Why Hullo My Foxy Friend

How are you?! It's been a while, but like I mentioned when I was last here, I'm making things, but just haven't got space in my day to photograph and blog as well. You just do stuff and there's no time to stop and reflect.

Here's a foxy little friend I made for a new little human... she was born in September but for some reason with her I was DETERMINED to make her something by hand, so I finished it early this year, and popped it in the post a few weeks back. Or was it months back? CAN'T REMEMBER!

She's just a lovely little fox, this one!

The fabric is a piece from an all recycled stash from my mother's friend Chris who has oodles of scraps after lots of successful quilt-making. I drew up a pattern on butcher's paper, and then kinda winged it! It worked! It was so nice just pottering around here and there in the sewing room with toymaking... I wanted to get a friendly face, so googled a lot of toys and tried to get a little curious happy expression... what do you think?

Curious!

I'm keen to make more... I've already started a green dinosaur! They're so easy really and a great scrap buster!

Hope you've been having a lovely year so far... I can't believe how quickly time flies! We've just got back from a quick family holiday in Auckland, which was lovely! I might get some photos together soon! My Husbie was also away in Shanghai for work, and we also got to have a wonderful brunch with sewing & blogging bestie Adey and her family. My baby is now a little boy, and we wrapped up breastfeeding recently, so he's extremely independent now! Work has been great, and I've been doing lots of on air projects and events this year already. We're so lucky and lovely right now at this stage in our lives...  and I would hashtag BLESSED but I find it creepy... and saccharine and sappy. LIVIN' is much better.

LIVIN',

Love Veronica Darling xoxo

20/31 Little Singlets for Summer

We are going to a wedding next week, and it'll be HOT! We'll have lots of casual hang out days as well, so I'm quickly making some light cotton things for Baby Darling to wear. 

This cotton stretch knit I bought at the Fabric Store in Sydney in 2009 and made 2 gorgeous dresses for friends then, one friend a darling work colleague and another friend, a darling bloggie friend from Chippendale! The fabric is absolutely gorgeous through, light and cool feeling, so the metre x 30 cm I had leftover was just enough for childrenswear! 

I had intended to topstitch the neck and armhole binding, but I kinda like the floppy look here with the unfinished edge.

I also had just enough to make two:

So Baby Darling's best bestie will get a singlet too! None for Doris Day the Dog though:

I'd love to get more of this light and cool knit stuff! No time for shopping though, when there's so little time for sewing and packing and working and finishing off 2013!

xoxo

19/31 Placemats for Christmas

A simple sewing project, but so darling for the Christmas Table!

We set up an outside table for our Christmas Breakfast, Lunch & Tea (we don't have one set dinner, we make up several (!) small plates of food all day long on Christmas) and I quickly made some new placemats for us to dine with. I've never made them before as we are gifted so many over the years, but a new holiday season needs a few new touches and the other ones were a bit shabby and not in a shabby chic way. LOL.

The fabric I've had for a very long time... so long because I WON a voucher from a fabric shop on Myspace and bought this fabric probably in 2006? I know we lived in Sydney when it arrived. But I just didn't know what to sew with it. I adore the orange flowers, so they will be our placemats now. I made them reversible, but forgot to take a photo of the underside, but they're just small orange circles on a darker orange background.

Here's the DIY tutorial I followed, using thick & stiff interlining I had in the stash, and I was going to topstitch the edges, but instead made the iron super hot and pressed the edges flat enough and neat enough that they don't need topstitching after all.

Love that even my garden grew a few orange tinted roses for us to add to the table.

xoxo

Lost in the move and enjoying the Simple Life

Hey-o! We've been moving house, and here and there I've been saving things to tell you about the big old move and all the ups and downs of my life as a fulltime radio producer, parttime seamstress (c/o Sew Weekly commitments), former mother of a darling dog, fulltime wifey, parttime gush machine and my new role . . .  producer of Husbie's new job. (But, more details of THAT exciting chapter in our life next time!)

When I get time to write to you, I have toooooo much to write about! And what I really wanted to show you today was my Sew Weekly Pin Up photos, as they show so much of my (badly tanned) pins AND our new backyard. But! they're lost in the move. They're not on my computer, my USB stick, or my phone. They *could* be on Husbie's computer (that has sadly needed the Mac Doctor twice in one week) or my work computer. So instead, I'll piece together some things... simple things... I've been enjoying lately... as I start a new life with my Darling Husbie, and in our new house together. (And by simple things, they are just that. Small joys, so don't worry, it's not another sad post :)!)

Our garden has spots for all plants, including a handmedown succulent 'Merle' (at least that's what I've been calling her!) who's now moved into her fourth home in 2 years. Isn't she brave?

Our garden has LEMONS. Or more accurately, a lemon tree! And of course we celebrated this fact with cocktails.

My friend brought his puppies to visit! They are fox terriers, and too tiny! They also get very tired! How sweet they are, and we loved hugging them!

I'm now caring for tomatoes and basil! Oh, I totally forgot that I'm also a parttime gardener gal now! Cannot WAIT for my edible garden to grow!

Little old Diana found her home in the new Sewing Room! I wish it looked this empty and spotless right now! (I have 3 projects thrown all over the place and it's a lot more cramped. Once Sew Weekly finishes I'll work out what bits go where. But I'm very excited about the large storage space. YAY! I'll get a gorgeous carpet photo for you, vintage floral lovers will have a heart attack, as it's very original and 1960s!

The boys and their amazing skillz. Thank you Paul (holding the light for Husbie), you are a dream friend. And we will also welcome your puppies around anytime.

Sew Weekly: Minty Fresh

Yay, I'm back again, with another of my Sew Weekly creations! This week we've been inspired by other Sew Weekly contributors, and since I bought this Oolong Colette Pattern after seeing Adey's version, I wanted to give it a try this week. And I adore it!

All the facts (including why this fabric is now green instead of white! Washing disaster!) are in my Sew Weekly post, but pretty much I love this dress!

It's cut on the bias, which does take up a lot of fabric, so I didn't really have that much stash fabric to choose from. There's no zippers or buttons on this Oolong either, it seriously slides over your head. Everyone who's made an Oolong really does gush about it, or so I've read online, and I'd agree. Gush galore for this pattern!

Ok, so Q & A Friday (which I've stolen from a darling blog friend - but hey, her blog is on hiatus - she will have a book out soon, which I'll gush about another time!) is officially ON. To start, you're more than welcome to leave a Question here, and I'll Answer it for Friday's post! Also, if you wanna be discreet so as to give us all a surprise, you're welcome to mail me veronicadarling@gmail.com as well. I was (after seeing Franca's Friend Friday post) thinking of getting back into longer posts (with less photos of me) and sharing more of HOW my crafty-ness is done instead of just the voila finished product. There's a lot of swearz in the sewing room during the week, and I don't want you to think it's all magical and wonderfulness!

My question to myself: How can you be so smiley in these photos, wearing no jacket, when it's so freaking freezing in Melbourne? LOLZ

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

Sew Weekly: Green for St Patricks Day!

Hey guys! Another Sew Weekly Challenge complete for you! You can see more photos over at the Sew Weekly blog but I wanted to show you some fun ones from Husbie's and my visit to the Limerick Arms Hotel in South Melbourne! The theme this week was Going Green for St Patrick's Day!

I ordered only a pot of Guinness, because there's no way I could have eaten my dinner afterwards! They are really filling beers! I used to LOVE them when I was younger (did I call them midnight gold?) and got quite the beer gut from them when I lived in England!

Luckily no beer gut nowadays! The green fabric was a very small remnant that I got at the Fabric Store in Surry Hills in Sydney and the black fabric is some leftover stuff from another dress a few years ago. As the pattern is two sizes too big, I did heaps of calculations about getting it the right fit... for me it's usually the shoulder to bust and the waist are the parts that need more attention in shortening. So I did an overall resize (with grading the shoulder seams and underarms, but also altering it vertically in the middle of the bodices. I forgot about altering it vertically AND horizontally in the waistband, so that area is a little longer now, but not too shabby.

I love how well it goes with my other bolero from the Valentine's Day themed week!

Now, this is a marvellous pattern, because it's from Amanda's Vintage Pattern Collection! A personal challenge I started last year (before I moved to Melbourne, started a new job and started the Sew Weekly year long challenge) and I'm slowly getting around to using the last of Amanda's patterns! She kindly loaned me some gorgeous ones, and I went through the patterns in my size first, but these ones are so cute but all different sizes. So they do need a bit more time!

I forgot that I used to do a summary on each AVPC after I completed it! So, here are my stats!

THE STATS
Fabric: Green Cotton Sateen-like remnant $10 (from Sydney's The Fabric Store) & Black Light Cotton material, also a remnant ~.20c
Pattern: Butterick 7982 (on loan from Amanda in Adelaide)
Year: c. early 1960s
Notions: Vintage Zipper .10c
Time to complete: 3 hours
First worn: to work last week, March 2011
Wear again? Totally! Got heaps of compliments!
Total Cost: ~$10.30

I think my hair looks like Veronica Lake, what do you reckon? I've styled my dress with my Melissa shoes and my own Shamrock shaped fascinator! I saw Mena's tutorial on making a loveheart one, and will post you a 'How To' when I get some time this week! It's REALLY easy!

xoxo

Weird Shapes but a sweet pinnie

Hello again! No, it's my Husbie's scooter! I don't ride that kinda bikes! Only pushies!

Back in January I made this dress for the Sew Weekly challenge, the Unrequited Love Theme, and at the same time, I followed the bodice pattern and cut out this blue fabric my Mum had given me. The skirt part it basically a large rectangle sewn together, and once I realised I'd made the bodice a little bigger, it didn't need a zip!

As the material is light cotton (I think Mum got it overseas in maybe Vietnam?) I'd made it thinking I'd be able to wear it in the really hot days of the Melbs summer, but then they frankly went away. It's been so cold (although yesterday got hot again) and I've worn tights too many times!

At least I can wear my Melissa Troupe's in summertime! AND, I'm using up more of the blue stash!

Hope you're having a great week! I'll post my Sew Weekly Theme (Seeing Red - for Val Day) tomorrow! We got some GREAT night time photos, so they're pretty cool!

xoxo

Red dress with Red Hearts

A few weeks back I had to do a 'talk' at a conference, it was a fairly relaxed affair but I didn't have anything to wear (of course, a seamstress like myself never has ANYthing to wear), so quickly found some left over red floppy material and made this red dress in an HOUR!

I pretty much copied this pink stripey dress (that I refashioned to fit me) by lying each piece (front top, back top and skirt x2) onto the fabric, cutting an extra inch all around and then making some bias binding for the neck and arm holes. It's totally a large babydoll style, but somehow the way I made it up (oh so professionally) it dips lower at the back, so the front skirt is up over my knees but the back bit hangs around the back of my knees. It has a nice loose casual effect.

And just PERFECT for Bali! These beautiful heart lights are in the front garden of Ku De Ta, a very posh bar/restaurant in Seminyak.

More holiday shots coming to you this week! Apols for all these summer photos to you Northerners, it was 28 to 32 degrees Celsius in Bali, so very humid and hot!

xoxo

Marian Martin 8237: TICK!

Here's the tablecloth dress, all complete!

 

It's a Marian Martin Pattern (here's several others, the drawings are all very curvy and darling):

It didn't say the size anywhere (that I could see) until I cut out all the pattern pieces and noticed a '36' printed on the skirt pattern piece. So you'll see I'm pulling in the dress a little in the photos above as it's sadly not my size!

THE STATS
Fabric: an old tablecloth of light linen/cotton, from the Op Shop, and white wide ribbed lining material, also from the Op Shop
Pattern: Marian Martin 8237 (from Amanda's Collection)
Notions: Vintage thread, vintage cream zipper
Time to complete: 6 hours (handstitching the lining takes ages!)
Year: not sure! Some websites are saying Marian Martin is from the 1950s
First worn: Just for the photos
Wear again? Not my size!
Total Cost:  Maybe $6... as sometimes tablecloths are around $4 (not as cheap as loose fabric) so with the lining fabric and the zipper, around $6 in total.

Another Adelaide Dress!

Yep, after the larger Adelaide Dress 8168 dress I made up the other day for Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge, I had to give it another go.

This time I resized it for my fit, because I really wanted to try this crazy fabric! The 8168 was a 36 bust, but I think it's a bit larger after it's made up, so I resized by:

1. Folding down 2 cms across the bodice pieces, horizontally, to shorten the shoulder to bust line (my shoulders are little!)

2. placing the pattern pieces that needed to be on the fold (in this case the bodice front, bodice back and bodice front waistband) a little over the fold. I decided 1 inch (that means I lose 2 inches in width) would be ok, so I moved the bit you needed to place on the fold a bit over so it hangs over the fold of the fabric.

So all up on the bodice, the top piece of the front (above) lost 2 inches of fabric width ways, and 2 cm lengthways... as for the skirt, the pattern called for 2 long rectangles on the fold as well (it's a side zipper garment - love them!) so I measured from my waistline to where I wanted the skirt to sit on my legs (about mid thigh) and added 5 inches just to be sure... then I cut two rectangles on the fold (almost making 2 squares) because the skirt is gathered anyways, no darts or anything.

The fabric is thrifted, and I've had it for about 2 years (STASH BUSTING!) but I have shitloads of it! I could probably make another 2 dresses with the leftovers! It's heavier cotton, and kinda has a barkcloth feel to it, but as for the pattern, WTF!? I absolutely love it, little trees, a little house, little windows and paddocks (that's the green bits in my mind!).

So anyways, here's the only trouble I found, the back piece! After I sewed up the bodice I tried it on (without the side zip of course, as that was the last thing to do in this pattern, apart from the hem) and it seemed to fit (as it is winter here I was wearing a few layers underneath - dur - lesson learnt, try on things as you want them to fit, ie in this case close to the skin!). I went ahead and made the whole thing up, but then tried it on to show Husbie and he was like 'It needs a belt, or something' and I was like... oh, those darts (that are in the pattern) aren't deep enough!

Instead of unstitching the skirt from the bodice (Please look away now if you hate bad seamstress confessions) I folded another dart and attached it to the existing dart... not sure if that makes sense, but I think it's kinda like doing another dart of the top of a dart... making it kinda two darts next to each other. Ummm... I can't think how else to say it (bad at lingo and good at shortcuts) but see the photo above (the two horizontal lines) because after a bit of ironing, it seems ok! It may be a bit bunchy at the back, but at least I know for next time that when resizing for me, I should just do deeper darts to fit my little back.

And a finishing touch on the Veronica Darling shortcut of using bias tape instead of facings (they just flop around anyways and need hand sewing YUK) is my name tag. YAY!

THE STATS
Fabric: heavy linen/cotton/barkcloth, I have no idea, from the Op Shop
Pattern: Brand unknown, # 8168 (from Amanda's Collection) and from Adelaide's local newspaper
Notions: Vintage thread, vintage bias binding tape, vintage green zipper
Time to complete: 1.5 hours
Year: not sure of exact date! Perhaps you know?
First worn: Just to try the fit, on Saturday and will wear it out for dinner this weekend with woolie tights and maybe a cardie
Wear again? Totally, great fit thanks to resizing!
Total Cost:  Maybe $1.50 with the zipper and fabric. I think the entire fabric was $5 and there's still 3 or 4 metres left!

xoxo