Shellac!

The lovely Louise commented on my nails the other day... and if you haven't seen her blog, you should! She's a total darling, and posts some amazing vintage collections and not enough photos of herself (she's a cutie)... but the NAILS.

I've had shellac twice, once at the start of the year in Sydney - a gorgeous red and this round of orange red was from the beauty salon in Sparta Place in Brunswick... it's my fave area of Brunswick because when I was on holidays I visited my hairdressers (Corrin's - a babe), then visited OK OK, my fave shop and then I went to the beauty salon to get the shellac... she had 4 reds to choose and I went for this orange red....

I am NO expert on shellac, how it's done or what it does. I've heard the UV light is damaging (it helps it set) but both times I've stuck my nails into the thing, it's not been for long and my nails have been fine afterwards.

But, as a pregnant babe... everything is growing really fast... so whilst the shellac lasts well for 2 weeks my nails already started growing out compared to at the start of the year the shellac lasted perfect for 3 weeks (with only a little bit of growth) ... anyways!

NAIL POLISH REVIEW. OMG, I don't even have a search tag to match this post... I'll chose friends because Louise is a bloggie friend.. oh and there's a review tag I've used before... I'll use that too. There's no way I've got mental space to make this a beauty blog! BUT, if you are keen on beauty products and info (especially in Melbourne) on beauty stuff, Esme & the Laneway is gorgeous and Lady Melbourne pops up with several beauty reviews as well...

Thanks again for all your lovely comments, I'm loving blogging at the moment... now I just need a little motivation to sew some baby and pregz fash stuff! I'm fast running out of clothing AGAIN that fits me and the bump... we'll see how I get around it.

xoxo

Comedy Central!

YAY, so finally, I've got a minute to share all my comedy tips from the Melbourne INTERNATIONAL Comedy Festival. Note the international part, as Melbs peeps PRIDE themselves as being the Montreal or Edinburgh aspect of the Southern Hemisphere comedy world.

So, without further stalling, my fave: Tig Notaro, Ladies & Gentlemen!

 

Then, a local boy Sam Simmons:

Hee hee, 'local boy' (He's my friend!) And then whilst I've seen him several years in a row, I still adore Russell Kane:

And... who else? (I've seen shitloads of stand up comedy these past two weeks...) Umm, let's finish with Paul Foot (UK) and Jason Byrne (Ireland), Claudia O'Doherty and Zoe Coombs Marr (a bit of Aussie women there for you!), but here's local boy Tom Ballard (also my friend! LOLZ! I have funny friends!):

My Sew Weekly post is earlier in the week (I think it'll be up by this time tomorrow) and it's all about an outfit inspired by a childhood outfit! I'm a little bit proud of my outcome this week (No low scoop necklines in site!) so can't wait to show you!

See you at the Comedy Show OR in blogland soon! xoxo

Weigel's 1941 - TICK!

Hooray!

Great news just in, I've completed my first vintage pattern as part of my "Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge"! Yippee. If you've only just stopped by now, I have a pen pal in Adelaide (called Amanda!) who has shared with me several delicious vintage patterns recently. And as I'm a keen seamstress, but always in dire need of a motivator, I've decided to make and review these lovely patterns, and hence "Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge"!

So, here you have Weigel's 1941, and if you love the history behind patterns, Amanda found this awesome note about Johanna Weigel. She lived in Richmond in Melbs and started the pattern making business in 1877. CUTE. And YIKES.

The pattern is Bust 34, and I'm around that usually, but this is much bigger, say 2 inches. (You may see me holding it in above) But the main thing for me, the shoulders and the waist are just too big too. I didn't alter anything else from the pattern piece (apart from cutting a foot - at least - from the hem), so overall it's not really my size, but I have a feeling a few girlfriends from work would be EXACT fit.

There are a few gathers around the shoulder/armhole/under the collar, and I'm not sure if that's just me being a bit too little in the shoulder to hold it up, or if it's because I missed interfacing the bottom collared bits. I forgot about them til it was too late, and maybe the collar doesn't really sit properly on my wee little shoulders.

 

I told you about my skirt mishap the other day, but overall it hasn't affected the style of the dress. I did add an extra row of buttons above the waist line, since I wasn't going to do the belt, and I think it looks really cute!

I love the scoopy sailor-esque collar!

Everything is made from thrifted materials, the pink cotton/sheeny stuff is opshopped, and the buttons and zipper (on the side) are both thrifted too. Even the pinky thread I was given from my friend's granny. So all second hand and totally one of a kind dress. I used up all the material, so there wasn't even enough for the belt.

I really love the pattern, it was SO easy to follow (apart from me being silly and misreading the amount of fabric for the skirt) and is a really pretty dress.

What did I learn? I need to remember interfacing in collars and not rush them, as they can kinda look a little homemade if not attached properly or carefully ironed etc. And yay! Again for my Husbie's flash, so I can post today!

Snip snip

I opened up Amanda's Weigel 1949 vintage pattern, and discovered all pieces perfectly there. Neatly folded, and perhaps never used, as there were no pin marks anywhere. But perhaps used with special care whilst cutting.

Lately I've stuffed all my vintage buttons into various bottles from the kitchen, they're as colour coded as can be (or as much as I had time for last year, 'beige or yellow?' same diff for now!) and make for very useful weights.

My Built By Wendy Books (Sew U and Sew You Stretch) talked about using cans of tomatos or cans of chickpeas for weighing down your pattern pieces, and I thought since I'm using vintage patterns for the great "Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge" (they're Amanda's) I'll not risk using pins as I go about cutting the pattern pieces out. These pieces were already cut, as I think was the trend back then, so just needed a bit of flattening overnight on the ironing board and today I used my button bottles to weigh down the bits for easy and preserving snip snip snips.

The only change I made so far was to cut the hem of the skirts (3 skirt pieces in total) to 19 inches from the waistline. I'm sure I've told you many times that I am a short arse petite size so this skirt would sit right around my ankles in it's current size. Because I used the weights instead of pins, I couldn't really judge my material, but luckily it turned out perfect because I'd shortened the skirt the right amount. I do wear my skirts a little shorter than most anyways, so I think will look cute (hopefully) a bit shorter round the bottom because of the formal collaring around the top.

Oh, and one of the collar pieces (there's 2 of the same piece required) I had to cut differently (ie, using the opposite grain) because I ran out of material on the fold as well, but luckily there was enough bits left over ... I want to say 'upstairs' because I was putting the leftover fabric on the table, and then cut the skirt pieces out on the floor.

Ha ha!

More soon!

Faux Svelteness

Oh darlings, some women share their secrets with me and recently I've heard the word 'spanx' so many times, that I do thoroughly believe that the next time a lady utters it I shall spanx the word right off her lips.

But we do like to be svelte. And I'm making a lot of great svelte dresses that perhaps need a bit of structure at times. I've often looked at my daggy undies and thought they should be tighter but not THAT tight and I detest the g-string and don't want to go nudie underneath. I don't mind a bit of visible panty action on a bottom, but perhaps I need a little tummy tucking at the same time.

So, I've found some things (that may not all be available here in Australia but online nonetheless) that help you in the svelte department...

Here's the original Spanx, the one I like anyways,

Then this is the Flexees slip thing, without straps (I think they're removable) and I really like the shape of this bust line:

And this one is not really a dress or a skirt, kinda a high waisty thing, I think it's a TC Wonderful thing:

And that's kinda my fave at the moment, since I don't really wear strap less, but need more hugging on all my loving bits.

But if you'd like to browse a proper review (rather than just my blah blah blahs) The Chic Fashionista has put together a what's what kinda thing with loads of pictures.

Our internerd has been down again, so I feel a bit out of the loop with things! I've had to put the sewing on hold as a guest from Melbs arrives for a night, but I'm practically on holidays now, so Yippee! It's such a gorgeous day here in Sydney, so hoping the weather remains lush to spend the weekend with Husbie and Doggie Darling! Cute!

If only the internet had smellovision* like in the 1960s

Not sure about you, but some days I could just become a hypertext machine! I love clicking on link after link after page after page (do we still call links links and pages pages?) and I tend to go from blog to online mag to fash house to photo gallery in a neverending story of my life and reading habits. Sometimes I like to open endless tabs in my browser and keep them open for days and days, much to my darling computer (and Husbie!)'s despair and worry.

But, I thought I'd start writing about my adventures instead of keeping those tabs open 'just in case' I need to look at them for the 36th day in a row, and I'll be able to document them here and talk a bit about why I like them etc. A review if you will. A storytelling adventure if you please.

 So I happen to fall upon Eco Salon a great collection of great things to read about and look at (nice ideas about holidays there today... ie. what NOT to buy just because it's Christmas)...

And then I found via an etsy conversation with Amy that I'd won a giveway they'd hosted, for DS and Durga Perfume! Shock! I'd quite forgotten that I'd even left a comment, cause I was probably just gushing over the site anyways and randomly dropping this gush in little comment boxes like Easter Eggs.

I chose the 'cedar' kind from their collection II, but there's so many lovely descriptions of the perfumes and their website is really cute to boot!

Yay for giveaways, what a great present just in time for Christmas! I feel so lucky!

Anyways, I've dropped into work today for a little pack up time and sorting out stuff for next year! It's great working 9 to 5. Weird but great!




* too lazy to google to find out if this was actually realised. Perhaps they did it in cinemas? Pump out smells during different scenes?

My Review on the Etsy Dust Blog

I've written a review that's been published on the Etsy Dust Blog!

It's about Kim Grant's Mosaics!


I volunteered to write a review, and they signed me up with Kim, and it was really lovely getting an insight into a professional craftser's work and mind. Yay to you Kim! Etsy Dust stands for Down Under Street Team, so it's for people who have esty stores who live in Australia, and whilst I'm not totally profesh with my store, I thought I'd have a bit of time to write a review!

My aim this week is to take photos of the stuff I'm making and get them online faster, as in try and get them online to this blog each day. Often I wait til the weekend, but then I get busy making stuff again, and I wanna try and blog as much as possible to keep the site busy here! And then I'd like to get some more stuff on my etsy site, as people are looking but there's not a lot of new stuff there.

Thanks to you all for your nice words on my refashioned hot dress, I still haven't worn it out as have been staying home most nights and pottering around. We're buying a house at the moment, and it's hard work finding the right one! We've been bidding here and there, but don't want to spend too much!