Spending too much time with pink...

I have never never never created things from so much pink stuff. The dusty pink fabric for Weigel's 1941 was fine, it had a sheen to it that was kinda grey.

But here's MORE pink!

Yesterday I sat down with 3 pieces of fabric, yellow, greeny yellow and pink stripes, to measure out what was needed for Butterick 7181 and this must have been the glory days, oh yes indeedie! For the skirt I measured out 100 inches (I prefer using inches because they're a lot meatier and you can always remember the numbers more that 84 cms or whatever) around the waist! Lots of darts and lots of gathering!

So I had to choose PINK again for this dress, as my yellow and greeny yellow checked material had hardly enough material to make half that skirt! The pink stripes is from the Salvo's in Tempe and I remember buying it last year thinking this is the LAST time I'm buying fabric from this place BECAUSE they really run the costs up in the giant warehouse. You know how you can leave with 5 bits of fabric for $10 or so, from a normal op shop? This place you'll buy the same bits and it'll cost $50. I know it's all charity driven etc, but as my sewing is a hobby, and not a profession, I'm not out to spend a lot! I just can't afford to go there!

Anyways, this is kinda linen pink stuff, and kinda soft and a little bit see through.

 

So! Yesterday, before I cut it all out I measured the length I wanted for the skirt, since this was going to take up most of the fabric, I mapped it out (100 inches by 20 inches) and cut that first. Then I looked at the rest of the pattern pieces and saw that the facings were only very thin, and considering my fabric was so light... I decided to line the bodice with spare pinky drill I had in the stash.

Putting together the bodice took AGES because I had to look at it, and then look at it some more. Then I went and played some computer games. Then I came back and looked at it with the sleeves pinned on. I looked at it some more. I pinned the whole thing together and folded it out (the lining of course wasn't as straight forward as I thought, and I had to get the sleeves involved without sewing up the wrong bits!)... and I felt like I could do it! Yippee! The lining has given it a bit of stiffness too, because how the hell does it stay up? The sleeves drop down past the shoulder (I've named this the 'Rochelle, Rochelle' look after Seinfeld) so the bodice needs to be kinda stiff and fitting to stay up!

It looks great hey!??? The buttons are from the stash too, and were rather tricky to put on for some reason. I, of course, forgot the interfacing along the holes so it's a bit flimsy. OH WELL!

And here's the side without the zipper. How much gathering is there??!! 

So, it's a pretty goodlooking dress so far, but I'm totally OVER pink. I don't even know if this is for me now either, as it's pretty syrupy and I don't really tend to wear these kinda colours. 

Hopefully I'll finish this today, before I go to the Laneway Festival. It's changed locations this year, so perhaps it'll be fun. Not sure if 'Rochelle, Rochelle' is up for a music festival yet!

xoxo

Frock 31: Yay for floral for Frocktober

Hey there,

Just updating you that finally "PHEW", I completed my month of making a dress a day for Frocktober. Darlings, you see here I did make a dress for every day of October. But I didn't really have the time to make it *within* the month of October... so here is the 31st dress!

Yay!

I'm trying the new blogger post layout thingie too, so please forgive me if I've got crazy with the image size etc, just testing! Beta darlings beta!

This dress was for the wedding on Saturday, it was ace, a beautiful darling wedding. Great friends and great foods and great wine and really ace conversation with everyone. I loved it. Totally my speed of wedding. I felt really happy to be there!

I woke up with an insy winsy hangover, from 2 other parties as you know, but was determined to wear something new! I've made this a few times before (floral green, a refashion, and another awards night dress) and it's always a bit different. As you know Sydney-siders it was quite hot on Saturday, so I knew I wanted it sleeveless. But I let Husbie choose the fabric, and I would never have picked this to work. He loves orange, so I can see why he liked it, but it was totes see through. It was perfect for the weather, but I had to line it. WHICH my darlings, wasn't that hard! Yay!

LUCKILY during my last trip to the op shop, the dreamboat shop assistant gave me all this white light material for lining as a bonus cause I bought so much other fabric. She said 'You should do lining', and I was like 'Oh Ok'... and totally didn't plan on using it. LUCKY! It's really nice light white with stripes, so feels quite nice on and I didn't get too sweaty-betty.

I put an orange button on just for my Husbie too:

It's my new technique instead of using metal closures on the top of zippies. Usually you can just get away with the zip (and most modern things don't use clasps etc) but I wanna use up all those stash buttons (in the 1000s and 1000s darlings) instead of buy more clasps. Reusing stuff is so much better, especially lost buttons.

Recently I have a few requests from friends for frocks, so I think I might start on a gallon of Christmas style fun party dresses. I love this style, so perhaps I'll tweak this and make some variations on it with some other stash fabric as it was maybe 3 hours to finish off... that's good!

Hope you all had a good weekend too, and thank you for your great comments on my fun bright party dresses from last week! Yay!

xoxo

Shopping for bits and pieces and enjoying the afternoon!

So around my neighbourhood I'd seen posters up about a 30% Off Sale... at the Fabric Store, and as I've never been before, I thought I'd check it out!


Photo from Fabric Store's website!

The lovely peeps who work there are just darling, and so helpful with tips etc. I bought some knits that were on special, and got a remnant for cheap as well, and they were so cute! They admired my outfit, which was made from a bedsheet, so I was pretty embarrassed, but they loved it! I'll totally go back! I might have a think and go back to buy specific fabric rather than get some random cheap things!

And then as I'd gone through my stash of white buttons and realised I'd only had odd numbers (for Emy's smockdress) and not enough for her dress, I tottered down the road to the Button Store, where my friend works!


Photo from the Button Store website!

And yay! I got a couple of weird buckles and the white buttons no worries! It was good to see my darling friend as she's been checking out my blog! Yay! Hi honey! I've actually never bought anything from the Button Store before, because my stash has always been pretty spot on, but do drop in if you're in the neighbourhood! Throughout my limited shopping trips I forget to shop local!

It's a great afternoon, the sunshine has been so yellow and bright because of some random rainclouds, and now I'm heading out the door to the pub as a lovely girlfriend/bestie is visiting from Melbourne. I'm going to catch up with her for tea, and then see her gorgeous bub tomorrow xoxo

Yay!

A flowery skirt for Outfit 41

So here's a pretty little skirt I made a few weeks back, but hadn't finished it off, as I couldn't decide to sell or to wear myself.




I did the button holes with my new machine, and put two different coloured buttons as most of my vintage ones don't have a pair... as they're all odds and ends from ebay and op shops!

How gorgeous and light for summer! I think I will sell it, as I don't often wear light colours, so once I get some more stuff made I'll do another photo shoot and get it on etsy! This dress is entirely vintage as well! And cleverly with NO zipper!

I'm off for cocktails at my friends' new place! They bought a place near ours, so it'll be just a short walk for us. NYE can get pretty busy in our suburb, but we plan to spend it in our lovely courtyard... just Husbie and myself! Yay!

Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for reading my blog and hope all your dreams come true in 2009! 2009.... it's gotta be fine! (I'm yet to work on something more than 'fine'....)

xoxo