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.

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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!)

Rack it to me

I took this morning off work to take delivery of the magazine rack I bought at Exoffice furniture (I do love ex-office furniture shops!).

I saw this with Kitty when she was down a little while ago, but I resisted. However, I popped into the shop the other weekend and it was still there, calling me like a little orphan kitten - how could I refuse the little mews of a poor lonely magazine rack? Wouldn't it love to be filled with books and paperie?

I have done a preliminary fill with some patterns and my sewing books.

It is only now I realise that I have four different editions of the McCalls Sewing book, three editions of the Singer one, and two identical copies of 'Successful Dressmaking' by Ellen and Marietta Resek - basically a pattern cutting book with some lovely styles. No wonder I have it twice!

I wondered why I hadn't seen that book much on the internet, then realised it is Australian - published in Melbourne in fact. You can sometimes find it on eBay.

I also realised no-one calls it 'dressmaking' nowadays. I say - long live the dress!


I've also rediscovered the lovely set of Women's Institute dressmaking books (late 20s - early 30s I think) that I hauled back from a United Kingdom holiday a few years ago.

fauxlero, wah wah wah-oh

Another addition to the tripfit wardrobe! I had a lovely sewfrezy sesh with Miss L. Bird on Saturday.
She showed me the Vogue 2980 fauxlero top that she had made and previously informed me was grouse: lo and behold, as promised it was a corker.

So, dear reader, I made one.

It's viscose elastane knit (Vietnamese shop on Smith St: $4/m). It's not actually shiny, that is the camera. It's not crooked either, that's me. I've done a review on PR.

I made the Simplicity 4076 twist top as well, but haven't taken a picture yet - the eternal photography of black clothes dilemma!

All I have to make now is a bag. And maybe a short sleeved top. And maybe another dress...

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.