The Sherbet Birdie Candifornia Pool Party!

A couple of months ago Sasha from Sherbet Birdie announced that she was going to have a pool party!  An excuse for all the pinups to get together in a fun, social, supporting environment.... WITH INFLATABLES!!!

Of course I had to go!  And so did a friend of mine - MsKatt, who decided to fly up from Tasmania.

First things first - what to wear?  I had recently impulse-purchased a new Esther Williams swimsuit with a kitschy-cute lobster print on it... hmmmm... LOBSTERS!!!  ALL THE LOBSTERS!!!

So I started hunting around to find suitable fabrics, trims, and bits to make my outfit insanely awesome!  I found chiffon and ric-rac and fringe to make a fabulous cover-up, a cheap necklace and some resin lobsters to make an amazing necklace, and a hat form and a large rubber lobster to create a crowning glory or a headpiece.

And then of course I left it all to the last minute....apart from the necklace, which was a good thing.

When the lobsters arrived they were red.  I tried to paint them orange with nail polish, but it bubbled.  I tried to take the nail polish off with remover... and this happened.

Well, I had to soak them in nail polish remover, and scrub them with a nail brush to get them to this point, but you get the idea.  So after about a hundred coats of nail polish they looked more like this.

I had purchased a necklace with tassels from good old Target - a bit of a lucky find, because it was just the right colour!

I removed a few tassels and added the lobsters and then didn't do anything, and all of a sudden it was the day before the event, I was tired and *cough* hungover *cough* and hadn't finished my cover-up or my hat!

Luckily, MsKatt had arrived early, and she's a wizard with a glue-gun, so I set her to work with all my hat bits while I sewed the cover-up.

The plan was to copy one I had purchased from Target (again - I swear its the only modern shop I buy things in!), but when I laid it out on the fabric I noticed there was set in sleeves...

...which, frankly, scared me.  Set in sleeves in chiffon isn't something I would take on when I was with it, let alone when I was a bit under the weather.  So I decided kimono sleeves were the way to go!

I flattened the sleeves at the underarm and created a fold  near the shoulder, and cut from the point of the shoulder down to the cuff.

Then I cut the fronts, and sewed them together.  It went quite well!  I had to sew carefully because chiffon really is a shifty little bugger!

Then came the trims.  The only orange fringe I was able to find was on eBay, and there was only 1.9 metres of it which turned out not to be enough.  I sewed it on the bottom of the cover up...

... and then sewed ric-rac to the arm cuffs.  Not really what I wanted, but I didn't have much choice at this point!

I then sewed a rolled-ish hem up the fronts, and the neckline and it was DONE!

MsKatt (we decided her pinup name should be Miss Gina Gluegun) was still sitting on the floor gluing like a demon.

My cheap glue gun makes ribbit sounds like a frog (which caused much hilarity) but still manages to do a good job when wielded by a master glue-gunner!

Thankfully that was my outfit sorted!  The following day was the pool party!

Can I say that arriving at a public pool dressed like this does take courage.

Especially considering we had to walk through a large public park to get to the public pool!  But once inside we were surrounded by women who appreciated my over the top outfit, and we set about enjoying ourselves!

We may or may not have smuggled in alcohol to drink out of our plastic coconuts...

I got to spend some long awaited quality time with Miss Lucy Topp (Sherbet Birdie's most magnificent makeup artist).  She is one of my soul sisters, I love her.

Then I headed for the pool.  It was a pool party after all!

I don't think there was a single woman there that got her face wet!  Or her hair!!  hahaha!!!

Its MsKatt over a sea of inflatable donuts and cupcakes!

We had our own lifeguard, but I must say that the rest of them seemed to come to our corner of the pool quite a bit.  I wonder why!?!

These are the two ladies who are responsible for this wonderful day - Miss Sasha (right) and Sorelle.  Such an amazing concept ladies.  Such a wonderful way to bring like minded women together in an environment that creates and rekindles friendships without the need for competition.  Viva la revolution!

I can't wait for the next one!

Beccie
xxx