Kittys Drawings

Hi Everyone!
No sewing or drawing today. Not that I haven’t been doing any. Actually I’ve even done some design work in the last week! Holy crap! Hahaa. And I’ve finished one dress, bar the buttons, and completed the bodice of another. So I’ve been a busy bee.

The only reason I can’t show you the almost completed dress is because I’m currently trying to get the STAINS out made by the “washable” fabric marking texta I used to draw my sewing marks on. So incredibly peeved. There’s pics and irritated posts over on my Facebook page where I post things you won’t see on my blog or on my personal Facebook page…

So instead, today I’m showing you another dress from my vintage collection. I’m wearing it out to High Tea today so I need to impress This is one of the first “investment” vintage pieces I bought. It was purchased on a whim off Etsy via PlanetClaire Vintage – possibly with a little red wine in my system affecting my decision making abilities, since it was certainly more expensive than anything I’d purchased to date. I have this habit of once in a while blowing a huge wad of cash on a dress/outfit I NEED to have with the excuse that it’s an “investment” and I’m preserving a slice of fashion history. Which in some sense is true…and the bills all get paid AND I donate to charity monthly so yes I’m justifying my purchases

It’s one of my favourite dresses still even though it doesn’t get worn that often – mostly because it’s quite memorable I love the embroidery on it and the little mother-of-pearl accents on the collar. It’s made of a nice heavy linen and is really comfortable and fits so nice.

It came with it’s own belt too but I’ve swapped it out with this pink one I made last week, to go with my shoes Since the shoes were such a score, I thought a belt would go well with them and what better than to make one. I just bought a piece of cotton chino fabric from Lincraft and used a vintage navy buckle from my stash (bought at L’uccello). New accessory in less than one hour! And I realise now that pink goes with a LOT of my clothes. Yay!

Oh and the kitties were hanging around today while I took pics…pics taken on the other side of the room from the usual since my dress is too much the same colour as our couch hehe

Well that’s about it for today. Next week you just might get a new creation. Or even some of the design work I’ve done.

Till soon…

Hello everyone!

Apologies for the lack of posting last weekend. We didn’t get back from Blaigowrie til quite late. The big ride on the scooter was quite a success…I won’t tell you how I managed to get more scratches in it (eep) but I will tell you that I got down there and back without anything seriously bad happening. For those folks not from Australia, Blairgowrie is about 100kms south of where I live in the inner suburbs of Melbourne (depending on which route you take)…It’s right at the bottom of Port Phillip Bay and is a popular spot for city people wanting to get away for the weekend. Mind you, it’s hardly ‘country’ or even remotely isolated…Melbourne is such a spread out city that the entire trip down the bay is built up with plush beach houses of varying scale and style.
Anyways, we had a good time – playing board games, drinking and just blobbing about. Yay

So on to this week’s sewing project…

This has been the first project for the year following my new resolution of taking my time and finishing things properly. I’m so happy with this top that I can even show you the insides The pattern is Mccall 6475 from 1946 and I used a cotton blend of some description in a nice orange floral. I don’t usually go for orange but I loved this print as soon as I laid eyes on it. It’s another one from Savers from way back. The fabric has a really great drape to it and is soft and airy. It may be a rayon/cotton blend…Not sure. It washes ok from the little swatch I tested….so who knows what’s in it.

A few notes about the pattern and finishing:

• I made view C which you can’t see on the cover but the only difference from view B is the peplum at the bottom isn’t gathered as it’s designed to fit under a skirt.
• I don’t think this would work with anything but a super drapey fabric. There’s a lot of gathering that needs to fall nicely. I’m happy with my fabric choice!
• It’s VERY blousey – considering how small the size is, and it IS meant to be roomy, but there’s a LOT of room. Tight, structured waist definition is absolutely essential for styling this!
• The cute details are a bit lost in this print but I would love to make this out of a plain, maybe even sheer fabric

• I finished as many seams as I could with rayon seam binding.
• The side seams are zig-zag stitched because I ran out of that colour seam binding!
• I made a narrow hem finished by hand.
• The side closure consists of three snaps and a hook & eye on a placket. This is SO much better than a zip – And yes I will keep going on about that forever.
• I omitted the shoulder pads….for obvious reasons. I guess some light ones wouldn’t look too bad and they are very much essential for the era…One day I will make some and see how they look.

Yay! I’m really pleased with this top and I definitely want to make more versions of it. It took about a weekend to do – The bound seams were fairly time consuming but if you omitted those this would take no time at all to make. Once again, this is another one of those 40′s patterns with neat little details. I love how the sleeves attach to the neckline. Mccall’s patterns from the 40′s are especially excellent. Side note: I’m actually waiting on a heap of patterns to arrive from Etsy, eBay and a super special Mccall’s from Patterns From the Past.

Notice I also got my replacement grey shoes from Asos? The 38 fits much better.

Well that’s all for now. I have to start on a new project…I don’t even know if I’ll have anything new to show for next week! I think I’ll have to actually do some drawing! How bout that!

Heh…

Ciao then!

Hiiii!

As long ago promised, here is the dress I made for my friend’s Margaret River wedding. Excuse how crumpled it looks now – I took the pics in a hurry this morning before heading out.

I used Vogue 4977 which is from the 60′s by the looks of it. Well – I only used some of it. The pattern was missing all the skirt pieces. A bit annoying but I just subbed in the bottom of another dress pattern. Easy

This is also the very first time I’ve made a muslin of sorts. I first cut it out on a ‘test’ fabric at the original size and basted it all together to try it on. Unfortunately I didn’t really have time to continue along that path because my decision to make a dress for the wedding came a little too late! Being a vintage size 14 it was quite a bit too big (I’m usually a 10 or 12 in vintage sizes) so I chose to re-draw the pattern making some alterations.

What I did:

• Took a horizontal V out of the back, with the point of that V at the side seam. This eliminated quite a bit of the gaping that was happening.
• Also took a vertical V radiating from the waist upwards to account for narrower shoulders and smaller bust.
• Took a little out of the side seams.
• Enlarged the armholes since taking in the side seam makes them smaller.

As you can see – I could have fitted it a lot better. What I did helped, but not enough. And I didn’t really have a lot of time! This was also my first time working with “expensive” fabric. I couldn’t get my hands on real silk taffeta so poly had to do I lined the skirt with silk though, and the bodice is lined with very thin cotton cos I didn’t buy enough silk. Derp. It was all a bit finicky cos the silk was very slippy…the taffeta not so much but it shows up every little nick and crease – especially in photos! Plus it’s a bitch to iron.

At least the sash was easy to make! Hehe. That was fun. I love polka dots! I could have reinforced it or added snaps to the dress to place it better – but – NO TIME. Waaa. Oh well. It was still great for the wedding even though I don’t really plan on wearing it again – or making the pattern again.

That said – These last few projects have given me an idea for a ‘new years resolution’….I’m not usually into resolutions and stuff but I’ve been thinking about this one a bit. It’s been a year since I started sewing now, and I’ve made quite a few things I really like and wear a lot, but also quite a few things that are so meh they’re definitely not going to appear on this blog. A lot of the meh projects have been a result of not putting enough thought into them. Usually it is to do with fitting or finishing. So this year I plan to be more careful with things, and take my time. I’ve already almost completed something with these thoughts in mind and I’m quite pleased with it so far. All that needs doing is a tiny bit of hand-sewing and it will be ready for the blog next week.

On other things….
Thanks to all my new followers – I have definitely reached my 100 mark where I should be hosting a giveaway. I’m still very much undecided about what to actually give away. Buuuut – I should get my butt into gear and sort it out. Stay tuned for the giveaway either next week or the week after.

Also – hello to everyone from We Sew Retro! I got quite a big response (comparatively!) to my last post that went up there and it’s really cool to get so many people over here reading my little blog. I’ve found lots of awesome blogs through the site and it’s great to be a part of that community.

Well I best be off now….finish that hand-sewing. Seeyas all later!

Hi Everyone!!
You know how I was going on about that photo-shoot I did with my friend Sally the other week? Well I have some pics for you! This is not all of them – There are more coming soon but I wanted to show you anyway.
The picture formatting is a bit different from my usual so I’m sorry if it looks untidy. It doesn’t do Sal’s pics justice as much as looking at them on her SITE or her Facebook page.

As you can see, she’s quite a talent! The pics are fantastic and it was such a fun day. Her vision was clear from the get-go and she organised the whole thing fantastically. Having participated in quite a few photo-shoots I know how important it is to have an excellent relationship with your photographer. This is especially important for weddings!

My dress is also borrowed from Circa – How awesome is it! Totally a cupcake dress. I loved traipsing around in it all day The location was amazing too – We went out to a 150 year old homestead in Inverleigh, the property of one of Sal’s friends’ parents. It was SO stunning – with views out towards Geelong and the coolest old brick barn. Not to mention our hosts were so lovely to let us use their property to take photos on!

Soooooo – that’s about all I’ve got to say…check out the piccies and follow the links to see more

One last thing…If I could kindly ask no one to download these pics or use them without Sally’s express permission. It’s really important to respect the work that artists put into their projects and distributing without consent is very poor form.
I know my regular readers wouldn’t do such a thing So my note goes out to those that stumble here via Google or wherever and might not have considered the implications of stealing someone’s intellectual property.

And so I don’t leave on a down-note….I’ll mention that I’ve been super lucky with winning stuff off blogs lately! I won a $50 voucher from The Paraders Vintage via My Happy Sewing Place (Fashions from the Past). I’ll have some photos of what I chose with my voucher soon.
Another winning was from Mel:Hot or Not – a La Madre Bakery sample pack with heaps of yummy shortbreads and things. I haven’t received that one yet but I’ll probably take photos before we nom the lot.

Well then – til soon….

Hi Guys!

We’re back from WA! What a whirlwind trip that was. Totally forgot how FAR everything is from everything else there. It’s a good 3.5 hour drive to Margaret River from Perth and we did the trip 4 times in as many days. Crazy! We didn’t actually spend that much time in Perth – mostly hanging around Freemantle and then off down to Marg River to sleep. The weather was beautiful and HOT the whole time we were there – so hot that it was perfectly reasonable to go swimming at the lovely and secluded Redgate beach at 8am.

The wedding of course was awesome. The bride wore the most amazing lace dress with little attached bolero thingamabob and elegant fishtail skirt. Dinner consisted of scallops for entree, steak for main and some sort of parfait thing for dessert. All was delicious as to be expected from the winery it was held at. And the wine was great – goes without saying really (even though I just said it) .

As for what I wore…You’ll see that soon enough….

Anyways – Onto what this post is supposed to be about….My “Summer Collection” (haha that’s intentionally wanky sounding)….Of which there is only a couple of pieces so far….Isn’t “piece” a wanky word too? Heh. Oh dear. Carry on. Um. So yeh – I whipped this up using my Butterick 2633 pattern and made view B this time round. I used a purple floral cotton I bought off Etsy (from the same seller as I got the pattern off). It’s “vintage” I suppose – I’ve no idea what era its actually from – it’s fairly thin and I’m vaguely guessing 70′s but I could be totally wrong.

These are the things I changed/added:

• Lined it with a white cotton sheet. It’s super soft and great to wear when it’s hot
• The side zipper I carried all the way up to the armpit cos I hate struggling into dresses and smooshing my shoulders through a narrow gap.
• Took a V shaped wedge vertically, out of the middle of the bodice since the last dress I made gaped a bit at the bust.
• Also narrowed it on the side seams.
• Somehow had to fit the extra skirt into the smaller bodice so added another ‘tuck’ or pleat or whatever.
• Drafted my own kick-pleat for the back as the original pattern has NO vent in the wiggle skirt. I don’t want to wiggle that much – just not practical for a day dress
• Brought the side seams of the skirt in quite a bit to account for smaller hips than the pattern.
• And shortened the skirt of course….

I’ve decided I don’t really like pleats and/or tucks instead of darts in a skirt. Why would I want to make my hips look bigger? They bunch up when you sit down too. I know they offer more freedom of movement but I like to keep things slimmer around that area to try and balance out my relatively narrow shoulders. Despite that little design flaw I’m rather happy with this dress. It’s proved excellent for the hot weather. AND it matches my peppermint lolly Miss L Fire wedges perfectly. I didn’t plan this but realised they would go well together about halfway through making the dress. Add the little white belt I made and my new green bag and YAY, new outfit!

The green bag by the way, is the same brand as the yellow hexagonal one – how’s that for vintage karma?? After my years of trawling the internet, it’s not often you find such things…For clothes yes, but accessories like this are harder to come by.

Other news: I should be able to get back on this blogging bandwagon a bit more regularly now. There’s quite a few things I’ve got in mind for the next few weeks. Including a giveaway – IF I reach 100 followers So when that happens I’ll host something. Not sure what yet. I don’t have the resources to get my art printed at the moment though I could supply something digitally. Even though that’s kind of lame. Is it? Or some sewing bits and bobs – or something else? Clearly I have to think about this a little more….

Also – I’ve decided to become mobile, and get my scooter license. Yup that’s right – I don’t have a license. Any license. At almost 28 years old I think it’s about time I got myself some wheels. The BF has had his bike for a few months now and has been encouraging me to get a scooter. What finally pushed me over the edge from procrastination into action was the news that our People’s Chariot (Trains, trams and buses) are increasing their fares by an average of 8.6% on New Years Day! The scoundrels! That’s more than double the current rate of inflation. In the 8 years I’ve lived in Melbourne, there has been no significant improvement in public transport services, certainly not enough to warrant the guaranteed price hikes every year. It has now become more economical for me to purchase a scooter and drive to work. So I’m off to do my license test at the very end of this year and by 2012 I’ll be joining the ranks of petrol guzzlers (albeit daintily sipping not guzzling – heh) on the roads every day.

Pictures of my new ride when it arrives from Adelaide…For those that aren’t Facebook friends, you can take a potshot at exactly the kind of scooter I will be getting and I’ll bet you’ll be right

(aaand – look it’s Puss)

Till soon!

Hi All!

As you can probably tell by the title of this post, it’s likely going to be about Halloween or dressing up Last week I was at a party, to celebrate Halloween – or more just to dress up, since the holiday isn’t a big deal in Australia really. I’ve only been to a couple of dress up parties and this one I think I put the most effort into, since I made my dress and bought special shoes for the occasion.

So let me tell you about the most awesome skirt in the world.

This is Advance 8064 from a few posts back. I thought it would be perfect for the party and all I had to do was track down some blue gingham. I got lucky at Spotlight in Brunswick and bought the last 2.8m of this. It’s seersucker too! It was only $13 or so. The buttons were $6 for about 8 from the antiques shop up the road.

On making this I realised my pattern was missing the piece for the back facing, and I had to draft it. It wasn’t too tricky to do – I used the back pieces as a guide.

Aren’t princess cuts so awesome? I just love how the way it’s cut gives control to the fall of the skirt. Super flattering.

There’s pockets too!

I didn’t wear this shirt to the party – I had a white vintage one on instead. This one however, is one I made myself. Two sewing projects shown in one hit!! Its Hollywood 1164. It came together quite easily. The hardest thing maybe setting the sleeves. I used a trick from one of my sewing books on how to reduce the ease in the sleeve, as patterns often come with too much and then you’ve got to stuff all this fabric into a small space.
The super easy trick is just this – fold the end of the sleeve cap down as if you were shortening any other part of the sleeve…but only take a little out. Mine was about 1cm total. Then smooth the edges when you’re cutting so you skip the jagged edge thats created from the folding. Hard to explain sorry! If anyone wants to SEE it, I can do a diagram. Just let me know!

Since I have no Toto, I decided to con Puss into being Toto. Here is me stuffing her in my bag
At first she didn’t like it, but then she was okay with it. Then she had enough. Teehee.

My only problem now with this skirt is that it’s SO Dorothy. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could wear this or alter it so I don’t look like Dorothy all the time? I was thinking of swapping out the buttons for some white ones. And not wearing the glitter shoes of course hehe. And maybe even dyeing it – either red to make purple….or maybe even yellow to make green. Ideas???

Now my next post will be ART related. Howzat!? I’m working on a freelance job for someone which has to be finished tonight so I better get back to it!

Ciao!

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!!