24/7 - Day Six - AKA Outfit #72

Yay, another finished dress in my catch up week. I'm aiming for 31 outfits in 31 days of July, you know the drill by now right?

This is a vintage inspired wiggle dress, watch your back Joanie! This is one for the Madmen lovers for sure!




It's a very light, slightly stretchy vintage material. Perhaps cotton blended with something synthetic, but it looks much thicker and heavier in these photos, which I quite like as it still has beautiful structure.

It's 100 per cent vintage Ladies, so if you love your nostalgic style, it's for you! Even all the threads are 'handmedowns' from my friend's granny! Woo! I'm in the middle of another wiggle dress too, and forgot to tailor this one for me, so it's going to be in my etsy store later on. A few people are work were saying I'm running a 'sweat shop' this month, with myself as slave labour, but I'll have to say it's a 'Sweet Shop' with the cutest little sweetie dresses around. LOLZ in the office that's for sure, but I wish sometimes my only job was sewing!

And here's me trying it on (too big!) in the bedroom, what a messy room!



Anyways, better dash, like I said I've got another wiggle dress in darker thicker material, a red skirt I found (but haven't posted in my challenge yet - oops!), and a refashion (a top and some material I'm going to refashion into a dress). Phew x a million.

Yay! Made a sale on etsy!

Hooray! Hard at work (above) in the sewing room, making up Day Five's Outfit - a green skirt, and yay! I made a sale via my etsy store! The parcel (a little pink skirt you may remember) will be off to Canada.

But, speaking of etsy, I'd love to give a big couple of thumbs up to Julien Jaborska! They were featured on etsy's front page a while ago, and I knew my darling husbie would love one:


A belt made from old bicycle tires! YIKES! I love a good old refash, and especially from something that isn't used anymore, like a punctured tire. How wonderful!

Thank you Julien! My husbie loves the belt, it fits perfect and hope your shop does really well! You should totally go and check the belts and his artwork out! However I just went and checked his etsy, and all the belts are on reserve! So you'd better put an order in soon, he may have to collect up a lot more bike tyres!

xoxo Veronica

24/7 - Day Five - AKA Outfit #71

Here's Sunday's Outfit today, but at least I'm heading further into the 70s now and getting closer to 100 Outfits! Yay!

It's another Ra Ra Skirt, but this time with vintage silky material... it does kinda feel like thin raw silk, with a few rough bits here and there. I only had enough for the frills and the skirt bands, so had to use yesterday's cut off's to make the waistband. It's a little bit different to that first skirt because I didn't have enough material for massive frills, but I think it still looks cute:



And some poses:



I'm not sure if I'll sell it or keep it, but it fits me well! So back in the sewing room now, I still need to do 3 outfits to catch up, but hey, I love it so it's fun times and no stress.

I've got dumplings to eat for lunch and then hitting some trousers (checked winter ones for me - I wanna look like Shirley Temple) and then perhaps some baby skirts and shorts for my baby friends!

24/7 - Day Four - AKA Outfit #70

I tried to post this yesterday, but other things popped up (TV - Trueblood, more sewing, eating and interstate travellers) and now I feel I'm really dropping behind the outfits.

Here's 4/31 (aka Outfit 70 in the 100 Outfit Challenge) from my 24/7 Sewing Extravaganza where I make an outfit today... this outfit was planned on Saturday (I promise!) but sort of cut out on Sunday, and even furtherly sewn up on Monday and Tuesday. Eep!

A Ra Ra Skirt! It's nicely highwaisted (28 inched waist - hint hint Sarah!) and has loads of soft ruffles all around with a a little zipper at the back.




It's some 80s fabric I got in Marrickville (bought new) but was on special, but check out my vintage button, care of a darling friend's Granny. She had colour coordinated all the buttons and I have bagfuls all over the place, so stay tuned for darling little vintage things popping up everywhere.

Day Five's skirt has been made too, but cause of the slowness of my (life) internet the pics are stuck on the lappy and not getting to blogger quick enough. I'll post it this arvo hopefully. And Day Six & Seven's outfits are being planned and cut out too, hopefully catching up today. Hopefully hopefully hopefully!

Check out my photoshop!

Making the rules up as I go along

The good thing about setting your own challenge, is that you can set your own rules too.

My weekend was such:

Saturday: Puppy School, Good Food & Wine (I was lost in the piccie below somewhere), and a darling bestie's NYC style apartment for drinks and tea time.


Sunday: Big HANGOVER (it was the wine at the Good Food & Wine Show that kept me constantly tipsy all day long on Saturday) and the joys of a new tv show. Trueblood!



So the good news is that I do actually have 2 outfits, but they're lying around needing a bit of structure and assemblage, so I just have a bit of catching up to do. It is terribly hard to sew with a hangover, so I took my time yesterday, but you'll soon see two little ruffle skirts later today...

24/7 - Day Three - AKA Outfit #69

A refashion for my third day of my The Ultimate Outfit Send Off (perhaps I don't need to recap anymore... right? I'm making an outfit a day in July to finally finish my 100 Outfit Challenge) YAY

It was an extra large pillow case:



Now a little mini skirt!

It was one of those big pillow cases with an extra frill bit, except it wasn't frilled, just extra material for me to use! Lucky! But tricky because one side was striped and the other was a weird pattern that didn't really work as a skirt... anyways, it's kinda cute and my own pattern, so I'll list it on etsy once I get some better piccies... as it's late now and Husbie and I are way too busy to get some proper ones. I'm in the middle of making this quiche and watching So You Think You Can Dance, but about to put True Blood on. Finally! I've been dying to see it for ages, but have been caught up in the West Wing. Phew! What a sad state of affairs in the last few episodes. I cried about 27 times!

Ups and Downs Friday

Love a Friday, but it was full of funtimes and shocking times today. I can't go into detail here but I love my friends and would love to give virtual cuddles to all of them.

But also ups and downs with my outfit. As grrl+dog correctly tipped, I wore yesterday's Outfit #68 with boots and layers and ducked into the laneway for a quick piccie this arvo:



That's why I wanted to make the dress, for the layers. I had the cutest black short skirt that my Doggie Darling ripped (puppy teeth are like razors) so looking to sew replacements. This looks ace. It's UBER tight and hence the ups and downs. I was constantly pulling it down around my bot after it would ride up a little... it's so short. My fellow colleague and darling girl friend said "I never want to hear you utter 'my skirt is too short' from your mouth again".. she's a fan of my pins and me of hers. Gotta love a bit of leg.

I'm heading into the sewing 'studio' now for the quickest skirt ever... a pillowslip refash I reckon!

24/7 - Day Two - AKA Outfit #68

Lock up your sons! This is a real bombshell dress!

I've finally made a stretch knit dress. I *cannot* believe it. Yep, it was easy (as everyone tells me), and yep it hardly took any time. Perhaps an hour, and perhaps five minutes of me jumping up and down with excitement. My trusty overlocker rocked me through it!

So, I found a dress that fit me well, shape, style etc:


And then I found a stash bit of thicker knit fabric. I do buy stretchy material at the op shops, but I'm just reluctant to use the overlocker in case I totally fuck it up. I know the best things about thrifted material is that it's cheap and it doesn't matter if you stuff up, so for my Ultimate Outfit Send Off (Veronica Darling's 24/7 Sewing Challenge*) I do need to take some risks and also to USE my actual stash.

Anyways, I used some nice red knit material, totally 70s feel thrifted stuff, and cut around the black dress above, making it a smidge shorter (due to the lack of fabric) and followed a few instructions from Built By Wendy's fabulous 'Sew U Home Stretch' book for the step by step way to stick it all together, and checking in to google for the best way to do binding to make it look polished (Wendy calls it mock binding) and voila:


Note the binding, I overlocked it on and the STITCHED IN THE DITCH as a topstitch. I am a bit chuffed I'm learning more terminology things, as sewing jargon baffles me most of the time!




As the dress is SO short, I just had to overlock it and leave it:


Ever heard of the expression STOKED?

I'll have to get the guts up to wear it tomorrow and perhaps get a photo of me in it, as it kinda looks shapeless hanging there. But it's totally tight and fitted and snug and quite SEXY, so watch out.

Yay! So it's the second of July and I've made 2 outfits. This sexy knit is a total back up dress (if I'm time poor - like today) so there could be a few more on the way. I know my friend would look totally hot in this, so I'll have to make one for her!

Hope your Thursday is going well, I'm quickly making this now and watching Masterchef in a minute!






* I'm aiming for 100 Outfits, in general, but using the month of July to totally kick up the stock (in my etsy store perhaps) and my wardrobe and to learn new mad skillz.

Goodbye faithful Graff

The backlanes of my town are covered with graffiti, and I love the bright colours and curves on the brick, although sometimes I prefer stencilling that normal big tag graff. But nevertheless, goodbye old graff, we'll miss you!




For you regular readers, you'd have heard my subtle rants about the 4 level apartment block that's in construction behind my house. We tried to battle it out with the council (Husbie even did a speech) but it was approved, and they started construction a while back. Today they're going to knock down this wall because they 'accidently' hit part of it and smashed the brickwork (Very bad, as people walk this laneway all the time) with their stupid 1970s machines (seriously they look so ancient, I hope they all break down).

We've got the insulators in today, as we're taking advantage of the Federal Government's rebate on energy efficient homes, they reckon cause of our house size it may not even cost a thing! I feel like such a clutzy adult when workmen come over, I never know what to say to them and become overly gushy "Help yourself to anything, and give me a yell if you need anything all!" ... I'm creepy 1950s housewife and can't stop it!

24/7 - Day One - AKA Outfit #67

Ok .... um... phew!

I had anticipated a busy couple of days so had pre-planned my first outfit, but I have to aim to have a garment finished by about 5pm cause today after walking the dog, doing a few things around the house and getting tea ready I'm only just blogging now (and I should be asleep now - early starts people!).

So! Here's a smock dress, for a larger person than me. And a taller person than me. So in my mind it looks funny, but I'm sure it's normal to you guys:





It's a darker navy blue stretch cotton (new), and comes up a bit grey purple in my hallway light. I really love the collar and the buttons and the sleeves, so pretty much everything! I re-tailored a smaller pattern, and overall it was pretty tricky, as I'm not a tailor, but I do love what it looks like. Hopefully it fits ok!

Emy - the denim one is next (hopefully tomorrow!), but let me know if you like the look of this one!

WWW - Watcha Wearing Wednesday #9

For Watcha Wearing Wednesday (started by fii, over at dear fii! Who has also been gunning it with little badges and some GORGEOUS things, go there right now and look!)








A woolie winter collection of things, a big pom pom scarf/shawl thing, warm tshirt, wintery coloured skirt, woolie patterned fishnet tights and cowboy boots. Perfect for today in Sydney, it's slightly cool in the shade but warm enough to wear short sleeves. I took the Doggie for a walk and bumped into Denise! I felt like I was talking to a celebrity, as she's my inspiration for my urban knitting!!!