ooooh, look what I found!

I had a very annoying 60 minute wait at the doctor's surgery last week, luckily neither Anna or I were very sick but it's still very hard work trying to control a toddler in a small room with other people waiting, when she should be having a nap and instead wants to go berserk! But it proved fortuitous because while waiting there I managed to speed read an old Shop Till You Drop magazine and spied this:

It's a notepad that comes complete with preprinted female croquis (ie body outlines) that you can sketch your fantabulous fashion designs on! Hokey Croquis sells this one and a smaller travel notepad on their website, and I think I shall be sending the link to my husband as a not so subtle hint for a Christmas present, because sadly I'm not being sponsored to do this post. Although I would accept sponsorship if you're reading Hokey Croquis! (*chirp* chirp* why do I hear the sound of crickets?)

I am a very ordinary sketcher, but I am constantly drawing loads of pictures of gorgeous outfits I see on people in the street in my Filofax (yeah, I'm old skool too) to the point where there's hardly any room for writing down appointments in there. So this would be a great addition to my handbag, as well as improving my fashion sketching no end. The only thing these notepads are missing are little holders for pens or pencils, because they always seem to go missing from my handbag, thanks to a pair of little hands treating my bag as a lucky dip.....

And if you want to try before you buy, or you need it now, or you're a bit of a tightwad (no shame, that's me to a tee), they even have some free downloadable croquis on their site too. I know there is a set of croquis over at Burda Style as well, but the good thing about the Hokey Croquis ones is that it includes a number of different body poses so you can choose the best one to illustrate your idea that is burning a hole in your mind (or is that just me?).

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the dress in the previous post. I am pretty happy that a simple fitted dress style paired with a graphic colourful print resulted in such a great outcome, and I suppose it makes a nice change from my usual grey and neutrals too! Did you all see the interesting tip in the comments from Pin Queen to sew a skirt bar (from a hook and bar) across the top of the vent to hold it together in the event of the seam ripping? I've never heard of this before, but I'm definitely going to do this because it's a simple thing to do but would prevent an extremely embarrassing wardrobe failure. Although I suspect as Amanda pointed out that the dress probably doesn't even need an opening because it's not really that tight around the knees (it's just that I'm too lazy to unpick the hem and seams of the dress and lining and sew it all back up!). And sewingelle thank you for confirming for me that the Vogue is the superior choice to the Burda pattern, although I do confess it was only laziness that made me choose the Vogue over the Burda....

Ann, the issue I found with the jacket pattern was that not only was it very shapeless as Shannon described, I also found the neckline didn't sit correctly on me. It would gape forward at the centre front in more of a v neck shape, and the two fronts that overlap wouldn't sit on top of each other neatly like the pattern illustration but would rather hang rather haphazardly to the side. At first I thought it was because I used a heavy linen fabric that didn't have enough drape, but I had the same thing occur when I made it out of a soft wool blend as well. But the style certainly suited me when I was pregnant, because the loose fit and cropped style accommodated my growing belly right to the end (although I don't really look all that pregnant in this photo):

And finally I have to share this fantastic giveaway that extremely generous Denise over at The Blue Gardenia is offering: a gorgeous 1950s vintage Butterick pattern, 4 yards of Italian wool fabric in a lovely teal colour, and a Revlon Fire n Ice nailpolish and lipstick. You have until 3 December to think up a comment about why you like vintage patterns that is good enough to impress Denise (which I think will be tough 'cos Denise is one witty lady).

Now I must get back to work (I'm writing this in my lunch hour) before the cranky IT people dob me in to my boss, and helpfully provide him with a graph showing how many hours and how many websites I visit during work hours. Yes they have done that before, and yes it was bad.....