This has nothing to do with sewing...

... but is super cool, so I thought I'd blog about it anyway!

Yesterday afternoon I was wasting time in Priceline, and I found a product by Sally Hansen called Salon Effects. They are patterened 'stickers' to stick on your nails. The box says they are made out of 'real nail polish', so they aren't really stickers at all... I thought it looked interesting, and there was a leopard print box left, so I decided to buy a box and give myself a manicure!


If you didnt already know - I LOVE LEOPARD PRINT! And the thought of having leopard print nails meant I couldnt wait to get home and get on with it.

I really should have taken photos as I put them on, but I was too excited that I forgot all about it. The box comes with a wooden cuticle stick, a small nail file with three textures on it, and 16 nail polish stickers in different sizes for your nails.

It was pretty easy to do, if a bit fiddly. The steps were:

1. Shape your nails with one part of the file
2. Smooth the top of your nail with another part of the file
3. Wipe the nail with some nail polish remover
4. Choose the 'sticker' that fits best and peel it from its backing
5. Stick it to the nail (its a bit sticky on the underside) and stretch it a little as you stick it to the rest of your nail
6. Smooth it over all of your nail
7. Use the part of the file you haven't used yet to 'cut' the excess sticker off - its kind of like gently filing the end of your nail again
8. Your done!

This is how it ended up:

Its REALLY had to take an elegant photo of your own hand.
I thought pin-upy props would help... but I'm not sure if it worked...

Now I was pretty sceptical about how they would stay on. I thought that I would need to put a clear coat like a base coat, then stick the sticker to that, but apparently no. Mind you I couldn't resist - I did put a clear coat on over the top. I fully expected that they would be half gone when I got out of the shower this morning, but they are still as perfect as I managed to put them on.

They don't like extreme heat however. One of them had a run in with my curling wand this morning and 'melted' back from the end of my nail. So there is one thing to avoid if you want to have a go.

Anyway! I'm REALLY happy with the effect and will use them again for special occasions I think. At $15 a pop its not the kind of thing I will be putting on every week.

Thanks for reading!
Beccie

New Inspiration!

I'm always so excited when I get new inspiration. And its even better when other things fall into place to enable me to use that inspiration!

I was reading through my blog list when I came across this one by Lilacs & Lace. In it, Laura Mae makes a fabulous striped dress from a tweaked Vogue Vintage pattern. She in turn had been inspired by a post on Sew Weekly. See, inspiration is a powerful force! Now I loved this dress as soon as I saw it, and I loved the stripes as I haven't worked with fabric with an obvious pattern yet.

Then I opened my mail, and found a Spotlight catalogue. And what do you know, they were having a sale on paper patterns (two for the price of one) and also featured a lovely set of Camelia quilting fabrics, one of which was stripes! Woohoo!!!

So guess where I went today!

SPOTLIGHT!!!

This is the Vogue Vintage reproduction pattern.
It was originally released in 1957.

And here is the stripy fabric! Isn't it beautiful!!!
Had to buy 6 metres of it would you believe

I also bought the following fabrics from the same collection:

I'm going to use them to make wiggle dresses using this vintage pattern:

So thats what I'm so excited about, and I'm really looking forward to being able to start one of these projects! Maybe this weekend...

Thanks for reading!

Beccie
xx

What do you do on a wet weekend???

...you get up super early on Saturday morning, put the finishing touches on a dress, then drive 3 hours to check out the Lady Luck Festival in Katoomba - thats what you do!

First of all lets talk about the dress! A little while ago I purchased this pattern on etsy:


What I really loved about this pattern was the neckline. I also thought having the waist seam at the hip looked niced and was different to what I'd been doing. I'd ummed and ahhed about what fabric I'd like to sew it up in, and then I found this gorgeous one:

The background colour is a uniform sky blue - don't be fooled by the bad lighting

I adore this fabric! The pattern is quite small (the cherries are about 1cm across), but I loved the colours, and I loved the way the cherries were red AND hot pink! I thought it might look busy when it was made into a dress, so I also bought some hot pink bias tape for edging, and some hot pink fabric to make a belt using one of my vintage self-covered belt kits.

And after a bit of effort and not too many issues (except for the collar - adding bias tape around the edge definitely increased the frustration factor), I ended up with this gorgeous dress:

Coincidentally, I am wearing this same outfit today at work, and I was
just told by a random stranger that I looked gorgeous.
And no he wasn't some old codger remembering days gone by - he was about my age.

The last photo was taken at the Lady Luck Festival at The Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. Another pin-up girl, Dixie, and I thought we'd go and check it out. And we had a great day!
Katoomba is in the Blue Mountains and as far as I'm concerned is the capital for antiques and collectibles in Australia. It was a popular tourist destination in Victorian times, right up to the 50s and 60s, but then its popularity wained. The Carrington, where the festival was held, is a beautiful Victorian era hotel in the main street of Katoomba. When I was a kid visiting Katoomba with my mum, The Carrington was derelict and empty and sad, but still beautiful. She was purchased in the early nineties and after 8 years of restorations she was re-opened and is once again a beautiful hotel. You can find out more about the history and see some photos here.

This gorgeous stained glass is across the entire front of the building,
and closes part of what was once a very large verandah

This is the room/hallway that was created when the stained glass was installed in 1911.
Coincidentally, that dress on the right on the front of the rack was AMAZING!
All that embroidery on the bodice and the skirt! Sigh!! Luckily for my bank balance it was too small.

Unfortunately for the festival organisers, it was a misty rainy cold Katoomba day on Saturday. However there were still plenty of people about, and plenty of things to look at.

Once Dixie and I had wandered around the festival we were pretty hungry, so we popped next door to another one of Katoomba's historical landmarks, The Paragon. The Paragon is a magnificent example of inter-war Art Deco architecture. It was built in 1909 and has been running as a cafe in its present form since 1923. It is so beautiful! They also sell hand made chocolates, so as an indulgence I purchased this very expensive box filled with chocolate treats:

Or is it a box filled with very expensive chocolate treats... who knows!
Now I just need to keep my fiance away from them...

After lunch we didn't have to go far to find fabulous antique and collectibles stores to dig through. There was one next door and two across the road! Dixie and I had a fabulous time trawling through all the goodies! I didn't buy much, just a pair of gloves and a pair of 40 denier vintage seamed stockings. Dixie completed her beauty case matching set with a fabulous find but I forgot to get a photo - she was very happy!

We also found this dress and had a good laugh at its expense:

Does anyone know why the bride who wore this dress would have wanted
a big bulge of flowers right where Eve would have put a fig leaf???

As the sun had come out (well sort of, at least the rain had stopped) Dixie and I thought we'd have a look at some of the cars at the festival. I'm not much into vintage cars and hot rods, but this one caught my eye:

As vintage cars and hot rods go it was pretty boring EXCEPT for the leopard print visors! Now I want me some leopard print visors for my car!

While we were looking at the cars and taking some photos, some random stranger came and gave Dixie a big kiss on the cheek! I asked him for an action replay so I could memorialise the moment in my blog, so here it is:

Random kisses from strangers... where was mine!!!

I had such a great day I am now planning a weekend away in the Blue Mountains so I can spend more time trawling through the antiques and collectibles stores. The only hope I have of going with my fiance is if there is more than one golf course... wish me luck!

Beccie
xx

If I was a mad scientist...

So what happens when you take this fabulous 1950s swimwear pattern,

And mash it together with the pattern that made this gorgeous dress?

You get the Frankenstein Dress!!! MUA-HA-HA-HA
(thats mad scientist laughter if you couldn't work it out)

Please excuse the photographs and the dodgy modelling. I was in a hurry to get to work

I'm surprised at how long this dress took me to put together (ie. not long) and I'm very happy with the way it turned out. Sure, it has its 'special' qualities, but what home made dress doesn't! I like the neckline with the fold-back bits, and the shape of the bodice. And who doesn't like a full skirt and petticoat!

I did have fairly good encouragement to get it done quickly. Its my soon-to-be-Mother-In-Law's birthday today and the whole family is going out to dinner and I wanted something new to wear. Queue the crazy inspiration, extra caffeine and late night sewing!

I've also had a go at two rolls in my hair (instead of three) and I like the way they look too.

Anyway, just thought I would share.

Beccie
xxx

A coat for a swimsuit...???

Only in the 1950s!!!

Last week I talked about the vintage swimsuit I was sewing (you can read about it here) and this week I wanted to update you all in the progress of the coat!

Its done!!! (apart from the hand sewing... boo!)

This is how it looks without the belt to cinch in the waist:

Please ignore the lack of buttons - thats part of the hand sewing yet to be done.

Also note Stella in the background. She is bored and would prefer to be out walking.

I love the way it looks! I love the contrast of the parrot fabric on the plain red! It looks even better with the waist cinched in:


How divine is it!

Here is a close-up of the buttons and the belt buckle:

I bought the buttons in Spotlight. They are coconut (I think) and have been lacquered with a glittery gloss finish. I bought the belt buckle over the phone from this amazing button shop in Newtown, Sydney. The lady was really friendly and described a few buckles to me and she and I picked this one, and while it doesnt go exactly with the buttons, its much better than some crappy plastic belt buckle.

So now all that remains is to do the hand sewing (sigh!). I still want to do a fun photo-shoot up at the pool with this creation. Hopefully the weather will warm up and I will get that done this week!

Have a great week!

Beccie
xx

A New Year and a New Challenge!

First of all I must apologise for not blogging about anything recently. Christmas really seemed to dominate all of my sewing time, so I didn't make anything new or noteworthy. But now that Christmas and New Years is over its back to it!

Last year I purchased this fabulous true vintage bathing suit pattern from etsy (how good is etsy!)


Now I think this pattern is DIVINE! Look at that adorable plaid swimsuit, and the matching coat! Who wears a coat to the beach!?!

And the other wonderful thing about this pattern is that its actually for my size! I'm so used to having to alter patterns to fit that it was a real pleasure to just skip that step entirely. There were a couple of surprises with this one though - first off was the fact that only one pattern piece had been cut out and used, and it was the shorts portion of the bathing suit... odd I thought, until I contemplated it further and realised that they make a really simple pair of sweet comfy ladies boxer shorts! I may make myself a few!

The second was this:


In amongst all the neatly folded tissue paper was a pink piece - and it was an advertisement for this competition to win a two week trip to Paris! If only I could still enter!!! The cute thing about the compeition was that you could only take the prize of the trip to Paris if you were over 20, if you were aged between 12 and 19 they gave you a trip to Hollywood or New York for a week instead. The other thing to note is the cash value of the prize pool - the total value of the 113 prizes they were giving away was over $7,000. My how times have changed!!

But honestly, how darling is this illustration:


I had decided to sew this bathing suit from some fabulous fabric I found at my local fabric store. It is a dark red with palm fronds and macaws all over it - so kitsch I just loved it! I bought heaps of it so I'll be making a dress from it too. I also bought a plain cotton fabric in the same dark red colour. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of it before I cut it all up. Sorry about that.

Once again, my little puppy Stella was there to give me moral support. She is pictured next to a plastic bin a friend bought for me that has a schnauzer on it - and to be honest, it looks a lot like her, dont you think???


Anyway the pattern worked up really easily and quickly which is totally not what I was expecting! There were a few fit issues where I needed to run a couple of seams in a bit, but after a few hours I had this:


Now its not finished just yet. I need to put a hook and eye on the back above the zipper, put the elastic in the short legs, and handstitch the lining to the waist seam. But its pretty much what its going to look like when it is finished, and I'm REALLY happy with it!

I've started sewing the coat, which is made from the plain red fabric (same as the fold back bit on the top of the bodice) with the parrot fabric for the pockets, cuffs, belt, and button plackets (?). Its going to look adorable, and so sweet as a complete outfit! And while I'm not going to swim in it (I, like my fiance's daughter, struggle with the idea of swimming in something that isnt lycra) I am going to parade around the pool in it!!!

But the pattern has also inspired me. Like the person who just made shorts, I think I'm going to use the bodice pattern to make a dress. Look at the photo above and forget about the shorts, and instead imagine a gored skirt.... I think it will look fabulous!!!

When I've finished the coat I will blog again - but before I do that I may take someone to the pool with me to do a quick photo shoot so you can get the full effect.

Thanks for reading

Beccie

A project totally out of left field...

... and totally not from the 1950s, but its still sewing, and exciting, so I thought I'd talk about it here.

This coming weekend Steve and I have been invited to a fancy dress cocktail party with a moulin rouge theme. We won't know ANYONE at this party (long story) so I thought I would go all out with my outfit... like I wouldn't have gone all out anyway!

So, I have this corset that I wore at Miss Pinup Australia NSW Finals last week:

(I had no idea they were taking this photo by the way)

I thought the custom made corset by Jill's Corsets would be a great foundation for a moulin rouge inspired cancan outfit. To that I imagined adding a cancan skirt, and a big feathered head piece. Due to the NSW Finals of Miss Pinup Australia being the weekend before, I really wasn't going to have a lot of time to make this all happen. I looked around at buying a skirt and I couldnt get anything in the colours I wanted, or the look I wanted. The head piece was much easier - Feathers custom make showgirl head pieces in whatever colours you want! Done!!

Back to the skirt - I realised I was going to have to make it, so I started looking around for a pattern, and of course I couldnt find what I wanted. I did find this which gave me a huge hint on ruffles, but more on that later.

So, for the first time, I was going to have to make it up as I was going along!!!! This might scare a lot of people, but not me - chuck me in at the deep end and watch me swim!

I started with the outer skirt, which after a bit of draping and pining, looks like this:

Remind me not to attempt to put zippers in satin again - it wasn't fun, but I will live with the fact that its not perfect because it will be hiding under my corset.

Next step was to make the inner skirt (from bemsilk lining). Its the exact same size as the long bits of the outer skirt. The inner skirt is the bit I was going to attach all the ruffles to.

To make the ruffles, I cut 10 strips of fabric (more bemsilk lining) from selvedge to selvedge, then overlocked the selvedge edges together to make one LOOOONG strip, then I overlocked down both sides of the strip to stop it from fraying. Here is where the ruffling hint comes in.

Did you know that if you make your stitch length and tension maximum on your machine (and maybe give the top thread a bit of a hand by holding it tighter) your sewing machine will create gathers for you!!!!!!!

I didnt!

It goes in like this:

and comes out like this:


And at 1am I also discovered that your overlocker can do exactly the same thing!!!! Its amazing how brave and creative you can be at 1 o'clock in the morning!

So then I stitched the ruffles on in alternate colours. This took a while...


Once all the ruffles were on, I stitched the inner skirt into the outer skirt. This was when something happened that I hadn't anticipated. Even thought the inner skirt and the outer skirt were exactly the same size, the inner skirt hung lower because it had extra weight on it from all the ruffles. This meant that I had to break out the overlocker again and make a satin ruffle to sew to the bottom hem of the outer skirt to make it longer. Phew - almost there! By this point Stella was looking at me wondering if we were ever going to go to bed. She had given up sleeping on my petticoats and had decided to just stare at me instead. Yes Stella, Mummy is mad.

So I sewed the satin ruffle on and VOILA!!!!! THE CAN CAN SKIRT WAS FINISHED!!!!!


Looks pretty doesn't it? You will have to use your imagination and put the whole outfit together because by the time I finished (1.30am) I did not feel like parading around the house in the outfit just to see what it looked like. I'm sure you will understand.

I found this project a wonderful creative outlet and a good test of my sewing skills and ingenuity. Now I need someone else to have a moulin rouge themed fancy dress party so I can bring the whole ensemble out again, as I'm sure it will be a hit on Saturday night!

Thanks for reading.

Beccie
xx