Flowery

I made this after work one evening last week. I have plenty of sundresses, but I have worn them all multiple times, so I need some fresh ones.

This is made from some poplin I picked up at Spotlight, bought on impulse when I went there to get a zip for another project. I used this pattern again for the bodice, and added a four gore skirt for a casual look.

Flouncey

I was chatting with my friend S late last week, and she described a frock she had tried on in a boutique, which had a neck flounce. I was inspired to try a dress with a flounce, and this is what I came up with. I used McCalls 8223 for the bodice and attached a different, slightly A-line skirt because bengaline + waist gathers = tragedy.
I winged it on the flounce. I cut out a circle with a little triangular bite on the top, and pleated it until it folded how I wanted it to.

The fabric is bengaline, which didn't make for the flounciest of flounces (not helped by making a facing out of the same fabric and having to tack the flounce down to the front bodice so it didn't drag the neckline down) but I like it just the same.

I think I'll make a black one out of a light knit, for extra flounciness.

Sydney Vintage Show

I can't believe I haven't been to the Sydney Vintage Show before. I never seem to see any ads for it, and I thought it was in November anyway, so if someone hadn't mentioned it to me this week, I would have missed it. The thought of that just pains me now.

Because I went today.

And . it . was . amazing.

It's only 10 minutes' drive from my house! If you're in Sydney this weekend, I recommend you go. It is on until 4.30pm tomorrow (Sunday). (I have snatched up most of the B32 patterns though, just so you know)

Vintage shops from all over NSW have stalls there. (I noticed Chapel Street Bazaar had a stall there, so there were probably interstate sellers too.) You can see a list of sellers on the official website I linked to above.

The damage:

Fabrics! There was a lot of vintage fabric, and not many people looking at it! I mostly ignored the vintage clothes and sparkly doodads and dived into the fabric and patterns. The blue rose fabric is a John Kaldor crepe, the other fabric is a 50s rayon, both about 4metre lengths. (click on the photos to enlarge):

I bought 12 patterns, and most were $2 each! I bought 2 sewing books too. Love those vintage how-tos:



some lovely vintage buttons:

and some 40s-via-the-70s suede sandals:
I watched a bit of the hairdressing demonstration too, a victory roll tutorial! Fun! (but don't ask me how to do them Moggy, I was drawn back to pattern hunting before the end)

The official show site has photos from the April 2008 show. Does this mean there will be another one in 6 months? Be still my beating wallet!

Finally some sewing...

...but sadly, I'm a bit stuck so I may not have a new frock to post this weekend. I can't figure out how to put the collar on this dress. The instructions blithely say to sew the collar on, matching notches...and then unhelpfully show no illustrations of how you are supposed to stop the collar from hideously pleating and gathering in the process. Just happens by magic apparently, although not for me. I've tried putting it on every way I can think of. I guess I could try to topstitch it on. (Oh you may notice I did pleats instead of gathers. I found with this fabric the gathers made the front upper chest 'pouchy'. Not a good look)

I've pinned this thing so many times I'm starting to think I'll have to finish it without the collar. Sigh.

It doesn't help that I don't like the fabric. It's stash fabric which I must have thought was stretch cotton sateen before I knew any better. It didn't melt with the burn test so I thought it might be rayon. The back pieces stuck to the iron after I'd put the zip in of course, not before. So I had to recut the pieces, unpick the zip, do the darts again...grr.

Oh well. You can't win 'em all. I might put this aside and make an easy sundress instead.

Although, it's a lovely day for a bike ride...

Edited to add (within minutes!): Yay, I took the front pleats out, changed their position a little and I have finally been able to pin the collar on!
Edited yet again to add:
Here she is. Very similar to 'The Stepfrock' I made recently, except in a woven instead of a knit. I should have made it in some other colour instead of black I guess, for variety.

Edited yet again to show the frock on me:

Home dec

So I said I'd bought some fabric in San Francisco. Apart from the vintage curtains I bought at the Alameda flea market, I got this home dec fabric at Discount Fabrics on Haight Street.
I bought one yard, and it's quite wide. I was thinking cushion covers, maybe with the reverse side of the fabric on the back? A bag? I am letting it stew in the stash until I feel I have the right project.

Fireworks and flowers

This latest frock reminds me of a Sydney summer. Fireworks and flowers. The fabric I bought at this year's fifties fair. It's a very thin cotton, not quite voile thin, but close.

These old Anne Adams mail order patterns are drafted really well. At least on me, it fit right out of the packet, no sassifying necessary! This one is number 4761, in size 12.

I did make some modifications: I left off the pocket ; put the zip in the back instead of the side; and put on a bias cut four gore skirt from another vintage pattern rather than the huge gathered skirt. Huge skirts tend to overwhelm me and I never end up wearing them.

(The line at the hem is the crease mark from where I pressed to do a machine blind hem. The iron was out of water, and I still need to steam that bit before I wear her out of the house. Lazy? Moi? Hey, it's Sunday and I'm relaxing)

Also, I didn't alter the white balance on my camera so the pic is a bit washed out in the sun. You get the idea though.

It's in the bag

Today Livebird kindly took me to Darn Cheap Fabrics, leading me to wonder why I hadn't been before as it was full of textiley goodness. I was a bit restrained and only bought some lovely silk satin to make a scarf, and some even nicer light silk-cotton mix that I intend to make into Butterick 5209 Retro '47.

I also bought some orange poplin, black strapping and heavy interfacing to make a bag to take on my trip (15 sleeps!).

It is made of grey denim, the aforementioned orange poplin, and some lovely mexican papel picado patchwork fabric from my stash.

.
It has a handy hidden pocket that sits against the body (I'm going to some places reknown for pickpocketing). I wanted to be able to carry my little Acer One (it's in the little piped case below), iPod, phone and that sort of thing. I made the lining orange, because my usual black lining makes it really hard to find things.

Garbage bag couture

The lovely Livebird asked in the comments if I would post more details of the 'artfully tied garbage bag' pattern I bought at the fifties fair. There are only two pattern pieces, and one small page of instructions. I might make this out of some cheapo fabric, because it looks like one of those frocks which could be amazing...but is just as likely to turn out unwearable. (I recommend clicking on the pattern cover picture to look at the illustration of the woman's face. Hilarious.)

If you try it Livebird, let me know!

If you're going to San Francisco...

Don't forget to try to be there on the first Sunday of the month for the Alameda Flea Market. It's yoooooge! Glamorously, I flew back from San Francisco today. Here's my Kittyhaul from the market:
(above) A cool floral western shirt, a belt with blue flowers, an apron pattern (it has sewing themed transfers!), a floral princess line dress in a thick cotton and original fifties curtains! All gen-you-wine vintage items! Score! (I regret not buying the red and white 50s slingback sandals though. I knew I would. Oh well. I hope they make someone very happy)
(above) Did I mention it was huge? This is just a snippet. You can see how far back it goes, and it was wiiiide too. (That's the San Francisco skyline in the background, if you look carefully) The flea market is held at the naval yard that 'Mythbusters' often use for crashing things. The parking lot was just as huge, we almost lost the car.
(above) Gratuitous tourist shot of Lombard Street.
I went to Britex fabrics, but only bought haberdashery items. The fabric was expensive, and I didn't see any have to haves. I did buy some fabric though, on Haight Street. More on that later.

McCalls 7271

I won this on ebay today. I know it's similar to one I already have, but I love it and had to have it anyway. (I'd rather collect vintage patterns than ceramic owls anyway. Not that there's anything wrong with collecting ceramic owls of course, I just prefer the old time patterns)

making up

I didn't buy much at the fifties fair this year, because I swore this time I wouldn't buy any patterns that weren't my size - and there weren't many of them, none of which floated my boat (hey, I wore my sailor frock, I can say that!). However, I did get some cute Venice border print and the other Enid Gilchrist book, but I seem to have forgotten to photograph them... I shall fix that forthwith.
However, the traditional Saturday-before-the-fair-fabric-shopping was excellent, as Kitty mentioned :


A lovely assortment of silk and a cotton hitchhiker - clockwise from right top is stretch burgundy/cream stretch silk, then black cotton broderie, then border print silk (charmeuse perhaps?), and self-spotted black silk.

I had the day off today, so I have mostly completed a slip in the stretch silk. I only have the straps and hem to go - I didn't feel up to turning straps this evening.


We also some wool knit marked 'jersey', but it was heavier than I think of as jersey - almost like a light doubleknit. So, today I also made good ol' Vogue 9668, leaving out the zip and facing the neckline part in viscose knit. Turned out well, I think.

I also got some grey viscose/elastane which wasn't interesting as a photograph. I made a 3/4 sleeve version of the $5 knockoff today.

Today was a good day.

This just in...Fifties Fair Kittyhaul!

The Fifties Fair was today! Yesterday Moggy and I had our traditional Saturday-before-the-Fair festival of fabric shopping to get our mojo limbered up. (oh boy, the mojos got limber! We bought a tonne of fabric. More on that in a later post)

Because today is all about the Fifties Fair!
Here's my haul:
(above) Some of the patterns I bought, along with some nice grey, blue and pink vintage cotton. 1.8 metres, enough for a sunfrock, yay!

... some more patterns, and some vintage floral cotton, which Moggy and I shared as there was about 4.6 metres of it. I don't know what this fabric might become yet.

Enid Gilchrist pattern books. There's some beauties in there. The fabric is another vintage cotton, and I see it becoming a full skirted shirtwaister. With pink buttons.

1950s house plans! Now I won't need an architect once I find that large, wide plot of land with a view, in inner Sydney. There's gotta be heaps of those about. I can just give this booklet to the builder. I've not built a house before, but I think that's how it works. Just give me number 403 or number 188 I'll say. I'm sure it won't be a problem.

(Oh, and if you said hello to me at the fair because you recognised the frock I was wearing, I'm sorry I was such a stunned mullet! My (very) limited social skills escaped me, and I didn't even ask your name! I put it down to not having been recognised for the blog before... *blush* ...and I was rendered almost speechless. Please forgive!)