Monday 30 March 2015

Woods Of Colour....

The woods are so beautiful near where I live, even at this time of year, so out I plodded in my rubber boots, aprons in arms...



This is rose with olive green trimming.  I wasn't sure at first if a brighter green would have been better with the pale pink, but decided in the end for the olive.  Think it's a less common colour combination and looks slightly antiquey...


Next is my favourite colour!  Atlantic.  It's a sort of pale teal blue.  Again I was going to use a brighter red but then thought the wine was more unusual.   It looks darker in the photo...


Finally ruby red and peacock trimming...


Life should always 'look' like this!


 I have some apron patterns in my SHOP so do pop around and have a sneak peak!

VERITY HOPE'S WARDROBE

 Thank you for visiting,


Susannah x

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Lavender Inspired Apron Dress

I love projects that involve lots of different stages, so if one day I'm more in the mood to hand sew rather than machine, I can just pick it up and work on the relevant area.  This apron was one of those.  Most of the detail is on the back...


 I've always loved the colour of lavender and originally wanted to use a green frill trim around the edges.  I think the two colours go beautifully together.  I had a lovely green trim which would have been perfect except I didn't have enough of it and couldn't find anything close to what I wanted anywhere.  Impatience got the better of me and I ended up sewing on some white Broderie Anglaise frill which I had plenty of.  But you know when you do something and afterwards it just doesn't feel right so you kind of go off the project...that's exactly what happened with this one.  The white trimming just looked too glaring and I just didn't like the result.  After a few weeks I brought the apron out again. The bright frill was still putting me off the whole project!  To solve the problem I decided to take the plunge and dip the whole apron in a beige dye.  It meant risking the beautiful lavender colour but I've used beige dyes so many times before to tone colours down and had always been pleased with the results.  It did the trick!  Toned it down subtly, just enough to give it the difference needed.  Enthusiasm was back!!


The shaped bodice reminded me of a Parisienne showgirl of the 1940's  so I used some mauve satin ribbon along the seams to give the apron a touch of pizzazz.  To bring in the much desired green colour which I had missed from the trimming I added little green, red and white embroidered motifs.


Then bright green buttons with red thread so they would really stand out.  I made the buttons holes by hand, then finished off with vintage lace around each hole to bring the whole look together.


Here's the back in full...


Thank you for visiting 'Verity Hope's Wardrobe'
and please do join and come again and be sure to check out all the pretty feminine patterns in:


Susannah x

P.S. This is my other 'doll' blog:
You are all welcome to visit:

Monday 16 March 2015

Flower Picking Pinny

My Flower Pickin' Pinny is inspired by the long sleek aprons of the 1940's.  I love the way It can be thrown over whatever one is wearing. 

 
This is the first one I made.  It's made from embroidered linen in a cream colour.
I love the texture of the embroidery...


Makes me feel I'm in another world..!


 I made a few experimental ones to try out the sizes and general look and feel.  The middle Pinny is the one I decided to wear and is worn in the photo above.


It's a very easy pinafore to make and is finished off with satin bias-binding around the edges and embellished with little flowers.  Here's the back...


Like with all my dressmaking patterns, this one is ideal for beginners and comes in small, medium and large size on the pattern.


Thank you for visiting,


Susannah x