We'll buy cheap booze and run through these backstreets, you be Cleopatra and I'm Marc Antony.

Evening all! This evening in Chateau Clackett it's all about dinner and The X-Files, and maybe a bit of sewing later. I hope everyone else is having as pleasant a day!

Anyway, I had a thoroughly lovely weekend. On Friday evening, Nic and I went to the pub for dinner with some friends and had one of those evenings where the next day your tummy is a bit sore from laughing so much. I love evenings like that! On Saturday we had a bit of a lie-in and then decided to have a little mini day-trip along to Oxford, because it's been ages since we were last there. I like Oxford a lot, and it's a nice day out - it's close enough on the train to not be a hassle, but far enough away to be a bit of a change of scenery. The day started out a bit cloudy but the sun came out, and damn if Oxford isn't pretty in the sunshine. I took a new handmade dress out for a spin, as well:

Saturday 18th May 2013 - Rue Ramey dress and Topshop shoes

ANOTHER Cambie dress. Sorry not sorry. I don't think I can have enough of this pattern. This is made from the first piece of fabric I bought in Paris, and named Rue Ramey after one of the streets nearby where we were staying in Montmartre. I have absolutely nothing further to say about this lovely pattern, except that this is the best sweetheart neckline I've managed in all of my Cambie dresses. Oh, and I know I have a bit of a bullseye thing going on up in the bodice area, but whatevs. It would have been difficult to avoid with this print, and I don't really care that much anyway!

I think it's actually impossible for me to stand up straight. Ah well. These photos were taken at the Old Bodleian Library, which was closed to visitors or I would have stood on the steps. As big fans of Inspector Morse, Nic and I never get tired of being all "Oh this is where someone took a shot at John Gielgud" or "Hey do you remember when Richard Briers dyed his hair black and was totally evil to Roger Allam's wife?" and, less often, "Oh this is where Lewis almost got run over" because, Lewis isn't as good a TV show as Morse. Lots of things happen in this courtyard.

We pottered around in the sunshine, and walked out the Cowley Road to Atomic Pizza, on the recommendation of Rick and Lauren. I liked it so much I'd nearly get on the train to Oxford now to have my dinner there. It's full of excellent comic and video-game memorabilia, and 80s toys and games too (one wall has a massive shelf of My Little Ponies) and the menu is immense. We both had burgers and sci-fries (chips covered in chilli flakes) - Nic had the Johnny Cash (refried beans, American cheese, hot sauce and jalapenos) and I had one called the Monkey Magic - which had, instead of burger buns, two pizzas. It was without a doubt the most unhealthy thing I have ever eaten in my life and I couldn't even manage half of it. I really want to go back and try more of their menu, but it may take my arteries some time to recover. We did a lot of walking though, so I don't feel that bad!

I had some mending and some chores to do on Sunday, but it was so sunny and lovely that I didn't mind! I also put the finishing touches to my second Me Made May sewing pledge dress, which I'm really thrilled with. Nic and I went out for a walk and then spent the afternoon gossiping with friends over tea in Vinteas.

Sunday 19th May 2013 - Sewaholic Lonsdale dress and Charlotte Russe Madison wedges

Look at the derp face! This is not the best picture of me but it really made me giggle. Anyway, yes,  my gingham Lonsdale is a favourite, and so are my gingham wedges! These were super cheap in Charlotte Russe when I was in Florida last year, but the reason they were so cheap was that the sole was basically made of paper. Honestly, it was like cardboard and came away after only a few wears. Luckily I have a really good cobbler who was able to resole them with a proper sole and now I can wear them to my heart's content - weather permitting!

Monday 20th May 2013 - Sewaholic Cambie dress and red jelly sandals from Miss Selfridge

Aaaand we're back to the 'big tired face just home from work' style photo that this Me Made May seems to be marked by. Heh. I haven't worn this dress for a while and I had sort of forgotten both how comfortable it is, and how happy it makes me to wear red gingham. I had a day of running around at work, hence the flat shoes, but at least I felt well-turned out while I was doing it!

So I've had kind of an unofficial Sewaholic weekend - it wasn't planned that way - but I do love these dresses. I still have a Cambie to go before the end of Me Made May, and I'm sure I'll sew more over the coming months. That makes me predictable, but I'm okay with that.

Anyway, it's time for me to go. Duane Barry has just driven up a mountain with Scully in his car - OH SHIT!

Once again, you display an immaturity about vegetables that I think is not at all presidential.

Hey all! It's FINALLY FRIDAY! This week has been so busy at work, it's felt both interminable and also has sped by in a blur. I haven't blogged my Me Made May progress since day 8, so here's a bumper catch-up now! I should warn you now though that most of these photos were taken at the end of busy work days so I am looking majorly crumpled and tired in most of them. Still, keeping it real, YO.

 

Thursday 9th May - Another Eiffel Tower dress and Irregular Choice 'Mermaid'shoes

So here's one where I'm looking tired as shit! After Wednesday being a lovely day, Thursday was miserable and I got rained on and blown about on my walk from the office to the station - I was SOOOOO grumpy about this! Especially as I didn't have a coat with me. But, I loved wearing this dress. When I finished it last year I felt kind of ambivalent about it, but I love it. Good old Simplicity 2591.

Friday 10th May 2013 - green gingham Cambie dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Ultragirl shoes

HELLO WRINKLES! Not much to say about this dress except I love it, and I love gingham, and I want to sew more gingham dresses. I wore flats last Friday because I had a lot of running around to do, and when I was waiting on my train home a lady came up to me and said "You're wearing flats! Me and my friend love looking to see what shoes you're wearing!" which was nice, and weird at the same time!

Saturday 11th May 2013 - Etoile dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

I wore this dress in a bit of blatant self-publication - I was helping the Berylune ladies out at the Save The Children fair in the town hall, and this is the dress you can learn to sew with me at their workshops! There wasn't much going on at the fair but it was good to hang out with friends and eat cake.

Sunday 12th May 2013 - Majestic Oak dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Ultragirl shoes

Sunday was miserable weather-wise and I was exhausted, having had a late night on Saturday. I was going to declare Sunday a pyjama day, with a me-made crochet blanket but I did have to go to the shops to get stuff for dinner, so I got dressed. This dress is another one that has grown on me since I made it, and it was really comfortable for a lazy day at home.

Monday 13th May 2013 - Hounds of Love dress and 'Strawberry' shoes from Topshop

Monday was the start of a super-busy work week, and you've got me here exhilarated and exhausted after getting through the first day. I love this dress a WHOLE LOT, the more I look at those little foxes the cuter they get. This dress even prompted one of my colleagues - whose style is radically different to mine, and who almost never makes comments about my clothes, to say "cute dress!" which was really nice. You know how much I love compliments, right? I SO SHALLOW.

Tuesday 14th May 2013 - Come Sail Away Elisalex dress and Topshop 'Jostle' heels

So Tuesday was pretty stressful and I didn't manage to get a full length picture. I was really busy at work, and had family matters on my mind as well as my grandfather was hospitalised with fluid on his lungs. Since I blogged about this dress I took the hem up to just on my knee and I like it a lot better. Also, these shoes are new! Well, not new - I got them on ebay for 99p, and I love the colour, and they were 99p!

Wednesday 15th May 2013 - Colette Patterns Peony dress, yellow shoes from Topshop and my lovely Zatchels bag from Berylune

It pleased me how much the elements of this outfit matched, because the blue in the bag basically exactly matched the blue flowers in the dress. One of the external people we were working with asked me if I had my shoes dyed to match my outfits! I explained that I just really like brightly coloured shoes.

Thursday 16th May 2013 - Simplicity 2444 (the first) and pink shoes from Topshop

I think this week has unofficially been 'Topshop shoes week'! I love the shade of pink that these shoes are. This was my first Simplicity 2444 dress and I wear it a lot, but I'm looking tired and crumpled here so not doing this pretty frock justice. Still - sunshine!

Friday 17th May 2013 - Cowgirl Cambie dress and red wedges from Primark via ebay

Again, I had a Friday of running around, spending the afternoon sorting out my project's cupboards in our secure filing room. FUN. But this dress is always fun - I have made a lot of Cambie dresses now, and I have more planned - and a new one made to show to you soon!

That's us up to date now on Me Made May. I'm not finding it difficult at all to wear a different me-made every day, and I have pretty much fulfilled the other part of my pledge too. I am finding it difficult to get photos where I don't look like ass, but that's partly because I'm so busy at work. Although I'm being promoted within my team, I still have a lot of things to tie up and finish before my replacement starts and I start my new job, AND we have lots of activities going on right now. I don't mind being busy, but I look so tired at the end of each day. Ah well - I suppose now you all know what I really look like!

Right, now it's Friday night and I'm going to the pub. Hurrah!

They sold my book in Paris. It's an advance from France!

Bon soir all! Yes, it's that time. Time for me to show you some of the squillion photos I took when we were in Paris, and to tell you about our trip. SPOILER: We had a really good time.

So, being back at work has basically made Paris already seem like it happened years ago, but it was such a good holiday. We had a lot of fun, but it was really relaxing as well. I came back feeling tired, but totally rested, and I still do.

Our Eurostar to Paris left St Pancras in the afternoon, arriving into Paris at 8:15pm. This was nice because it meant we didn't have to rush down to London to catch the train. We had an early start anyway, so we could take it easy, so we started our holiday by having a massive lunch in Yo Sushi and then sharing a bottle of champagne on the Eurostar. It was really exciting to arrive at the Gare du Nord, and I had dressed for the occasion:

The Pursuit of Love dress - Sarah made this for me, and I named it after a scene in The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford. Unlike Linda Radlett, when I sat on my suitcase in the Gare du Nord, I wasn't crying.

I was really in the holiday mood by the time we got to Paris, and even more so when we got to our apartment. It was a beautiful evening, and the apartment was gorgeous, and our host had even provided us with food! After we got unpacked and freshened up, it was time to go out for a walk and for dinner.

The Sacre Coeur was a five minute walk from our flat on Rue Feutrier. Going up there at night is beautiful - I love the view of Paris lit up at night. It's a shame there were so many winos pissing on the ground, but what can you do?!

Le Moulin de la Galette - I think this is one of my favourite photos from the whole holiday. These lights changed colours as we stood and watched them.

We had an amazing dinner in a little pizza place called Trattoria Pulcinella on Rue Eugene Sue. There are so many pizza places in this area but Nic had read some good reviews of this restaurant, and pizza is a good bet for two vegetarians in France! It did not disappoint - in fact, we enjoyed it so much, we went back for dinner on our last night in Paris. After dinner we went for a walk around Montmartre and finished up with a glass of wine outside Cafe Le Saint Jean on Rue des Abbesses - one of our favourite haunts on our last visit to Paris in 2010.

Sunday morning on Rue Feutrier

On Sunday morning we had a coffee in Cafe Les Deux Moulins on Rue Lepic - another favourite haunt in 2010, as it was just across from where we were staying! This time we were further away from this area of Montmartre but were determined to visit Fromagerie Lepic. We managed to buy some cheese just before the shutters closed at the end of morning trading, and hopped on the metro to Concorde.

Tourist in Les Deux Moulins

Dit "Fromage!"

We had a picnic lunch of bread and cheese in the Jardins des Tuilieries, and spent the afternoon exploring the Latin Quarter and St Germain des Pres. This included a trip to Laduree for champagne and cake. Because you know, we were on holiday!

Happy face in Laduree

The champagne was amazing and so was that cream cake. I wish I had both of those right now. I know macarons would have been the obvious choice but I didn't eat any when I was in Paris! I don't love Laduree macarons, what can I say? But this cake was the BOMB, and the champagne was even more so. YES. Looking at this photo makes me happy.

The sun came out and we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Notre Dame, and then wandering the streets of the Marais district.

 

Nic in the Latin Quarter

A love lock on the Pont des Arts

I bought some normal-shaped bread in this Patisserie before realising that EVERYTHING else was shaped like a cock and balls. Seriously, everything. I kind of wish I'd bought something cock and ball shaped.

After dinner and a drink around the corner from our flat, we took our tired selves to bed!

I did a lot of fabric shopping on the Monday, and I've already told you all about that. We spent the day just pottering around Montmartre, which was lovely. I honestly don't think I'd stay anywhere else in Paris, I love it there so much. It was a mild and sunny day, and all we did was walk for a while before stopping for drinks in cafes. It was bliss. After a rest in the afternoon, we went around the corner to a bar called Au Clair de Lune on Rue Ramey. I completely fell in love with this place. It was really cool, but not in that try-hard hipster way that makes you feel like an outcast, it was just cool. I loved the decor, the neon lighting, and the poster for Fin de Siecle by The Divine Comedy at the bar. I also loved happy hour - cocktails for 5 euros with complimentary bar snacks.

The neon lighting in Clair de Lune

Nic with a tasty 5 euro cocktail

Drinking isn't all we did on holiday, but I have some happy drinking memories from it...

I loved the fact that the cocktails came with glow sticks in them! I know that sounds like a silly thing to get excited about, but it made me happy. We went back to Clair de Lune lots of times over the rest of the holiday and the bar staff came to know us - in fact, I think they found us a bit of a curiosity, but it was such a lovely place. This side of Montmartre is far less chic than the Rue Lepic side - it's much more diverse and there are some really shabby streets around Rue Clignancourt, Avenue Barbes and Boulevard de Rochechouart. Our nearest metro station, Chateau Rouge, was a little bit intimidating. But I loved the area - it was so vibrant and so varied, with lots of really cool bars and restaurants. I would stay there again, in fact I'd stay in our apartment again. I'd stay there again tomorrow if it wasn't for my pesky job and real life!

Anyway, I'm going to leave it here for this evening. I'll tell you about the rest of our holiday in a later blog post. There are only so many holiday photos you can look at in one post, right? Anyway, I'm going to leave you with one more for now:

From the steps above Rue Paul Albert - our neighbourhood at night!

Even if you're a mad twat, you tidy up between jobs. You just do.

 

Scott and Bailey series 3, episodes 4 and 5. Also known as: SHIT GETS REAL

Another late recap, due to holidays. So this time I'm going to talk about episodes 4 and 5, which kind of worked as a two-parter anyway as we delved further into the House of Horrors at Peverell Street.

Episode 4 was pretty grim, but I think on the whole these two episodes were pretty cool. Firstly, I'm always happy when I get to see Gill and Julie teaming up, and who doesn't love those fetching blue overall things. No fear of lack of criming this week - the crimes were busting out all over the place.

It seems like Janet has basically given up - the episode opens with her having a rocking night in, playing Monopoply with her mum and daughters.Like, ooh Janet, you know how to live! Anyway, poor old Helen Bartlett shows up at her door and confesses that her dead brother is buried in the basement of her childhood home, and it was her dad what did the killing. In the next scene, as we see Janet explain it to Gill, Gill is immediately suspicious of Helen. This seems a bit harsh, and Helen is a convincing victim.

Nicola Walker as Helen Bartlett

I was pretty shocked by the extent of the crime that was uncovered and, while it piques my interest because I'm interested in serial killers generally,  I did wonder if it was a mistake to do another serial killer story after Stabby Geoff in series 1. I mean, actual serial killers are pretty rare so it does strain the boundaries of credibility somewhat to have two operating in an overlapping timeframe in Oldham! To be fair I'm sure the writers are aware of this but it does add to the strangeness that Janet is basically in the middle of this Venn diagram of Oldham serial killers. What makes the whole thing even stranger is that Janet invites Helen into the very kitchen where Stabby Geoff stabbed the shit clean out of her! She even turns her back on Helen while on the phone to Rachel. Er, Jan, don't you remember what happened the last time you did that? YOU GOT STABBED, LOVE.

I'm no one to talk about knowing a lot about serial killers because I've read four books about Fred and Rose West and just this evening I exhanged a series of texts with my friend Carts about John Wayne Gacy (he started it, though) but ITV seem pretty interested in Fred and Rose. The story of Peverell Street shakes out in much the same way as what happened with the Wests and, if I'm honest, it feels a bit exploitative as ITV have already done a drama about the Wests (the admittedly excellent Appropriate Adult) They seem keen to underscore the similarity in the cases in case, you know, you've been living under a rock. I found it surprising that they didn't at any point mention the Wests - in an earlier episode reference was made to Myra Hindley, and in the most recent episode Beverley Allitt was mentioned. Perhaps this is meant to be a dramatic interpretation of the West case, but I find that a bit strange too.

In any case, any reservations I had about this storyline were definitely assuaged by the performances of both Nicola Walker and George Costigan. Costigan is absolutely excellent, flipping from confused old man to convincing manipulator with frightening speed.

George Costigan as Joe Bevan

The scenes where Rachel interviews Joe, with Baldy Mitch as her second, were really enjoyable. These scenes are often my favourites in Scott and Bailey because the tone of them is so different to the rest of the show, and to any other police procedural I have watched because they are so procedural. In these episodes I was particularly glad of this because I think it did mitigate against the lurid nature of the crime - 7 bodies uncovered, all of whom had died in really brutal cirumstances.

In fact, what I really enjoyed about these episodes was the policing. Because the crime is so big, Gill is sharing it with another syndicate and Julie Dodson is in charge. The slight tension of Gill being a deputy, combined with the fact that they're a great double act, is really nicely written. I thoroughly enjoyed the scene between the two of them in the car, working out the order of burial of Bevan's victims. I love seeing Gill doing policing - "...even if you're a mad twat, you tidy up between jobs. You just do."

A lot of badass in one car - "The whole thing's speculative bollocks, of course."

Of course, there's lots of good character stuff in these two episodes. Janet gets busy crabbing about the new sergeant on the block - Sergeant Rob Not Robbo. Well, not about him, but about how now she wants the job after saying she didn't, and Gill has given it to someone else. Well durr, Janet. Which is basically what Rachel says. The new guy is, predictably, a bit of a dipshit. I mean, not Kevin-level dipshit. Just your basic dickhead. He's OMGAMAZED by Rachel's interview technique, to which Janet drily tells him...

"Yes, well she's trained." = "Yes, you fifth floor wonder boy, she knows how to do her job."

Anyway, I couldn't really give a shit about Janet being sergeant and this dickhead. But I did like the other work stuff. Poor old Chubby Bill is still having a rough time, and now he's being blackmailed by Rachel's slaggy mum. Kevin is still being your average dickhead and is possibly the OMGWTF leak. Baldy Mitch and Brummy Lee are still solid gold awesome. Mitch is Rachel's second when she's interviewing Joe Bevan and the way he bowls into the squad room, all excitedly delighted about how Rachel managed to crack Joe, well it is bloody CUTE. Some critics of Scott and Bailey say that all the men on the show are idiots, but this is patently not the case. Mitch and Lee are good PO-lice.

I love you, Baldy Mitch. CALL ME.

Sean is still being a complete and utter cock, though. To be fair, Rachel is continuing to make bad life choices - episode four ends with her kipping in a sleeping bag in the office rather than going home to him. In episode five, he forces her hand and gets her to say that she's not really interested in being married to him. Hm. Hard to see why...

Ugh.

Part of me totally sympathises with Sean because Rachel's behaviour is really frustrating - we've all been in that shitty relationship at some point in our lives where, rather than just end things, the other person just treats you like a pariah until you give in and dump them. That's what she's doing here. But I totally understand it, because he is an asshat, and his way of dealing with it is to keep telling her that her feelings are irrational, and that she'll get over it, and, charmingly, "I know you're mad. You are mad. This hasn't gone wrong. It's all in your head. You're just feeling trapped." NICE GASLIGHTING, ASSHOLE. Sean can do one. Especially as he's brought Rachel's rough-as-a-badger's-arse mum back into her life. I kind of find him a perplexing character because, why would he be the way he is? But, yeah. He needs to make an exit, STAT.

So, the Peverell Street job is wrapped up with Joe confessing, and Helen arrested for preventing an unlawful burial. But it can't be the end of this tale - that has to be Helen attacking Gill in the first episode, right? And who is the leak? My money is on it being Janet's mum - seriously - but I'm not totally sure that it is Helen in Gill's car. Repeated references to the two teenage girls convicted of killing an old woman and putting her in a wheelie bin and putting her in the canal (yeah, that's pretty standard criming as far as Scott and Bailey goes though) make me think that maybe something else is going on. Or maybe, you know, Helen was more involved and this is the show's way of telling us that even teenage girls can be evil. Teenage girls being evil - shocker!

Aww, you funny, Janet?!

NEXT WEEK ON SCOTT AND BAILEY: Some bad shit happens in a care home. Is Kevin the leak? Do I recognise that woman from Coronation Street or Emmerdale or what? ALL WILL BE REVEALED. Maybe. 

No reason for this gif other than it's awesome. Gill Murray: No fucks to give. 

Scott and Bailey is broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday on ITV.

I'm so gorgeous they want to put me under arrest.

Hey dudes! I'm still not blogging about Paris yet, or about the last two episodes of Scott and Bailey ('cause I know you're all hanging out waiting on all that stuff) but here's what I've been wearing for the last two days of my Me Made May challenge. Getting photos is a bit more difficult now I'm back at work - but my darling friend SJ offered to take photos of me again, so that's cool.

Anyway, the weather was glorious yesterday - although, I was having a busy day so I hardly even managed to look out the window! But when work finished, I took to the park with Nic for an ice-cream, before going for a walk to visit Lysy and The Scientist to eat rhubarb crumble and drink red wine. It was a good day!

Tuesday 7th May 2013 - Calamity Jane dress, Love Me Tender shoes from Office and sunglasses from Magpie Mexicana in Leamington

I fupping love these sunglasses. They're too ridiculous for words - which, to be fair, you could describe this whole outfit in that way.

I don't look nearly as polished in my photos for today, all. Today was a long and very busy day. But it was a good one! I had a job interview this morning for a promotion, and after lunch they told me I'd got it! It's a job in my current team, but it's a new position, and it's a significant increase in responsibility and in pay grade. Which is awesome! My job stresses me out often, and that's often down to the administrative burden - but this new job means that bit will be taken away from me and I can focus on other things. I'm really happy about it, so on the way home I bought some champagne. Oh, and a Zatchels satchel from Berylune...

Extraordinary Garden dress, topshop shoes, Zatchels 16" satchel in cornflower blue, oh and I see some champagne there, yo...

Don't look at my face too closely - I look like ass, but the dress looks nice. Look at that! Today was pretty intense as I was in work at 7:30 for a meeting, then straight into my interview - which was conducted by two people I work closely with, which added to the weirdness - and then into a basically wall-to-wall day. So, I decided to treat myself to this satchel, which I had spied when I called into the shop on Saturday to wish them happy birthday and drop a present from Paris off to the girls. I actually ordered an 11.5" green satchel from the Zatchels birthday sale a few weeks ago, but I fell in love with this one, so made it mine! If you're in the area, pay a visit to Berylune, they have a gorgeous range of satchels all organised in rainbow order (very important) and it's just the sweetest, funnest, prettiest shop to visit. You'll leave lighter of wallet and lighter in heart, too!

I call this the IMMA GET SO DRUNK TONIGHT face...

And speaking of Berylune and on the subject of why I'm so great - more workshop dates have been booked in. I'm going to be teaching the Colette Patterns Hazel dress over two Sundays - 26th May and 2nd June. Included in the cost of the workshop is your own copy of the pattern to take home, your zip and interfacing and notions and also, most importantly of all, CAKE.

Right, now I have to get down to drinking this champagne and putting stuff in my new bag. Paris and Scott and Bailey soon, honest.

I'm going to make a suggestion which might help you out, but I don't want this gesture to be mistaken for an indication that I like you.

Hey all, happy bank holiday! I hope you had a good day - I spent it in the sunshine with my friends, having a picnic in the park. It was bliss! It's going to feel strange to go back to work in the morning, and I think I've forgotten my work computer login details but it's all good. I have a few more hours of holiday left.

Anyway, I'll post about our holiday later, because I know everyone loves looking at people's holiday photos, right? But for now, it's Me Made May up in here, so here's what I've been wearing:

Wednesday 1st May - Nana dress - worn on the steps above Rue Paul Albert in Montmartre

So, yeah. I took a couple of Paris themed dresses to Paris. NO SHAME. Actually I was kind of expecting the chic Parisians to think I was a twat for dressing to a theme. Maybe they did, but this dress got me lots of compliments in shops and bars, and not all from tourists So that was pretty nice! I love this dress a ridiculous amount, but I need to take the straps up a bit. They flop around a wee bit - nothing serious and I wore this cardigan all day - but you know, annoying. Now, on this trip to Paris we didn't go to the Eiffel Tower because we went the last time, so there are no photos of me posing in an Eiffel Tower dress at the Eiffel Tower. But if you look closely, you can see it in the background:

I could have posed with the Sacre Coeur, but it's not on the dress, so no deal.

Thursday 2nd May - Foux du FaFa dress - photographed in Place Saint Pierre

I wore this dress for a spot more fabric shopping - I'm standing here opposite the wonderful Tissus Reine - and for wandering in Montmartre in the sunshine before cocktails, champagne, dinner and an evening in a jazz bar. It was a truly wonderful day.

Friday 3rd May - Il Fait Chaud dress - photographed by the carousel in Place Louise-Michel, which is at the foot of the Sacre Coeur

This was our last day in Paris, and we had the morning before getting onto the Eurostar to come back to London. The weather was beautiful, and I wasn't too sad to be leaving. Earlier in the week I'd had an email from several estimable ladies, Debi among them, suggesting a meet-up in London. Drinking in the sunshine with sewing friends - what could be better?

Debi, So-Ha, Alana, Jane, me, Clare and Sally

Widescreen faces

FILM STUDIES REPRESENT

It was back to normal on Saturday - but as the sun was shining, I couldn't complain that much...

Saturday 4th May - Amber Hazel dress, worn with Irregular Choice Mermaid shoes

I'm looking a bit crumpled here, I'd just come back from having my hair cut, and this fabric really creases! I did receive a few unsolicited compliments in this too - and you know I'm all about the seal claps! I love these shoes and I wore them with this dress during Me Made May last year, too. I'm just happy to be able to wear open-toed shoes again.

Sunday 5th May - One Good Turn dress and Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Lady Dragon shoes

This dress is so comfortable, and I don't have much to say about it or about Sunday. Apart from doing some grocery shopping and going for a little walk in town, I did very little on Sunday. I'm still getting over all the relaxation on the holiday, I suppose!

Monday 6th May - Sewaholic Lonsdale dress and Schuh Garda wedges

I wore this for a picnic in the park with some of my loveliest friends, and it was perfect for lolling around on the grass. I was covered in sunscreen though - I don't tan, I just burn, and I think the neckline and the straps on this could result in some very interesting sunburn marks! God I hate wearing strapless bras, though. Seriously.

And that's the first couple of days of Me Made May. It's going well so far - but most of my sewing is with good weather in mind, and we've been having good weather. I hope it doesn't get much more challenging than this! Right now, I'm tired and I have to be up early in the morning. I'm away.

You take care of that detail in France. I hear they got some pretty dangerous mimes over there.

BONJOUR MES AMIES, which is what they say en France, you know. Heh! Well, Nic and I got back from Paris on Friday and I have tons to catch up on blogwise, not least my Me Made May outfits and catching up with Scott and Bailey recaps and also, you know, around eleventy thousand and three photos of Montmartre. But I'm going to get started with the juicy stuff and tell you all about the fabric shopping. I did a lot of big talk before I went about how I was going to buy loads of fabric, and I had been saving up. But I suprised even myself. I came home with a lot of fabric. Paris was absolutely wonderful for lots of reasons, but staying in the garment quarter was definitely one of them!

Nic and I stayed in Montmartre when we visited Paris in 2010, and completely fell in love with the area. It's just so charming, you know? So this time around, although the rational bit of my brain thought maybe we should stay in another arrondissement, we both felt a really strong emotional pull towards the 18th. We found a studio apartment on Rue Feutrier through airbnb, and as well as being gorgeous, it was five minutes walk away from Place Saint Pierre. It was also five minutes away from comic shops and awesome bars, and it had a view of the Sacre Coeur, but that's a story for another post. Today I'm going to tell you what I bought and where I bought it!

Now, having visited Paris a few times before, I knew exactly where I wanted to go when I got to the fabric district. THIS gorgeous place:

Dreyfus - Marche Saint Pierre, on Rue Charles Nodier. I was weird enough to take this photo both at dusk and at night because I loved the lights.

This was the only place I bought fabric from the last time we went to Paris. Although I didn't buy anything from there this time, it's not because it wasn't awesome. There are five floors of fabric here, every single thing you can think of. Unlike lots of the other shops nearby that sell only coupons (pre-cut lengths of fabric, usually 3m but sometimes less) fabric is sold on the bolt here. Type of fabric is arranged by floor, and it works on a system. You find your fabric, you get someone to cut it for you, they give you a coupon, you pay for it at the little box. You can only pay for fabric on the floor you're buying it from, which could potentially mean lots of transactions! But it's fine, and my experience was that the people in there were really patient with my halting French. On the street outside, you'll find the special deals of the day, which is also pretty neat. 

While Nic was browsing in comic shops, I found a little independent comic by Dominique Corbasson about Montmartre. I bought it because it was beautiful, and because it had a few pages about the fabric district. This is the one of the pages about Dreyfus - Marche Saint Pierre:

"Le temple du tissu" - "The temple of fabrics"

Almost directly across the street from Dreyfus - Marche Saint Pierre is the delightful and bizarre Tissus Reine. I didn't take a photo of the front of the store, but my Montmartre comic has this beautiful illustration:

"Promo royale sur le blanc." - "Royal discount."

Reine works along the same lines as Dreyfus in that fabric is laid out by type and across several floors. It's a bit brighter and fancier than Dreyfus and correspondingly a bit more expensive! But it's really fabulous and I may have skipped around in joy when I was in there because I'm a dick like that. My favourite thing about Reine is the half-sized mannequins that they have, dressed in clothes handmade by couture students. They're weird, but I love them and would kind of love one in my own house. The best thing was that we went in twice, a few days apart, and the mannequins had MOVED. It freaked Nic out. 

 

This lady was by the ginghams - I loved the way her shirt dress was cut on the bias and had that hem!

This one was wearing a little petticoat!

In the printed cottons section on the ground floor, Reine had an Eiffel Tower section, and I'm a twat so I made a beeline for it.

 

What's French for twat? Is it 'Roisin', by any chance?

It won't surprise you at all that I bought some Eiffel Tower fabric. I mean, how could I not?! The people in Reine were very charming and didn't even laugh that much. Here's what I bought:

I can't remember the designer of the blue and white Eiffel Towers, but it was too lovely not to buy. And der, when I saw the Michael Miller in green it was a no-brainer. I had actually seen it across the street in the craft and haberdashery branch of Moline, but it was like 23 euros a metre! In Reine it was 14 euros a metre, as was the blue and white. This was by far the most expensive fabric I bought on the whole trip! One of the seriously cool things about Reine, apart from the mannequins, is the sheer range of people shopping in there. It was packed out each time we went in, and with all sorts of people. I loved that.

I bought a good bit of fabric slightly away from the main cluster of fabric shops. The little branch of Tissus Toto on Rue Clignancourt was right around the corner from our flat and was totally awesome in every single way. The wee man who ran it came to know me by sight, and I think he found me quite a curiosity! We also visited one of the bigger branches on Rue Barbes, but I only bought fabric from the Clignancourt branch. Toto sells a huge variety of fabrics and haberdashery, as well as towels and household linen, and it specialises in African fabrics. You can buy fabrics on the bolt and in coupons, and I stuck to the coupons.

I bought 1.9 metres of this beautiful printed cotton from the bargain bin at the door. This was the first bit of fabric I bought in Paris and I majorly heart it - it was 8 euros I think, and it's 60 inches wide. The photo doesn't really do it justice!

 

I went back for the dog fabric on our last full day in Paris, having spotted it on my first trip into Toto. Like, it was too ridiculous not to buy it. You can't see in this photo, but some of the dogs are wearing signs that say "I love you". This is a 2.5 metre piece and was 8 euros. The night-owl fabric is a 3 metre piece and was 10 euros, I think. They're both 100% cotton - in fact, everything I bought was. I was really tempted by all of the beautiful waxed cottons but thought that I probably wouldn't realistically sew from them. If you're visiting Paris for fabric shopping, don't miss Toto. It's awesome.

It probably isn't helpful to get too specific now about all of the other fabric shops in the Marche Saint Pierre - there are so many, and lots of them are really small! Most of the little shops on Rue d'Orsel, Rue Dancourt and Rue Sevestre sell a combination of fabric on the bolt and coupons. A number of the shops will only sell coupons, but this system is pretty clear. The fabrics are organised in bins by type, and each piece is labelled with the fabric content and the price. Job done. There are lots of these shops and, to be honest, lots of them have similar stock, but it's fun for a rummage! The remnant stores of both Dreyfus Marche Saint Pierre and Reine are in this area too, and that's where you'll find the coupons from those stores. In Coupons Saint Pierre, at 7 Place Saint Pierre I bought:

3 metres each of 100% cotton - the strange sea-chart fish print one, well, I can't really explain that other than it made me laugh. The stripy floral is a bit different to my usual style, but I thought it was sweet. These were each 9 euros. This place was also great for silks and designer fabrics, if that's your bag. The other great big coupons shops in this area were La Folie des Coupons on Rue d'Orsel and Au Bonheur des Dames on Rue Stephenson, both of which were pretty awesome. I didn't buy anything in Au Bonheur des Dames (which made me sad because it's the name of one of my favourite novels) but I did in La Folie des Coupons:

You thought my gingham fixation from last summer was over? Yeah, no. Lovely pinky purple small gingham and the perfect turquoise fat gingham, both 100% cotton, both 3 metres, both 9 euros. I did a little dance of joy when I happened upon the blue one because this is another one of those fabrics that I've been looking for that should be easy to find but isn't. I also LOVED the fact that the bag has the Eiffel Tower because I'm a dick like that.

That's all the fabric I bought, but that's only because it's basically all my arms could carry. I'm sure there are lots of other places in Paris to buy fabric but we were staying right here and there is so much choice. It's also a great area for general haberdashery and also for yarn. I'm not really a button person, but Dam Boutons on Rue d'Orsel had a gorgeous selection. Caverne d'Ali Baba, also on Rue d'Orsel, had an amazing selection of trims and pompoms. Laines on Rue Cazotte is a beautiful place to buy all manner of yarn. You can buy all sorts of haberdashery everywhere - even the giant discount chain Tati, which has numerous branches along the Boulevard de Rochechouart - carried a decent range of haberdashery. They also had some awesome comic book printed bed linen which I'm sort of gutted I didn't buy.

If you ARE going to Paris and you're planning on doing some fabric shopping, seriously don't miss the Marche Saint Pierre area. It's just a lovely area, as well as having lots of excellent fabric shops. Try to speak French if you can - mine is pretty basic but actually, that's all you need. Most of the shops are used to tourists and will help you out in English if you need, but it's good manners and good practice to speak in French anyway. I had nothing but positive experiences in all of the fabric shops I visited, and I am really excited to sew up some of my treasures! And Nic and I are already planning our next trip back to Paris.

But don't just take my word for it. Karen of Did You Make That? has written a guide to Paris Fabric Shopping, Melissa of Fehr Trade wrote a lovely guide here, too. In fact, talk to Melissa about cheese shopping in France while you're at it.

I will come back in the week and tell you about the other things that we did in Paris! But for now I'm going to leave you with a few more pictures...

I loved this mannequin's stripy dress

Upstairs in the home linens department of Reine

I took this photo while walking home from Autour de Midi on Rue Lepic - feeling tipsy and sentimental.