Getting prepared for Ultimate Outfit Send Off

Hey there, well I'm getting ready for my month of marvelous material-hugging, yep, it's time to finish off my 100 Outfit Challenge with a kick off, it's the Ultimate Outfit Send Off (aka Veronica Darling's 24/7 Challenge - thanks Amy!) and I'm sewing a garment a day throughout July... Yay!

Here's a couple I'm getting ready:




A denim and a blue cotton smock, see the cutie little sailor collar on the ironing board? And then attached on the blue dress. JUST DARLING. And good thing I'm getting ready now, because I've just found out a friend from interstate is staying a few nights and then we're getting the insulation done in the attic which means I'll be cramped for a few days with all our junk. ARGH Domestic dilemmas!

We'll see how it all goes. *gulp*

And I'll leave you with some cutie pics of my sewing helper:




Doggie Darling isn't really that good of an assistant actually, she just bit up my 3 1/4 blue knitting needles. But luckily it didn't harm the knitting, and I found some metal back up ones in the stash. Yes, I have a knitting needle stash. Most of them come from all over, but I think Grandma gave me some of hers (as she did with some pins) so now all my stash is Grandma handmedowns as she's not with us anymore, I have a daily reminder (in a good way of course!) of my darling little Granny.

A little gushy over you - #3

I found yesterday a gorgeous tutorial and how to and helper blog, called Cucumbersome! Not only do I love puns and plays on words, but I love how to's when I get into trouble and love gorgeous photos of these how to's AND lovely food photos too!

This is what she's written up about her blog:

"Britt McMaster is addicted to cucumbers. Her and her husband, Ryan, live and work in a tiny apartment in downtown Vancouver, BC. Both Ryan and Britt love to write lists of all their ideas on action sheets, and they have pages and pages. They write especially quickly after they've each had a dry cappuccino or two. Most of those fanciful ideas will stay on paper, but Cucumbersome is Britt's platform to try some out."

Gorgeous! It's a bit early, as I've only just found her blog, but I'm hereby claiming this to be a crush post about Cucumbersome! CUTE CRUSH!

But here's the tutorial that caught my eye, in that we often have old t shirts (or I get given a lot of sample shirts and weird band tshirts and promo shit shirts) that I would love to refashion, and as I'm not a t shirt wearer myself (I wear tight scoopy neck ones, if forced to) I'm often at a loss.

YAY for the Recycled fabric necklace tutorial!

Here are some pics I found on trusty google too:

Britt's necklaces:




Image from this unreal blog, via Urban Outfitters I think!


From the Threadbanger blog! It actually just links back to my crush Britt at Cucumbersome too!

YAY! I've got to get back to the sewing room, as my Darling Pup is asleep and I gotta make the most of it. I'M TURNING INTO ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO THINK THEIR DOGS ARE CHILDREN. Is that bad? *whimper*

Making TWO dresses at once. EEP!

A cute Little Flirty Apron giveaway & some booky news

Happy Sunday morning!

If you like sweet bright colours in the kitchen, have a look at this Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!! over at Grosgrain!

As for the booky news, I've finished John Fowlers' creepy but 'unputdownable' book The Collecter, and am adding it to my library thing now.


I didn't realise until the end that he wrote it in 1965, as it was very yesteryear in the setting, I thought he was just being nostalgic. There are SO many older books and authors I've never heard of nor read, so I really should get my literary gear on! I've just found my old Kurt Vonnegut Jr's 'Player Piano' and remembered that I started it and never finished... so that's on the go for my next book.

I'm going to venture out now in my Husbie's trakkies and oversized offensive hoody to buy some milk for tea. Gotta have tea!

Outfit #66 - A Dainty Frock for a Young Lass

Be warned: LOADS of photos (not too heavy hopefully) as they're all so funny!


And so Outfit #66 is (almost) finished, as you can see the hem is the last bit to sew up, as we had to catch the light! I've ironed and set the length, so just need to overlock and sew it to wear tomorrow (or Monday back at work). It's made from a bedsheet, so light cotton, and I cannot really pick the era of the fabric or print. The pattern is McCalls 3502, as purchased on Thursday in Wagga Wagga (country New South Wales all you overseas folk - and an excellent source of thrift stores!) and the nifty zipper is a thrifted 'Lightning Zipp' from some great era.

Here's the rest of the dress (and the funny photos!)








LOVE IT!

As it's Satdee night (as my Poppy used to say) we're drinking wine, watching tv, and dabbling in a bit of mushroom soup via this How To! I also found this blog that looks AMAZING and shall have to do some mushroom, balsamic and mustard sanga's sometime soon!

Tick, tick, tick!!!

One of my fave expressions at the moment is to exclaim, "TICK!" when something is right, has been completed, or just to be funny. I think it comes from "FAIL" when you have done something wrong, or failed, like your internetz fail etc, so rather than yelling "WIN!" I've been preferring "TICK!"

And thus it works today! Woke up, TICK! Dog Park with Doggie Darling and Dearest Husbie, TICK! Darling coffee shop brunch, TICK! Grocery shop & External Hard Drive buying, TICK! So all the jobs completed successfully with BIG TICKS, so it means I can head back into the sewing room for more sewing! Yippee!


I'm trying the pattern I bought in Wagga, and so far (as Sew Brilliant pointed out) it's dreamy! It's very easy, only a few steps, and the gathering at the front is just gorgeous. I love puffy sleeves and flared puffy skirts, so it's going great. I'm using the above vintage zip, with the material to the right, creamy floral curtains (or perhaps bedspread, can't remember). The yellow floral is my to die for ironing board cover, that's getting well used!

Hope your weekend is fun and full of TICKS! like mine!

A little sprucing up in the sewing room

Well, I've been busy today! Unpacking from our holiday and cleaning clothes (a few times as the washing machine clogged up a few times - YUK - need to get a new one), but thinking a lot about finishing off my 100 Outfit Challenge in a frenzy. I mentioned before that I could do a dress a day (as I've seen blogged in this great blog), so I've pinpointed July as having 31 days (right everyone?) and will make an item of clothing a day. I've set aside 16 patterns that are cinchybubs to make, like an hour here and there, in case I get stuck! And a few extras that I love!


Plus I have a few 1 hour skirts up my sleeve in case I get desperate on a busy work day. Here I started getting a few 'must-makes' together too, as I really would like to make cutie Emy her dress before I start everything else, and a few winter things for peeps too:



Also, I've been tempted by this challenge, to go outside the comfort zone of my usual sewing ways, and use a fabric or colour that wouldn't usually be top of the list! They've listed HOT PINK as the colour, and I've got this pretty hot pink floral bedsheet I could use, but have NO idea what to make it up in yet. I also have a hot pink zipper (second hand one) that I can use too. Ick, but yay for sewing up all my stash! Also, all these 'Dress a Day' things will be from my stash, with recycled materials as always. Zips, threads, buttons et al saved from landfill. If you're keen for a great blog article on sustainable and art projects, check out Oranges and Apples's recent post cause she's spotted something quite interesting!

I now have a sleeping warm puppy on my lap, and I don't want to go back into my sorting and sprucing frenzy! I was on such a roll!

Knitting around the country

We're back from interstate (I spend SO much time down there at the moment!) and as we drove down to Melbs we also had some op shop and time consuming adventures along the way. First I'm ever so proud of my baby knitting! I got an excellent "Knitting in Vogue - Number 3" hard cover instruction book from a nearby op shop the other week, and I thought I'd never gush over knitting as much, but this is totally the best book!


Mainly it's totally my speed because the patterns are from over the 20th century, with an excellent range of style and fashion, and are really clear with several kinds of pictures etc and hilarious toddler photos as well. I've started this one above (from 1951), because even though it shows some detail around the collar that I've never tried before, it was listed as for beginners. And the long drive back to Sydney yesterday was just enough to finish an entire piece, the back piece!




Well, it took until Wagga to finish it, and stopping for lunch, we also found some glorious Wagga op shops and I managed a couple of more patterns for my collection:


So, I'm still on holidays today, and making the most of it! A takeaway coffee, a few online games and now a bit of crafty sorting with an edamame lunch. Delish! Thanks everyone for visiting my blog even with my frequent hiatus', I'm settled now for a few months! Or at least I hope so!

The funniest little dog jacket

I'm knitting like crazy this winter, nothing amazingly difficult, but still pretty funny (and fun of course) and gosh we laughed so much at this:



So I googled for AGES for the right jumper for our dog, as we're travelling down south this week, and it'll be cold for her. PLUS she's a bit shy of the rain and chill, as in she does those gorgeous sad puppy eyes (FOR REAL) and gets out of going outside to the toilet, cause we just wanna cuddle her all the time.

First up I found the above pattern (you may not be able to see it, cause you have to sign up for it - free though) and knitted away. It was a little small, and very thin really. Too cold for Melbourne.

So I then found the Midnight Knitter's pattern, and thought it looked pretty sweet. Her little puppy must be tiny though, cause my version was totally small, and have to add extra "designer" bits to it. I say designer becuse I have no idea what the fuck I'm knitting, but I'm just going to attach it all together and see how it goes. She's absolutely gorgeous, so no matter what "designer" knitwear I pull together I bet she's gorgie. No photo as yet, because I still haven't finished.

I'm also knitting a baby bonnet, and it's WAY cute, so hopefully it works out. AND I'm also knitting a baby jumper. CRAZY! I've never had so many knitting projects on the go, but it's a mix of big needles and little ones so it helps to swap around to avoid cramps. All the patterns are from vintage books, or sweet little 1950s booklets (with the best pics, I'll have to take a photo for you). Gosh my local op shops are handy for craft at the moment.

Anyways, I'm on holidays now for a week, and totally trying to relax. We were going to hit the road today, but I'm going to fly down tomorrow with Husbie & Doggie Darling following tomorrow in the car. My darling bestie's baby turns 1, so I have to make it in time, and 8 hours driving can't guarantee an accurate arrival time. Anyways, I'm tossing up an arvo wine, or cuppa tea, to go with my knitting... I wonder what I'll choose????

Outfit #65 - Winter Shift

And here's another outfit to clock up the numbers, it's a black and white shift style dress, based on yet another vintage pattern:




I think it was a 1960s one, with a round yoke and cutie little sleeves! The material is a woolie kinda check fabric, op shopped, and I still have heaps left over, pretty good considering that I've now made 2 dresses. It's rare to find masses amounts of good fabric I reckon at the op shop. I went out the other day to the Tempe Tip, and traditionally this is a cheap way to furnish your home, stack up your wardrobe etc but lately it's turned into a proper op shop supermarket, it's at LEAST $6 for a bedsheet, and considering I often get a whole set for that price (bed sheet, matching pillow cases etc) at other op shops, BUTTTTTT, it's going to charity right right right?

Cutie little badges!

My friend Nicole just showed me the CUTEST little wooden badge in the world:



She just got sent it in the mail today, and it's a little WOODY ALLEN badge, made by this guy we kinda know called John! You've totally gotta check out his website, it's called Sniffle Co and so lovely!

Gettit? A wooden badge of WOODY Allen? Ha Ha Ha.

Outfit #64 - Madmen fashion inspired!

Ok, so I've got a few posts on the way, but this week we're heading to Melbs for a holiday, and have a bit of things to get done before blogging UNFORTUNATELY!

But here's a vintage inspired dress, a smidge Madman! Here's the pattern I used, but as a lot of the older patterns have smaller waists, I made sure I let the waistline go a bit, but still it's flattering:





On the right gal, it'll be a perfect wiggle dress! It's 64 outta my goal of 100, and I'm thinking to do a dress a day in July to boost the numbers up! My friends have done 'Dry July' before, where they don't drink for a month, and raise funds for a hospital. So perhaps I can come up with a catchy name to go with July's Dress a Day efforts... 'Sew-vember' would be a better month... I'll have to think about it or ask my puntastic friends!

A - Z on my browser

I was just at the Crafty Librarian's blog and thought I'd post my A-Z list too!

As I'm hungover and lazy as all hell today, here's what Jessica wrote:

"So what you have to do is type each letter of the alphabet one by one into the URL line of your browser. This will bring up your most visited site of this letter, or the letter being used within the address. Use the first site that comes up, or the second if you have privacy/security issues. It's like a little outline of your favourite web sites!"

My blog made Jessica's list too! Here's mine (and I share this computer with my Husbie, so bare in mind it might be a bit weird!):

A - ABC News - I work in the media, so that's a nice one. Company Gal.
B - Burdastyle - of course!
C - Craft Queen
D - Domain - Oh yeah, after 18 months of looking for houses to buy Domain would be up there.
E - Etsy
F - Facebook
G - Gmail
H - Hotmail - that's weird, I've not checked my hotmail account in years, perhaps Husbie's checked his...
I - It Will All Be Okay - my bestie's website!
J - Jetstar
K - Staffordshire Bull Terriers - checking up on our doggie's breed!
L - Library Thing - a great bookie site I found via The Crafty Libararian's blog!
M - Miniclip - online games dudes, I'm addicted
N - Nikkishell - I go to her blog and the Wardrobe Refashion site quite a bit!
O - Organic Food Markets
P - Perez Hilton - trashy!
Q - Quality Camera - researching our camera!
R - Real Estate - same as domain.com.au
S - Sydney Morning Herald
T - The Age
U - The Urban Dictionary - such a great site! Love words!
V - Victoria Teachers Credit Union - my etsy and blog were first, so thought I'd jump to the next one
W - Where Is
X - XE - currency!
Y - Your TV
Z - THE CAST OF HOME AND AWAY - WTF???????? Must be Husbie (just asked him and he said he did ages ago - they used to work on the film colouring at his work)

Oh well, I think my A-Z reads like a media savvy researcher... who I am I guess! Funny!

Wrongtown Computer & WWW

Hey!

The 'good' computer broke this week, and my old computer is great for browsing the internerd if you have a spare 5 years, but it doesn't load photos very well.

Here's my WWW day:

Pink jumper cause of FREEZING weather this week.

And my NEW shoes:


They are Melissa shoes, so totally plastic, and Husbie got them for me! I've got the wedgie ones (posted earlier) on order, but he loved these ones as well. Yay!

I'm going out to creative sydney tonight in the FREEZING cold, so hopefully will survive and stay in for sewing adventures all weekend.

More tv than sewing - Hmpf!

Well, the West Wing is getting exciting (as in building to an end - that's for sure) and last night we laughed at our Sunday (Long Weekend) Night of pizza, puppy hugs, and getting drunk watching the West Wing. Haha!

Today I almost finished the yellow wiggle dress (Outfit #64), as you can see, and only have the hem and the inside tacking things to do.


The bow at the front is so sweet.

I also redid the ironing board cover because the old one was giving me the creeps:



Yellow again! I must be in love with it. Both fabrics above are second hand bedsheets, so are totally great cotton for dresses and ironingboard covers (in my books).

I was having a think today, whilst doing the wiggle dress, that I might do 30 dresses in 30 days... to amp up my numbers for the 100 Outfit Challenge, and to get my crafting into gear. A few of you lovely guys have pointed out how far my sewing has come, since I started the challenge, and I think (combined with the better machine) so too. I've got a week off toward the end of June, where I'll be away again, so I may start for July... a dress or outfit for each day in July... seems do-able... but I may have to stick with the easy styles, cause the ones I've been doing lately take AGES!

Also, as I sew in my front room, a friend walking by spotted me adjusting the yellow dress on Diana, and called in... she took home yesterday's dress to try on! So it's almost like I'm a store... the light's on and the shop's open! Ha Ha! AND Chrisy, she said the same thing! Some leggings would look great underneath.

Take care, Veronica Darling

A mini dress for #63

Here's Outfit Number 63, a mini dress based on a vintage 1960s pattern, but shortened (mini's weren't really *that* mini in the olden days) a LOT and made from vintage upholstery material. At least I think it's that kinda material, or curtains perhaps, cause it's woven and lovely and soft.




Thanks to Husbie for the great pics as well. He caught the sunshine! I also made a black and white check dress at the same time, but I've given it to a friend to see if it fits her.

This shall be listed on the old etsy soon enough, but wanted to quickly blog before my marathon Long Weekend West Wing Festival (yay, almost up to series 7, and it's getting close to the end of everything!).

I'm working on a great yellow wiggle dress (so far so good) and just did the sweetest little bow for the neckline before puppy school with Doggie Darling. Feeling a lot better today, but very dry coughy so hopefully it's passing along.

See ya!!!

Brunch (and a bit sicky) on a sunny day

It's the Long Weekend, it's sunny and gorgeous outside, we have the papers, we have a cute dog to walk, and I'm SICK! Nothing serious but just annoying.

Husbie and I made this omelette this morning, adding ginger (for Sickie Me) and leftover tofu (with the mushrooms):


And it's well worth trying! No cream or cheese, so very healthy and fresh (we had coriander in our garden ready to go!) and delish.

We went up the road earlier to shop (have to order the Melissa shoes in my wee size) and ended up buying a heater for the house. Last winter was totally freezing (high ceilings, big glass doors and windows and concrete floors) so we thought we'd get a little small gas heater to take the edge off. I also finished one little knitted critter, and halfway through a yellow wiggle dress, but onto West Wing and more knitting tonight.

Happy Saturday!

Back to Crafty Adventures with my 200th Post

Well, it was a busy time, but I got through it *just* and now have a day off today. Yay! I don't tend to harp on about my day job, but let's just say it was extremely busy but altogether a great time (now that it's over!), so hence my EXTREME lack of blogging and crafting here.

KNITTING UPDATE: When I was in Melbs I went to Borders in the citz and bought "The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch: 35 Unique and Quirky Knitted Creatures":


As I was thinking of learning crocheting, to make little toys for little friends, but discovered I can knit little toys instead! Much easier for me, and whilst I know my knit and purl stitches, I don't know a lot of the terms, (skbo or kbtl - I'm making them up now, I have a puppy on my lap and can't run over to pick up the book) BUT the knitting lingo is explained in the back of the book. The photos are gorgeous, and I'm making a shorter tummied daschund, for my little fairygodson in the UK. I'm making her up in black wool, like my little Doggie Darling! Counting the stitches is the worst part, but you can see the shape straight away and I've finished the body of the toy and up to her little ears (hope to finish tonight during telly time).

WARDROBE REFASHION PLEDGE UPDATE: Whilst on my working trip I also raided a few country op shops for wool, fabrics and patterns. Oh! I just remembered a really cool burgundy disco dress I got too, better stick that in the wash today too! So for my wardrobe refashion pledge, it's still intact, although I bought tonnes of tights and stockings and socks from Melbs. I'm also going to buy a pair of shoes:


But it's my reward for getting my last year's tax return in in time to get stimulated by K Rudd! Shoe Reward! So shoes and tights I can't make just yet, so fine for the WRP (no new clothes, just what you can make etc).

BOOKY NEWS: I finished "Up a Tree in the Park at Night with a Hedgehog" by Paul Robert Smith (Hee hee, Robert Smith) and it was pretty good. I read it only because my all time fave author Douglas Coupland had a quote on the front, so it wasn't brilliant but a fun look at relationships.


GARDEN NEWS: My banana tree is now taller than me, my coriander seeds sprouted with great success as did the snow peas. I have absolutely no idea how to grow snow peas, so have left up the tomato stakes with twine between them, so we'll see.

AND LASTLY A LIST OF WHERE I'M AT WITH SEWING STUFF:

- Art smock dress x2 (at least)
- Trousers for Men x2
- Wiggle Dress x3
- Baby bigs x 1 million (however many I can sew actually, as babes continue to be born)
- Vest for a Man x2
- Skirts for skinny hot friends
- Winter Dresses for me
- Baby jumpsuit for Baby Friend

Phew! Also, I'll promise more blogging! I miss it! I look forward to reading your blogs, I'm off to check you out now and see what's been going on!