from the sublime to the ridiculous

This, of course, is the sublime. It's a Horrockses day dress from around 1953. It is my idea of total gorgeousness. A genuine Horrockses dress goes for a small fortune on ebay, as well it should. Even this Horrockses homemade lookie likie is going for £75 on a vintage site.

In May we UK sewweekly.com girls are having a meet in London and Mena (the overlord of sewweekly) has kindly said we can set the theme for the following week. So we are having a red, white and blue Union Jack theme.

However Debi, sewweekly contributor and UK girl herself, also suggested we go for this Horrockses pattern, as it is available for free, yes: free, on the V and A website. As we are meeting at the V and A that sounds like a challenge I can't miss! I have chosen a red roses on white patterned fabric, and I will be wearing blue gloves.

That's the plan. Whether I am up to it is entirely another thing. I am going to give it my best shot! First job, print out about 60 sheets of pattern. Done.

Now to stick them together with sellotape.....

Here's the ridiculous:

This was the pattern I chose for this week's challenge: take an ugly pattern and make it nice. Epic fail from the start: this pattern just isn't that ugly, I really like the blue maxi skirt, actually.

However the resulting skirt I made is really ugly:

I have jollied it up with a horrid stripe of red. Hideous. It's black and not spring like at all, it's baggy, it's too long. In fact it is just ugly.

So I have decided to put it away altogether and leave it alone for a bit. What I have done is the exact opposite of the challenge: I have made a quite nice pattern into a hideous skirt. Opps!

Wish me luck with the dress.