My new sewing room!

My eldest daughter left home recently. Of course, my youngest daughter thought she had the bigger and better bedroom and wanted to move into it. Which freed up her old room, which I quite fancied turning into a dedicated sewing room! The problem was, three weeks later she was off for a three-month long trip away, and I didn’t want to wait that long to get started, so she was on a time limit to get all her stuff shifted! It didn’t quite get done in time, but she did pretty well.

It took me a week to finish clearing out her stuff. Then a week to clean it, steam off the wallpaper, and clean it again. Then a week to paint it, and another week to lug all my sewing stuff from the room it was in before, and up the stairs, and try to fit it all in! The new sewing room is much smaller, and I have to share it with a bed-settee for when family stay, but it has lovely big built-in cupboards into which I just about managed to squeeze in the fabric stash from the shelves downstairs.

Honestly, I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this new space and I feel so so grateful for it. When I’m in there sewing, I have no distractions; no computer telling me about the other work I should be doing! Oh my goodness, it’s lovely! Anyway, I filmed the whole process for my YouTube channel, so here are the videos if you’d like to have a watch:

New Beginnings

September feels like a good time for new beginnings. Our eldest daughter has just flown the nest, which leaves a spare room in the house! This is going to be my new sewing room; leaving my previous one as a study and art studio. I’m currently in the midst of stripping old wallpaper, and then it will be filling the cracks, painting the walls, and carrying all my sewing stuff upstairs. There’s a lot to do, so I’m not starting any commissions right now. However, if you’re not in a hurry, please get in touch and we can start the ball rolling for your custom made dress. When the room is finished, I’ll be raring to go!

Dark and Pastel

Continuing my How to Dress more Creatively series.

March is a funny old month. I feel like every year there’s a few days when the sun shines and everyone feels hopeful for spring, but the reality is, March is often still a pretty gloomy month! It’s also pretty cold, but oh my goodness we are so done with winter.

Thick black leggings are still keeping my legs warm, but I’m ready to add a little spring into my wardrobe. And this is where mixing dark colours with pastels comes in. The classy way to go about this is to go tonal, so if you have navy on your bottom half, you can go pastel blue on the top half. Mix burgundy with pastel pink; rich brown with cream; Forrest green with light green. This looks timelessly stylish.

And if you have a lot of black or dark grey clothing in your wardrobe, instead of adding pale grey so you look like a cloudy sky; why not mix it up a little and go with any pastel shade you like?! In alternative circles this is called ‘Pastel goth’! I agree with Trinny (from Trinny and Susannah) that black and a colour of the same intensity can dull or even cheapen the look, but if you’re going for pastel colours rather than brights, I think they look lovely together. The intensity of black with an unexpected splash of pale pink or lilac is pretty cool in my opinion!

I don’t currently have any dark florals in the Threads of a Fairytale shop at the moment, but dresses with a black background and a pale floral print looks really pretty at this time of year too, and will look good with your black boots.

So if you’re ready to add some spring into your life, then take a fresh look at your wardrobe and see if you can find some new mixes of dark with pastel colours.

pink witch dress

How to dress more creatively in February

I can’t help but think of the month of February being the month of love. Just because Valentine’s Day only falls on the fourteenth, doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate it every other day as well! Whether you have a partner or are celebrating just how brilliant you are; it’s a good job it comes around at this time of year because otherwise February would be a very cold, drab month!

So take your cue from the bunches of roses and pyjamas covered in hearts, and look through your wardrobe for some bright red clothing. By the way, I love pink and red together for an amazing clash of colours!

Cheer yourself and everyone around you up because red is a bold, bright colour that shows everyone you mean business whilst also having a sense of fun. It is a colour to enjoy, and I love it!

How to wear red:

  • My advice would be not to wear it with black as that can make your outfit look less sophisticated.
  • Instead, wear red with charcoal grey or chocolate brown if you’re going for separates. If you’re wearing a red dress, that advice also goes for your shoes or boots.
  • Alternatively, go tonal with other shades of red. Just check you’re not mixing cool reds (that lean towards purple) with warm reds (that lean towards orange).

red smock dress

Happy New Year! Need wardrobe inspiration?

Happy New Year! I hope 2023 brings you lots of magical moments!

I’m starting a new series about How to dress more creatively each month. I’ll post it on the blog, but it will also be in the monthly newsletter (which I’m going to be a lot better about this year!) along with any current discounts in the shop or other relevant news. If you haven’t signed up yet, please join us!