Oh So Cherrylicious!

My first outfit post of the year makes me think of this song.

But only because Bootylicious and Cherrylicious sound the same.... we could make up some lyrics that would work though!  How about:

I don't think you ready for this much Cherry

I don't think you ready for this much Cherry

I don't think you're ready for this

My outfits so Cherrylicious and so fab!

Thats enough singing for one day - time for some photos!
 

You see what I mean about Cherrylicious now right!  There are cherries on my outfit, in my hair (not that you can see them in this shot), on my shoes...

These are shoes by Vivienne Westwood for Melissa Shoes.

And before you all go looking for a pair to buy, they don't make them anymore.  They have become a bit of a collectors item and now sell for more second hand than they ever did new.  I got lucky thought and found a pair in my size that had only been worn once.  It was meant to be!!

... and on my bag...

How darling is this little vintage bag with plastic cherries on top!  Also one of those meant to be purchases.  I wasn't looking for it but it found me!

And here is the back of the outfit

Now, despite what it might look like, this isn't a dress.  Its actually a fully boned strapless top made from this pattern:

And a circle skirt made from a circle skirt pattern!  I thought this would make the outfit better and more wearable wardrobe wise.  I can wear the top with jeans or capris or a different skirt, and I can wear the skirt with other tops!  But today I chose to go to work (and to the uniform shop to buy new school uniform for my stepson) looking like this!  The only difference is I'm not carrying the bag... its adorable and all but WAY too small to carry everything around in.

And for those of you that are dog people, here is a pic of me and the ever adorable Stella!

And before you get grossed out, no I'm not actually kissing her.  I make kissy face and noises at her and she reaches out with her nose towards me.  Somehow I trained her not to lick me or touch me....  I think its more the noise she is fascinated by....

Anyway!  I have been making this outfit for a few weeks now in amongst cleaning and holidaying etc.  Its not the kind of outfit that everyone will want to wear but I love it!  Very over the top and very me.  The only thing its missing is some matchy-matchy Lucy Luxxe jewellery...I'll have to work on that!

What do you all think?  I'm crazy aren't I!

Beccie

xxx

Christmas Outfit No. 4 - My Ultimate Christmas Dress!

Its the last Christmast post!!!

This dress revolves around the most amazing Christmas fabric I have found, and the best thing about it was that there was a full 7 metres of it!

Now I really really wanted to do justice to this magnificent fabric, so I grabbed out my pattern for the sweetheart neckline bodice from my tropical print dress and made some decorative enhancements:

Here is one of them - that bloody bow took one whole hour to make.  Mind you this could be because this was the third dress I was sewing in two days and I was a leeeeetle tired by then!

I then cut out 2.5m from the length of the fabric to make a really full gathered skirt - I wanted it to be as full and as gathered as possible!

What I ended up with was this:

HOW ADORABLE!!!

This is my favourite one of the week, so I made sure to save it to Friday.  I love the way that the bow and the faux wrap bust and halter tie make it look like I'm wrapped up like a present.

I actually got the inspiration for the bow from the print on the fabric - it has bows wrapped around sticks of holly.

And once again, this bodice has six bones - two in the front, two in the back and two in the sides.

Oh, and I also went way out with my accessories for this outfit - if you're going to go over the top, you need to go OVER THE TOP!

The necklace is my last piece this year from Lucy Luxxe, and I call it my Christmas Crazy necklace.  Renee made it for me by casting from some vintage brooches I purchased - see the Santa on the hair bow?  I also have the Rudolf one, but there was no where for it on this outfit...

So that is my final Christmas outfit!  I hope you've all enjoyed the festive madness!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!!!!

Beccie
xxx

Christmas Outfit No. 3 - The Jolly Santa Circle Skirt

If you haven't already worked it out I just LOVE Santa Clause!  So when I found this fabric, I bought it without a second though - even though there was only 70 inches or 1.5 metres of it, which isn't really enough to do anything...

But then I thought about it for a bit and worked out what I could do!

I grabbed out this pattern:

Its for a 10 gore circle skirt, which obviously I don't have enough fabric for, so I also grabbed out some red fabric and some ric rac...

Anyone know where I'm going here?

I traced the pattern piece and made some adjustments and then created this:

This is one of the 10 gores.  I ran ric rac down either side of the santa panel, like this:

I could have skipped that step, but I like details.

I had hoped to get each gore with a Santa on it... but I only had enough fabric for 6 gores, but I had 10... so I decided just to do 5 with Santa's and 5 without.  Thats the thing with vintage fabric, I can't just go down the street and get more!

I also ran a strip of the vintage fabric around the centre of the waistband, for no other reason than because I could.

The finished skirt looks like this!

I have paired it with an off the shoulder 'Bettie Page' brand top I have, and some lovely red shoes.  And this skirt is so huge that I wear TWO petticoats underneath it!

I am going shopping tonight to do all my Christmas shopping, and I'm going to have my photo taken with Santa while I'm there - and I thought this outfit would be PERFECT!!!  Check my Facebook page for updates on that bit of festive silliness!

And here is another picture of Stella, this time wearing her Christmas tshirt.  Its from a couple of weeks ago, before she had her hair cut:

The skirt is not as adorable as yesterday's outfit, but still over-the-top festive.  Don't you agree?

Beccie
xxx

Christmas Outfit No. 2 - Santa Wiggle Dress

Not that long ago I found this gorgeous piece of vintage Christmas fabric:

The lady on Etsy had two pieces of it to sell.  One was 64 inches long, the other was 54 inches long, so a total of 118 inches, or just under 3 metres.  By the looks of it they were originally Christmas themed curtains back in the 1950s, and due to this there was a little bit of staining and discolouration in places.  But for US$22 how could I pass it up?

I decided to make a cute wiggle dress from this adorable fabric.  But of course, I didn't just use one pattern... Can't go doing something like making it easy for myself can I!  I used the skirt pieces from this pattern (which actually fits me!):

And I turned this top into a bodice (this one fits me too!):

Actually, I really love this pattern, and it worked up really easily, so I might be using this a bit more to make myself some easy summer tops.  And I'm a bit partial to the lady on the left with the big bow belt and circle skirt... hmmmmm.

And what I ended up with was this:

Possibly the cutest wiggle dress ever!

To do justice to this piece of fabric, I decided that I needed to piece the bodice so that Santa was in the front and the reindeer wrapped around the side, with the border of the fabric around the bottom of the skirt and repeated again in the foldover at the top of the bodice.

I really like the way that the border repeats itself at the top and the bottom of the dress.

The back is really nice too, and has a vent instead of a split.  I read on someone else's blog about them having a phobia of skirt splits cause they can split without you noticing and before you know it your bottom is on display!!!!  I've been paranoid ever since!!!!

This bodice is also fully boned with 6 bones (two front, two back and two side).  Its not going anywhere!

And I decided to accessorise this one with vintage bracelets and a red belt.  I feel the dress is decorative enough without adding too many accessories.  Well today I feel like that... who knows next time I wear it!

Stella wouldn't stop photo bombing so I took that to mean she wanted to make an appearance too!

So what do we think of Dress Two???

Beccie
xxx

Christmas Outfit No. 1 - The Poinsettia Dress

I made this first dress out of some lovely stripy poinsettia patterned vintage fabric I purchased.  I found it on Etsy and there was 7m of it, so I have plenty left over.

Its a very VERY light cotton and its a bit on the sheer side, but it definitely makes a lovely light summer dress.  And we all know what happens when I get a striped fabric...

I go a little mad running stripes every which way and have lots of fun matching seam lines!  And even though I was trying to sew four dresses in one weekend I wasn't going to let this opportunity escape me!

I made the dress using the bodice from my tropical print dress pattern that I drafted, just without the shirred back panels, cause honestly I just didn't have time.  I also adjusted it a little so the fit was a bit better around the bust

So it fits like a glove now!  Instead of the gathered skirt that I used on the tropical print dress, I used the full circle skirt pattern that made Renee's cherry skirt.  I really love the way that the stripes on the skirt are horizontal on the front and back, where the bodice is in a chevron pattern, and vertical on the sides where the bodice is horizontal.  It just all worked out so well!!

I also boned the bodice (6 bones in all - two in front, two in the sides, and two in the back) so it would support itself.  I just HATE hitching things up all day.  And instead of hemming the skirt, I finished it with matching green bias tape - 5 metres of it to be exact!

To follow with the poinsettia theme, I stole two off my tree and, with a little bit of help from my hot glue gun, I turned them into matchy-matchy hair clips!  Oh - and the earrings!!!  They are a vintage find and are actually painted shells.  There is also a matching sweater clip, but its too warm to be wearing a sweater here today :)

Anyway, I hope you love my first Christmas Dress!  This one is very conservative compared to the others.  As I said to someone this morning, we will be accelerating into crazy territory by the end of the week!

Beccie
xxx

The Week Before Christmas

I had so many plans for this week...

For months, I have been collecting vintage Christmas fabrics.  Some of them are AHHMAZING too - such wonderful finds...  and I planned to have 5 outfits, one for every day this week in the lead up to Christmas.  It truly is my favourite time of the year.

I managed to have one item made (a skirt) for when my family and I put our Christmas tree up a couple of weeks ago, but thats been the only thing I had made.  The whole thing has really snuck up on me...

Those that follow my Facebook Page will know that I decided to throw myself into sewing four outfits on the weekend.  Yep, four.  When I raised the idea on Facebook it generated discussion about binge sewing, and pulling all-nighters.  I wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but being a determined woman, I gave it my best shot!

Sneak Peak - Dress One

I MADE THREE FULLY BONED DRESSES IN ONE WEEKEND!!!!!

But that means that I'm down one outfit....

 Sneak Peak - Dress Two

So this week I will be posting EVERY DAY (apart from today...) about what I'm wearing.  How exciting!  This week is going to be a blogging frenzy to follow my sewing frenzy weekend!

Sneak Peak - Dress Three

There is not going to be any detailed construction posts unfortunately, because I was too engrossed in what I was doing and forgot to take photos...

Sneak Peak - Dress Four

But if you see something you love and you have questions, feel free to ask.  I love sharing!

So I hope you're looking forward to seeing what I've made as much as I'm looking forward to wearing them and showing them off.  I love getting in to the holiday spirit!!! 

Sewing Frenzy

proudly brought to you buy Red Bull and crappy Cola

Beccie
xxx