The Girls in Their Summer Dresses

I had a trip to London with  Fan My Flame on Wednesday to an exhibition of 1950's  Horrockses frocks at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey.

Horrockses made off-the-peg women's fashions in the 1940's and 50's.  Mostly cotton dresses, housecoats and beachwear.  (Housecoats!)

Sorry about the standard of the pictures - I couldn't use flash in the exhibition, so they were very dark, and I've lightenened them a bit in Photoshop. Not brilliant, but you'll get the idea.

Love the dresses - not sure about the playsuit thingy in the back though.  The fabrics were really beautiful, and the designs came from a number of sources including in-house staff, commercial design studios, freelancers and also from well-known artists such as Graham Sutherland.

 This next one depicted plates of food ..........

Gina and I both picked the same one as our favourite ...

I love the black gingham overprinted with blue roses.  I might have to try the same thing with applique.  I'll just add that to the list of intended projects.

As well as the dresses, there was some of the original artwork for the fabric, and it was interesting to see a bit of the design process.  

It's a lovely exhibition - and if you are interested in vintage fashion, I'd urge you to go. It's on until 24th October.

I have become more or less self-sufficient in the garden.  Well, ok maybe that's a tiny exaggeration.  I have nine tomato plants, five in the ground and four in pots.  I planted them in good quality compost, I've staked and tied them (several times, as they've got bigger)  I have watered them everyday, and fed them every week with Tomorite (other tomato fertilisers are available). Oh, and I used an organic method of slug control. 

Surprisingly enough it worked.  No poisonous blue pellets, no egg shells, no coffee grounds, just a little notice informing them that they weren't welcome.  Organic, or what?

And today, finally I have reaped the benefits.  I had two (yes, two!) of my very own tomatoes.  

True, they were on the small side, but they were delicious.  And there's plenty more green ones, so as long as the sun shines again in the next few weeks, I'll maybe get some more.

(Blog Title - The Girls in Their Summer Dresses by Airborne Toxic Event)