A flowery skirt for Outfit 41

So here's a pretty little skirt I made a few weeks back, but hadn't finished it off, as I couldn't decide to sell or to wear myself.




I did the button holes with my new machine, and put two different coloured buttons as most of my vintage ones don't have a pair... as they're all odds and ends from ebay and op shops!

How gorgeous and light for summer! I think I will sell it, as I don't often wear light colours, so once I get some more stuff made I'll do another photo shoot and get it on etsy! This dress is entirely vintage as well! And cleverly with NO zipper!

I'm off for cocktails at my friends' new place! They bought a place near ours, so it'll be just a short walk for us. NYE can get pretty busy in our suburb, but we plan to spend it in our lovely courtyard... just Husbie and myself! Yay!

Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for reading my blog and hope all your dreams come true in 2009! 2009.... it's gotta be fine! (I'm yet to work on something more than 'fine'....)

xoxo

Another fabulous dress for Outfit Number 40

I've got heaps of news! But first, I hope your summer/festive season has been great, and you're taking care on the roads etc. I drive A LOT over summer (8 hours to get back to Mum and Dad's and 8 hours back!) (Oh, and 3 hours to Melbs and back too!) so hope you are travelling well and enjoying yourself!

So! After two weeks in Gippsland, I've got the hang of my Mum's really easy Brother Sewing Machine. I tried the button hole thing, foot thing, you know what I'm talking about Experienced Sewers! (Remember I'm self taught, so often forget the names of things) (Why are the dogs called 'dogs'? etc etc etc)

AND WE CAME BACK TO SYDNEY AND MY HUSBIE CONVINCED ME TO GET:



A BROTHER SEWING MACHINE ALL FOR MYSELF! It's a mid range computie one, NS or NC 50, and so far SO GOOD! I went to the Sewing Machine Warehouse and met Lou and Kate, who were both fabulous. But get this.... The customer JUST before me, like she and her partner were leaving just as I was about to buy my machine... were just like My Husbie and I... and Lou & Kate couldn't believe the coincidences:

We were BOTH from Newtown, we were both upgrading *from* a Janome to a *Brother* and we were both buying the same machine. We also BOTH had very handsome husbands, and were wanting to hold off buying a coverstitch machine, and just use the Brother's twin needles for lingerie and bikinis. KWINKY DINK!

What a laugh. I love these guys at SMW, but Penrith is hilarious, and not sure if it'll be a regular visiting place. But still, a great adventure to the SUPA CENTA (sic!)

So, I tested the machine out with a good old dress, a 1970s Simplicity Pattern, it's the THIRD time I've tried this pattern (altering it each time to my liking and to suit the material!), and decided I'd go stash all the way... even the zipper:



My lovely Mother in Law visits the occasional op shop in Brissie and often finds me some ace zippers, I have zillions of them and LOVE their old retro labels!

The material is a tablecloth, I think I bought it in Adelaide this year, but what I loved about it was the diagonal squares... I wanted to focus on the black squares the best, as black is my fave, and I'm super proud with how the bodice and the dress bit all matched up, but what I didn't plan is the pockets!!!! How good is it!!!



So I'm wearing it right now, and frantically blogging to then get some dips ready for a little neighbourly get together!

xoxo

Christmas Tutu

Christmas Tutu, originally uploaded by Veronica Darling.

Here's my tutu that I made for the Christmas Party last month.

I bought a slip for $3, and cut it up but left the elastic waist with about 10 inches of material... and I layered 3 pieces of gathered tulle, with 2 bits of skirt (so the tutu layer was darker).

It looked fantastic but it was a bit tricky. I also sewed through all thicknesses with the overlocker, so it didn't really sew straight, sort of in a wave ... but as it was just for a party I didn't really care... I'll prolly wear it again, if the situation calls!

What I was really impressed with though is the darling glitter top. I was going to wear a corset but it was a bit cold, so I called by the thrift store (I have about TEN fantastic ones close by my house) and this top was only $18, it has a massive collar, that I will probably copy one day... and puffy sleeves! Hilarious!

Oh, and Husbie came and took photos of all of us at the party, so this is a cute room with unreal wallpaper!

xoxo

Oh! And thanks to Bits and Bobbins, I made my first Wardrobe Remix(ers) O' The Week. I feel quite famous!

There's NOTHING better than making your own gear for a party (not to mention day to day wear too!) extra xoxo

Great news! Another sale!

The Remnants Warehouse in Alexandria and it's old site in Marrickville are having another sale.

Yippee!

I love these guys, they're so nice and friendly! I've got some great fabric from them "over the years"* and will be going there the week after the sale opens! Yippee!

Here's some of the things I made last year! Loads of dresses!

I've made a tutu for tonight's work Christmas Party, so will hopefully show you some cutie photos soon!




* I've only lived in Syds for 2 and a half years!

Sailor Moon - Outfit Number 39

Sailor Moon, originally uploaded by Veronica Darling.

Here's a lovely winter's day dress... only now the sun came out!

I made it from an 80s pattern I got recently at the big Salvo's in Tempe, and as the weather of the weekend here in Sydney was quite gloomy, all I made was darker clothes!

I'm testing this blog post out from flickr to see if I like it.

Yay!

Outfit 38 - A Slinky Stash Number

So last night I went through my vintage patterns, and found about 10 that I've never tried before. I juggle between choosing patterns and then choosing material from my stash.... to picking up material and throwing it around and then choosing which pattern would match that material. What a dilemma. Too many patterns and too much material.

But I think it is a skill to match the best material with a pattern, cause you can have some weird garments if you get it wrong (I'm thinking outfit 36/100 for me - but it still kinda works).

Here's a 60s maternity dress, with some silky (but stretchy) stash material:

That's the front above, and the back below:

I did most of it with the overlocker, and changed the neckline a bit. The pattern asked for neck facing, which would mean a rounded neckline, but I invented the ribbon neckline (3 inches wide, and over a metre and a half long) and so you can see it ties with a super big floppy bow at the back.

As the material is incredibly drape-y I thought a gathered maternity dress would suit, especially cut off short to show off great pins. It's really flowy and I might wear it to my friends 'wedding' party next month (they got married in India earlier this year and returning to Australia for a big party) with slingback peep toe heels. The colours are blacky blue on grey, so a bright red handbag and lipstick would look great!

The material I got at an opshop in Gippsland, and as it has a stretch in it, I did away with the zipper the pattern asked for! So the dress would be approx $3 in materials. Love it!

Number 37, the Awards Night Dress

I know you may have been screaming at me silently "Where's the dress you wore to the ARIAS???"... (and quite possibly not as well)! Finally here's the gorgeous taffeta early 60s dress, it has the occasional dart, and as I was in a hurry I didn't do any facing bits for the arms and neck, and that made the material pucker slightly. But do you think anyone at the ARIAs noticed that?

For you overseas types the ARIAS are a music industry awards night, and kinda commercial, but a bit rock n roll, hency the short skirt on this dress. As it was a 60s pattern, it should have been twice as long, but as I'm so short, I wanted to show off my pins.

I wore it again the other night with a big daggy bow attached the front, it's massive. And I think it's quite a sweet cocktail dress! Oh, and it's totally a pattern from my bestie, her auntie had a clean out and came from her stash! My bestie of course being Friday's Child over at etsy.

Today was supposed to be dreary here in Syds, but I've worken up with sunshine all over the place. I'm going to potter a bit around the house, but last night I picked out about 10 un-used vintage patterns from my stash that I would love to try out over the weekend. And if I have enough zippers I'll do the lot!

I'm really focussing on second hand stuff these days... I did use new materials for the ARIA dress above and a few others recently, so I'm aiming for decreasing the stash (either for my store or for myself) so I can do a massive op shop when my husbie and I go roadtripping on the holidays!

xoxo

36 outta 100

I made this dress a while ago, but forgot to post, so it's therefore number 36 out of my 100 outfit goal. It's material I got very cheaply in Marrickville, and it's pretty daggy, but I've worn it out a few times with my cowboy boots and it looks pretty funny! Great rack, mad cans etc are usually the comments, as it's got that cutie bow bust line... great to make... but the material is just weird.

Does anyone else just start making things, knowing as you go along that it's just going to be weird, but you've started so you have to finish it. And it turns out weird. ?????

Nonetheless, the style is AWESOME and a few girls were like "I want one in red!" etc etc etc... they all want mad cans too!

xoxo

I love my baby friends!

OK I have been sewing, just not photographing and totally not blogging.

Here's a collection of stuff I've been making for my babies (friend's babies - I'm Aunty these days to many children) and I'm pretty chuffed with the cubes the most. I didn't put bells in them, cause I could just imagine how annoying that would be after a while.

Accessories Galore!

A CD pouch, each side holds three cds, and as I'm sending it overseas to my darling bestie, she'll be able to use to travelling around, but also it'll protect the cds via airmail.

Gorgeous little softie building blocks, the tutorial is below in a previous post, but they're made mostly of scraps (especially the cord and denim - old skirts and cut off jeans) or special material I've been holiding onto. The darling blue elephants are kinda flanney soft. These are for my darling besties' little bub.

And finally, another wonderful thing I can make with my overlocker! A little beanie! It ties up cute or you can flop around like a cute little bunny if you'd like too. However not sure if little 2-3 month olds know about bunnies and flopping, but I'm sure my besties' bub will look HOT in red.

Here's the CD Pocket Tutorial if you need it. I actually googled for ages to find one, so there's not many tutorials online... I suppose they're kinda straight forward to make and if I had more time I'd have drawn up my own version. I'd have like to make it a folder type book, but this one is fine!

Ok, will post some more dresses soon too!

Wardrobe Refashion - For Life!

I took the Wardrobe Refashion pledge at the start of the year, having tested it out for a few months prior. And it's AWESOME!

If you guys haven't heard of it, it's a pledge you can take in order to re-use your current wardrobe, or pretty much stop going to the shops and buying new things. OR if you're stuck, by handmade or second hand items first.

I've bought one pair of yoga pants this year, but now I've got an overlocker, I can make yoga and stretchy stuff, so I've decided that I'll be a Wardrobe Refashioner for LIFE! It's a big ask, but I'm totally not into going to the shops for my clothes. I would always pop by the op shops, but on the odd occasion call by Target or girlie shops for something every now and again, but I get crushed seeing stores like Supre have clothes made SO cheaply and so badly. They surely are using cheap labour (not a fact, I could research before I post but whatever!) and I feel a little terrible knowing a lot of it ends up in dumpsters or whatever... these stores are just SO overstocked and fashion moves pretty fast for us females. Anyways, I love doing my small little bit to stop this consumeristic nature of our western worlds, so give big kisses to Nikkishell who's been running Wardrobe Refashion singlehandly for however long!

There's a big group of people refashioning these days, and it's so good making something yourself or buying handmade... and it's not that hard to do! DIY has gone crazy since I started, and the web is full of great places to learn stuff!

My goal along with being a LIFER on WR is to actually post my stuff there! I'm hopeless! I make so much stuff that I never photograph and I've got to get some sort of system going (I'm just too lazy to get the photos of the camera most of the time!) so hopefully I'll see you over there!

xoxo

50 Book Challenge Begins!

Cause I'm not busy enough I've signed up for a 50 Book Challenge!

I was reading The Crafty Librarian's blog and she mentioned the 75 Book Challenge, and I thought I'd give myself a slightly smaller goal of 50, as I've been reading a lot recently but earlier in the year I was treading water... I'd hardly finished 1 book in the first six months! Yikes! I think 50 is a pretty good goal for one year!

I've started with 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay' by Michael Chabon as I was given it for my birthday and so far so good. I'm not much of a reviewer, so don't stress, this is still a craft blog, but I want to give myself more goals of DOING things rather than talk about them all the time. I'm SUCH a good talker these days and not much of a Do-er type.

This morning at work I felt a tickle on my arm, and thought it was my long locks on my bare skin, but I looked down and it was a SPIDER that I yelled at, "Spider!" and then brushed away, but all day since I keep thinking there's more on me! My hair really is tickling my neck now, but I keep thinking more spiders have come!

Isn't funny, the first think I did when I saw it was to say "spider" and then flick it off... what a dork! "Spider!"

Old outfit worn today during travels

Still on the road!

Woke up in Adelaide this morning, and donned an older item of Veronica Darling's (gosh she's good) it's an aqua jiffy dress, with bell sleeves



Looked quite cute but ate a bit of rice on the plane, which fell down the front mid flight. Had to shake it all about and jump up and down to get rid at the end of flight... but cute dress nonetheless! Cotton, aqua, palm trees, Canterbury Vintage Festival last year... xoxo

Next Stop Adelaide - Outfit 35

And here I am wearing my latest Outfit 35 on the road for work.



It's a very 80s moo moo type material, and it was really hard to sew with, cause of the silk like texture, I think it's just synthetic, but could be silk blend. It was like only $6 a metre and I only used a metre and a half cause the dress is so short!

I wore it to work today, felt fine, but just saw a photo of myself earlier on facebook and I looked way fat! It must have been a bad photographer!

xoxo

On the road!

Hi there!

I'm traveling around a bit for work, so thought I'd post my outfits as most of them are handmade by Veronica Darling... yep ... by me.



This is a tropical lovely jiffy dress (according to the pattern) I made for my hen's night party... it was great with heels! Today I wore it with my cowboy boots and a side pony.

I was REALLY hungover so it was very comfy and slouchy. It's not smocking around the waist, there's four pieces of elastic in casing (which is on the inside) so works in the same way, but heaps easier. Although I've not tried smocking before!

Cheers!

Forgot I got TAGGED!

Thanks to Bec, of Honi Design, I'm tagged. I'm not very good at being tagged, cause I never know who to tag back! EEK This one is about unique things about oneself:


The rules:
- Link to the person who tagged you.
- Mention the rules.
- Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.
- Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.
- Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.

SIX things... six things... ummmm....

1. I have a lot of nicknames... but my mum has always called me 'Mouse'... no one else calls me that! I think it's because I'm small in stature, but can't really remember!

(I just googled cute mouse pics, and will try and do this WHOLE tag thing in LOLcats!)



2. Sometimes in my job, I have to call people and convince them to talk on the radio.



3. I passed First Grade Piano without practicing, and then the teacher made me skip Second Grade... so I totally bombed out for Third Grade. I never resat the exam, it was hard!



4. I got a blackberry, and I take photos with my blackberry of low flying planes, and then I upload them to facebook. I have 3 photo albums on facebook just of planes. I DON'T KNOW WHY BUT I LOVE PLANES (and my blackberry).



5. I started Monday Afternoon 'Shakespeare' Class at school, I didn't believe we had enough Shakespeare on the curriculum and insisted a special class was created to accommodate. It was me and 2 boys for 2 years, every Monday. GEEKY (well the boys were very geeky, not too sure where I sat)!!!!



6. I worked as a door bitch slash cloakroom girl for a while. I made a $50 tip once!




And here's the peeps I will tag:

Georgie Love - if she's not having a baby
Claudia - who is being very funny over at her little blog
Anna Laura
The Playground of Mischief
Kristy- over at Lower Your Pressure Foot
Inaluxe - cause she's back blogging again! Yay!

Little Bitty Baby Boys

I've got a lot of 'boy'friends at the moment; newly born baby boys.

All of them are just gorgeous! And I've been thinking and thinking of things to make them...

Here's a big list of what I've found!

Froggy Suit

Toy Blocks

Little Itty Shoes


Little Baby Kimono Tops



Tshirt Hat


NikkiShell's Baby Jim Jams

And here's a few baby quilt and accessories:

Baby Soft Quilt

So I better get moving!!!

Surviving another wintertime in one week

I don't oft harp on about the weather, but I liked Sydney's warmer climes to Melbsie Welbsie, but it's just gone to the total dogs this week.

After a weekend of sunshine smothered in suncream, the week turned into the nastiest display of forgotten wintertimes! I was freezing. Freezing during the day, freezing at night, freezing at work! My Melbs Friend looked at me on Wednesday, and said 'Gosh you are cold' as my teeth chattered!!!!!!

I AM OFFICIALLY FROM SYDNEY! I have acclimatised and now get cold with any dash of a breeze. I can never visit Melbs in wintertime ever again, for I will die!

The best thing is that we've woken this weekend to another gorgeous blue sky day in my backyard!



So in crafty news, I've stocked my stock so I have NINE item in it. (I sold something last night, so now 9 things) And thus here's a mini etsy:



And I'll have to take some piccies because last weekend I made 2 dresses, both a quite swish. And one even got a red carpet screening... more news soon.

YAY!

Outfit 34 outta 100

I forgot to post this update!

It's outfit number 34 and it's a hot high waisted skirt, cherry pattern material (cute to boot 50s kind) and it's up on etsy now.




I had a great weekend, making 2 and a half dresses ... one I wore to a series of Saturday parties and one to an awards night (very swish) with photos to follow. I'll finish the other one soon, and get onto the photos posting!

It's so freaking busy!

Happy Birthday to my friend!

I was on a sewing spree the other week, and here's a skirt I made up FROM MY OWN BRAIN! No pattern required.



I pulled apart two pillow cases, that I got from one of the Broadway Op Shops, and looked at them for a LONG TIME. I really liked the nautical POP ART look of the pattern, and LOOKED and LOOKED at my pulled apart pillowcases until I worked out that I could get a waist band and gather up most of the pillow bit without much cutting out of patterns. SO, I only cut the waist band and gathered up the long edges of the pillow cases, chucked a zipper on the side and YAY HOORAY I made it work.

So I'm off to a birthday party today and shall present it to my lovely birthday friend and see if she likes it. I've not sewn the little ticker things that hold it shut on the side (you know, above the zip), because there could be a chance it's slightly too big. But I thought there's an option to wear it high the waist (in which case I'll bring it in) or on the hips (in which case I'll add those little ticker closing things).

I love it! But isn't it sad when you cut up vintage pieces, cause you'll more than likely never see the same pattern again. So a bit sad that I can't make one for myself, but even better for my friend cause it's one of a kind.

ALSO - You'll be shocked to know that I'm actually updating my ETSY STORE! Yep, here's the link to it - OMG VERONICA DARLING - you sew and never update your store! You've gone CRAZY! (Perhaps I have gone crazy, all this looking at computer screens and photoshopping the leg outta Diana).

See ya, Veronica

Number 32 - Zooming Through the Outfits

Here's Outfit Number 32 in my 100 Outfit Challenge, which I started in January or Feb this year... considering we've spent most weekends looking for houses, and then moving once we bought our house and together with working new hours... I'm pretty happy that I've made over 30 Outfits by October.

Here's the latest pics & deets:



It's a Sixties pattern, my friend Friday's Child found for me after visiting her Aunty who was moving out and used to sew a lot when she was younger. It didn't have a back bodice piece, so I improvised a pattern piece from two separate patterns (as I've never made patterns from scratch) and it looks great! But my fave bit is the collar:



It's made from three semi circled pieces, which makes six all up around the neckline, and it's soooooo sweet! My husbie chose the fabric, and it's *slightly* see-through, as it you can't wear black knickers. And it's INCREDIBLY short! I actually think my upperlegs are my best feature, so love wearing short skirts and dresses, but deary deary me. Perhaps I shouldn't have worn it to work last week without tights. EEP!

See the back:


It's a light cotton material from my mum's stash I reckon. I think it's some of the oldest material in my collection, as in I've had it for about 5 or 6 years, but not sure when Mummy got it. She did a lot of mad sewing in in the 80s, so could have been then.

Overlocker success with Outfit Number 31

Gosh, I'm so happy with my overlocker, I could cry. Seriously!!!

*

Here's a sixties pattern, that I've altered to suit the stretch fabric. It's vintage material, sourced at an op shop and I may have even had it for about 4 years, that's because all my sewinglife I've never known how to sew stretch fabric, and now thanks my Over Locky, it's a dream come true! This usually calls for a zipper, but stretchy stretch, and save on a zipper.

I'm just neatening up the hems now, and then I'll start on a checked skirt to wear in Melbs, where I'm headed on Saturday for work again. But I'll be able to find time to see all my pals as well.

Funny thing though, I said to a friend at work, "I'm going to make a red gingham skirt by the weekend" and she said, "Gingham?" so I said "Checks" and then she new what I was talking about. I wonder if gingham is a 80s world thing and no longer goes by that name???

Thoughts? Write them down now! Perhaps Gingham isn't the pattern but the material ???








* Doesn't Diana look like she's got no boobs? Sadly the dress is a little big for her, I'd estimate 10 - 12 xoxo

Slouchy Skirt for Outfit #30

Yep, I just had to steal away one of my practice preppy skirts for myself. But I always keep the 'Not Quite Right' ones for myself... ie. the stuff ups! This one is perfectly cute (to the untrained eye)... but has some gathering issues and is a bit big for me... so I think it's a smallish size 10. The tiers were easy to do, but I did the first tier with the overlocker, and without gathering and 'baste-ing' first. My patterns always say baste and then stitch, and this is why.



I know this is not the forum, but I'm feeling incredibly winter fattyboombah at the moment, and I blame it ALL on turning 30. Ever since my birthday I've gotten fatter and fatter, and whilst it's prob. all in my head, making tiny skirts that bring out the rotund pot belly isn't doing much to my fatty complex I've now got too!

Anyways! I've started dance class on Mondays and will get into $5 yoga on Friday. So at least I'll feel a bit better and then the winter fatty will fly away (in my mind at least, where it's the most important, I actually don't care if I'm a fatty on the outside, cause usually I think I'm size 6 and as tall as Heidi Klum) - yay.

100 Posts and Outfit 27, 28, 29

I've had a lot of blogs in my time, dear you, the reader. I've been on blogger for most of my adult life actually. But I'd never thought it would be my sewing career that would warrant 100 Posts! I'll have to check, but my uni blogs, my nerdy blogs and my travel blogs have never really been high in the postings. So here you go, something I've totally stuck to!

Good thing too, as I love sewing and crafting, and love blogging, when I can of course. I've set up my sewing room (see last week's post) and now have the lappy in here too, so whilst I've created this weekend, I've updated the itunes as well!

Saturday's efforts was a bit of organising and a bit of making this skirt:



It's thick upholstery type material, and has some massive 'tucks' around the waistband, so you can see it's massive flair-ing in the skirt. It was supposed to be a size 10, but my excitement in the tucking has turned it into a total size 6, maybe a 10 year old child's waist even. Whoops! It's totally one for the etsy page.

And Sunday I made these matching skirts, I got the idea from an early 80s vogue pattern, but altered slightly here and there. Think summer collegial with boat shoes. Perhaps a vest. Very preppy.





So I was all ready to get my review published on the Etsy Dust Blog when I sold another obi sash, which left my etsy store rather empty (with 2 things in it) and so Nerys has held over my review until I restock it! I'll ask the husbie to get the good camera out to take some ultra nice pics of my skirts, and get sewing over the next few weeks.

The tricky thing is that I'm hanging to make summer stuff, but America (where I'm guessing the bulk of buyers are - since I've had 5 sales and all have been Northern Hemisphere apart from 1) is heading into winter! I do have quite a lot of winter material though, so maybe I should do some preppy skirts in plaid or pinstripe wool?!

On the lappy: Jenny Wilson, Regina Spektor & Vampire Weekend

New Sewing Room & Back with a Skirt! Outfit 26!

What a wonderful weekend of organising and getting excited about creating again!

I had Friday off work, and good thing too - for it rained and rained and rained and didn't stop til last night (Saturday) so thus a new sewing room is ready today! I did have a look at my *new* overlocker but unfort. I'm missing one little piece called a "spreader" (wtf?) so will call the Janome shop tomozza and check if they've got one for me!



And what about the new ironing board!? Wow!



Check out my lovely model Diana... she's wearing a skirt I made today as well. Gosh what a nice room to sew in, I was wheeling all over the place on my chair, back and forth to the ironing board, so I love the set up so far!

The skirt is a 80s-ish era McCalls pattern (I think) and the material is hot from the op shop, in Brisbane (from a working holiday in August - the St Vinnies in the Valley), and rather textured cotton, that almost feels like a raw silk. It fits high on my waist, and I'll wear it with black tights and black skivvy cause 'She's a MOD - yeah!' and even a black belt to swish it all together.

And I started knitting last night for my preggers friend; a scarf. She lives in the UK and is going to be carrying babies galore coming into their winter, so a nice neat bright purple scarf (with tricky tucky things to be discussed later once I know what I'm talking about!) for her!

Yep, what a great weekend!

Curious about your sewing table...

I'm setting up mine right now, AND for my BIRTHDAY on Sunday I was given an OVERLOCKER! I must be a serious sewer now right? The overlocker has FOUR threads instead of TWO and is cute to boot in size, but just as heavy.

So, thanks to a lovely husbie (who cleaned up a whole bunch of boxes yesterday) I've got some space on my old sewing table, and have image googled peeps' sewing tables... now, I've only come across a few with BOTH machines on the one table... so my question for you dear reader....

If you have (or had) two machines, and overlocker and a straight stitch, and only ONE table... would you put the overlocker on the left of the straight stitch or put it on the right of the straight stitch?

I know, it's not really a big deal, and I bet if I told any of my real life friends that this is the dilemma I am facing right now, I would be laughed at! Seriously! But I'm soooooo curious about your sewing table, and if you have two machines and if you place them in a special position... for ease of use...

At this stage I've got the overlocker on the left (tucked near the corner of the table and the room) with some little shelves... then on the right/middle of the table is the straight stitch machine ... and then that leaves space for the cutting board... which is quite large...

THOUGHTS?

Thanks dearhearts!

New home and some new listings on etsy

Hey pals,

I've moved and I've taken some little pics of some newly listed dresses!

It feels great to be in the house, and we're settling slowly into the place! Unfortunately as it's still winter, the house is a little cold, but we'll prob get a heater for next year!

Here's a pic I took in the backyard!



So I'll soon set up the sewing room, and whizzing up a storm! YAY!

Packing up the house

So moving weekend is approaching, but I'm still on the internet, but the sewing room has been packed up completely.

SO when I was googling knitted vests for my honey, I found this blog:



Where Threadbanger watches the catwalk and does tutorials for you! How clever!

And this is the boy vest I'm planning on knitting:



via this free pattern, is it a bit of a challenge? Yes! I read the instructions and will have to get my head around the lingo, I've only ever done scarves (although I'm into ribbed scarves at the moment, which the vest requires) so it might take FOREVER to do!

So long blogger pals, I'll be posting from my new house SOON! (Most likely in a week or two cause I'm traveling for work as well)

YAY!

News Flash - sewing is HOT in Melbs

My mum always tells me what's in the paper in her state, but she's been quite astonished to read lately a few stories that sound like MY LIFE however they're stories not about me!

Yesterday she showed me this one - Bobbin on a reel of content - and especially with the girl from the country the first part reads like me! (But I haven't opened any ACE workshop in North Melbourne!!)

Pretty much, the Thread Den is a place in North Melbourne started by 4 girls of different backgrounds, but all trying to get a clothing label off the ground. Of course this is a hard thing to do, so they've combined it with sewing classes, and vintage shopping. So they sell their clothes alongside the vintage stuff, and teach classes at the same time!

I'm amazed at how popular DIY in clothes is for Melbournians ... when I lived in Fitzroy all my 3 flatmates could sew and crafted beautiful unique things, and when I had some time to myself, I taught myself to sew on my mum's machine.

In Sydney, it's just not the same. People are still shocked to hear that I've made most of my wardrobe, so people look at the clothes I've got and cannot fathom how they are handmade. Now, I don't know EVERYbody in Sydney, but I have met a lot of different peeps... most people buy new and the ones who DO shop secondhand are the coolest (of course!) ... but only 2 girls I can think of can sew and they're from WAGGA!

But have a read of the article if you get the chance, cause I reckon the Thread Den sounds excellent and I would love to see something like it in Sydney! Now where can I find some more free time (and a city council to grant $30, 000 to the business to use laneways etc) - Melbourne is so good!

Gush to sewing guys and gals! (Now I sound like I should be in a musical)

I have made a dress and altered a dress this week, but the camera is in a safe place and I'll have to get photos online once we've moved into our new house next week! There are boxes everywhere, but even more stuff to pack!

p.s. Congrats to Summer Pickles for her little bub xoxo

Sydney fabric hunters!

If you're in Sydney and often visit Marrickville for the fabric shops, the Remnants Warehouse has moved to Alexandria! I became savvy to the store in M'ville because I love the planes in the area, and started a-shopping there because the fabrics are often heavily discounted and still on the rolls of cardboard ... reems?? Huh? I should pretend I know sewing lingo!

Anyways, I got this email alert last month and saw some bloggers still quoting it as a good place in Marrickville, but it's moved:



A few of the little ladies on Marrickville road give you some good discounts when you buy loads of stuff, so I'll still be going there when I'm in town, but I'm yet to go to Alexandria to see the new Remnants shop. (plus I'm moving soon and really can't get anything new for the sewing room as it's yet to be set up - cry)

Kisses, Veronica