waterlilies

Hey it's officially summer!  As I type kids are preparing to run out of the classrooms, teachers ready to let loose and I get a chance to quaff free champers get inspired by all of the amazing design work on display at the end-of-year shows in London.

My hubby is an architect who teaches at a university here, and after a long slog of a school year (mine of course, by association) I love having the chance to revisit that annual feeling of achievement and relief that's in the air - even if I know scant little about architecture.

So this year I made a dress for the event.  This heavy stretch cotton waterlily fabric is from the Stofftraum in Basel where I also got the fabric for my Edinburgh dress.

I think i'll just stand over here and drink some wine...

The pattern has kimono sleeves and a slightly tulip shaped skirt with a couple of volume-ifying tucks and pockets.  I already have a couple more on the go in different fabric and colours.

I'm no expert in architecture or fashion, but I do love when our interests meet.   (Kind of like how the best architectural bookshop in Basel is next to the fabulous Stofftraum - kismet!)

 Or, as the lovely Elsa Schiaparelli says in her autobiography:

"[Shchiap] felt that clothes had to be architectural: that the body must never be forgotten and it must be used as a frame is used in a building."

It's something to work towards in every new sewing year...

Happy sewing x