win a Peak Princess dress

Daisy Green magazine are offering readers the chance to win one of my dresses. Described as a cross between Sex and the City and The Good Life it's a great read full of eco-friendly and ethical ideas for sustainable living.

They've also published my guide to making your very own mini Peak Princess creation for dollies.

I'm starting to sell little "make your own Liberty dolly dress packs" including enough tana lawn cotton & ribbon for 2 dresses plus pattern & instructions. If you're interested in buying one just email me (mail@peakprincess.co.uk).

love hearts

I'm off to the Chilterns Craft Fair at the beautiful Stonor Park tomorrow. The show runs from Friday through til Monday so please do come along.

I'll have a big bowl of Love Hearts on my stall - made by the High Peak's answer to Willie Wonker's Chocolate Factory, Swizzels Matlow in New Mills.

Fortunately my velvet ribbons arrived this morning so I've been finishing off my autumn/winter 'Anya Rose' shift dresses. I'm doing them in denim with Liberty lining & trim and also in super soft Liberty cord prints.

pins and needles

A day that got off to a bad start but ended happily...
This morning at 8am I broke my last size 9 needle. It's the slender size that's perfect for sewing Liberty's Tana Lawn cotton. I was stupidly using it to sewing the inverted box pleat of my new 'Anya Rose' Liberty Kingly cord baby dress. Even though it's super soft, three layers of baby cord was too much and it snapped off. Disaster was averted by a trip to Sew-In in Buxton.

Cake and coffee and my first order from the United States for a 'Tilly Toadstool' pinafore in Liberty's Wiltshire print cheered me up enormously.

There are few greater pleasures in life than sewing on buttons to the gentle rhythm of Test Match Special - especially when Australia's collapsing. I mused about the wonders of my 'no need to thread' needles which have an ingenious little gap through which you snap the thread. It saves endless hours poking ragged ends through tiny holes, giving up, looking for my scissors which are always on the other side of the sewing room. (You can get them at Tesco in Whaley Bridge).

The pinafore has a lovely full gathered skirt which requires lots and lots of pinning. This is a photo of my wrist-band pin cushion. This one broke but I bought a new one from the wonderful Manchester wholesaler, Taylors (who are sending me a supply of Berisfords of Congleton's lovely velvet ribbons for mu autumn/winter collection).

I also have a sweet little iced bun pin cushion that I bought from clever Kitty Eden who makes all sorts of handmade lovelinesses.

PS I'm always slightly wary of swallowing pins so I always have a pin cushion to hand to try and avoid holding them between my lips. We had a lovely golden retriever called Leah when I was a little girl. She swallowed one of Mum's pins. Luckily Mum knew to feed her buttered cotton wool balls which coated the pin long enough for the dog to get to the vets. (The only downside was that from then on Leah used to eat the cotton wool off the Christmas tree every year!)

Peak Prince shirt

This is my new Peak Prince shirt - called "Samuel L." in honour of my godson Samuel Lawrence. In Grayson Perry's new Liberty bicycle print called Philippa (after his wife I believe). I'm sure Sam would prefer Liberty's car print as he's adores anything with four wheels.

It's still in sample stage but if anyone would like to buy preview samples just email me.

learn to dress dolly

I borrowed a doll from my friend Hayley's little girls, Caitlin and Freya, after we spent an afternoon making dresses for their Jellycat Liberty Belles.

I was inspired to try and design my own 'Peak Princess' Liberty frocks for dolls - with a little help from Mum (who came up with the great ribbon strap idea).

This is dolly wearing a Liberty 'Phoebe' print tea dress with gold ribbon straps and belt, followed by a Liberty 'Ros' print prom dress with matching pink straps and belt. (Hair cut courtesy of Freya!)

Can't wait to try the new pattern out with the girls, especially as Mum's bought them a mini-sewing machine to practise on.

tweet tweet

I'm feeling quite proud of myself for having managed to put my twitter updates on my homepage as well as on this blog (see bottom right). How integrated is that!!

I've also started creating my autumn/winter Liberty print collection web boutique so my 'Freya Bean' blouses, 'Anya Rose' Liberty cord shifts and denim with Liberty trim shifts and 'Bella Luella' long sleeve baby dresses will be available online by the end of the month.

And I'm delighted that my 'Martha Grace' baby cord dress is in this month's Baby Hampshire and Baby Surrey magazines.

...got to go back up to the sewing room now.

ribbons and bows

Just discovered this gorgeous collection of bows, hairbands, clips and alice bands in every colour of the rainbow...there's loads more on Miss Gracie's site.

I've got ribbons on my mind at the moment and I'm in the middle of matching up sumptuous velvet ribbons to my lovely new Liberty tana lawn and baby cord autumn/winter prints.

I'm buying them from a local firm called Berisfords who've been making ribbons for more than a hundred and fifty years.

The only problem is that my kitten, Loki, runs into my sewing room, steals them and runs downstairs doing a bad impression of the Andrex puppy.

radio gaga

Behind my overlocker you can just see my radio. It's an ancient analogue Matsui which means Mum must have bought it years ago. The fm/lw/mw button's broken so you have to fiddle with it to get it to work.

In my former London life I used to work for Radio 4. We had gorgeous Pure digital radios in every room...when we moved to the digital desert that is the Peak District I 'loaned' them to my Mum (who moved down to London the same day we moved up here!). Roll on switchover.

I'm fond of this one because I once lent it to John Prescott when he was being interviewed for a BBC 5 live report that I produced in Manchester. (Read the Home Business magazine for more on my former life)

When I'm sewing I have it turned up really loud. (Probably why my writer husband works downstairs!). Generally I listen to Radio 4 til about lunchtime, then after Sean or Martha on The World at One it's time to tune into Simon Mayo on 5 live. Then it's back to Eddie Mair's PM of course.

When I fancy a bit of music I tune into High Peak Radio (you might hear me reading the news for them from time to time!). They allow me to indulge my passion for radio & kindly allowed me to do a lovely series about people born and bred in the High Peak which is also being published in Derbyshire Life magazine.

I'm also a podcast and audiobook addict...please post any recommendations.