Kittys Drawings

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!
Quick post today I think. It’s that time of year and I thought I would show you the few fun things I’ve won/been given lately. This is only two – more to come later of course.

First up…I won an awesome gift pack from La Madre Bakery…I knew I was getting some samples but I didn’t expect this much! Look at all that shortbread! Yuuum. We’ve already got stuck into the Stained Glass Shortbread and the Choc Blood Oranges. So tasty! Thanks very much to La Madre and Mel:Hot or Not for the delicious goodies.

Also, I got my Vogue Kris Kringle for this year. Three patterns, an awesome little cupcake book, BUTTONS, and Lush bath stuff. YAY – how awesome! Getting big packages in the post around this time of year is so much fun.

Anyways, I’ve got a stuffed turkey roll in the oven which will come out soon….Yes, there is only two people in this household but that’s no reason to under cater ;-P Hehe. I’m not even a traditionalist! But the turkey looked tempting at the markets today so that’s what we bought. Going to make some potato salad to go with…maybe a radish salad too…and then pavlovas covered in berries and cream.
Then we will play video games and read books and watch movies all day. Sounds like a good Christmas yah??

I’m off to go get some beer now. Seeyas!!

Oh and happy Xmas and all that stuff – however you choose to spend your holidays

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 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

I’ve been a bit of a bad blogger lately – not having a lot of time to post. Or do anything in fact.

Though I did finish a skirt.
And make this belt. Just last night actually. It was really quick to make – the hardest part being turning the thin strip of fabric right side out using only my fingers and random jabbing with a bamboo skewer. I know there’s an easier way (and the appropriate tool) but I didn’t really have the means at the time. Not that it mattered – I didn’t get frustrated or anything

It’s made of white cotton and I stiffened it with two layers of Vilene sew-in interfacing. The buckle is a vintage glass one I picked up off Etsy. So pretty! I needed a proper white belt too, as the only one I have is off a vintage dress and it’s a bit out of shape. Being white, it’s a bit grubby too – and the one I’ve made, I can at least (gently) wash by hand to get any dirt off.

Isn’t my boyfriend’s camera awesome for taking up close pics with? I don’t even have to do anything and the pics come out so nice. It’s much harder to get a full-body shot with the right light and everything…but simple stuff like this is fun. Look at that lovely depth of field! Heh – nothing to do with MY photography skillz either.

Other news: the new job is still very full on – getting the hang of it slowly. It’s REALLY hard not to eat tons of crap while I’m there – since it’s food packaging, we’re constantly getting dumped stuff on our desk. And it’s a MASSIVE building where there’s cakes and stuff everywhere and general free things. Today I brought home a variety of organic products like buckwheat flour, LSA mix and quinoa flakes. It’s a far cry from my old place where we so rarely had such “perks” as morning teas and going out for drinks with my workmates.

The rare bits of sewing I’ve been doing is finishing off the skirt I’ve been yabbering on about in the last I-dont-know-how-many posts. I’m really behind on taking pics for you all but thankfully the days are getting longer. I have many projects on the horizon – the skirts from my last post….a button up 40′s shirt which is all cut and ready to start….and then I need to get cracking on the dress to wear to my friends wedding in December. I’ve also been charged with making the backdrop for her photobooth which I’ll get to soon Lainey   – unfortch I’m not in the way of Savers anymore but I’ll see if I can track down some suitable fabrics very soon.

On the drawing front – I really ought to get back to it tonight. No time to dilly dally! So I better go now!! See you all!