Touring Outfit #2: Keen as Mustard, Me

Guess what I've been up to? I'll give you a hint... LOLZ.

Yep, it's COMEDY FESTIVAL time here in Melbs and by gosh I love comedy. For you international sassy peeps, it's a big festival for comedy and it's the biggest in Australia to date, and we all love funny people in this town. I love Josie Long and Frank Woodley as they're the funny peeps I've seen so far in the festival, but I'm off to see Tom Green tonight. WEIRD.

Here's what I'm wearing today, MUSTARD:

THE STATS

Fabric: Thrifted Mustard Stretch Knit
Pattern: Veronica Darling 2010 with help from Built By Wendy's Sew U: Stretch.
Notions: Vintage thread.
Time to complete: 20 mins
First worn: Today at work.
Wear again? Yep! It's great and everyone says I look unreal!
Total Cost: $2 AUS

My knees look funny! I'm very busy with work, and am still at work now and it's freaking 3.30pm and I started very early. GOSH, better get some sleep in now til Tom Green tonight... yes that is the guy who was married to Drew Barrymore, but hey? Who wasn't! LOLZ see what I did there? LOLZIE.

Oh dear, I hope I can survive the laughter! Take care and hope you're doing well midweek! xoxo

Touring Outfit #1

Yep, on the road darlings. Workwise, it's pretty busy but I'm really trying to get a lot of stuff sorted either tomorrow or Wednesday and then hopefully it'll be less busy and more fun. I had a glitch today that I *just* fixed right this second. So I'm EXTREMELY happy after being incredibly worried and on edge a bit!

Here's a photo of me, on Friday night before my work colleagues and I went on a dusty adventure! I did some large pin curls after a swim and they worked out kinda 80s afterwards.

Spots n Stretch Dress: Veronica Darling

Hairband, orange refashioned pillowslips, that were originally refashioned curtains.: Veronica Darling

So! I've got 2 weeks in Melbs, and a plethora of peeps to meet up with for work and for fun times... so hopefully I'll drop you a few lines here and there now I'm in the hotel for a while!

Calm Cookie and Cool Cucumber

I thought I'd finished sewing for the week, as I'm due to pack today, and generally get my shizz together and not be frantic. But I made 2 new dresses and a baby dress this afternoon, so I have NO idea where the inspiration and speediness came from. I'll show you the dresses later on, probably in my Work Holiday Posts next week, but ...

... GOSH. How cute:

This is for a new baby friend of mine, who'll I get to meet for the first time in Melbs, when I'm there next week. Yay! I cut out the material when I made the previous baby girl dress, but I didn't do the same neckline (the other one had a button). I know that perhaps ribbons and bows aren't so good for babies, but maybe if they're supervised it's ok right?

I won this material in a fabric giveaway on MYSPACE, that's how long ago I've had it. LOL, and I'll have a think because I can't remember the company, but it was American. It's probably just quilt material, but it's so soft and such a darling print.

Anyways, I better make our dinner (fried rice) now and pack the rest of my stuff. We're also going to a wedding down in Melbs too at the end of my trip, and considering Melbsie can be hot and cold I'll pack a few options. So I'm very excited about the next too weeks, but trying to be calm and cool and hoping hoping and hoping I haven't forgotten anything. EEP

Advance 4875 - TICK

You didn't even know I was making this right? Neither did I, and I almost didn't think I had time to finish it this week, before I go on work travels, but it was so quick!

I started on Monday afternoon and finished on Tuesday (yesterday) but it took only about 2 hours all up, and is EXTREMELY easy! Yay! So, to bring you up to speed (in case you're just joining me for the first time LOLZ) I'm very lucky as I've got (on loan) a handful of vintage patterns (40s, 50s and 60s mostly) from Amanda in Adelaide. She's ace and is getting married this year and keeps securing excellent patterns because she's got a keen op shopping and bargaining eye. She would turn her hand at the sewing part herself, except she's too busy saving lives in her day job and she's got her wedding to plan, so she's loaned them to your darling author here to try out for her instead. WOO!

I call this challenge "Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge", and I even made that button (to the right here) to symbolise that in a positive and inspiring way. (Hee hee, how grandiose!)

This pattern is Advance 4875, and I've had a bit of a look around online for some info on the pattern itself, as it doesn't say how old it is. Looking at this collection though, it could be in the 40s. This website is also very thorough about the Advance brand, and according to them the 40s decade finished with 5300 numbers, so this one could be 1948? 

And the back:

I love a side zipper! I just gotta get better at those flap zips, and my flap always seems to stick out a bit! But overall, I LOVE this dress. It looks kinda 50s on my figure (a lot of those 40s girls are stick thin!) and very pretty. I didn't change anything in the pattern, only made the hem shorter, like I do for my height, so it's my measurements EXACTLY. Amazing! It does say Size 14, so I don't know if that means I'm a size 14 in 1940s or if it's teenaged Miss Size 14. Nevertheless, I love it! I also have enough material left over to make a skirt, so you'll see the fabric again soon.

THE STATS
Fabric: Double bedsheet, from a Queensland op shop (bought last Christmas), oh and the facing is also white lawn thrifted too.
Pattern: Advance 4875, on loan from Amanda in Adelaide, and I found the exact same one on ebay if you're interested, but runs out soon.
Notions: Vintage zip x2, the first one I put in, as soon as I closed it the whole zipper handle thing came off. I had to unstitch it and put in another one.
Time to complete: 2 hours
Year: late 1940s
First worn: Just today for the photos
Wear again? Yep, for work travels, it's going in the suitcase when I pack tomorrow. Yay!
Total Cost:  $3 AUS

I have a few Holiday Posts in mind (and probably will take a few outfit posts for you!), but if you have any questions or topics for me, please comment away or send me an email: veronicadarling@gmail.com 

Thanks for dropping by! xoxo

Bad Promo Queen

oh HAI!

Hope your Monday is nice! We've just entertained on a Monday evening, SOCIAL! I didn't have to google 'finger food easy' tonight. I just made potato pizza (with rosemary and mozzarella/feta) for us and chatted away into the night, and before I go to bed, I remembered that I run an esty store.

Stretchy Floral Vintage Skirt: by Veronica Darling

I had sold a dress a little while back, and sent it off, and just checked the store today. ALL THE ITEMS HAD EXPIRED. EEP, I'm a bad store keeper! So I just renewed 2 items, and the skirt above being one of them. CUTE (if you like cute things of course).

So I can't recall if I've promo-ed my etsy store recently, but if you're a newcomer: Hai, I'm Veronica Darling, I make stuff and I'm a bad promo queen, in that I make the stuff, put it in the etsy store and forget about it. I also work a terribly busy day job (that's nothing to do with sewing) that I'll tell you about one day. In summary, my life is: Phew!

I'm working all this week, but then I'll be away for almost 3 weeks with work. How should I document this time away, I wonder? I thought I could take a photo of my outfit each day, as most of it will be made by me. Then I thought I could make something 'on the road' as you can take knitting needles on planes now, right? I wonder what kind of travel diary I should do. I AM OPENING THE FLOOR. You can think of me like Tony Jones from Q & A. Would you like to suggest topics and I'll write up 3 weeks worth of drivel (exciting Veronica Darling drivel darlings)? Leave a comment below, or email me direct veronicadarling@gmail.com

Bebe Pantaloons

Sorry to be all 'posting crazy' round here, after no posting for a while. I'm having a great creative spurt and by gosh I have to remember it (for next time I'm stacks busy and too tired to even click the tv remote, I need to spend time time in the sewing room).

I went to a baby shower yesterday, but took only a dress for the Mum to Be... as these little beauties were an afterthought (as the first thought turned out not so neat... and presents should be neat)... and I only just finished them today.

And the back has ruffles. CUTE. The top pair are the original pattern size, and the bottom one smaller as I had adjusted it for the scraps I had left. (I had made a skirt a few years ago, gone to the Op Shop Gods now, from the single bed sheet) And dear oh dear, whoever was making patterns for babies is a little way off. The top pair (when stretched out) could almost fit my petite smallsized woman hips. WTF?

Just in case you were missing the Macbook photos, I quickly took this one of McCalls's 5338 to show you the tiny bubba...

TINY! The 'newborn' size the size of a grown (albeit short one) woman's hips? Lucky I adjusted the second ones. I might be crazy (dur!) but babies are little right? I know they wear nappies and these bebe pantaloons will cover their nappies, but I don't want them to fall off. Nevertheless, they are tres cute and as Mum to Be loves vintage I think these ace prints will look great when the bubba comes (maybe she'll be wearing them til she's 6!).

Oh! And still doing Pincurl Saturday at my house, as my hair gets a bit longer I'm practically a movie star! (Of my own movies, in my dreams, of course)

xoxo

Vogue 5900: Tick!

Yay! Finally a photo of something I completed, and it's not a Macbook photo!

I had to "repair disk" or "reset my permissions" or something, as that's why no photos would load to my computer, and I did that last night (and even remembered to reboot the computer - Oh My!) and this morning I loaded the photos easy peasy. iphoto AND image capture weren't recognising my cameras, the old one and the new one, so thank GOODness for the old google. So, apols for my lack of posting, but I can't just keep on posting old nostalgic photos of myself (Although thank you for your nice comments about my darling wedding attire), and I don't really like using the Macbook photos as a substitute!

Anyways, to recap, I have a newly formed pen friend called Amanda, who's from Adelaide, and she's loaned me a collection of patterns from her vintage and op shopping experiences and everytime I sew one up, I'll lend you a little insight into the pattern and how the dress came about.

Yay! Fun knowledge!

This is Vogue 5900, a darling baby doll type dress that could generally be an awesome dress for summer fun, or could be a preggers style house dress (like the blue one up the top) I wanted a bit of material (like the white one) around the skirt, but wanted the pocket and the short sleeves:

That's Joan Winters modelling this floral number on my sunny porch! Just when I was hoping it'll get cooler, it gets heaps hotter again. SYDNEY you are a funny town! So whilst I can get the photos from camera, doesn't mean that I'm very good at taking photos. It's hard when it's so sunny!

And here are the buttons down the back:

I used my old "Veronica Darling" bias binding for the sleeves and neck holes, and instead of folding in, I think I folded wrong sides together, and overlocked right sides together and ironed out flat. EASY. There's a bit of a progress report in this old post, as this Vintage Pattern Challenge is fabulous, but has hit at a very busy time for work. Luckily enough, I haven't set an end date, so I'm not after a quick and crazy deadline. Phew!

Overall this pattern is REALLY easy, and apart from the time it takes to put the buttonholes in and sew the buttons on (long in my books, compared to a zipper), it's really quick. I didn't face it, opting for the bias binding instead, as I didn't want the floral to show through, and I actually don't think I had enough material. It's very roomy, and a nice light option for maternity wear. The pocket is there too, and handy for a forgetful Mum-to-be.

THE STATS - borrowed again from Mena at The Sew Weekly:
Fabric: Floral lawn from Spotlight in my hometown of Sale, Victoria. Very cheap, maybe $2 a metre?
Pattern: Vogue 5900, on loan from Amanda in Adelaide
Notions: Vintage buttons & thread handed down to my stash from my friend's granny's stash.
Time to complete: Over 4 weeks, perhaps 4 hours, though. EEP too long on one garment in my books
Year: late 1960s?
First worn: Nup, maybe for my pregs friend if the colour isn't too bold
Wear again? Nup, not for me.
Total Cost:  $4 AUS

"Finger Food Easy"

The title of my post is the last google search I did.

You know how in Firefox your little search box up in the right hand corner looks at you sometimes, saying "This is the last search you ever did, and whilst you may be goodlooking, you're very very boring"...

Yep, I may be boring, but I have been busy. Obviously making finger food, that was easy. We did have some finger food last night, on a SCHOOL NIGHT, with some darling friends. And I have been very busy, doing The Big Picture type stuff, and day to day work stuff. Here I have to remind you again that I get up at 4.15am for work, and just these past couple of weeks it seems I'm not really able to do much in the afternoons. I get zonked and sometimes sleep and wake up in time for dinner at 5pm, and then just go to bed again.

The weather is cooling off though, so that is helping. I really need to get to yoga a few times to help wake up.

But as I'm just writing now, and have nothing to show you sewing-wise, here's another wedding photo of Husbie and I circa 2007 and laughing a LOT.

I think I look like a little bunny here, really young! Funny! Too young to get married!

Hope you're all doing well, I haven't had much chance to visit you, so will just pop by this afternoon! (Via your blog of course, I have not the energy for normal stalking)

xoxo

Mad Shopper not the Mad Hatter

I've been quietly doing a bit of shopping online. And it's paid off, sort of. I do say quietly because Husbie was away last weekend, so I mucked by myself a LOT. Through choice, I did need some total down time, but I didn't do much apart from shop online. Oh! And play video games online. But hey, I do that all the time.

I got some lipstick and some vintage shoes:

Yay! I also got all my shoes fixed up at the cobbler man this week, so feel like my shoe collection has double! I was a bit naughty as I got these darling 80s vintage shoes, and some other red ones, recently but didn't take away from my existing collection of shoes. I like only to have shoes I wear all the time on my shoe rack, and totally hate old shoes hanging around and just looking nice. I like to make use of them, and will totally pay to get them repaired rather than handing them onto the op shop broken.

My parents are coming up from Victoria to stay today, so I've been a mad lady all this week at work and preparing for their arrival, but have totally forgotten to wash any sheets. I know it's terrible but I'm off to buy some now, and put them on the spare bed without washing them first. EEP bad bad bad!

Oh well! Talk soon, I hope! It's too long between drinks!

xoxo

UNDERWEARZ

 

 "Hey Doggie Darling, I totally forgot that by the power of MacBook, I can totes take a phots of my newly made undies for my blogger friends to see!"

"Woof"

"Ta dahhhhhhhhhhhhh"

 

Undies! 

 

So, the grey material was Husbie's tshirt (one of those promo ones for Little Creatures - for some reason we had a couple of them, they were kinda the wrong fit for him), and the red elastic is from the Remnants Warehouse (and so is the little lopsided bow!), so it's no 100 per cent refashed, but totally close enough. I remembered the little pocket (thanks to you if you reminded me this) on the inside, you can see the overlocked white bit at the back there.

They were modeled on another pair of older undies that I cut up before they fell apart, and I think next time I'm going to sew all the elastic on first, then sew up the sides, as it was a bit tricky sewing it on after.

Now. Questions for you, experienced seamstresses: I've never really sewn on elastic before! For this one I folded the elastic over the grey material, and zig zagged it together, stretching it out a bit as I went along. But it was kinda tricky, and I had to re-sew over the bits that the material slipped out of, and it's kinda puckered a bit. They're totally fine to wear though, but next time I wanna get it perfect. I thought I had to stretch out the elastic and the knit so that it fits well, but perhaps I just stretch out the elastic? Or do I not stretch any of it out, and it fits well, and it's all about the stretching over the body and then sitting flat. Am I making any sense whatsoever? Probably not! I'm hopeless at explaining!

Anyways, better go, I'm watching the Oscars! And gotta keep looking at these dresses! I love that they screen it almost live here in Australia now, it's the perfect time for me to watch it!

How's your weekend going?

Hey there,

I'd love to be showing you some of my darling things today, but I can't get the computer to talk to the camera (or vice versa!) so my news about sewing UNDERPANTS will have to wait til another day! Very exciting, and very dorky, but they are quite promising. I've also finished up a maternity dress, and am now thinking about a million other things that I want to be doing, but am instead sitting on the couch playing computer games and just thinking about things.

Husbie's off working on The Big Picture, and I'm here in an extremely messy house, trying to get motivated but find that I'm way too reflective to do ANYthing. I did read all the newspapers though. That's a start. I learned that I still don't like Mia Freedman and I don't know how to get onto a board, let alone be a female CEO, so that's kinda part of my pondering. According to the newspapers, there's a serious lack of high ranking women in Australia's workforce, which makes me want to be one (always a challenge, right?), but that's what I've been thinking about too... my own Big Picture, and my career stuffs. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'll have to think about it some more.

Anyways! I might go and look at my messy sewing room now, and think more about life and women, and other great philosophical things, but on a whim, here's my besties and I on my wedding day:

One bestie taking the phots, and one bestie helping me out. Cuteness. I've only just started putting our wedding phots in a spot on my computer here, and a lot of them I've not really looked at, so it's kinda fun to see all these funny moments. We've been married for 3 years, and take SO many photos everywhere, I have forgotten about our wedding ones. You're probably aware by now, but I'm not really much of a girly dreamy princess when it comes to weddings and such. I was never one to think about my wedding day, or plan it out, when I was little. So of course, for me, 'The Best Day Of My Life' tag that people put on weddings doesn't really work for me. 'Cause I'm so reflective at the moment, I feel there are so many best days of my life, and I'm so lucky that most of my friends and family are hilarious and that most days are big productions of fun.

Anyways, hope you're enjoying your weekend, and hope your long weekend was still fun darling Melbournians in spite of the rain! Golly!

A sneak peak of a documentary

Late last year, I got an email from a filmmaker called Nav, as she was doing some film stuff about the urban landscape artwork of KNITTING. I've posted a couple of times here about my laneways in Sydders, and I've done a bit of knitting myself through my backstreets. All street sign poles, and all stripey socks that look excellent on said poles. I watch tv, and I knit them and then I sew them up guerilla style.

Being online a LOT helped me discover these gorgeous outdoor things (I follow link after link after link after link - it's a hypertext dream I'm on), but I didn't try my own one until I read grrl+dog's blog, as she whips up socks and sockettes in my neighbourhood here in Sydney and perhaps knowing (and seeing for myself) someone else was doing it, helped me knit them up too.

So, back to darling filmmaker Nav, she came and visited me one afternoon and we chatted and you can watch it here (as a sneaky peaky look):



So that's what I look like, outside of photos. That's the first video of me ON THIS BLOG. ARGH! I feel a bit weird showing you cause this is what I am in real life and I'm so happy with how it looks and Nav's excellent, but I've gone a bit shy!

Anyways, if you'd like to see more, please visit Nav's blog and subscribe to her youtube channel especially if you also knit up your streets in your part of the world! She's on a big travel film adventure soon, and has plans on talking to more people I'd imagine. Denise from grrl+dog is also on Nav's youtube channel, so check that out too!

I'll just go hide away for a few hours, and creep by shyly to see what you think! Eep!

Just one little Doggie Party Update ... Promise!

 

  

  

 

1. I made some of those carrot peanut butter dog cakes for Doggie Darling. Wearing an Op Shop number and pin curls (of course!)
2. Someone is REALLY happy it's her party
3. And someone really loves her toy
4. Did Mummy really make her a tutu for her party?

Yes. Yes, I became one of 'Those Dog People' for one day only (or maybe today too, she is lying right on top of me as I type this, my laptop is on my knees, her head is on my left arm and my right arm is over her trying to reach the keys. OH&S much?) and it was so fun. It actually turned out really hot, so these photos (Thanks to Husbie again) totally have the 'look' right! I don't have an iphone (a work blackberry is always in my hand) but Husbie has one and he got this app called the Hipstomatic or something and boy george it's unreal!

I've just got a little button sewing and a little redo of an elastic bit and I'll have some cool things to show you soon! Woo!

Stash Busting Extravaganza-thon-fest

Yep, there's been a lot of talk about stashes lately, around the darling blogs that I read regularly! I only started realising I was getting a bit of a stash when I moved into my new house 18 months ago, as my front bedroom turned into not only my sewing room but my STASH HQ! My darling friend also gifted me most of her Grandmother's stash as well, after she passed away, so most of my notions and buttons are now from long long ago, but have been kept safe by Granny.

As my own Granny passed away over 3 years ago now, I always associate my sewing with her, or that older generation of women. My friend's granny was a very clever seamstress and hoarder, as her lace collection is so well kept and it seems anything and everything was set aside so that it could be used. My Granny perhaps wasn't so keen on sewing, but she absolutely adored everything I made, and pointed out things I could do better. I can't really remember but I think Granny did destash some things to me when I started sewing (and these things were very minimal mind you) so taking a pin from the cushion ALWAYS reminds me of her. I like sewing everyday, and everyday I think of Granny.

Anyways, I wanted to post about using up these things! Stash bustin' as darling Zoe has coined it, and as I get itchy for challenges and itchy for webstuff I made this button:

This button matches my site, but please go and visit 'So Zo' and sign up if you're keen to be thrifty, use what you already have on the shelves and bust some of that stash!

Through So Zo, I've also found some new (to me anyways!) bloggers, and Color Kitten is trying to get rid of the stash as is Camelia Crinoline! Cute blogs guys! Camelia is also posting at the Sew Retro site, and totally can whip up a very mean and darling vintage frock!

My challenge with Stash Bustin' has kinda started (I did buy some crazy orange fabric at the Remnants Warehouse when I dropped by for Underwear Elastic - more on those later!) as I've been doing Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge using my stash stuff (especially all those pink ones - err yuk for me, but oooh darling for you maybe!) and I 'accidentally' went to the Op Shop around the corner last week just to see what was happening (and there was a few things happening, I can tell you what!). BUT, from now until The Big Picture (more on that later too) starts I will not buy any new material... and totally totally totally totally the hardest bit ... is not buying any Op Shop fabric. ARGH! I'll not go to the shops at all now! ARGH! This is pretty hard for me, as I NEVER go shopping, like I don't even browse the women's stores at all (I get inspiration from online or vintage patterns!) ... but I do go to the Op Shops... just to 'see what's happening'...


Yep...

No more 'seeing what's happening'...

Just heaps of this:

 

  

 

Phew phew phew phew phew. Stash bustin' is UNREAL SO FAR. (Hope you can't read the sarcasm there)

Sorry to be cagey about The Big Picture, but it involves things, life, people, places, Doggie Darling, etc. It involves most of our going on's in life, and I can't really start talking about it yet. But I will.

Now after that little rant and relief, I've got to buy the groceries!