July | 2014 | What a Treasure

Since I am fairly short and my waist is quite high up on my torso, I find it very hard to find dresses that fit. For ages I have wanted an off the shoulder dress, but always find that the waists on most dresses are far too low, so I decided to make my own.

I used a stretch denim fabric as I wanted something that had some structure, but that would be tight enough that the dress would stay up without any straps, an invisible zip, trim for the neckline and matching thread. I made my own pattern for the bodice, and the pleated skirt pattern, sewed the two together, then cut off the shoulders.

I had to do a lot of adjusting to make it fit. I found that by making the bodice fit nicely first, I could have the sleeves quite tight, and rely on these to keep the dress up, while the bodice was well fitting, but not clingy.

This was very fun to make, even if it was a little tricky without any instructions. I hope you like it!

This is about the right time where all of the prettiest flowers start to bloom. Pressing these flowers is great way to preserve their beauty and colours. Although their colours do dull, the drying process gives a beautiful antique colour to the petals that will never wilt. Here is the method that I think is the easiest to use, without needing a special flower press.

What you will need:

Flowers
At least two big, heavy books
Four pieces of paper

First, find the flowers that you want to press. Make sure they aren’t bruised or discoloured and are quite open. Choose flowers that can easily be flattened. Budded flowers like roses can be cut lengthways to press them, but they will still be chunky and hard to press, so stick with the flowers like daisies, which have quite flat faces or just use the petals from the big flowers.

Then you need to use a big, heavy book like a dictionary. Here, I’m using an old Next directory. Make sure that these are books that you don’t mind ruining, because any moisture from the flowers will wrinkle the pages of the book. Turn towards the end of the book, take your four pieces of paper and place two on each page. These will act as “blotting” papers, absorbing most of the moisture coming from the flowers. On one side of the book, start arranging the flowers. This can either be in a specific pattern, or just randomly scattered. If you have overlapped the flowers, they should stay suck together after pressing.

Then, all you have to do is carefully close the book, and place more, heavy books on top. Leave the stack of books in a cool place and check every few days. When checking the flowers, remove and replace any wrinkled paper with clean sheets, but try not to disturb the flowers’ arrangement.