Sew Weekly: Embellish This!

Hi dreamers! As usual, I've been up and down and running around town, so here's my Sew Weekly creation this week!

Fortunately, Husbie and I got to take a little warm holiday recently as my brother was married on Magnetic Island, near Townsville (where they live) in Queensland. For the wedding occasion, I wore my Colette Rooibos dress, that I made for the Sew Weekly in March. But for the plane trip up there, I wore my new piping (my chosen area to try for the Embellishment theme) floral wiggle dress.

Time for some acting! Oh, what's that over there?! My Husband telling me to lean MORE over:

That looks natural doesn't it? Then he tells me to go into the water, and say 'Wha' Happened' like from A Mighty Wind.

So he gets a splash for all his direction this week! What a cutie!

Don't my photos look 1960s Vanity Fair? (I kinda think so! Not that I read any magazines to know that, but for some reason I thought that) I only put a small vignette on the photos usually for the Sew Weekly blog post, as I really like showing the true colour of the fabric, and with minimal distraction to the Sew Weekly readers. I admire Mena's blog, and I wanna make a very clear and consistent look for her (I really try not to waffle in my write up too!) website, so I ask Husbie to take the photos and then just put the vignette on.

But you guys are totally fun and I hope you don't mind me oversharing a little more with you, and making my photos have flair! So for these photos, I've given them a cross processed look in Lightroom. I think I've told you about this software before, as my Husbie uses it for his photography and people have said that you do more detailed photo editing with your Photoshop (or Potato Shop as Franca calls it! Cute!) like touch ups and stuff. But you can process photos quicker and easily with Lightroom. As I'm not in anyway a digital photography master, I spend most of my time (a I usually only have 5 minutes for every post!) clicking on a filter in Lightroom to give it a 'look'. I also add the curved corners to my photos in Lightroom.

You can also do the same with Picnik, that online photo editing software for the curved corners AND the filters/cross processed look. It works differently, and it's free, to Lightroom but if you're curious about getting a better 'look' to your photos you can play around with it!

Sew Weekly: Hoody Winked!

Hi from Doggie Darling!

Last week, my Sew Weekly garment was a red toggle/duffle coat! I was away in Queensland for my brother's wedding, so just had enough time to get it posted to Mena's blog so you can (and some of you may have already) read all the details about it over there! Pretty much, it's taken about a month of thinking, planning and slowly cutting and sewing because I wanted to make it look good (and not handmade) and it also had to be warm!

And YIPPEE! It is totally warm! Steamy even (when I wear it inside at the office - dur! The heating's on at work!) - hee hee! I used quilters wadding, that I'd bought ages back at the op shop. It was new, still in it's packaging, and I don't know about you, but when I see stuff at the op shop, and it's haberdashery stuff or anything really in its original packaging, I just have to buy it. I have several 1960s napkin sets because of this impulse buy emotion.. but at least they're $2 instead of a plasma tv impulse buy! LOLZ

 

This winter, Husbie and I are getting into a schedule before work! We have to take Doggie Darling out for walks, and we're going to do fitness or sport in the morning as well! I'd also like to sew or blog as well! So much to fit in, and so many excuses to stay in bed (especially when it's freezing and dark outside)! This morning it was a little rainy, so I wore a waterproof parker over my duffle, and I was warm AND dry!

When I mean 'sport' I mean do the Wii Fit and use the treadmill, but also visit Go Go Dancing or Yoga or Pilates once in a while. We're not huge sporting superstars, of course, but I like to think I'm being sporty even if I take the dog for a walk.

If you're in the same hemisphere, what are you making to keep warm once winter begins?

xoxo

A little ray of sunshine

Happy new week guys! I was relaxing on Saturday (a well earned relaxo day!) in Queensland, and now it's back to ye olde Melbourne Town where things are brisk and I'm heading out the door to another gorgeous week at work. It will be gorgeous, for I shall make it so! Plus, I'll be in Sydney all next week for work, so there will be lots of preparation on the cards here in my office.

I've got heaps to blog about though, but first I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Monday ahead, and thanks so much for sticking around and checking out my darling little (sometimes a bit skinny of stories for you!) blog! As always, I adore reading your comments, or your blog as well, so thank you!

xoxo

Snoodesque Beret for Pin Curls

Once it was a cardi from the Op Shop:

And now it's a floppy beret AKA snood AKA chef's hat for keeping my pin curls warm:

In Melbs' cooler weather, I find it much harder to get those pin curls dried. Usually it takes a morning or a bit of the day (in summertime), but without covering it up it's not dry by the night time (when I'm usually going out of course!).

Annoying! But at least a little refashioning can speed up the process a little. I made this beret up myself, after googling a pattern a while back for the Sew Weekly challenge about hats. It's pretty much the waistband turns into the head band (you can see the ribbed edge), and then the back of the cardigan gets gathered and sewn to the head band. Floppy hat voila!

Vintage Veronica

My Husbie took some hipstermatic photos last week while I modeled (LOLZ) the Sew Weekly challenge dress. I made it with my Mum's fashion in mind, so we really liked the look of making these 'old' photographs:

Serious Model Pose

Eating Toast Pose

Are We Finished Pose

Women's Weekly in the 60s Pose

The 'Not Sure What To Do With My Hands' Pose

The I Know Exactly What To Do With My Hands Pose

The Thanks For Looking At Me Be Ridiculous Pose

LOLZ. xoxo

Shoesday: Cold Snap

Another Tuesday! So! Time for another Shoesday!

Here's a bunch of Shoesday photos featuring my black Melissa's, they're like Mary Janes with a metal heel and flocked outsides. They're comfy for heels and I usually wear them all day to work, like today (the bottom photo is from today at the train station)!

I'm feeling a bit better today, I got a lot of things done since we last chatted, and tomorrow we're flying to Queensland for my brother's wedding. So yay for a little holiday and hang outs with the family. Hopefully, I'm half organised and I've got some posts for you while I'm away (but that's why I'm investigating the ipad blogging ideas, I might just update from Queensland instead) because it's weird not posting regularly!

Take care xo

Messy Mess

After 4 full months of sewing each week, my awesome sewing room has kinda turned bad.

My button jars! They are perfect weights for laying out fabric and vintage patterns! 

What are you doing this weekend? I'm a bit hungover today, with 3 creations on the go in this messy sewing room (which you'll see on the Sew Weekly in the coming weeks!) so I better hop to it! Yay that blogger finally started to work again, I haven't had the chance to find out why we couldn't post, only that it was HELLA annoying and since I was kinda thinking of sussing out other online publishing sites (that work nicely with ipads) after this week I'm over it!

I *may* need a blog revamp sometime soon, perhaps I'm getting over it just cause it's too familiar! I also am over a lot of things at the moment, but could probably say it's lack of a holiday (but one's coming soon), the change of seasons (it's freaking cold) and a whole bunch of stuff. Sorry to be Negatori Amos today! I'll get with the program again after the holiday!

xoxo

Sew Weekly: Vintage Mumma!

Hey good looking! Hope you're well! I WISH I could spend more time with you at the moment!

*cries*

When I tried to post over the last 2-3 days, blogger wasn't loading the 'Create Post' page, and I thought it was my new 'Firefox' browser update and I just had no time to fiddle with it in 'safe' mode and then I got impatient with the computer full stop. Then the dog pulled the plug out so when I found another 10 minutes to write to you (on Tuesday) the computer had died and I was making tea at the same time, and then it all got too hard and annoying.

Miss you though!

So! What we have here is a purple (!) SELF drafted (using Built By Wendy's Sew U Home Stretch as a guide) dress using my darling mum's fashion as a guide. As usual, head along to Mena's Sew Weekly blog, to check out and read all about my darling creation in detail! But I thought I'd show you here some of the close ups from our 'photo shoot' on our staircase!

Top: Fake Melissa shoes. They are unfortunately an impulse (yes, it happens - but only once a year from old thrifty here) buy from ebay. I made a purple dress, I was going to a wedding, the seller said they'd arrive on time, I bought them. UNFORTUNATELY they are fakes. They also take a while to 'warm up', yes they're made of plastic but not very good plastic, so they're very cold and hard to wear first, and then they warm up and get a bit softer to wear. I KNOW! I'm a dickhead to buy them, especially since I'm such a diehard Melissa fan.

Bottom: A cowl neck for winter. I'm going to make MORE cowls I reckon, I love the word, I love saying it. I really don't mind making them either, they're really quick and easier than a neckline overlock/turn/topstitch any day.

I'm starting to get a little over blogger, and a little over online text/photo publishing. Especially on my laptop. I wish I had time to work out how to post from my ipad... have any of you uber chic bloggers figured that out (last time I tried, I couldn't load photos because of the flash thing)? I've noticed (browsing other blogs using my ipad) that wordpress has a fantastic 'swipe me' user-ability thing and all your wordpress blogs look gorgeous!

Anyways I hope you're well and still good looking and see you again soon, I hope! xoxo

And one more thing!

Here's the blossom element in my dress... I added some soft (curtain) tulle underneath (and lined the bodice with some extra lining material from the stash) to make the dress extra special, and kinda like those little Gumnut Babies (when they wore clothes!).

But also, did you know about the Sewing World Gone Mad? Yes it's gone completely mad (LOLZ, if you want Melbourne TV ads over the years, you'd know what I was talking about!) and Kathleen has rounded up a huge crew for FREE PATTERN MONTH! OMG!




I'd get into it if I were you! When I get a minute on the weekend, I'm going to spend HOURS looking through everyone's tutorials! YAY!

Sew Weekly: Story time

Happy Almost Friday! Yep it's been a L-O-N-G week (considering last week was a 3 day working week for us!) and not as much excitement in my office. So that's meant lots of catching up on emails and sorting out the piles and piles of stuff on my desk. *yawn* BUT, here's my Sew Weekly creation for the week, based on a darling book called 'Snugglepot and Cuddlepie'! I used to read it a LOT when I was really little and often extended the little gumnut's adventures into the real world.

I would look for their little handwriting on gumtrees, and imagine what I'd do if they talked to me.
For you Australians, you're probably like 'Oh yeah, those May Gibbs' books about Ragged Blossom and Gumnut Babies and the Bush'... (you got it Carolyn!) and for you non Australians you're probably like, 'WTF are you talking about!?'

Have a look over at my blog post on the Sew Weekly page, and I tried to give it a little bit of context! There's also really cute drawings of these dearheart little characters! Rather than take their costuming literally (as most of the time they were naked! The are bush babies after all!), I thought I'd go with the leaves and the bush vibe and make a straight forward wearable dress (from Amanda's Vintage Pattern!) and it's a truly beautiful pattern!

I forgot to mention over at the sew Weekly, that I omitted the waist sash things. As the two dresses above were block colours, I thought it wouldn't suit patterned fabric, and it was really easy to not have them in, as they are totally fitted when you sew the side seams, and not part of the bodice at all.

This pictured pattern is from the internet, a Junior sizing, but Amanda's pattern is a 36 or 38, so much larger than my bust... I am SUPER impressed with my resizing skills, as it's come up so well! I'm starting to thing I can make my own patterns soon... just gotta get my head around proportions and I think I'm there!

THE STATS
Fabric: Thrifted Bed Sheet, $1; some leftover lining fabric, thrifted $0.10c and some curtain netting, free from my old house
Pattern: Simplicity 4230, free, on loan from Amanda in Adelaide
Year: c. 1960s
Notions: zipper, thrifted $.20c
Time to complete: 4 hours
First worn: to work on Monday, May 2011
Wear again? Totally! I love it!
Total Cost: ~$1.30

Hugging Trees

Hey there, hope you are well this week. I'm really pleased with my Sew Weekly garment this week, I wore it yesterday to work and I *love* it bigtime. Here's a little photo of what inspired my sewing, and if you look over at the Sew Weekly, you'll see that it's Children's Book Week in the States... so our theme is about our fave book from our childhood.

In Australia we celebrate children's book week in August, so we'll all be ready ahead of time! I'm also excited as I've chosen a pattern from Amanda's Vintage Pattern stash, which means I'm getting several goals ticked off this week!

My post goes up tomorrow on Mena's blog, and I'll give the run down on Thursday here.

Talk soon, xo