (as is the organisation of the shop) but it was sadly too expensive for me. A gorgeous jersey by D&G was 162 euros! Definitely worth a visit though just to see such fabulous fabric.

I ended up buying just a few bits. I'm calling them souvenirs!

Two striped jerseys because who doesn't need striped tshirts...

A spotty taffeta which I'm imagining will become a gathered skirt (hopefully in time for Christmas).

I was also totally seduced by this flamingo sweatshirt which I cannot wait to sew into a Linden.

There's also two metres of silver velvet in there because you know it's December so we all need a bit of velvet in the stash!

With so many sewing plans in my head all I need is the Christmas holidays to begin so I can crack on. Happy stitching x

Falling in love with Cleo

If you have been reading many blogs or perusing through social media, I'm sure that you have seen the huge popularity of Tilly and the Buttons recent release; the Cleo dress. It's a gorgeously simple dungaree dress with a range of pockets...and who doesn't love a pattern with a range of pockets!

I have to admit that when Tilly began teasing us with glimpses of this pattern I bought the fabric for it before she released the pattern. I was that keen! I bought a mustard corduroy from the Knit and Stitch show. The buckles were easy enough to source and came from John Lewis.

The dress was exceptionally quick to make and as ever Tilly's instructions are very clear. The only alteration to the fit that I made was to lengthen the dress by about 8cm as I find that Tilly's patterns sometimes come up short on me.

I decided to use top stitch thread for my Cleo. I absolutely love how thick it made the stitches but sadly my machine didn't! I think that a combination of top stitch thread and thick corduroy was just too much for it and it ended up spending a week at the repairers.

Because of my thick fabric choice I decided to use a cotton fabric for the facings which I had left over from another project.

This dress has been worn pretty much incessantly since being made (as has the cat top which is another Lark tee). I'm already dreaming of a black and white wool version... if only there were more sewing hours in the weekend.

Happy stitching x