Cabley babely

Cabled baby hat, from a knitting pattern a day calendar I received as a secret santa gift at work last year.

Baby E seems to be always wearing the last hat I knit for him when I see him; I think it's about time he had some variety in his accessory drawer.

The hat is a darker purple than it appears in the photo; not that I buy into the boys can't wear pink argument. Society's to blame.

Say hello to my little friend

I now have a dressform! I don't have room for one, but I have one anyway! Mr M and I saw her at an auction place on the weekend, but I didn't have my tapemeasure with me. (I know! But I'd switched handbags that morning, so I'm lucky I remembered my purse, which has been left behind before when I've switched handbags.) Mr M helpfully encircled the waist with his hands, and said, yep...your size.
I went back yesterday before work, tapemeasure in hand, and he was right, so I put in an absentee bid. And today I got her! For $70! Enough exclamation marks for ya?(!)

Bonus -( I didn't notice until Mr M pointed it out), she has tags, so she may be 'new old stock'. There's a bit of rusty pitting on the chrome neck plug thing, but she is in perfect condition otherwise.

Mr M wants to call her Jane, as she is an Ese-Jane model, but Moggy has an Ese-Jane named, well, Jane. I'm thinking Betty.

One day, two frocks

Well, I didn't make them both today. I made this today though so two posts! I had the happy experience of this turning out just as I imagined it would. Yay!

It's Vogue 3013, a pattern which includes pattern pieces for short, average and tall figure heights. I made view D, average. (average is 5'4" to 5'8" it says. I'm right in the middle there)

Also it has instructions to make it in muslin and in fabric, and you refer back to the muslin instructions some of the time to make it in fabric. This means a lot of jumping around the instruction sheets, substituting basting for stitching, but fortunately view D was pretty simple so I didn't use the instructions much. I didn't have to alter anything, so this will be a good sloper pattern for me once I trace all the bodice views.

It also says to wear with 'novelty belt'. Moggy suggested a belt with chickens on it.
I tried it on with a black belt, which wasn't a good look. I think a self fabric belt would just get lost in the busy print. I'll leave her beltless I think.

Excuse bra straps here. I tried it on with the bra I had on, and I have since discovered I have another bra which hides under the frock straps really well. (I also haven't put a hook and eye above the zip yet, but the light was fading so I had to get my photos in a hurry)

I love the fact that the fabric (vintage, from Surry Hills market) is like the fabric illustrated for view A (average, top left). That's what decided me on this pattern for this fabric.

Oh and I did a machine blind hem on this one, and kept it. Much better than trying to choose a colour for a machine hem.

Should I wear this one, or this one to the fifties fair later this month?

The stepfrock

Here is another version of this frock, and it's also a remake of the frock made for S in Melbourne in June, and it's named for her. Still no photo of that frock, but this is a pretty good repeat.
I did a blind hem on this frock, first time ever! It looked great! Then I decided I needed it to be a little bit shorter, so I just did the usual machine hem because, well, I got lazy.

Good thing I'm not a perfectionist. I still love this frock.