Part of my busy few days away was a reunion, in January it was forty years since I started nursing!! I trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, I was in Set 37 and there were 37 of us in our set, we decided to have a reunion down at a pub we used to frequent near to Barts. We couldn’t trace everyone, it was the days before social media after all, but I think to have found over half was a great result.
The Fox and Anchor pub was next to Smithfield Meat Market which was open during the night so they had special licensing hours (this was well before the open all hours pubs we have now) from about midnight til about 10am. We used to go there for breakfast at the end of a stretch of nights. They had a very long griddle and we could go along getting bacon, eggs, sausage, black pudding, beans, tomato…and a gin and tonic!! Then the market men would come in ‘free round of drinks for the nurses’…then the policemen came in from their night shift, ‘free round of drinks for the nurses’!! We would sleep well that day!
The Fox and Anchor is still there but open at the more usual hours. We booked a private room at the back and had a fantastic time, about 18 of us met up. We laughed so much it was fortunate it was a private room!
Of course I decided to make myself a new dress. Last month I spotted the terra dress by Vivian Shao Chen, a designer I’ve not heard of before but it was love at first sight. It’s a shirt waister but with gorgeous sleeves and deep cuffs. It’s a pdf pattern but I got it printed on AO paper by Cool Crafting of Kendal, they were just setting up the service and their prices are very good.
The fabric is from Fabric Heaven on Facebook, she has some beautiful designs, all 100% cotton, this is the lightweight one. It feels gorgeous and it drapes really well too. This one is one of her more muted designs, there’s some stunning richly coloured ones too, I’ve fallen for quite a few as they’re very reasonably priced too, I just need to get sewing them.
The fabric sewed and pressed really easily, I French-seamed the long seams as being soft cotton, it does tend to fray. The pattern doesn’t take as much fabric as I thought it might, 3-3.5m depending on the width. It went together easily, I added about 6″ in length as I do like my dresses long, I also added in seam pockets, there were patch pockets on the pattern but I felt that would detract from the line of the dress. I also didn’t add the split up the side seams. Next time I’ll probably make the cuffs a little closer fitting, I love the depth of them but they are a little big.
I had to change the spacing of the buttons as it is quite a greedy pattern when it comes to buttons, like it needs about 24!! there’s meant to be four on each cuff! I only had 17 as that’s all they had in the shop and they were such a perfect match I just changed the spacing a bit, I used three on each cuff, missed the collar button off and used a different button under the belt.
I love this dress, it’s very easy to wear and I’ll definitely be making more.
thecraftycreek 
What a great venue for your reunion and a pretty dress too.
Years ago when I was struggling to pay a mortgage on my own I worked several nights in a night club as well a a full time day job and, living near Gatwick Airport, we sometimes used to take advantage of their all night catering facilities and get a cooked breakfast at 3 in the morning. I don’t remember anybody saying ‘a drink for the night club workers’ though 😂.
Will you make the reunion a regular thing now that you’ve managed to track so many down?
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We’re certainly not going to leave it as long next time, in 2027 it’ll be 40 years since we qualified, so I think that might be the next big one.
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What a wonderful story, and love the photo.
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you look pretty! I loved sewing clothing but not recently. Your pup is adorable, what a face
LeeAnna
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It must have been such fun to get together, reminiscing with people with whom you have shared so much. The dress is so pretty. It looks really soft and comfy (a necessity these days!)
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It was wonderful, we were a very close set, much more than most sets.
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that looks really fun! Both the event and the dress, I really like the fabric you picked,!
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It’s gorgeous fabric, lovely to wear too.
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What a wonderful reunion, and a pretty dress for the occasion! Can there be a more contented face than that of your puppy?! 🙂
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Your dress looks lovely – soft and easy but flattering. The reunion sounds fun.
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Lovely dress. Your reunion sounds like great fun – where did that 40 years go!
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I know! Forty years!!!
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I wonder how many times “Do you remember when…” was said that night! Very pretty dress, and I do see what you mean about the cuff.
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Lots of times!! We laughed so much! Having worn the dress a few times I think I might move the buttons in a bit, I don’t think it’ll be noticeable.
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Beautiful dress! Sounds like a wonderful reunion! As a nurse I appreciate that that the local appreciated what you all did and bought you a round :-).
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The market men were very grateful that we were always there if they needed to pop to A&E!
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