Saturday 29 September 2018

Vintage Sewing

Sorting through my sewing books recently I found 2 vintage 1950 "Women's Weekly"
magazines I bought from an op shop last year ( they were in a basket of old knitting patterns!).
I love this advertisement for a motor for a singer sewing machine

(and yes reading an old 1950 magazine is much more interesting than watching the football!)

Monday 24 September 2018

New look for an old chair

I found this chair at hard rubbish last year. I started sanding it months ago, then stopped. I finally had a proper go at it again today.
I cut a scrap of plywood to go on the seat (plywood also from hard rubbish).
The cushion was another hard rubbish find!
Fabric for the cushion was an op shop find.
Almost finished - looking much better with a layer of beeswax furniture polish! Still needs some more polish, and glue to tighten up all the joints.
But it looks so much better! Might be my new sewing chair I think!

Saturday 22 September 2018

Melbourne Yarn & Fibre Festival

So many beautiful yarns, so many colours!
I was very good and resisted buying any! ( but now I'm kind of wishing I had bought one skein I really liked - in the first photo)

Tuesday 4 September 2018

Making my "Outlander" costume

I finally got around to taking some photos of my Outlander costume - piece by piece. I knitted my armwarmers a while ago, and also had made a matching cowl, but knew I would be far too hot with it around my neck. Luckily I had treated myself to this gorgeous hand knitted shawl from the recent Spinners and Weavers show (I wear it all the time now and have finally started knitting one myself!)
The shirt is a New Look pattern 6042, I think might even be  the same pattern my Mum used to make an almost identical top for my wedding outfit nearly 20 years ago!
I added some hat elastic to the cuffs, and in the neckband in place of a drawstring.
The stomacher is made from a scrap of upholstery fabric with calico lining and another scrap of plain fabric on the back. The boning was an inspiration from my morning walk- I spotted some scraps of green plastic strapping tape (used to transport bricks or timber) at a building site. There just happened to be a length of it right on the fence line, so I took a piece home with me!
When I was trying it all on, I was worried the stomacher would not stay in place- specially if I sat down!
The solution was to add a couple of strips of elastic, connected with a 2 sets of large hooks and eyes.
The jacket is based on the Mollie Makes  sewing magazine " Zipped jacket" pattern, which I have made previously. I drew the front based on a RTW mediaeval lace up vest in my dress up box. I actually bought a $1 cardigan at the op shop first, cut it to shape then used it as a pattern.
I had a super lucky find at my local op shop- not only did I find a whole bag of silver buckles ( I had been searching everywhere for buckles for my son's Witcher outfit), there was a whole shelf full of bra making supplies ( but try as I might I couldn't think of an alternative creative use for several dozen bra underwires!). The wide satin elastic however was very handy, as was the strip of hook and eye tape - which was the perfect colour for my jacket, and much quicker - and less to figure out!-  than putting eyelets in.
The skirt was actually the first thing I made a few months earlier, when I found an end roll of about 3 metres of dark blue/ grey tartan/ plad fabric. I folded and pleated as I ran it through the machine, and added a waistband with casing for some elastic. It didn't have a lot of body due to fabric limitations, so I added a petticoat/ underskirt made from a $1 op shop summer dress- I chopped the top off and  added a waistband for a super quick make. I will make a bum roll before I wear it next.

Close up of the stomacher, thanks to lots of tips from the redshoesredwine blog for making the stomacher.
Phew! It was a lot of work - especially since I won the tickets to ComicCon and only had 11 days to make both my outfit and my son's. His was actually much more complicated, mine just took time because I actually made 2 different versions of my jacket before I was happy with it! 


Spring colour=yellow!

Lots of lovely, sunshiney yellow growing in our backyard at the moment- hello Springtime!!!