I Made A Yee Haa! Skirt

Yup - I dragged that ole pattern out of the packet and ran up yet another swishy skirt, this time in the ever popular wonderful Cowgirl Fabric.


I had a thang for TV Western heroes many years back, my Final Degree Show in Fine Art/Textiles was cowboy themed. I had made and screen printed a panelled calico skirt with cowboys, added conchos and a leather appliqued waistband that said 'Howdy'. Alas I doubt if any pictures of this exist in my dusty shoe boxes.. I may look.
In the meantime, here is a vintage picture of yours truly - taken 23 years ago - the vintage look, everlasting it seems - along with stylish knitwear.



The blue dress was an original taffeta effort bought in a 2nd hand store - it was like wearing rolls of wallpaper. This dress used to get quite 'whiffy' after I'd been dancing about in it. And as a student, I naturally didn't have a dry cleaning budget.
You had to drag that cardy off me to wash it - I loved it so much - another charity shop find and in the early 80's these kind of vintage items cost mere pennies.

I now find myself in a strange parallel universe where my daughter is shopping in thrift stores for genuine vintage 80's items... nostalgia will eat itself...

I Made A Sundae Curtain

Having mentioned in the previous post that my kitchen is a good place to be, I had to do a little maintenance recently.
There is a hidey hole where the potatoes and soft drinks are chucked after the weekly shop. I felt it needed something a little more Chi Chi.


Comme ca...



Neat eh? Michael Miller 'Ice Cream Shoppe' fabric bought from here.
Compliments the chili lights and Coke border nicely.

I Made A Kitsch Pinny

I'm always keeping my eye out for kitchen inspired retro fabric. My kitchen is one of my fave places to be .. even more so now I've invested in a Magimix and a Nigella. It's a good place to dance too - small it maybe, but I have been known to practice a stroll whilst the Apple Kuchen is baking.

My sisters up North posted me a little bundle of goodies a while back - picnic fabric, Bar-B-Q fabric a few meters of red pom pom trimming, which I've saved for another project. The fat Ric Rac came in a swap bundle.
This is what I made.


Unfortunately it disturbs my daughter who doesn't like to see ants crawling up my front whilst I'm baking.



Behold the Apple Kuchen made whilst strolling to 'Long Tall Girl' by the Carnations.


Yum!

I Made A Patchwork Holdall

Now I do have a 'thing' for bags. I have never found the perfect bag - this is due in part to the well known fact that there is indeed a bag out there for every occasion. I have yet to find a 'one bag fits all' bag.
My one problem with hand crafted bags is making them strong enough. This bag has an interfaced gusset which adds stability and makes the bag nice and roomy.
I downloaded the pattern from the Burda fashion site having secretly fallen in love with many Amy Butler bags - this pattern was a freebie, Amy Butler costs.
The fabric is from the stash. Naturally.
Handles from here.

I Made A Woolly Neckerchief

Behold the last of my Winter crafting before Spring springs.
This is my fab little Western Neckerchief. I bought the pattern from Loop - very easy to follow and knitted up in red cotton, it didn't take long at all.
The brooch was an old eBay win - I had been looking for stylized Sheriff badge but this fitted the bill.
The little scarf if great with a thin knit cardy and jeans, fits snuggly under any coat, not bulky at all. Y'all.

I Made A Frock For Xmas

I was determined to make something from the wonderful stash Roman and Eva gave me (see previous). My sister and I ploughed through all the patterns, she borrowed a couple but I couldn't decide which would be an relativley painless make, my sewing skills not quite Vintage Vogue. Sis suggested this little number. I agreed.



The pattern was quite easy although I did have to go to town on my dress form - the sizes on the pattern sleeve, although almost matching my own, somehow got lost in the translation. I pinned the dress to the form and cut away a lot of excess - I probably could have gone even more 'svelte' but I did want room for turkey and xmas pud.


The pattern tells me that the bottom frill is made from cutting 3 pieces. I did this and it wouldn't fit around the hem, however 4 pieces fit perfectly - I wondered if this was a mistake. The vintage pattern was a lot less directive than contemporary patterns I've used, as if certain skills were assumed and you could sort of' get the gist'.


I don't have a huge pointy bust, which I think would be an asset with this little number, so I dug out my most Madonna-like underwear - still the front gaped a little. Then I came across the instructions for sewing in two lengths of elastic under the armholes that reach round the back and fasten like a bra - strap. What the?
I did as instructed and lo! the gaping vanished and the neckline lay flat. The only disadvantage being you need another pair of hands to get you into the dress and fasten the elastic..


I was still handsewing bits and pieces on Xmas morning but the dress was so comfy I really wanted step out in it. We had our Xmas meal at a Hotel overlooking London Bridge - Judy Garland and Bing Crosby were singing Xmas songs as we sat down to dine, the food was divine and I felt a million dollars.. !

I Made A Christmas Cake

Yummy Yum Yum! Happy Holidays everyone!

I Made A trip To Chelsea

I went to Frock Me! for a second time.
This is such a wonderful antiques fare for all you Vintage Clothes lovers! The prices are reasonable, the stock is varied and good quality - the venue is fab, with tea and cakes served to the strains of a wind up gramaphone... bliss.

There was even a Swing Night with live band the day I went, but I couldn't justify hanging around Chelsea all day and night, so sadly I didn't bring my dancing shoes this time around. Next time - definitely!

But I did come away with this darling little number! 40's wool jacket, just what I have been looking for and a great fit. All I need now is some white ice skating boots and a muff..
I'm going to put shoulder pads in everything and cinch my waist - it's such a lovely feeling, class!





The frocks were nice enough - but the brooches, jewels and buttons were fabby.
Look what I found - cute eh?



And these to add to another jacket I got from the 'High St' the other week.


And finally, the sunglasses I'm wearing in these pics were in fact my mothers, genuine retro item.

I Made Another Swishy skirt

Oh this pattern is soooo good.
The plaid fabric was very cheap from my local haberdashers, I've enough to make a matching jacket - hmm, bit too Malcolm McLaren?
Like the new wedgy shoes? I can only wear them to occasions where I get a lift and then stand still for the duration - because actually walking in them is a killer.

Fanfare Please!

Behold - the ruffled cardy that has taken me the best part of a year to complete.
To be fair, I only knit on rare occasions - I cannot multi task in the knitting department, I cannot for example watch telly, read a book and knit at the same time like my mother used to, so anything knitted is going to take an age.

The ruffles are wrong wrong. The ruffles look very nice, but they knitted up wrong in some parts giving me a bobbled moss stitch ruffle instead of a smooth st st ruffle. Can you tell? No. Well, there you go! But I probably wouldn't wear it to my knitting group..

I Made A Scarf

Almost a knitted halterneck bra really! - Knitting in chunky wool really speeds the process up doesn't it?
The green cardy has been fully cast off! *FANFARE* and I'm sewing it together (slowly) this week. Started on a nice red cravat in soft cotton yarn, just as well the weather is turning..

More Things To Make And Do

Phew. I've finally sorted through my new vintage pattern stash. There are quite a few patterns that I feel I could handle making up and would actually wear. I'll post these on the blog soon. Quite a few ballgowns and structurally incredibly complex outfits amidst the easier ones too.
These patterns are well loved, I'm sure Roman's mother must have been the best dressed woman in town - did she have a lot of functions to attend I wonder or did she wear that Vogue petal scalloped ball gown to go down the shops?

I did find a lovely little pattern for a bed jacket - I've always wanted a bed jacket, this may be my first make as Autumn is definitely in the air. Of course my youngest found a pattern she fell in love with. We've recently watched Hairspary (original and remake both) and she so wants a 50's frock with a petticoat. I'm going to be busy .. which brings me to this little lot...



The cowgirl fabric has always been a favourite (got a pair of oven gloves in the same stuff) - I had a fixation on all things cowboy when I was studying textiles at college, just can't seem to shake it off! I'll make another swishy skirt in this to wear to rock 'n' roll shin digs around Christmas. I've seen the Jive Aces two years running at New Year - great foot stomping stuff!



The Fan Fabric is divine and it'll be a dress to wear with some great 40's shoes (Garbo by Red or Dead my current fave) and a fluffy Bolero.



My knitting is coming along. Remember back in the days, I started knitting a green cardy with miles of ruffles? Well, I'll happily be casting off the last ruffle this weekend! Ye - Ha! Watch this space.
Knitting takes practice and I've been hob nobbing with (comparatively) expert knitters recently who produce the most beautiful things. In a fit of knitterly excitement I joined a knit - a - long to make this. Unfortunately, I haven't had the balls (ha ha) to start yet. I simply can't decide what type of yarn to get. Woolshops are few and far between around here. I did buy this though in order to run up a little scarf in the meantime.



It's very soft and chunky - shouldn't take long to make and hopefully, if it's any good, my knitting confidence will grow and grow along with the scarf...

Thank You Roman and Eva

When people know you like vintage stuff, you can find all sorts of goodies winging their way to you. Look what the wonderful Eva deposited in my front room last night!


Roman and Eva's Mum had a haberdashers/dress shop in days gone by and judging from the box of patterns that ended up in my grateful arms, she was an avid dress maker too.




The Perivale Sewing Silks storage box still contained some bobbins and had been turned over to the storage of buttons.. my youngest has already swiped the best for her button collection.



Christmas came early for me with all these wonderful dress patterns! I only wish my sewing skills could do some of them justice. There are a lot of size 16's which translates to a size 12/14 nowadays if the measurements are anything to go by. Many of the envelopes are torn and it's by no means certain that the patterns are complete. But what the hey!
Just look at the pictures! Retro Heaven!




Thank you family Stefanski.