Staying with Fridays Child

It's time for another working holiday, but this weekend I've been hanging with my wonderful friend - You'll know her as Fridays Child on etsy, but she's my lovely former flattie and total Bestie!

It's Comedy Fest time here in Melbs, so we saw some shows:

Sam Simmons - Where Can I Win a Bear Around Here
Kristen Schaal
23 Positions in a One Night Stand - Prince themed Fundraiser at Trades Hall

Totally recommend both Sam and Kristen - they were bizarre and hilarious (I cried tears of happiness) and not your usual stand up. Comedy of the Future!

So no crafting for me for a week, but hopefully I'll get some pics to update my site! I'm wearing my refashioned cord shorts today, but it's so cold in Melbs perhaps I need to add tights! Eek!

In the meantime, check out my darling Fridays Child:



That's me after seeing Kristen Schaal last night! Yay!


Take care, Veronica Darling xoxo

Outfit Number 18 - really? 18???

I tell ya I'm zooming through the outfits this week, finishing off these ones I started a while ago, and finishing off a few other projects (cord trousers into cord shorts etc stuff for the wardrobe refashion blog really! Just gotta get a good photo that shows off my long legs - hee hee!)

So here's a vintage material dress, I got the fabric at an opshop, can't remember if it was in Orbost or not. ??? I made a long dress originally, but it looked a little like a nightie. I cropped it off to become a mini dress, and now looks swisharoo!



I'm deciding now what to do for the next Outfit, I have a few ideas (some funny overalls and funny high trousers), and I'm also curious to try a few ideas I've got from scratch, without using patters. We'll see though, as they work in my head atm but wait until I get laying things out!

Refashion Dress for Outfit Number 17

Hey! Back again! Nikki Shell congrats on your new baby! I saw your comment yesterday, and thought 'Isn't she supposed to be having a baby around now?' - She's gorgeous!

This was a very flashy, very booby boob-tube dress my friend Las Vegas found. It had elastic above the boob and under the boob in casings and I unstitched the lot (ARGH!) and ironed it like crazy to refash into this cute Holly Hobby number for LV to love and wear. How crazy is the material? It's silky cotton or something, but very flag-like material. It says Vanuatu - Fantastic (I think!).

I didn't have enough material for the under sleeve lining or the reinforcing bit (whatever it's called) under the arm so I used some old flashy yellow material I got ages ago (when I dressed up as a Shakespeare Lady). I also used the existing hem from the boob-tube dress, so I didn't unstitch that thank goodness. See below, once again with fabulous Husband's photos!



Great hey?

I'm sitting out on the balcony and it's EXTREMELY pleasant today, just LOVELY! I've been sewing all morning, loads of odd jobs I've been meaning to do for ages, and now sitting outside for lunch makes me so happy! Little kids are playing in the pool and the sky is just perfect soft blue. Going back to work tomorrow won't seem so bad!

Yeah Yeah Outfit Number 16 - How sweet!

Yeah! Sweet Sixteen!

This is a cutie little Holly Hobby Dress for my friend Rosie! Woo Hoo! She chose the fabric herself, and it was a gorgeous light cotton fabric, and totally suited the style of dress.

But, what do you think of the wonderful photo my wonderful wonderful wonderful Husband took???? ARGH, I love it and almost died when he showed it to me!



I've never seen Diana looking so good in a photo before! We got a new camera a few weeks ago, a Canon 40d, and he's jumping right into using it! Mr Veronica Darling is HOT STUFF! AND I helped him start a blog for his photos and for his inspiration! He's named it The Vertical Lawn and he's called himself Chauncey Gardiner! Cute!

It's the birthday month for sure!

Hey again,

Once again I've been making birthday presents!

As I'm in the middle of 2 dresses, I decided for my friend Nic's birthday I'd make her a bag! I made her a wallet last year out of this grey patterned material, and she loved it! So I still had enough left of the vintage stuff (I've also got a skirt in the same material!) to make a bag for her!

I did a bit of googling and found Tiny Happy and her wonderfully easy bag tutorial! Her instructions are really easy to follow and my bag turned out exactly like her photos!

(*** photos to come soon of my bag, once again too eager to give presents, so forgot photos!)

Tiny Happy seems to be a New Zealander living abroad - somewhere cold - and loves old vintage materials too! Once again, thank you Tiny Happy for the tutorial, it really helps the brain get kick started! The internet is such a great source for improving sewing skills for me, I just love it!

We're getting closer and closer to buying a house, and each place we look at I'm imagining my sewing room/husbie's writing room - cannot WAIT to set it up! I've got a long table that my dad made for me, and I'd like to get a raised platform on it for the laptop, as more and more these days I'm checking out online tutorials as I sew!

AND, in other news, I've sold another obi wan belt on my etsy site! Yay - Thanks to the lovely JAOTTE in Canada!

I've got to restock my shop:



!!! xoxo

Outfit Number 15 - birthday prez

Hey,

My Outfit #15 is a shirt for my friend's birthday! I made it from a doona cover, which was fabulous 60s-70s looking bamboo shoots. Very cool! I used the same man shirt pattern I'd used for my Husbie, but as my friend is a little bit littler, I used the smaller size and brought it in just a little too. When the shirt was finished and sat on Diana, I was worried it looked a little weird the sleeves looked too long and the print made it look almost like 70s pjs - BUT I gave my friend his prez and it fitted perfectly!

He's worn it a few times since and all the other boys at work are after one the same! Hilarious! I'll have to find more 'boyish' vintage materials!!!


(pics coming soon - forgot to take photos on Diana!)

My floral fabric collection by Veronica Darling

A new etsy friend took fancy to my Obi Wan Belts and was curious about my other floral materials, so here's a roll call for my florals - most are vintage and collected over the past year or so, some would be perfect for obi sashes as there's only slivers of material left, but some are quite large pieces of fabric still - waiting for an outfit to become a butterfly! (Gushy!)
















I make more things than I buy, so I don't really spend that much time on etsy, browsing etc. So sometimes I forget about it, since I'm making so many things for my friends these days! My friend Fridays Child is so worth checking out, she's been an artist all her life, and is slowly ridding herself of luddite tendencies - she's a webpage whizz kid! She only signed up to etsy in December, and is already selling like crazy! Yay!

xoxo And here's my flickr photostream for you too!

Just got a SALE email and some copyright news

Hey guys,

I got a cute email from the Remnant Warehouse saying on Saturday 15th March from 9am.... they've got a massive 50 per cent off sale - that's 50% GUYS!

Apparently they are relocating, sad news as they are close by, but they don't say where they're relocating to! I know Red Swirl says she's popped by there, so not sure if any of you other chappies know the place in Marrickville, but SALE SALE SALE!

Also my friend at work loved the red tablecloth dress so it has gone to a new home! Nikki Shell pointed out that even vintage pattern pieces are commercial patterns and therefore have copyright on the designs, and I hadn't really thought about it. So, I called McCalls here in Syds and they've said if I'm making clothes for my friends, or only doing a few runs of their patterns, they don't have a problem with me using their patterns and selling them. They are more concerned with mass production, and I asked them if 5-10 garments were considered mass production, and they told me not at all.

So that's kinda good news for small time sewing folk like myself, but I would call the company and check, if you are worried. I did notice online that Style (available from the 1960s - 80s) isn't a company any more, and their patterns are discontinued. The McCalls people said that once a pattern is discontinued, they call the pattern shops and get them to destroy the old ones. But I forgot to ask if this means they've not got copyright on them.

It is a reminder to anyone who posts tutorials etc, if you are concerned about people making money from your design, you may like to rethink publishing it, because once it's in the public space it's much harder to control your copyright. I like people's tutorials so much, and will only try things out for gifts for friends and handmade items for myself. My goal is to learn pattern making someday (my head is slowly getting there I reckon!) so hopefully I'll get onto that and have my own designs out there someday!

I'm currently making a boy shirt for one of the guys at work, it's gonna be pretty cool, but not sure if it's cool in a '70s pjs' kinda way or 'Hot Hot Hot' kinda way. I'm leaning towards the 70s pj's at the moment!

Yay!!!!!!

Hello Little Pals!

Some little friends appeared tonight before dinner!

Thanks to My Little Mochi and her toy pattern, I've just learnt how to make toys! What cute little rabbits!





The little chappie on the left will be for a little baby that's not yet born, but the little bubs on the right is for my friend's new boy (I'll send down the box from the previous post with the little toy inside!)! Can you see it's little record? The parents are big music fans, and I thought I'd make a little record for the little rabbit!

Thanks again My Little Mochi! You are a gem!

Getting into the teens for my 100 Outfits & pledge update

Here's a little reminder 'flag' of what I'm up to at the moment, it's the 'Veronica Darling 100 Outfit Challenge' of course. I'm sewing 100 Outfits for myself and my friends and who ever fancies an outfit!

So thought I'd just motivate myself with a little post here, and I made a little tag as well:



ExTREEMly dorky from photoshop, but I might even stick it on my side panel to show off that I've got something goin' OHNNNN! Yes, and it's mostly just to motive myself to sew stuff, and blog at the same time, and I'm pretty happy that I'm heading into the teenage figures.

I'm also going pretty well at the wardrobe refash pledge, nothing new at the shops. And hardly any second hand gear. I KNOW WHAT I FORGOT TO MENTION! The girls from work all did a 'Ladies Who Lunch' clothes swap - and we all chucked clothes around like crazy! It's been a bit of a tradition at my work, started way before I got there, to swap your unwanted clothes with colleagues before taking them to the op shop. So pretty much what happens is:

- One person nominates themselves as the host of the event, and the rest of the peeps who are invited get their unwanted clothes together (and finger food and champers)

- You each draw a card from a deck of cards to get the order of the day (ie who shows their clothes first will have the highest card), this way there's a bit of order and also you'll need the cards for scrag-fight pile (explained in a jiffy) later on

- The highest card person shows their clothes (you gotta sell them, not "Ohh, I don't really like this, I don't know why I bought it, it's itchy", more like "It's cut on the bias, it's really swishy, and warm for winter too" find the positive things in the clothes!

- If you like it you scream 'Yep!' but if more than one girl wants it, it goes to the scrag-pile (explained in a jiffy). If you're the only person who wants it, you get to keep it!

- OK the scrag-pile is fought over at the end of everyone's show and tell, so grab the cards again, and there's got to be a mediator here to stop the pulling of hair. If there's 1 item and 4 girls like it, the mediator shuffles the cards and all 4 peeps take a card, and frankly, the highest card wins the scrag-pile item.

- The End - everyone has new clothes, and the leftover clothes that the Ladies Who Lunch didn't want ends up as a big donation to the op shop.

I got heaps of dresses at the last swap, and a really great hot pink halterneck dress that I'll be able to wear to my friend's B-Grade Hollywood Party next month! Woo! I kinda look like Pammy Anderson cross Marilyn Monroe cross Barbie - eek!

Crafty Container for a little Kiddo

Hey pals,

I'm so glad it's Thursday! Got my glass of wine, got my crime channel on (and Dexter starting soon) and finished this box:





Thanks to the most gorgeous Waste Bin Tutorial by Marmadaisy. I was just clicking along people's links to find stuff I liked and thought I'd give her tutorial a go! Thanks Marmadaisy, it was easy to follow and now I've got a present for my friend and her new baby! I did change the dimensions, and it's more shallow than Marmadaisy's original one, but it's more kiddie like now I reckon. I was actually thinking (cause they've got a little boy-o) to make a few toys to pop inside for the new bub, AND now I'll be on the lookout for little soft toys for boys!

Oh, Dexter's just started - gotta go check him out! xoxo

Outfit Number 14

Well, we all went to Adelaide for workie, and run a total muck in the Op Shop on North East Road, I believe it's the Salvos there - and it's a HUGE warehouse kinda thing near Bunnings. The vollies were all sooooo nice and laughed a lot at all of us running around!

I mostly got 70s patterns and tablecloths, and there were a few scraps of material as well floating around. So back in Syds on the weekend, I started one of the 70s dresses (you're always hoping all the pieces of the pattern are in the envelope, I never check as I love the pictures, but when it gets to the sewing I get a bit nervous about all the pieces!) using one of the check tableclothes, check it out:



And there was JUST enough material (apart from the contrast bands) to make the dress. What do you think?






It's a thick cotton tablecloth, and I used the edge of the tablecloth as the hem, so you don't need to run a hemline, just use the existing hem!

It's strange because so far all my 100 Outfits have been FOR someone, and I was so itching to try the pattern and the tablecloth that I just started sewing. It's a little big for me, so I reckon it's a size 10! So I've been thinking of adding dresses to my etsy site for ages, and we got a great new camera, so I reckon this will have to be my first dress online! I'll see if cute Mr V can get a photo shoot together for me on the weekend!

Has anyone sold dresses online, any tips? Is it better having a model wear the dress (ie me) or Diana the bustlady (modelled here), I've seen both on etsy, and not sure!

I just cut the card to this Marmadaisy Tutorial Scrap Bin, I'm making it 8 inches by 6 inches tall (so a nice shallow fabric bin, only because the 'Only Roses' Box was that tall!!! Ha ha ha!) and think I'll send it down to my friend as a pressie!