Tuesday, December 30, 2014

2014 Things I sewed and did - A short review

Well, its that time of year again! And all I can say is that I'm pretty happy this year is coming to a close. Its been pretty shitty for most of the part, but there were also some really kick-ass things that happened this year and I sewed some really awesome frocks! 

At the end of last year, I had also made a bunch of sewing resolutions which I promptly broke, not cause I wanted to, but well, life happened. But I did make many splendid dresses and met lots of people through the Spoolettes and Makers Society. I also was featured in lots of magazines and other wonderful blogs. Here is a round up of the things I made this year. (There are more, but I'm yet to post them! 


Good day Sunshine, Shift dress sew along
Saffron, Charlotte, Peggy
Swing dress, Sally, Julie
Olivia, Tangerine, Chrissie

All in all 2014 wasn't too bad. I need to stop kicking myself for not blogging every week, and even though work was super stressful, I have a new job next year and therefore many more things to sew for it and opportunities to experience.

I hope you all enjoy your new years, I'll be down the coast sunning it up and spending hopefully a whole day at the beach! 

Thanks for reading this year and for being totally awesome and wonderful. I hope to see you all in 2015!

Cat xoxoxoxo

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Busy as a bee

Merry Christmas readers! It's been a while since my last post, but I have a really good excuse  I promise! Well multiple excuses actually! I have been hiding out on the other side of the internet not reading my blogroll (500+ unread!) and generally being a busy little bee. 

I have been sewing, working and Christmas party-ing. All those sorts of things that stop me from getting around to doing anything blog related. I have however been reading all of your blogs, so apologies for not commenting where I normally like to do so. 

In other more exciting news, as of February next year I have a new job!

Isn't that exciting!? Its actually a secondment away to a different department at work in a higher role, but this department is a little more casual and they embrace fun and staff culture a little more then my current department. As someone who enjoys the atmosphere and aesthetic of work more then any thing else, I'm really excited at the prospect of working somewhere with a slightly smaller team but more responsibility in a relaxed environment. I really am going to miss my current boss and immediate team as they are so awesome, but this is a great chance for me to get more experience in my career and after the killer year I've had I really needed to be somewhere else away from the emotional drain of where I am now. 

So that means I'll be sewing more casual things! I love this idea so much as I've had to wear smart/business wear for 4 years. I celebrated by buying a cute little Japanese sewing book - Formal and Little black dress. It doesn't sound casual but the cut of most of the patterns is very loose and cute, like most Japanese books, so they could be easily made casual with the right fabric. 

Would you like to see what I've been up to this last month (in between work and getting sloshed?)

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Olivia + Giveaway winner

Hello!!

Well now, I know I said I was going to announce the winner of the Make and Mend Fabulous give-away yesterday, but I got home a little late after attending my friends end of year Design Exhibition and after a happy amount of free wine, I may or may not have been in the mood to eat spaghetti and fall asleep on the couch. And cause, you know, blogging while under the influence can been risky... so yeah... Anyway! Everything looked wonderful and I'm very proud of my friend for completing TAFE with a small child and working as well! Super mum for sure!

So, I'm sure you've heard enough of my antics... The winner of the Make and Mend fabulous book, DVDs and vintage pattern tracing is... PIGEONWISH

Pigeonwish commented that she would "make me and my boyfriend coordinating outfits (in as classy a way possible) Wonderful answer! How many of us would like to make something not just for ourselves but also our partners? 

Congratulations lovely! I'll send you an email soon and thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway!

Now that the formalities are over, lets get on to having a look at the latest addition to the Sewing the 60s family, Olivia!

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Burdastyles 50 Best bloggers Part 2 (and a giveaway!!!)

You may remember this post in which Burdastyle announced a competition to find the 50 best bloggers for sewers and I asked for your help in voting for me... 

Well guess what??

I AM ONE OF THEM! YAY!!!

60s style leaps all over!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

60's Fashion elements - The gritty and glamorous 1930's

Its been over a year since the last "Fashion elements" post. I know! I'm terrible!! But there's a lot to research and now I can finally give you a new design element that I've been enjoying noticing since watching Bonnie and Clyde and reading the "Sixties Fashion" book. 

The 1930s gave the 60s a lot of inspiration in the mid to late 60s, via films and designers who looked to the past for inspiration from the heros and characters that drove folk lore and adorned the screens during the dark depression era. So many films were produced in that period, that one would think there was no depression in LA, but there surely was and the films were often used as an escape from real life for everyday people. The fantasy of those films and outlaws like Bonnie and Clyde remained so ingrained in peoples memories that it was bound to repeat itself at some point. 

The story of Bonnie and Clyde was a perfect segue for the 30s to introduce itself to the 60s. One of things that really drove the popularity of this film in 1967 was the fashions and of course fantastical story line of Bonnie and Clyde. 

So popular was the films fashion that designers such as Yves Saint Laurent Norman Norell both designed collections based of Bonnie's outfits as played by Faye Dunaway

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Vintage pattern party

It's sunday night and I've spent most of the weekend doing chores, so I've not gotten any sewing or fun stuff done. Boo!

However, I did get to enjoy sorting through a bunch of new patterns that I bought from Stratostreak Vintage (Check out the video with her Twiggy collection!)
I have a good chunk of patterns that I need to post onto the Pattern collection page now, hopefully I don't screw up the HTML!

Anyway! Its time for a little Sunday evening/afternoon/morning eye candy!!


I am so loving this set of 70 patterns! So many Biba dreams waiting to be sewn up!


I'm not sure if I'll ever sew up those bottom two, but I think you know you're a collector when you have things just for the sake of having them


I have been after these two Chelsea collared beauties for awhile!


The top pattern very much appeals to my cuter girly side, but that Vogue pattern and its sophisticated chicness is so appealing. I wish wearing a shirt and skirt didn't look so boring on me, but this pattern seems to be promising a whole lot!


The top right pattern has a lovely detail at the neck with a little scarf holder. Such a great idea, especially because my scarves tend to move around a lot. And the pinny on the bottom right is really awesome! Look at that collar and buttons! 


Two more 70s beauties! The one on the right is too small so I'll have to go looking for the right size soon.

Oh so many pretties! And I buy each one with every intention of sewing them up one day too.

Which ones your favourite here? Send me an email if you'd ever like to do a pattern tracing swap!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday lovelies!

Cat xo 

Monday, November 3, 2014

Tangerine or Mandarin

How have you been fabulous people? I do hope life is being kind to you! 

This weekend past was spent attempting to sew in 35 degree heat, followed by a huge storm that blew plenty of fresh air back into the house. I did actually get to finish a dress which I'll show you later.

A few months back I spent the afternoon with the fabulous Leesa from the Makers Society who kindly took some picture of me and my dresses to share on both our blogs. 

I don't often have my photo taken in a non-party/ passport photo situation and in times where I control the countdown timer I'm more relaxed and slightly more natural in my photos. It was a little awkward having the photos taken by another person who I pretty much had just met in real life that day. Hanging out in a public park, with the sun blinding my eyes and receiving direction, but Lessa did an excellent job to suggest which way to look and hold my hand and what not, and we ended up with some lovely photos! 

Seeing myself through someone else's eyes is really different and interesting at the same time. I feel like half the photos my mouth is wide open waiting to catch flies, but really, I was just smiling! haha funny how that happens. 

It was a fabulous day anyway and a dog tried to eat one of the prop cupcakes which was pretty funny

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Barbara Hulanicki - The patron saint of Sewingthe60s

Oh Barbara Hulanicki! How do I love thee!

Barbara Hulanicki of Biba fame.

In a recent interview with The De-brief, Barbara wisely tells readers, that if they want to achieve the 60's look the best way to do so, other then buying it, is to make it yourself!

"The easiest way to do the look yourself then? Make it. 'I think sewing is coming back like mad,' says Hulinicki. 'The high street is doing some simple pieces that actually look very 60's, so you can very carefully unpick the seams and make a new pattern from a finished garment. Then you can make the look your own.'

The right approach to fabric shopping might not be what you'd expect either. 'We used to use a hell of a lot of fabric for furnishing or curtains, which is actually the kind of look Prada’s just done a lot of,' Hulanicki says. If curtains are a step too far, then she suggests that 'fabric shops in the East End of London are fantastic for the brocades'.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Happiness runs in a circular motion

Hello dearest readers!

I've been working away on some little projects lately. Just small ones that are very simple and only require a couple hours work. Would you like to see? 

First off is this paisley buttoned shirt which I made from Simplicity 8399. The fit isn't great which is sad cause this fabric is so amazing! 

The fit is off around the shoulders. Its a bit tight and the buttons didn't meet at the front properly. Size 12 is usually ok for me, but obviously not on this occasion! Its ok to wear with a pinafore or with the top button undone though

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Julie

Hello everyone! I was so ready to show you the photos of this new dress but our internet allowance got gobbled up my the boys new Playstation updates which left us with snail paced internet for a week! Ah but anyway - I now present to you the most recent of my sewn projects - Julie!

Named after Julie Christie for no reason in particular! I just wanted the dear thing to have a name, and because its a darling of a dress! 

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Book review - Sixties Fashion - From 'Less is more' to Youthquake

Last year I found this sturdy tome at Pentimento in Newtown and promised myself I would buy it on my next visit. Well it took another 6 months before I bought it and another few months after that before I read it.
In order to read any book I have to read it during my transit to and from work because home time is spent sewing or some such activity, so I had to carry this around with me each day and pull it out for the two 20 minute train rides. I get a lot of funny looks but there's no other way for me to read it! 

And being that its so big and thick I do have to read it quickly so that I'm only carrying it for a week at max, so there are plenty of post-it notes strewn through out which you'll see in the photos.

Cover art brought to you by Microsoft Word basic package

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Mid Project in the middle of the week

Hello hello! Just a quick post to let you know what I'm currently working away on cause there's been a lot of sewing going on here and therefore not a lot of blogging or answering emails... sorry about that! 

It's a bit hard to get a good balance going on. The more I sew the less I blog/comment but in turn, you get to see more new things more often! 

Anyway... so this is the lil darlin of a pattern I'm working on - specifically view B

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Chrissie

Hey there beautiful people! How have you been?

We've been having some mightily good weather and my garden has gone bananas! Nasturtiums, snapdragons, daisies, jasmine and more to come! Hopefully we can have a night stretch of this weather before the reliable spring rain comes in a few weeks

I also have 3 new dresses to show you! Oh yes 3! Two of them were made a few months ago, but I saved them for this article feature on The Makes Society

I much prefer to collaborate and share with fellow Aussie bloggers and peeps and bring them too the wider world, so any chance to support my fellow countryman I'll jump at the chance! 

I've also been trying to power through my massive pile of books - So far I've read The BIBA experience (which is if course amazing) and I'm currently reading through "Sixties Fashion" which I'll give you a review of when I'm done.

So lets take a look now at this sugary sweet number shall we? 

Chrissie is named after the lovely Chrissie Shrimpton. Sister of Jean Shrimpton, girlfriend of Mick Jagger and Steve Marriot, Chrissie's style tended to be child-like and sweet, much like this smock dress in Butterick 6959 from the 70's

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Cilla!

A recent flood of Cilla Black images on Instagram and Pinterest led me to wonder what the heck is going on with Cilla Black? Was the world rediscovering her or something? 

After a quick check with Mr Google I see that a new TV series has been released in the UK telling the story of Cilla Blacks rise to fame and life in Liverpool. The pictures look so amazing with Sheridan Smith playing Cilla getting about in some amazingly adorable outfits, giving me serious dress envy

I really hope the full series shows here as she was quite popular in the 60s even in Australia. I'll probably have to wait a year, but I'm going to be impatient and dream about her now

I always think of Cilla, along with Sandie Shaw, Petula Clark and Lulu as those lovely pop song birds of the 60s. Singing catchy songs that get stuck in your head or that cheer you up on a bad day like "Anyone who had a heart"

Cilla also has the added bonus of being wonderfully fashionable! The woman has so much flair for colour and pattern, and with that giant ginger bouffant, I think I'm going to need to do something about it one day. Like perhaps replicating this dress below! 


Cute yes? I already have some purple paisley, so I'm half way there!

Lets see what other fashion fantasies Cilla can inspire... 

Monday, September 15, 2014

Good Day Sunshine!

Hello! Guess what? I finally have something new to show you!

Yay!

It's been a little while since I posted a new dress, so thank goodness it's a super happy bright one! Are you excited to see it? 

My mum had the below Simplicity pattern from 1975 and I always remember it from her collection. I didn't take it with me when I moved out of home but a random mini 70's obsession prompted me to go find it on Etsy. 

I didn't even notice in the product description that the straps and facings were missing, so a quick call to mum and now I have both patterns! 

Monday, September 8, 2014

Tutorial: Mum Jeans turned tube skirt

Hellooooo! How are you? How was your weekend?

It's time for a tutorial! Yes yes yes!

You may remember a few weeks ago, I bought these rather attractive "mum" jeans from the opp shop. I had looked for a high-waisted demin skirt on-line but decided I would never find exactly what I liked, so I pinned my hopes on finding some high-waist roomy jeans instead 


Thursday, September 4, 2014

Burdastyles 50 Best Bloggers for Sewing Enthusiasts nomination!

Hey hey! Its finally Spring! 

Well for me and everyone else below the equator... I hope your looking forward to Autumn up there northern hemisphere readers!

The weather in Sydney has actually been pretty rainy and windy, but something exciting has come my way to brighten things up! A nomination for Burdastyles 50 Best Bloggers for Sewing Enthusiasts!





Prizes include patterns, guest blogging spots and more! 

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Busy sewing bee!

Hey there girls (and guys, I know you're there) Hows your week been? 

I'm currently in the middle of a week off work which so fa I've spent largly behind the sewing machine! Yay! 

Along with doing some housey things, yoga and catching up on movies and TV shows that I've had waiting for me to watch for 4 months (I just finished Love Child! omg I need to share that show with you all) I've been somewhat productive! 

Wanna see what I've made so far?

Saturday, August 9, 2014

Success in the form of cardigans and recipe cards

Hello hello! What did you get up to today?

Today was my first opp-shopping trip in awhile and I must say, probably the best ones I've had in years in terms of finding exactly what I wanted. Which if you go opp-shopping you will know that you can't really go in with a list of things to buy - but instead let the shop sell it's items to you whether you thought you needed them or not. 

I actually had decided well before getting out of bed this morning that I would really like to get a lumpy cardigan and perhaps a pair of high-waist "Mum" jeans that I could turn into a skirt.

Well, I managed to get those, plus a few more items which I had looked around the internet and other opp shops for, but never found. 

Let's have a look now!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Sewcial Saturday

Hows your weekend going lovely people? 

Mine's been quite good so far! Yesterday was another opportunity to hang out with the Spoolettes for a little sewcial sewing day. (I'll never get sick of sewing puns!)

We hired out a community hall, popped up some tables and chairs, got ourselves all ready to sew and then... nothing

There was no electricity! 

It was pretty annoying but we found out one power point worked so we daisy chained all the power cords and boards for a few hours until an electrician came to sort everything out. A little bit of an electrical hazzard to bring some excitement to the day!

There was only a few of us at that point, so as more people arrived more machines were whirring away and more heaters to warm up the space.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Listen and Look: Everyone - Van Morrison

Hello to you! 

Have you been enjoying your week? I had a nasty cold the past few weeks but I'm all better now, nothing some time off work and lots of movie watching couldn't fix. 

And of course I've been feeling very happy! Have you been feeling happy? (Don't say happy too many times it looses it meaning... ) 

I've been trying to get out of bed each morning to do yoga, but getting up in the cold at 5am is hard, so I maybe only do it sometimes... but I do go to a proper session two days a week and its really so fun and every time I can reach that little bit further or balance that little bit longer I feel like I've achieved something major and makes me very happy! I still can't get the whole breathing through your nose bit, mine is always blocked for some reason! 

Anyway, so for today's post I thought I could pair up a song that makes me very happy along with some dancing, fun and happy looking 60's people

Press play whenever your ready and have a little dance in your house! 


  

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin', Plannin' and dreamin'...

I know I haven't posted a new project in a long while, and if you read carefully you will notice that I have been having an emotionally shitty year, but now I think I am finally able to turn things and time back into my favour. No more poopy times for me anymore - no way Jose! 


I know this because I feel actually quite excited to sew again and have been carefully squeezing time to do wee little sewing jobs here are there in between regular life stuff. (The ironing pile is even looking less daunting) Sadly, my winter sewing plans (as blogged here) kind of went out the window so I didn't get around to them, and McCall's 8939 is still sitting on the chair half done, but don't worry I won't let them become UFO's!

So what have I been sewing?  

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Choosing, storing and using vintage patterns

Hi everyone! How's your week going? 

I was having a little ponder the other day when shopping for patterns about challenges that new sewers might have when it comes to picking out vintage patterns to work on for the first time.

When I started using original vintage patterns, my main concern was the sizing as well as what pattern would suit me best. 

So hopefully in this post, I can give you some tips about how to choose vintage patterns, how to use them and finally how to store them so they are yours for many more years. 



Sunday, June 29, 2014

Vogue Sewing book 1964

Its time to get a little sophisticated around here! 

You maybe remember earlier this year I showed you some photos from the Simplicity Sewing book of 1969. Well I also happen to own the Vogue sewing book from 1964 - which is completely different to the Simplicity book. 

Everything is way more couture focused and speaks a lot more of Paris and the classic sewing techniques you can learn. Very fancy!

So while one of these books is fun, colourful and the models are all dancing around. This book is beautifully  photographed and includes lots of lovely illustrations, not unlike the kind you might find inside Pierre Balmain's sketch book.

So lets have a look!


Monday, June 23, 2014

Its give-away announcement time!

Well hello! How was your weekend? 

Mine was well spent getting started on a new weaving project, shopping for dreamy vintage dresses at Retrospectrum and learning about Filipino food but not actually getting to eat any!

Isn't this dress fab!? It matches my blog theme!
Photo taken by Dann @ Retrospectrum

But I know you don't want to hear about all that! I know you just want to know who the winner of the give-away is!!!

Friday, June 20, 2014

Miss Catherine's Pattern Mysteries

I do love it when I can pick up any vintage item and see traces of the previous owner, like second hand clothing that has been altered or handbags with small notes left inside the pockets. But my favourite things to find are the tiny notes on sewing patterns from a hopeful seamstress or from a fashion loving daughter to a mother.

When this pattern - Simplicity 5670 arrived the other day, the notes written so many years ago were quite interesting!  

Saturday, June 14, 2014

My Pattern collection and a giveaway!

Hello there lovely people! 

I have two rather exciting things to tell you about!

The first thing is that I have put my organising skills to good use and created a new page listing all of my sewing pattern collection. It was a bit of a pain trying to get blogger to line the pictures up just as I liked them but managed to find some coding tips over here which did the trick.

I really wanted a way to be able to look up my own patterns easily while out shopping and also somewhere for you the reader to see them as well. So I had looked at apps for organising patterns and thought of using flickr as a portal but in the end I decided it might be good to have them all on the blog where it would make sense to have them and then include links to all the projects where I have used them before

Pop over to the page to have a look! There is a button to the right of this page and there is also the link below;


They're all sorted by company name and pattern number so they're easy to find and if you ever need a hand with finding a missing piece, let me know!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Taking Stock - Mid year

Well its almost half way through the year and I think I can safely say that this is going to be a pretty cruddy year. Various little issues in my non-blogging life are making being my normal happy self a little harder to be and I've not spent anywhere near as much time sewing as I'd like. 

I guess I can be upset about my situation for as long as I like, but in reality I'm the only person who can get me out of this funk. So I decided that I will need to start being responsible in taking charge for my life, my productivity at work and how I spend my spare time!

Pip over at Meet me at Mikes regularly likes to 'take stock' so I thought I'd try it out. I've tried to be positive and you can have a try too if you like! It's fun!


Friday, May 30, 2014

Me Made May - Week 3 and 4 and a bit of 5

Well I've taken my sweet time since the last Me Made May post, so here is pretty much what's left of the month! 

(You can see the first and second posts here)

There were more than a few days where I didn't wear me made mainly because I just wanted to get going in the morning and not have to worry about making my dodgier things look normal. 

I also noticed I didn't have enough separates. I have plenty of skirts, but no where near enough tops. I think I have 2 me made tops that I actually want to wear. Hopefully I can rectify that soon as I've recently bought patterns and fabric just for that purpose. 

Also we had some crazy weather this month. Sometimes it was really cold and then, like last week it was Springtime warm! So dressing to match the weather became an art form

So lets have a look then! 

Monday, May 26, 2014

Sally

It's been awhile since I've named my projects - heck its been a while since my last project!

But what's in a name you ask? Well, if you have been watching the latest episodes of Mad Men, you may now see Office manager Joan is now an Account Executive and has sporting a few dresses contrast collar and cuffs - much like my new girl below. But the real fashionista I think of this season so far is Sally. Sure Megan has the most fabulous West Coast wardrobe, but Sally's teenage wardrobe is giving me the biggest envy of all! 

Sally doesn't get enough screen time I reckon, but we are now seeing her form a different relationship with her father and getting into mischief with her friends, rebelling against her mum and her school and sneaking out of class to go shopping - all the sorts of things girls her age may do, but in her case, while wearing the most trendy styles of 1969

So now onto my Sally dress then? 


Sunday, May 25, 2014

Fabric-a-brac 2014

Hello dears! How is your weekend going? 

For me, this weekend was successfully spent splurging my pay on vintage fabric and patterns, eating bagels, listening to ukulele bands and "sewcialising" with Susan from Measure Twice/Cut once and lots of other fabric lovers

The shops, crowd and merchandise was substantially bigger then last year, which was awesome. If you remember I attended last years Fabric-a-brac at Newtown and had quite a bit of luck with my buys - you can see last years post here. I didn't spend as much time in the notions baskets or button jars this time - I had my eyes on fabric and the huge amount of vintage patterns which filled the boxes, cute suitcases and baskets around the tables

Photo by Susan Goodwin

Monday, May 19, 2014

Less is more

Hello one and all! 

How are you keeping? I think it's time for a nice short and sweet post. Life is all so busy and crazy lately, I need to re-centre myself and get back to basics 

Less is more is the theme today - enjoy my lovelies

1960’s mod fashion

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Me Made May week 2

Dear lovely readers, guess what? Monday was my bloggy birthday!

Hip, hip, hooray!!!!

Thank you for sticking around and listening to my nonsense this past year! I'm so darn excited and grateful to have you all popping by every now and again for a look. The frequency at which I post has definitely slowed down from those first few months, but I guess it was all very exciting back then, and it still is, I'm just such a busy little bee of late. 

I wanted to post this on Monday, but man I've been sooo tired lately after work that I crash out after dinner, I haven't sewn in about a week, but that's ok cause this weekend end is gonna be spent behind that machine!

I'm still prepping the pieces for my McCalls coat, which is taking ages cause I have to baste organza to each of the coat pieces. Cause I chose cotton sateen as the coat material it would basically be useless without some sort of under lining so that's what the organza is for! 

So anyway onto the me made's then? 

Friday, May 9, 2014

Eurovision - 1960s style!

I love many things, but each year in May, the thing I love the most is the Eurovision song contest!

Yes, quite seriously I am a Eurovision fiend. When my good friend still lived in Australia we would watch together and play drinking games and have a giggle at the insane costumes and dance around and smile when our favourites would come on. 

Eurovision has a quite a decent following in Australia, being that we are a multicultural country who in the past 60 years has seen immigrants from all over Europe and who are still in touch with their families in Greece, Italy, Turkey, Germany and so on. And as I have Lithuanian heritage I also get to legitimately cheer on my country even though their entries aren't always stellar!

We watch it on time delay however, so I have to restrain my Facebooking and news watching during the weekend so that I don't accidentally see who the winner is!

The most outstanding part of Eurovision is always the fashion and costumes. Some are amazing architectural pieces, some a plain letting the singer shine and some are multi dimensional giving the wearer the chance to change costumes mid-song for higher impact. The show is voted on by the viewers, so the song, set, costumes and dancers must all be entertaining. 

But back in our favourite decade, (before the famous ABBA performance), Eurovision was a little more restrained and certainly didn't reach the dramatic proportions that it does now

Lets take a look at the sweet and demure looks of 60s Eurovision!


Sunday, May 4, 2014

Me Made May - week one

Hey there fine people of the internet? How have you been?

Last week was another nightmare week at 
work so I did pretty much no sewing and totally forgot about Me Made May!!

I knew May 1st was coming up, but for other reasons, and then May 2nd came and I think the only me-made item I wore was a knitted scarf, but it wasn't anything to sniff at!

So I tried to make up for the two days I lost by wearing my pledged me-mades on the weekend! 

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Impromptu swing dresses

It's Sunday, and I have to go back to work tomorrow after 10 relaxing days off! But happily I think this has been the most productive work break in a while! 

On Friday, just for funsies I whipped up a new dress so I could have something to wear to my first day back at work tomorrow. Something to help ease back into the work week that was fun and easy that I knew would fit without any problems, and here she is Simplicity 7436!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Green goings on

Hello lovely people! How was your Easter?

I'm still on holiday because I was a smart cookie and took off the 3 days between Easter Monday and Anzac day which falls on Friday this year. Quite a lot of other people in my office did the same thing, so I guess it would be somewhat un-Australian not to extend it out to a 10 day break!

So, what have I been up to these past few days? Well quite a lot of cleaning out of my cupboards - nothing good. Just trying to get rid of those naff things that I've bought over the years that don't fit me or my style any more. Some things I've put into storage because I cant bear to let them go - kind of like an outpatients ward. If I don't see it, it will be easier to let go of later!

And I've also been watching this interesting 5 part series on Youtube - "The 60's - The Beatles decade". Basically it tries to follow the ups and downs of the Beatles in line with the changes of the 60s, focusing mainly on England and its own political and social story. 
You can watch parts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 here

I also took time to take photos of all the little projects I've been doing here and there. Repair jobs and modifications as well. 

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Peggy Pinny

Hello to you all!

How have you been? Its been a while, but we have no one to thank for that except but my naughty little modem who decided to conk out last week leaving me internet-less until yesterday! 

I have been sewing quite a few little projects in the mean time, but I can now finally share with you the blouse and pinafore outfit that I have dubbed Peggy, in honour of the return of Mad Men for the year! 

Once I had finished and popped on this outfit, it felt like something the smart and career minded Peggy would wear. I just missed the deadline for the Mad Men sew along so I never got to submit it, but I guess sometimes my whole blog is just one big Mad Men sew along anyway!

And so I present to you now for your perusal - the Peggy Pinny!