Finishing off and a bit of tidying

Phew!  Finished the dress, after a few more hiccups!  

The one-step buttonhole was not so simples - though I think this was down to the fine-ness of the fabric more than the machine.  Lucky I only needed to do two!  I tested it out on a piece of scrap fabric, but even so had to have three attempts at the second buttonhole, and I was on tenterhooks carefully unpicking the two that went wrong, wondering if the fabric would emerge from all that stitching unscathed!

Delicate though Tana Lawn maybe, it is a robust fabric and there is no lasting mark from the buttonholes that went wrong.

I then found some very sweet patterned mother-of-pearl buttons to finish off.

Earlier in the day I had set about our tiny back garden, which over the winter had become a bit of a glorified woodpile and workshop.  As you can't see the garden from the house (unless you clamber on the loo in our downstairs bathroom and open the top window to peer out of the narrow gap that affords!) it does tend to get neglected in the gloomy months of the year.

I put some bits in the car to go to the dump, tidied up the salvaged wood that Mr-U-t-B brought home for chopping into kindling, scrubbed the table, sorted the 'shed' (which is more of a lean-to shelter) and cut the lawn with my push-along mower. 

Parsley's looking healthy!

 I even clipped my boxy box!  

This one still needs a good trim though!

Looking forward to more sunny days getting the garden fit for summer!

In the meantime, I am hoping to go to the original 'Vintage and Handmade' in Chipping Sodbury today!  If I manage to get there, there's bound to be something to share tomorrow!