Kittys Drawings

Hello All!!
This week’s work is finished and also I have my homework from the faces class. This is the profile view and Angie’s tips helped again, breaking the face down into easy proportions and points of reference.

This week we did hands – another tricky subject, one where practice counts above all! And “fashion” hands are not normal hands – noooo – they have to be stretched and thinned, stretched and thinned, until they’re pretty much alien looking. Because the longer you look at hands, the weirder they become. It’s true – its like the visual equivalent of saying a word so many times it stops sounding like a word at all.

Some practice ones to warm up – and a close up of the just the hands (super hard!).

Then a full figure…

I liked this exercise – how cool is the model’s pose? No one stands like THAT in real life!

Anyways, onto other things…
This week has been busy – I’ve not had a chance to sew since the weekend and probably won’t get a chance to again til Friday evening. I am seriously considering taking a week off work to just do HEAPS of sewing and drawing. A “working” holiday of sorts.
Till soon…

Hi All!
This week I don’t have any sewing projects for you. I’m just about finished with Suzy’s dress but also the camera I use for pics is on loan for now. Lucky that I took some backup pics a couple of weeks ago for such moments like these. Not that I was really in the mood at the time – these aren’t the best pics, I was feeling particularly meh that day.

So the story with this dress is…..I was reading Kondad-licious and saw that she had posted about a gorgeous dress that unfortunately didn’t fit. I offered to buy it off her if she was happy to sell it…..and she was YAY. The dress fits great and it’s pretty amazing. Love the print and the princess seaming. Plus all those cool folds around the bust line.

I do think I definitely need to get cracking and make a puffier petticoat. The one I have is just a bit sad and droopy now – it does nothing to puff out this skirt. I don’t really like those tiered ones either so I shall attempt to layer 3 circle skirt layers of tulle over one-another and secure with a ribbon for a waistband. With a layer of cotton voile underneath for comfort. That should be enough puff I think. This is all theoretical though – I’m hoping my idea works.

My hair is getting long again too. I’m at that point where I dont know if I should attempt to grow it longer and learn how to style it so it’s a bit vintage or just chop it.

A few other bits and bobs of news – I got some new RAM for my computer so it’s running a lot faster now. 8GB in total. Yeh! I was so excited about it I even started a new drawing. Yep, I’m slowly struggling over my annual new-year drawing slump. What’s with that? It’s like some sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

I get paid next week so my Lady Valet dress-form can be picked up from Clegs. Really excited about that one too! I can finally fit my sewing projects without the danger of having to pin myself into things. I’m sick of stabbing myself! I’m sure it won’t completely eliminate the excruciating pain that comes from jamming a pin under your fingernail but it will help. I’ll also be able to show you the insides and details of sewing projects as I’ll be able to get closer with the camera.

Well I best be off. Got an email to finish writing and then some sewing I think.

Have a good weekend peeps!

Hi Everyone!
Another dress is complete – another one I am super happy about. LOVE this dress!

It’s Mccall’s 4864 from 1942 I think. I bought it from Patterns From The Past. How quirky is it!? I just love Mccall’s patterns from this era – they have heaps of nifty little details and this dress in particular has more than most. Here are some of those features:

• 4 darts on the sleeves to give them a square shape. This would be more highlighted if I’d put in shoulder pads.
• Low V-neck with contrast bands (also at sleeves)
• BUTTONS on the neckline! I omitted this because it would just be a bit too much with this print
• External darts!
• Top-stitched pleats at the skirt
• Tucks on the back to give a blouse effect.
• Shoulder/neck darts for subtle shaping
• Gored skirt – totally swing style!

Ha! And I chose to make this in busy polka-dot. Typical ;-P I think it’s some kind of rayon-y thing again. That said, I seriously doubt my fabric identifying skills. It drapes nice and was an appropriate choice for this style. Its really really comfortable and will be good for winter and summer.

I hemmed it with some red stretch lace hem tape which I had in my stash.

The edges are trimmed in red cotton voile I bought from Lincraft. I wasn’t going to add it originally but it really makes the dress a bit more special having it there. The red stitched trim is from some rayon thread I found at half price at Clegs. It took me ages to do and it’s a *little* wonky – don’t look too closely (haha!) Yes, I did that by hand.

I made no serious alterations to the pattern at all – Just took about 2 inches out of the length of the skirt.
The side opening closes with a hook & eye and some snaps. Still my favourite method for dresses you can only get into this way
The inside is just as neat as the outside and I’m glad I took my time with this one. My new year’s resolution is kicking along nicely. I’ve been proud of everything I’ve made this year so far.

A couple of silly photos in this shoot ;-P The kitties were hanging around and being adorable.

(In the photo of me below I was squee-ing over how Boofy was so intent on turning himself inside out with sheer adoration, that he nearly fell off the couch!)

Other news – It’s raining outside! Autumn is finally on it’s way. Yay! I much prefer the cooler weather. I’ve already started making plans for winter. Bought a small new supply of vintage seamed stockings. Have grand plans for a fit’n'flare princess coat. It’s going to be a huge project and I should really start it very soon. Ideally I want it made of hunter green silk faille but I’d need over 5 yards, at $65USD a yard, that’s a serious investment – so it will stay in pipe-dream territory for a while yet. Definitely have to think of something more accessible and easier to sew. See if I can find some nice wool without breaking the bank.

I’m also waiting on payday so I can finally pick up the Lady Valet dress-form I put on layby. It’s crazy that I’ve gone so long without one. And I could have gone for a cheaper option but I wanted something that would last the distance. Besides, its RED. And comes with a hem marker…..Handy.

My current project is testing out Suzy’s new pattern. I bought some brilliantly coloured chartreuse linen for the main parts of the dress – and the sleeves and neckline will be out of black lace.

If you’re wondering what’s happened to all the drawing…I’ve had some serious urges to get into it lately. All the best intentions huh! But when it comes down to it, I’m really pressed for time these days and sewing wins out. I’ve got my sketch pad beside my desk which is frequently getting scribbled in – and a couple of projects on the go…but I’d need a ‘holiday’ at home to get into it all. And maybe turn off the internet while I’m at it. Kinda hard to avoid the temptation when I’m on the computer already!  Sometimes I wish I could just shut myself off from EVERYTHING to allow all the ideas I know are lurking in my subconscious to float to the surface…somewhere that’s not in the city! So many temptations here and distractions. We can all dream can’t we. *le sigh*!
And yet on the other hand, I love the city – THIS city. Especially with winter coming up. Melbourne is so much nicer when it’s cold and wet outside. I’m sure a lot of people disagree with me there!

Hmm
Dilemmas!

Anyways!
Better stop dilly-dallying and get to my work ‘Til next time peeps!!

Hi All!
Gosh, it sure has been quiet around here! So sorry about that. To prevent THAT from happening again, I’ve done a whole bunch of photos this weekend for ‘backup’ material should I ever not have time on weekends.

Last weeks (or the week before! Sheesh) preview won’t be what you’re looking at today. Nope. That’s almost done. Just about.

Nope, today you will see the dress I made before that. The reason it took so long to post about? All the mucking around I had to do just to get it wearable! Because it’s WHITE…and I’m silly for making a dress in white – but it’s so great. If you follow my Facebook you’d know some of the drama that went into making this. It deserves being called The Debacle Dress or something similar. First let me tell you a bit about construction etc:

• I altered the bust to make it a bit smaller by taking a V out vertically from the centre (which I’m doing for a lot of patterns now).
• I did the same for the skirt to make the shape more ‘wiggle’ instead of straight.
• The zipper is lapped – using Gertie’s tutorial on Craftsy (from the Bombshell Dress course). I botched it though – not enough seam allowance. Don’t look too closely!

• Shortened the skirt of course.
• Used vintage buttons, the same as from my Dorothy outfit (more on these later!)
• Added rayon seam binding to stabilise the waist and also for the hems.
• The seams are zig-zagged to prevent fraying. I like this method as it’s relatively quick and effective for bulkier fabrics.
• There are three bound buttonholes which I did quite neatly so I’m proud of them. I made them the same as instructed in the pattern.
• The fabric is a white cotton drill picked up from Savers a long time ago.

Now why is it called The Debacle Dress? Okay here goes…..First, the texta (designed for fabric) I used to trace my pattern markings STAINED!! Really quite stubbornly too! I’ve never struggled with such stains either….They took numerous soaks and washes and finally (mostly) came out using a product I found at Coles. I think I did accidentally set the marks by ironing over them BUT, consider this…The pen is designed for marking on fabric….it should be washable and come out easily, and should you make a mistake like ironing your fabric, which happens quite a lot when you are sewing, it shouldn’t be so hard to remove. It’s easier to remove oil and other nasty things that can get in fabric. Seriously.
Lesson 1: Don’t use so called “washable fabric marking pens” to make a white dress.
After all this I finally got the dress wearable and showed it off one Friday at work. Workmates all loved it (yay!) and was feeling quite pleased with myself. That night we went out to St Kilda for dinner and drinks because a colleague was leaving. I told the boyfriend I’d be home by midnight – since it was fairly late notice for me and I didn’t have much cash. But of course, this is my workmates we are talking about – known to party hard at the drop of a hat. I didn’t get home til 3:30am!! It wasn’t until the last hour or so that through a series of clumsy flailings (not my flailings for once!), I ended up with my friend’s red wine ALL OVER MY DRESS. Ha! I wasn’t even phased (having recently becoming quite accustomed to being covered in alcohol – don’t ask!)….I trekked it home in the cab looking quite the idiot I’m sure.

Lesson 2: Don’t go out consuming large volumes of alcohol while wearing a white dress.
Next morning – Not to worry I thought, I’d just nuke the dress in Napisan spray and wash it. The wine will come out no problem!
Ha!!
The wine came out alright. Quite nicely actually. But those lovely red vintage buttons??? Not exactly washable are they. Left lovely pink stains in all sorts of places wherever the fabric was folded over them in the washing machine. *sigh* This time I soaked them in the laundry sink, making sure to carefully keep the buttons OUT of the water. I didn’t want to take them off and put them back on again (lazy)….At least the pink came out really easily.

Lesson 3: Don’t assume vintage buttons are colourfast. Check before attaching them to a white dress.

Do you think maybe I should dye this???
ANYWAY – In summary, I really love this pattern – it fits SO well, especially considering I only made adjustments on the tissue-paper. The variations on it are mega cute and I want to use the transfer for the next one and omit the buttons at the shoulders.

Also – do you like my shoes? Scored these and another pair the same but in bright orange for a measly $28 – thanks to a Myer gift voucher I had. Real suede again too. Yay!

Other news: Nothing particularly exciting…Just the usual. I’m using my scooter to get to work most days now! I like riding, even though it means I’ve had to rearrange some wardrobe matters. It’s good in that I take a change of clothes to work so I can wear shoes I never used to wear as much, because they weren’t comfortable enough for long stretches of walking. Also, Melbourne’s streets aren’t really good on heels and they wear down so quickly. I like the freedom of the scooter – I don’t have to wait for trains anymore.  I do really want to get rid of the big, shiny L plate on the back of my Vespa ASAP though – It really doesn’t aid my credibility on the road. P’s wont be much better I guess but it should be a slight improvement. I can take my P’s test at the end of March and I plan to do it very soon after that.

That’s about all for now. Next week I can show you the polka-dot dress. Another thing I’m super pleased with!

Til then….

Ciao!

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!
A bit of an all over the place post today. First up, I’ve currently got an auction up on eBay for some gorgeous shoes I bought off ASOS. They are so pretty but unfortunately way too small for my feets! I bought a UK4 which usually means a Euro 37 but these are a full size too small. So I would say if you’ve got a 36 foot, AU6 or UK3, these should fit. They’re brand new, never worn and still in their box. Happy to ship international, just ask me and I’ll get a proper quote for your location. They’re currently sold out in this size on ASOS and you will be getting them cheaper even with the Buy It Now option

CLICK HERE for the auction

Also – I now have a Facebook page! It took me quite a while to jump on that bandwagon because I usually keep Facebook for private stuff. But click on over and press LIKE for me There’s a bunch of buttons to get you there in my sidebar or just click HERE

You may have noticed I’ve tidied up my blog a bit. I also figured out how to add custom fonts so I’ve changed my post titles. And remember how a while ago I told you I’d won a years subscription with the BaseKit website builder? Well I’ve set up the very  beginnings of my site (finally). It’s still not finished but I’ll show you when it’s done. It took me a little while to figure it all out but I’ve got the hang of it now. My only problem with using Basekit is that I am limited to standard fonts and I can only use Google Analytics for my tracking which I don’t like very much, preferring Woopra. I know the idea is to get away from any kind of code but IMHO you do need to access a little of it, as annoying as it may be. Maybe one day I will learn how to make a proper website. Hmm.

Other news – I got my scooter license!! YAY! The two day course was quite intense. Going from Zero driving knowledge to being allowed out on the roads in two days is pretty full on. The instructors at HART were really excellent and taught us really well. I’m kinda proud of myself for passing because only 8 out of 12 made it, and I was the only one who didn’t already have a car license.  I brought my scooter home on Friday – it was nerve-wracking driving home from the city let me tell you! Not to mention my 200cc Vespa is a LOT bigger and heavier than the itty bitty 50cc scoot I did the course on. The advantages are that it’s not as battered and the weight of it means it handles better through corners and driving slowly. After scaring the people working at a prestige car dealership in the back streets of North Melbourne (I was hooning around the car-park getting used to my new ride), we went out on a longer ride on Saturday. All the way down to St Kilda via Williamstown, then South Yarra (Chapel St!), Richmond, the city then home. Now I love it and I’m not scared as much anymore hehe. It will no doubt take a while not to be a danger on the roads (oh dear) but it sure is a lot of fun having a scooter!
However, today we ran into a dilemma. I was all set to head down the beach and go for a nice long ride….buuuuttttt……when I started her up – she started leaking LOTS of fuel!!! Omg! Not really prepared for all this mechanical bizzo. Dammit! So now she has to go back to the dealer and hopefully they can fix it. I mean….that kinda really sucks. I hope I haven’t bought a dud. Eep. I think something must be loose along the fuel line somewhere. It was only in for service last week.

Ummm that’s about all for now. I’ll be posting some sewing stuff soon and hopefully do some drawing too. It’s really hard to get motivated this time of year. Not sure what it is. Does anyone else fall into a bit of a creative slump around the end of year holidays???

Ciao!!

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!