Outfit #62 is perfect for the Northern Hemisphere!

As you know, if you check in here regularly, I'm aiming for 100 Outfits all made by me. I started last year, and have comfortably crept into the 60s, with this gorgeous floral dress. It's perfect for spring and summer time peeps!





It's very "swingy" along the sleeves and along the hem line. It's a little like this one but heaps more normal.

I just realised that I've made over 30 outfits since I got my new brother machine, and a bunch more since I got my overlocker. It certainly makes you motivated when you've got good tools!

This dress is on my etsy site now, and pretty cute if you're around a size 12!

My MIL arrives in a few minnies, so I better rush off... here's something that I'll start when she leaves and when I get back from working interstate. Some sort of wiggle dress with these materials:



And I tried a bib, it looks ok, just tricky working with different materials, as I've got a soft under bit, and the silk bias binding is a bit slippery. I've been meaning to try baby things for AGES, and this is pretty easy since it only takes up about a foot of fabric...



I'll post from time to time, but happy rest of May if I don't! I *may* be attempting this kinda thing while I'm away!

Booky News: Short stories in America

GAH! I tried to blog this yesterday, because I have HEAPS to blog about, but my computer, the internerd or the blogger machine is not working to my schedule!

Book time! This is my 8/50 book, and 'Birds of America' by Lorrie Moore.



It's a collection of short stories, I found them via a David Sedaris site (whom I LOVE - go and read everything of his right this second), and bored one day I ebay searched his top tips... Lorrie's book was the only one currently listed on ebay. So I got it!

I've got so much on the go so better rush off. Mother in Law flies in tonight, and the house is yukky due to little puppy. I have 2 dresses to finish this arvo too, as our spare room is also the sewing room. Wish I had the big bucks and had a 3 bedroom house. Sigh. Phew.

Bye!

Finders Keepers - an Excursion by Veronica Darling

Hello Sunday! It's bright and autumney sunny for us here in my neighbourhood, so we're up early (well Husbie is the up and at 'em type as he's already at the gym - I'm sitting here with Doggie Darling and drinking tea after a hard 10 minutes of play time with the dog toy!) and thought I'd report in on the Finders Keepers markets!

It was GREAT! But I actually felt that whilst Carriage Works is THE best place in Sydney for markets (I'm a huge fan of the farmer's market on early Saturdays - yuppie, but not too yuppie is what I say) the layout and the grouping of stalls made it difficult to browse comfortably. All the jewelry was grouped together, the clothing and then art stuff, so I felt (especially for the jewelry) that I couldn't appreciate the products... I felt like "more bangles, more earrings, more rings, more earrings" instead of "nice clothes, nice bangles, nice handbags, nice photos, nice earrings".

There's my BUT bit out of the way, so when I could actually concentrate on the gorgeous things, this is what I liked:

By far, the stand out (not just cause I know her) was Ginny & Jude, for holding fort on the vintage and beautifully handcrafted (and LONG hours of handcrafting) headpieces, brooches, and darling little delicate collars belts, and other accessories. Luckily (I thought) Ginny & Jude was at a T-intersection at the market, so easy to spot in my books. (I am also VERY short, so sometimes market shopping doesn't suit me) Anyways, you have to check out Ginny & Jude's blog and here's a photo I took from their etsy store:



Yay! My other gorgeous friend bought a black and white feather headpiece, yay! Ginny & Jude asked me where my stall was at Finders Keepers (so did a lot of people) but I have about 5 things in stock. Yesterday really did make me thing about how to get a "collection" together. One other thing that got me yesterday was that the clothing was all new, uber cool or zexy and mostly available in stores around King Street (so you can get it anytime)... only a couple of vintage skirts, or unique things.

But from the clothes bits I LOVED:

Donna Sgro's watery collection!



inSync Design's bangles!



I loved how light these were, I'll have to put them on the wish list!

And Sunday Morning Designs:


My friend bought these pillow cases in red, just GORGEOUS and organic and sustainable where possible, so big thumbs up in my book.

Anyways, if you went hope you had fun!

Note to Amy from Badskirt, I saw you, but there were 10 people lining up to buy and talk with you, so well done! Hope you had an awesome day!

Newly discovered blog with a GIVEAWAY

Just visiting some blogs, and found Grosgrain Fabulous and there's a mad vintage inspired (my fave words) dress! The pictures are gorgeous, so have a look:

Loose Teeth Vintage Inspired Sundress with Petticoat GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

My new fave blog for the ever growing blogroll! Don't you just love how vast the crafty internet is? Also, this blog has links to ModCloth.com too... a great site for clothes, at the moment they've got a 50 items list showing what you can get for under $50!

I'm not much of a clothes shopper (since I made all my clothes) but certainly a BROWSER! And the photographs are just gorgeous on modcloth too!

Today I've got a spare afternoon (and perhaps evening) and I *may* go to Finders Keepers tonight or tomorrow... haven't decided yet! See you there or perhaps on blogland later today!

WWW - Watcha Wearing Wednesday #7

A short and simple one for WWW today:



It's colder here in the morning in Syds now, so I found my ye olde tartan woolie skirt. This skirt was given to me from a bestie a long time ago... and it's become my 'will I still fit into it this winter?' skirt. I'm not one for weight chat, as I feel totally fine with my bod most of the time, but for some reason this is my 'skinny' skirt. It is really high waisted and has a button up the top that you can't really leave undone, as the zipper will zip down and reveal your high waisted stockings underneath. So if the button does up, it's a skinny day. And thus was today.

I worked early of course, I walked the dog, I updated the blog, I facebooked. AND I WATCHED MASTERCHEF and tried not to get involved. I'm deciding not to remember any contestant's names, and that way I can't feel sad if they get kicked off or if they win.

Knitting up my street signs

Yep, the Adventure continues, with my second street sign:






Thanks to Husbie for taking the piccies last night when I was asleep! What a love. As you may know I have to go to bed early because I wake for work so damn early, so I was a bit sad that I couldn't post you pics of my street art but was delighted to see the pics on the computer this morning. What a total darling!

So! It's just a little back from the main road, but suits the graff wall it sits with don't you think? I did the knit in block colours rather than stripes and I think it looks like rugby socks. It's on the same street as the other pole though, so if you've passed by you'll know that Indian takeaway on the corner 'Masala House'. Also, it's entirely rescued wool, leftover wool and second hand wool! Yay!

Love it! I'm already a 2 episodes of West Wing into my next urban knitted art piece, it'll be red stripes (I got some extra from the op shop the other day, so should be enough for red and burgundy stripes. Nice!)

The change in the weather (it's much colder here at nighttime now) has made me yearn for more clothes. But since I'm making stuff for other peeps and myself, I need more time! I wonder if this weekend I can avoid being social... Hmmmm...?

Another knitted street sign pole...

... deets soon (as in piccies soon as I had to do it really quickly tonight)... but it's right here ... see the graff wall? There's a road sign right in front that is now urban outfitted and knitted.


View Larger Map

Yay, and phew, I did it around 5.30pm and no one even saw me (and my collaborator Mr Veronica Darling) so I felt pretty cool. I'll go and take photos tomorrow!

Otherwise, our doggie is doing well, she's been able to hang out with other dogs now that she's almost 12 weeks old. I also sold a dress on etsy (yay!) and keep meaning to get my orders for dresses started... I do have material to start on, so at least I've been shopping!

Hope you guys are all going well!

Booky News: Handling the Dead

Zombies!

I read this guy's other book and had to read his next one! It's pretty awesome, but not sure about the ending... you'll have to read it so we can talk. It's not totally frightening, just exciting to find out what's going to happen as it's pretty bizaro!


It's part of My Library Thing's book challenge... obvs zombie books make me read fast! AND, found out that this guy is also a stand up comedian and an author... interesting considering he write such dark things rather than funny fun times stories...

I'm just finishing this post off at work, as I got a bit busy last night, I made pumpkin soup and dashed to see a weird Seth Rogen film with my pal. WEIRD. That guy is so weird. My friend LOVES him though.

Anyways, I'll leave you with my fave song at the moment (as it's on the radio right now!) they're from Brissie:



It's Yves Klein Blue's "Getting Wise"!! Here's the behind the scenes:

West Winging my knitting

Almost finished my knitting, for another urban artspace thing!



I love it! We're into Season 6 of West Wing now, so hence the mad knitting. CJ just got a promotion, just like me who got a semi promotion and will act in a management position soon. I'm just like CJ. I love her. And I love that I can multitask and watch West Wing and knit at the same time.

We went for a walk before with Doggie Darling, and measured the street pole I had in mind, and I really think it's long enough now! It's a sign post closer to the main road, so it'll be more in 'the open' and it makes me a little nervous about sewing it up... the back lane was easy and it was just my neighbours walking past... the main street has heaps of passerbys. EEP.

Perhaps I'll have to get some guts up early this arvo, AFTER I've done my tax. Yep, the only year I'm late with my tax is the year everyone gets stimulated!

Etsy-ness for today

Doing a little hanging out on etsy today...


And updated my store with another dress, one from AGES ago that I was fiddling around with the photoshop to get right... I decided that I'd ditch mucking about and just leave the background in, as for a while I thought the white background made it focus more on the garment... but it doesn't matter I guess.

Plus our front porch is perfect for photos, it gets some sun, but not too much, and as I said yesterday, when Husbie's home the photos are always brilliant. But thank you, Little Red Hen, I agree, save more time for the sewing than the photoshop mucking.

Can't type too much, my darling Doggie is asleep on my lap. Kisses!

Outfit #61 for etsy!

Just finished this one off before my Husbie got home, so he got to take the shots for etsy! Yay.




Outfit 61! Available on Veronica Darling Etsy, go there now!

I decided that I spend WAY too much time prepping my images for etsy, so I'm going to post these photos and see what they look online. My husbie always takes good pics, and it shows the garment in natural light, so that's always good for etsy.

This dress is a little vintage inspired, as I got a bunch of 60s bridesmaid patterns the other day, yet I've tweaked this somewhat to make it a little more modern and lovely. Yay!

WWW - Watcha Wearing Wednesday #6

For Watcha Wearing Wednesday, I wore my brown autumnal skirt I made on the weekend.



I went to work, a little itsy bitsy hungover (cause I got a payrise yesterday after my work's job assessment, so a very, very small amount of champagne was drunk by me and Husbie - hee hee), but then I had fun at work and ate loads of food (two lunches, dumplings and a salad, cause it was hard to decide) and then came home and played with my baby dog Doggie Darling and then finished a dress for my etsy. Phew and Yay!

(I'm also holding my little sewing scissors cause I had them round my neck before Husbie took the photo - SNIP SNIP)

Overall it is a LOT harder to sew with a puppy, she's absolutely gorgeous (and congrats to new doggie Marley over at Marmalade Kiss) but she's spun out by EVERYthing in my sewing room. And delighted by the iron cord most of all and I just can't have her in there chewing. *sigh* less sewing but more cuddles I guess!

A little gushy over you - #2

Another gushy post about sewing, and this time I've got to give a bit of stalker cred to The Small Stuff! I can't remember if I started stalking her blog, or if she dropped by here but ... CHECK OUT:



That's her banner for her blog, but it's a totally great recap of the awesome things she's made for the Becky Bean etsy store. I LOVE all the bags, and she's a total inspiration for the recycling area of handmade on etsy and in the blogosphere. I voted for something she made the other week, and just love the fabric she's used to make those ace handbags.

ETHICAL SOAPBOX ALERT!

The first thing that attracted to me to sewing my own clothes (apart from my tiny stature not being able to fit ANY shop bought garments) is recycling and reusing fabric that was left behind... for me left behind at vintage stores... ie op shops etc... but I LOVE how The Small Stuff blog is filled with fabrics you never would imagine should hang together!

And whilst I'm still constructing my vintage 60s dress from this fabric, here is my crush post #2.

Booky News: Let the Right One In

OMG!

Just finished this book by John Ajvide Lindqvist yesterday:



And I've already started his next one (about zombies). But Let the Right One In is just GREAT! I saw the film down in Melbs, and heard there was so much more in the novel, and whilst the film is totally amazing and a piece of art in its own way, the book just is unstoppable reading. I haven't really read any scary stories for a while (since I read all the Stephen King's when I was like 12) so this was romantic, beautifully written and behind belief, but believable!

It's 6/50 in my Libary Thing's Book Challenge. I wish I'd said 25 books in a year... but I was wishful thinking, and I guess you never know! I've got til the end of November-ish, so who knows I could speed up if I keep reading John Ajvide Lindqvist's books.

Outfit #60 - Birthday Party Skirt

Gosh, it's been busy. Yesterday was a BFF's birthday party so I made a One Hour Skirt! I've made this one a few times (from my own brain, no pattern), a box striped one and a floral one.

It's a newly acquired fabric from the stash, and new/old buttons from my friend's Granny.





The diff with this skirt though, I didn't use a zipper, I just folded the ends over (where the zipper should be and as there's pleats (or gathers) all around the waistband, it hides the gap. I've told you before I'm REALLY bad at explaining sewing terms and lingo! Anyways, it does the job and I looked great last night for BFF's party!

So! 60/100, not bad! Oh, and with the large thick waistband, it's kinda dirndl and I seem to recall a dirndl How To over at The Closet Seamstress!