It's raining...

I feel like I haven't sewn for yonks. Last weekend I had a cold so I did the old sitting about doing nothing thing. This week I had a spare few hours, so while a batch of Chipotle en Adobo simmers on the stove I finished off the dressing gown I started weeks ago:


It is made of a light sateen cotton from Darn Cheap using New Look 6443 . I needed a nice light dressing gown... which is of course coinciding with the cooler weather. (But, yay for cooler weather!)

I also finished off the stretch cotton sateen-ish leopard pinafore I cut out when I cut out the dressing gown. I bound the neck and armholes with bias binding, and did an invisible zip in the middle of the back seam. I think this must be the fourth time I've made this pinafore.

Baby knits

So I have mostly finished the hoodie, except for the buttons and snaps:

...but I got a bit distracted this weekend when I decided the hoodie would be too big for baby E at the moment, so decided to make another jumper, putting the measurements I wanted and my gauge into Elizabeth Zimmerman's yoke sweater pattern from this book:

I graphed out the letter and duplicate stitched it. The main colour is a moss green, it looks a bit variegated in the pic, but it's solid green.
Now to decide whether to give him both on his birthday, or keep one for a random gift for when he's a bit older.

Vintage Neglect Syndrome

I haven't done any sewing, unless you count sewing up a certain knitted hoodie (which I haven't finished sewing up by the way. I blame pure laziness.)

Today one of my spies texted me that there was a vintage fair at Leichhardt Town Hall.

Now, how I didn't know about this when I walk past the place on a regular basis is still baffling me. It's on once a month apparently, and within walking distance of my house. I do flick through the local paper every week.

Only one thing can explain it. I have developed Vintage Neglect Syndrome or VNS.

This rare disease occurs in the sew-er and vintage shopper who, having spent many of her younger years straining her pecs and hands pulling through racks of polyester, faux fur and napthalene scented rayon, and risking her knees and back squatting on her haunches lifting boxes and old suitcases of vintage patterns and fabrics, has lost all of her vintage radar through overuse.

Obviously, I now have to rely on others to let me know about such things as vintage fairs, rather than being able to sniff them out myself. Symptoms include not seeing flyers, banners, signboards and newspaper ads for vintage fairs in plain sight. I can only think this loss of independence is due to the mothball odours that have ruined my vintage-sniffing-out abilities. Full time carers are required to point the person afflicted with VNS towards vintage shops and fairs.

I should have realised what was happening, when I was in Melbourne in December, and was in the vicinity of Lost and Found, but somehow didn't make it there.

This afternoon, thanks to my kind spy, I was able to make it to the fair 15 minutes before closing time. The lady at the desk let me in for free (obviously a kind person who recognised my condition when she saw it) and, although I didn't have time to fully explore everything, it looked excellent. It's probably best I didn't go through the racks and exacerbate my problems though, don't you think?

Oh and apparently the ability to buy vintage boots is unaffected by VNS.

ChildHood from Knitty

I haven't done any sewing lately, because I have been knitting this:

It's ChildHood, from Knitty.
E's first birthday is in early April, and I only have the hood and finishing to do. I should make it.
I will follow the pattern's suggestion and use snaps as closures with buttons sewn on the band. If I can find the right buttons that is. Curse you buttonmania for not being in Sydney!
I'm using Moda Vera bamboo/cotton from Spotlight, which is lovely and silky, being mostly bamboo. It is a bit splitty, but nothing too bad as long as I use bluntish needles.

Makeover!

No, not me, how could I possibly dress any better (quiet there in the back row!).

I've been thinking about a bedroom makeover lately. Now, I'm one of these people who has a room which is less than pristine: clothes all over the place, every book I read in the last year stacked on the floor; you get the picture. Since I have the luxury of a spare room AND a delightful purpose-built sewing space, I could easily move most of my clothes and stuff to the spare room and have a more targeted approach to what lives in the bedroom.

It started when I was browsing eBay, and checked out the seller who sold me the fab atomic fabric I made my loungeroom curtains from.



It looks so fabulously 1940's boudoir. I showed it to Kitty and somehow we decided it would look marvellous as an upholstered bed head (and I already have some vintage bed jackets to wear with it!) I have a big old original brass bed (black and silver, no brass and white for me thanks!) that does somewhat dominate my small (4x3.6m) room. I have had it for 15 years or so, and parting with it now wouldn't pain me too much.

Surfing on the web showed me all sorts of ways that people had upholstered their bed heads, including using some IKEA frames as the basis. Here's one (I did the bounce test for sturdiness) which seems like a good basis for covering: Heimdal

So I'm contemplating. I haven't bought the fabric yet (oh Australian dollar, how I wish you were back at last year's levels!).I also looked at what upholstery stuff I have in the stash to see if anything is suitable. These ones are possibles:
First two are gen-u-ine vintage fabrics

Second two are repro Hawaiian barkcloths, bought when GJ fabrics always seemed to have some in stock (I have two frocks from other ones bought there):

Thoughts anyone? I know they aren't as spifftacular as the feathery one, but the great advantage is that I already possess them (says the lady who bought 17m of material yesterday)

I've also got a strange desire to get some Queen Anne stuff bits such a dressing table and bedside tables (in white). When I confessed this to Kitty, she did point out that was a very fifties look. So now I have half an eye out for such things...

Darn you, Darn Cheap!

I went on an expedition to Darn Cheap Fabrics in Heidelburg with Livebird this morning.

I breezily stated that I probably wouldn't buy anything.

I knew it was a lie when I said it...

So we have:
(L) 4m of voile-ish cotton @ $3.95/m. A full skirted dress?
(R) 4m of cotton sateen @ $3.95/m.This one might end up as a dressing gown. Good for swanning.

(L) 2m Flocked knit @ $6.95/m (I think this will become a fauxlero top)
(M) 4m silk twill @ $5/m (I bought this for lining as it looked a bit camo on the roll, but it is actually rather nice when unrolled
(R) 3m printed cotton 'n' lycra @ $6.95/m (maybe a version of vintage Butterick 8149 with a matching bolero?

And here are some of the 1/3kg of Depression Era Brazilian buttons bought at the Buttonmania sale yesterday (mm, lots of GREEN).

Woollen tops

Well, one top finished and one abandoned.
I was making the top on the bottom right of this vintage vogue pattern (from the Moggy shop; ie: pilfered from her sewing room) in some black wool-blend jersey from the stash. The pattern is intended for wovens, and it was turning out ok in the jersey until I got to the collar. I underlined the collar piece in stretch poplin for stability, but it looked a bit yuck when I put it on. So into the magic waiting box it goes! I will go back to it when I feel like a challenge.

Instant gratification top project needed. As I had a fair bit of the jersey, I made the quick vogue top again, gathering the sleeve attachments this time instead of pleating them. The side bewb gathers are more apparent in this plain fabric. I like it, and I'll wear it.

JAPAN!

It is almost a year since Kitty and I went to JAPAN! Since then, the Yen has jumped against the li'l aussie dollar (in fact every currency has, I don't know why since we are apparently in 'better shape' than other western countries hit by the financial crisis, but I am not an economist or an accountant or anything like that so I don't know why that should be, but I digress...) Short story is, no going to JAPAN! this year.

So instead I made a vaguely JAPAN! inspired frock from the vaguely JAPAN!ese print I bought today (yes, I was going to make something from the stash, but since that was going to be a spotty frock and I used it to make the reversible doiley bolero the other day [or should I say 'the other year'] I didn't have enough).
So I made this instead
The top is the lovely vintage Butterick 8149 and the skirt is the straight 'un from Vogue 9668 (I like that one because it is a has hip room).

It is such a quick make. Would have been quicker if I wasn't faffing around repotting Mrs Butt the Bouganvillia and harvesting tomatoes and defrosting prawns.

Today's purchases

Moggy here.
Since I do tend to use this blog as a bit of a 'what pattern did I use for that frock?' memory jog, I thought it might be useful to post about fabric purchases too, so I can remember where and when I bought things. And do lazy stash-shopping too!

Spotlight had a special members-only sale for the last few days - spend over $100 and get $40 off. So I went in and bought STUFF. Note I haven't included pictures of the three packs of Schmetz needles, 1000m of black Guterman thread, box of glass-headed pins six cones of overlocking thread, 10m of cheap non-iron interfacing for tracing and 3.5m of iron on Whisperweft (yes, dear readers, I did reach the magic $100...).

They had a pretty good specials table, where everything had an extra 50% off, so I bought myself a bunch of fabric. As I am what could accurately described as a lazy sewer, I only buy muslining fabric that I wouldn't mind wearing out of the house, since it might turn out nicely and then I will wear it. If all else fails, it will work as a housedress, and I have vowed only to wear things I like, no matter who sees me.
Some of this may also be used to line frocks.

Clockwise above you see:
6m of "Printed Poplin Old Rose" cotton @ $1m (might muslin one of those ginormous-skirted fifties frocks)
2.5m of japanese inspired quilting cotton @ $2.50/m (that's all they had left. I think this will be a slim-skirted frock, probably a tried and true rather than a muslin)
5m of green wallpaper print quilting cotton @ $2.50/ m (so I can practice some chevroning)
3m of poppy print voile @ $1/m (not sure with this one, might make a yukata depending on how see-through it turns out to be)

And from the non-sale side of things, I bought 2.5m of stretch cotton sateen leopard print ($14.95/m! how pricey!) which I think will become a pinafore as I can then wear it in summer as a frock and with a shirt underneath when it is cooler (IF THAT DAY EVER COMES).

On the right is 2m (it is 148cm wide) of cotton voile @ $7.95/m. I don't know what this will be yet - a blouse? - but for some reason I couldn't resist it.

I'm trying to be a bit more vigorous about pre-shrinking since I make so much out of cotton, so all of this is now on the line drying (it's a warm day, so it should be dry soon). My method is to overlock the ends of the fabric to a) stop it fraying and b) remind me I have preshrunk it when I come to use it whenever that might be. Then I either soak it in water in the sink for 20 minutes or stick it on the shortest cycle in the washing machine without any detergent. I only ever wash in cold water and line dry, so I wash it in cold water and line dry it when I preshrink it.

Having said that, I think I will go and make a frock out of something I didn't buy today.

Trying new things

We're playing around with the template of the blog, so you will have noticed a change around here. We finally made a picture header. About time too!

I made McCalls 9533 this week, view F, in a nice smooth doubleknit. No zip required, so really just 2 french darts, 2 side seams, and twin needle turn and hem armholes, neckline and hem. Very quick! It was a bit plain, so I sewed three red buttons on the front. I'm getting a lot of wear out of it already. It goes well with my surprisingly large collection of red shoes!

I told you so!

Today I made up for yesterday:

First one was from the pattern I traced on Friday night (Butterick 8149)
I only used the top, with ol' faithful 6557 for the skirt.


The gathered straps make lovely sort of faux-cap-sleeves. I think I shall wear this to work tomorrow as it is going to be warm.

Next is another sunfrock. I bought the material at Spotlight last week, along with the material above (which is quilting fabric, "Cherry Plaid" by West 22nd btw).

Anyway, this is a floral stripe, also 100% cotton - a nice crisp smooth one. I used New Look 6557 again (view D bodice), but first I pleated the fabric then cut it out using the usual bodice piece as the lining.

I cut the midriff on the straight, and for the skirt I pleated two rectangles to fit the waist measurement. Consequently you can't really see that the fabric is a stripe - but you can when the skirt is on the move. The straps are a modified narrow version of the Butterick 8149 ones (because I liked them so much - plus the fact they are hemmed, not turned, which is nice and quick).

PS - If you click on the pictures, you can see more detail.

Naughty naughty

I had every intention of sewing today. Last night I played trace 'ums at Livebird's house while eating chocolate and half-watching an incomprehensible Clara Bow film (moral of the story: don't marry then kill a chap then run away with his son on a baroness' borrowed passport).

Today I went shopping for too long and consequently didn't cut out or sew any of the things I planned to (tomorrow, honest!).

However I now have 400% more indoor plants (yep, I only had one before, alright?) and the most superb rotating VIrgin of Guadulupe light (complete with Mexican Flag! and roses!)



I love the colour of this pot - sort of fifties green lustre. I got them from one of those cheapie all sorts o' crud shops - incredibly they were $1.80 each which is a bargain (they are about 16cm high).