Saturday 27 April 2013

In the pink (watering cans)

Hi ho.

So yes, no blogging for a bit. My old friends Anxiety and Stress came to visit for a couple of weeks (leaving Depression behind this time) and put me in a bit of a spin. I've been starting to feel relatively normal over the last couple of days and having a long weekend off work has helped. I've had several blog posts but abandoned them all as I did not have the brain for it.

Yesterday I went to the city to buy a camera at last (only been meaning to do it since Christmas when I asked for funds for said camera as my gift). I forgot to take outfit photos but just picture a lot of leopard print, legs and red lipstick and you get the idea.

So here is my first experiment with my camera. Actually the before photos were taken on my phone. I picked up this dress for a couple of bucks in the opshop recently. Is it 60's or 70's? I just loved the colour and the zip.



The length was a bit ho hum.



And the high collar... oh my, HOT!


It does have a cute print which I didn't see until later. 

 

Watering cans! Of course!
Anyway I took it to the sewing machine, lopped off about a foot and here it is.



Rar. Look how Strong and Womany I am.


I've even been neglecting my toesies... poor naked things.
Get me some glitter STAT.



I think I will probably wear this dress with boots.




Or heels? Maybe not these heels. But I do like these. I picked them up in the same opshop.




Do I like the high collar now? Hmm.... maybe...


Winter is finally making itself known in Melbourne and I have some VERY EXCITING winter sewing projects coming up. See here for more (sort of) information.... specifically, see the last 2 pictures in the post. Hint hint. Guess what I'm making....

Rar.

Wednesday 10 April 2013

Butterick 5895 | Patterns by Gertie

My dream of a pretty, flattering shirt that ties at the waist has been realised.


Gertie has been designing patterns for Butterick and I pounced on this one as soon as I saw it. AND I got it on sale. Double score.




It looked easy, then it looked complicated, and after my first attempt I disovered it actually is quite easy provided one follows ALL the instructions.


I used a very thin, very BRIGHT cotton for my second attempt. I have a whole roll of this red stuff so it's good to practice on. It's really quite blinding and not at all as orangey as it appears.


I didn't have four buttons that were big enough so I use six smaller ones.My only gripe about this blouse is that I placed the button holes too far in. Eh.


Aaaaand here is my first attempt, in fabric left over from the cocktail dress. I left out a very small "clip to circle" step at the neckline and the whole thing went haywire. It's wrinkled because I threw it on the floor when "it" wasn't behaving. I might fix it up before next summer.
 
 

No photo shoot today. I'm just feeling too damn special being a woman and all. Bleh.
 

Monday 1 April 2013

Three (or six) skirts, with purple

Er, so two weeks ago I started making 4 pencil skirts at once, thinking I had the makings of an excellent human production line and would finish the stupid things all in one day.

Here is what I learned.

Making multiple versions of an item is very boring. Especially when they're lined. It's like making eight items but only ending up with four (yes, I actually lined something. On purpose).

So here are 3 of the 4 skirts, the 4th one not having made it past the cutting-out stage.



These are all made from leftovers of other dresses and skirts I've made over the years.  This purple skirt is made from the remains of this dress.




I don't know what I originally bought this for, but I think it was another skirt. Since I don't own anything in this fabric I'm assuming the first skirt was a failure.





The 3rd skirt was to be red tartan. 

Moving right along to the 4th skirt, this fabric is... 70's? 60's? Who can tell me? It's printed, and soft like brushed flannel. 


I couldn't decide if the purple shoes or blue boots suited it better.







I can't get enough of glittery nails lately. It's like having 10 little drag queens dancing on my fingers.




Details: Purple shoes - Modcloth
Blue boots - Naturalizer clearance sale
Rings - cheap retail
Necklace - Christmas gift
Jumper - op-shopped

By the way, I don't like the colour purple or anything.

x