Kittys Drawings

Hi All!
Quickie post today!

I’m all sorts of busy making a dress right about now which is very close to done. You might see it next week. Super happy with the fit of it so far and I’m mega keen to make more versions of it. I’ve got so much planned for the next couple of weeks!

Anyways….what I’m showing you today is something I won a little while back. Debi from My Happy Sewing Place had a comp on her blog where you could win a $50 voucher at The Paraders Vintage. Which I won. Heh. This is what I chose out of the many wonderful things to pick from.

I’m thinking it’s from the 50′s or 60′s – I can’t remember what it was on the listing…and it’s a very fine example of a tapestry bag…..something I’ve been wanting for a while. They can range from the exquisite to the hideous depending on your personal taste. Some people’s personal taste being that they are ALL hideous no doubt
I particularly like this one because the colours are lovely and muted and the lucite bar and metal trim at the top is really neat. It’s in very good condition and quite roomy for a vintage bag so I’m super happy it’s mine!

Well that’s all for today. More next week

Hi Everyone

I’m catching up on a bit of sewing posts. It’s been TWO WEEKS since I last wrote. Gosh the time is flying. I really do have less time to blog these days. And draw. Still not getting anywhere with the drawing. I actually have some paid work to do this weekend so right after this is written I’m gonna go and earn some money.

So here is a dress I made a looong time ago now. The one I polled everyone about whether I should go the bare midriff option. And so I did. I loved the dress when I made it but I kind of hate it now. It’s all my own fault though really – I made it with like, zero ease…so while it fits around the waist, the nature of the pattern and these damn side closures means it’s a struggle to get it over my shoulders without seriously stressing the seams. If I made it looser, I don’t think it would look so good since any gaping would be very noticeable.

It’s such a cute dress though and the fabric is so awesome (another Savers find, remember?).

Some notes that usually go with my sewing posts:

• Totally love the contrasting fabrics!
• I made my own bias tape for this. I botched it a bit – just don’t look too closely okay.
• The skirt is from another pattern because I wanted fullness and did not have a wide enough fabric for the semi-circle this pattern calls for.
• It’s 10 gores! Woah. I love them though. And they’re all French seamed. That’s a lot of thread!
• I used snaps again for the side closure. Still much neater than a zip.
• This dress is really falling apart
• Not many bras are suitable! Eep
• The fabric marker I was using stained it. Grrr – those are supposed to wash out.

*sigh* I have such mixed feelings about this. It gets a fair few looks when I wear it out…mostly cos  of the ‘hole’ in it. The Mr doesn’t like it because of this hole. Haha. I dont know if these pale pastels suit me? It’s a bit meh.

Anyways – it’s done now.

Things I’m working on at the mo…. A skirt and a dress. One is green – that really cool Advance pattern with the bustle and the buttons. The other is a purple floral wiggle dress made of cotton. Desperate need of a summer work wardrobe. It’s gonna be a scorcher this year I think.

WELL.

I better go and not faff around so much.

Seeyas!

Hi all!
Bad blogger here. It’s been over a week again…and I’ve got nothing substantial to show you. Because…well, I had all intentions of taking some photos on Sunday but I couldn’t find the remote for the camera. I did do some sewing though. As for drawing….umm. Don’t ask.

The house is currently all over the place – the Boyfriend decided we should rearrange the house so he’s starting pulling everything out and moving furniture upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. Now my sewing machine is perched on the end of a bookcase and unplugged. The new table which it’s going to go on is on the third floor in the master bedroom….the master bedroom is going to become the study and we’ll move our bed to the ‘spare room’ (sewing room currently)…Now the spare room is much smaller than the master which is the whole top floor – but it has A DOOR. Which we can close and not let insistent little kitties in who want to knead their sharp little claws into your neck at 2:34am in the morning.
What is currently the second floor and study will become the lounge room. The bottom floor will stay kitchen (duh!) and we shall buy a nice big dining table for down there so we can actually have guests around to have dinner without them having to eat their food in their laps. *ahem*

Consequently I have no room to draw or sew. There is so much stuff everywhere, it looks like we just moved in. That said, after this I’m going to take my sewing machine upstairs and plug it in. Then I shall have some room for my Wacom and I might continue the drawing I’ve been procrastinating about for the past 4 weeks.

ALSO. I have some great news for ME. Ha. I won a years business subscription with a service called BaseKit, where you can build a website very easily using their WYSIWYG editor (no Flash either yay!). This is most timely because I have been mulling over how my folio isn’t separate from this blog. And since the blog has become not entirely focused on drawing lately, it’s best that I should have a separate place for my illustration and graphic design work. Fortunately, I can tack the whole lot onto my current domain and when it’s all up and ready I will show it to you.
However, first I need a bit of a ‘re-brand’….focus my ‘look’ into a website and portfolio. I like the simple and clean thing but technically that doesn’t really suit my personality. What does suit my personality – I am at a bit of a loss to describe….I think this will require some proper brainstorming and creativity.

There’s just one more thing to talk about – another thing I won! This time something sewing related, and based on merit. A little while ago, Suzy Sewing (awesome UK blogger who happens to be a redhead too) had a mini comp on her site where readers were asked to guess how she made a boo-boo on a sewing project. The project was a skirt with buttons down the front…I was the first to flounder my way towards an answer as to what went wrong….And so I won! She sent me this cool vintage pattern:

Cute huh! You all know I’m a fan of wrap dresses! This should be great for summer – I can see one made up in one of the floral sheets I have lying around for just such dresses. Should come together really easily too as these dresses usually have no fiddly fastenings to deal with like buttonholes or zippers.

Just quickly – sewing projects recently completed, on the go and planned:

• A 40′s shirt – this is my first attempt at making a shirt. I’m really really pleased with it! Even set in sleeves with NO puckering!
• I’ve cut out the fabric for Advance 5125, the bustle skirt.
• This weekend I will buy some blue gingham and red buttons for Advance 8064 (the full suspender skirt)….The plan is I shall be Dorothy for an upcoming Halloween party (or two). Now, do I drop $125 on the pair of sparkly red shoes that would be PERFECT for this outfit?

Speaking of Halloween – it was also suggested I go as Barbarella….Now, that would be a much more difficult costume to make, and I would need to find an outrageous blonde wig, and boots….but it’s a really cool idea and I’m in two minds. Heh.

Oh well I better go – I’ve been prattling on for far too long! Promise my posts will have more pictures soon!

Seeyas!

Hi everyone

Quickie post today to show you two patterns that arrived in the mail today.

The first – Advance 8064 from the 50′s. I was browsing Ebay a little while ago (as you do) and noticed a really cute skirt for sale by popular seller Violetville Vintage . She has an awesome range of really cute vintage clothes but I’d seen this one somewhere before…It was then I remembered a pattern I had put in my Etsy favourites only the week before. I quickly searched and there it was – the identical pattern. No doubt, the skirt was made from the very same pieces. It was exciting to see it made up and how awesome it looked so it didn’t take me long to put it in my shopping cart Just my size too!

And since I have a bad habit of trying to “save on shipping” by buying more than one thing from a seller, I had a look at what else SelvedgeShop had for sale This next skirt was a no-brainer….check out the quirky details: petal shaped waistline curving down to asymmetrical button closure…and a neatly pleated bustle type gathering on the back. How elegant! The blouse pattern comes with it too (like the one above too). I think this one must be from the very late 40′s or early 50′s. Totally amazing – one of the most unique skirts I’ve ever seen.

Now which one do I make first??

My sewing and drawing time has been cut down significantly with the new job. I’m getting home quite late in the evening and rather exhausted. I hope the tiredness is only a settling in phase and it will pass soon. With summer coming, I’m looking forward to more daylight hours too.

Is everyone else looking forward to the change of season?
Melbourne keeps playing games with us all – beautiful and sunny one week and the next its all horrible and cold again. Though I shouldn’t say horrible – because I truly love the cold better….but I’m in that in-between phase where I want warm days. It won’t last though – come mid December I’ll be moaning about the heat already. I predict a particularly long and hot summer too this year. Maybe not as crazy as the year we had the big fires but still hot.

Anyways, it’s late. I better get to bed.

Will post on the weekend if I get the time ))

Hi All!!

Here’s the latest sewing project all finished. I’ve jumped ahead a couple cos this wasn’t the one I was intending to show you, but I was wearing this Saturday (and Friday haha) so I took pics of this instead. This is possibly the quickest dress I’ve ever made, and I even lined the bodice – so if you skipped that, it’s SUPER easy….That said, I think lining is quicker than facings.

Some Notes:

• It’s made from a sheet – Possibly! Nicole from Circa thinks it might not be as the cotton is fairly thick.
• I shortened it a bit
• I didn’t add the scallops on the bottom because I can’t figure out how to shorten the circle skirt without changing the circumference of the hem, thus needing to change the pattern piece for the scallops (hard to explain!)
• Only the bodice is lined
• This has a side zipper but it isn’t closed at the top so it’s really easy to get into.
• It’s the perfect, comfy summer dress!
• I didn’t need to change the pattern at all except the length

(look at the surge of kitties hehehee)

After reading Elyse’s post on her first Spring sewing project, I notice that I have wrinkles on the bodice of my dress too. I answered her question by saying it could be the lining competing for space…Which could also be the case for my dress as I used the same size lining as the outer pieces. I’m not sure? It doesn’t bother me too much though.

Guess what? I made the green belt I’m wearing too Using a kit from A Fashionable Stitch, I covered the belt backing in some green fabric and hand-sewed it all together. Covering the buckle was a bit fiddly though. It comes with a sticky piece of card that you attach your fabric to and then the other side sticks to the metal front of the buckle. Then you jam in the bottom of the buckle with some pliers. I botched it a little bit but you can’t really tell when I’m wearing it. Then I had to rush out and buy an awl and the Mr helped me bash in the eyelets.
I think I’ll be making simpler slide belts next – eyelets are a PITA.
I’m majorly in love with that green fabric I used. It’s such a perfect shade – and matches my dress so well. I have enough left to make a skirt…And the pattern is coming in the mail so it should hopefully arrive shortly.

After making this dress I think I’m going to hold off on all the DRESSES for a while. Need to make lots more separates – so skirts and tops for my new job (staring tomorrow!!! Eeeep)…but first the ROBE in pink seersucker – or plissé – I’m not sure which it is actually. Yes, there is a difference. More on that later ;-P

Okay so I better run!!

Mine Mine Mine MINE

Now I’m off to go try it on – hope it fits! And pics on the weekend

Hi All!

A bit of a jumbled post today to tell you about a few things I’ve bought and quite a few questions to ask!

Yesterday I popped in to Savers for the first time in a long time (at least two months!) and was overjoyed to find a piece of seersucker (on the far right in the pic) waiting with my name on it Yay! I love seersucker and I’m pretty sure others do too – I don’t know what’s so awesome about it, but I’m sure my eyes bulged out of my head on spying it on the rack. For only $4 too! There’s not a whole lot of it – just 2m and it’s 36″ wide. That’s 91cm by the way – Just so I can confuse you a bit more with my mixing of imperial and metric.

If I’m really clever, I may be able to squeeze out this dress from the amount I have. Absolutely perfect don’t you think? I may need to use a couple of contrast pieces for the waistband and pockets though.

Also – does anyone have any tips on helping me reduce the size of this pattern?

It’s a vintage 15 so I need to shave about 2 inches off the bust and waist. If I take a piece out of the back do you think that will work? I don’t know how the bust is shaped as yet (Still have to wait for pattern to arrive).

Do I dare make the variation with the open midriff?

And one last question – Can I iron seersucker or not??

The other two pieces seem to be almost from the same donation – very similar in style! They’re lightweight cottons in the cutest prints. There’s a bit more length in these but the width is narrower. Not sure what I’ll make of these as yet – they’re quite sheer. Ideas?

And finally – Check out my new sweater guard/clip/whatever you call it. So sparkly and red. If you’ve ever watched Glee you’ll know what these are – they hold together your cardigan so you can have it open without it flapping about. This purchase was required after I got myself a little faux fur shrug that didn’t have any clips to hold it together. And I have been wanting one for a while for my regular cardigans. So you may see this in future sewing posts!
Doesn’t the aqua linen contrast well with sparkly red of the clips? I’m so in love with the colour – it’s not even aqua – maybe azure.

Anyway that was quite the ramble. If any sewists can help with my silly questions it would be much appreciated! Next post will possibly be another sewing one. I doubt I will get my drawing done too soon – It still has a long way to go.

Till soon!