Peacock prettiness!

I was shopping in Brighton recently with the boys when I saw this beauty in the window of a boutique in the North Laine area.  A beautiful bright green peacock fabric, with a cinched in waist and lightly gathered at the bust.

Having the brats lovelies with me meant I couldn't try it on without fear of them trashing the expensive-looking shop whilst I was in my undies!  But I did go in and have a look.  It was handmade with simple serged seams and unlined.  I thought the peacock fabric was beautiful, but not quite beautiful enough to deserve its £95.00 price tag. I still wanted it though!

Afterwards, I created a peacock inspiration board on pinterest here - a little obsessive, but whatever!

Next up, I found my own peacock fabric from fabricland. A snip at £3.69 pm.

It has a much darker overall colour than the dress that inspired me, but is still very pretty. The pattern I'm going to follow is from The Stylish Dress Book volume 1.  It doesn't have the cinched in waist but I hope this will make it easier to wear.

The instructions suggest sewing it up in silk, which I guess would hang differently; however, I'm hoping the cotton print will hold up well to the task.

There are lots of techniques in this pattern that I'm going to have to deal with: a 22" zip, lots of gathering and beautiful cuffs.  Fingers crossed!