Things I like

I made this dress during my dressmaking course last term from Simplicity pattern 2967 – http://sarahdobinson.com/finished-my-latest-dress-not-that-keen-at-the-moment/ – and ended up hating it. I then washed it hoping that the shape would improve a bit, but it didn’t, so after a month and a half of trying it on and moaning about it, I decided to make some amendments (with Lesley’s help) in my first week back on the course following the Easter break.

All I did was put some darts in the back to give it a bit of a shape, and I changed the sleeves to three quarter length without the elastic cuff. Now it’s MUCH better, and I actually want to wear it!

Moody

Back of dress, with added darts

Having been very busy for the past few weeks and then away on holiday (went to Ölüdeniz in Turkey, it was amazing), Saturday was my first chance to get out and about round Southsea to do some hunting for goodies. In the Portsmouth & District Cat Rescue shop on Albert Road I spied this little beauty peeping out of a bag on the floor, waiting to be put on the shelf:

Kenneth Townsend tray

I must have had my radar half switched on because I saw the horses face and pulled it out of the bag, thought it looked quite Kenneth Townsend-y (but didn’t quite put two and two together) and liked it, so sent Chris off to pay for it – 50p! I thought no more until the evening when I suddenly remembered that on the Kenneth Townsend website I had seen some similar style trays with Beefeaters and various olde London chaps on them – and was then really delighted to find my new tray there too: http://www.kenneth-townsend.co.uk/pages/c_london.html.

The holiday coincided with the first two weeks of the Southsea Clarence Pier car boot and the new Sunday market on Castle Fields, so after getting home and coming back down to earth with a huge bump I kind of started to feel like I might have missed out on some exciting finds. However, after getting a grip and giving myself a bit of a talking to for being so ridiculous, we went on Sunday and (as per usual for the first few weeks of the car boot) I didn’t really find anything I liked. Predictably there was some quite average late 70’s items with a sticker already on them with RETRO written in large caps and some ludicrous price attached. The only thing I got this plastic drinks service for £1, it’s never been used and looks a lot better in real life than my rubbish camera and photo taking abilities make it look:

Plastic drinks set

Plastic drinks set

In the afternoon we sauntered off to the new ‘Sunday Market’ on Castle Fields. This, as mentioned earlier on in the year, is the replacement for the smaller car boot sale deemed ‘downmarket’ by the council. What a joke! The first thing I saw was some horrible vodka shots / WKD style mobile bar with a massive fence erected around it to keep out the kids, and the next thing I saw was a huge stall with massive banners all the way around the front and outside emblazoned with the words ‘MOBILE PHONES UNLOCKED’. I’m not impressed! Give me someone’s old junk any day.