What A Difference A Week Makes!!

Last week my sewing room looked like this - a complete PIGSTYE - and I was embarrased about it, but not too embarrased to show the whole world!

Who could work in a mess like this!!!!!

But now after a weekend's hard labour it looks like this!!!

And I'm sure we'd all agree that this is a much better working environment.  It took one whole day - basically I shovelled everything out, and then organised it, chucked out what I didn't need, and put it all back in.  I'm very proud of myself.

I even had room on my vintage trolley for a little wedding reminder - awww.  

That flower thing with the candle is one of the aisle decorations I made!

So now I can get on with some actual SEWING...  HOORAY!!!

For those that don't know, I'm going through a lilac phase at the moment - I'm totally in love with it.  So of course I want to sew myself a lilac dress and maybe a skirt, and then a blouse...

I found myself this fabric:

The fabric at the bottom I'm going to make into a dress (and I'm going to be tricky by combining the bodice from one pattern with the skirt of another).  The middle fabric I'm going to make into a blouse with a pattern I don't have yet... but it looks like this:

I really like the tie front - it will help hide the little pot belly I gained on my honeymoon.

Which reminds me, I really really need to get back to the gym.

And with the top fabric, which is a more pinky lilac than the other fabrics, I'm going to make a pretty skirt!

So much lilac - so little time!

Also, on other exciting sewing news - this pattern arrived in the post!

This purchase was inspired by Peter at Male Pattern Boldness, who recently sewed up a maternity outfit and opera coat for his 'cousin' Cathy.  Peter is hilarious - you can see the photo shoot of the completed outfit here.  Anyway, I loved the opera coat idea for winter and I found this lovely pattern for a house coat, and I just LOVED the back of it.  I'm going to make it up as a house coat in a pretty floral, as well as making it up in a usable wool to wear out and about during winter.  This means I'll probably sew the two at once...  I love new challenges!!!  But I have to find the fabric first...

I'm off to Tasmania tomorrow for a short second honeymoon (I know, I'm totally spoiled) so no sewing this weekend.  But I have made a start cutting out my lilac fabric for the dress and the skirt, so it shouldn't be too long before I can get back in front of the sewing machine!

Thanks for reading

Beccie
xxx

I'm here!! I haven't left you!!!

Hi everyone!

I feel the need to apologise to you all for being missing for so long - I got married at the end of last month and then had a honeymoon, so I've kinda been doing other things.....  But I'm going to catch you all up on the events in this blog post.  So, if you want to read about sewing, you can stop now.

Except I need to show you this picture of my sewing room, partly in explaination of why I haven't sewn anything recently, and as a hint as to why I won't be sewing anything in the next couple of weeks...

Yes thats right, my sewing room looks like a bomb exploded in it.  We have made a path to the ironing board so that we can still look crisp when we go out, but apart from that in the last three weeks this room has turned into a dumping ground.  Boo!!  My plan is to reorganise and tidy it this weekend, but I fear it will take longer than one day...  Wish me luck!

But back to more positive things!

At the start of March I competed in the Australian finals of a competition called Miss Pinup Australia.  And let me tell you that whilst I didn't take home a title, I had a wow of a time and met some lovely ladies!  Below are some photos of some of my routines (unfortunately I don't have a good photo of my lingerie, which is a shame - oh well!).

 DAYWEAR: I love this vintage wiggle dress with is faux wrap skirt!

My routine was a tea party and at this point I am contemplating if I really should be eating a cupcake

SWIMWEAR: This vintage cotton swimsuit was adorable too, if a little faded...

My routine was gardening (I carried some plants on stage with me) and I have just decided that its sooo hot I'll pour water on myself to cool down

 EVENING WEAR: This gown is divine - beautiful lace bodice!

My routine was getting ready to go out so I was down on the floor to get my fur out of the drawer

TALENT: Yes we have to have a talent too - I sang Whatever Lola Wants

and wore this amazing Lilli Diamond cocktail dress

Two weeks after Miss Pinup Australia, I got married to my gorgeous man in a beautiful garden ceremony at Spicers Clovelly Estate.  Steve and I had a three day wedding for a small group of family and friends - 24 in total including us.  Pretty much everyone stayed on site at Clovelly so we all got to spend lots of time together.  The first night was a cocktail party with a band, the next day was the wedding with a 6 course degustation dinner and too much wine, and finally a breakfast the next morning.  It was perfect and we couldn't have asked for anything more.  These photos were taken by friends - I haven't got the professional ones back yet.

 Walking down the aisle with my Dad

 

Greeting the love of my life

Just before the ceremony started, it poured with rain!  But then the sun came out again, and everything was shiny with sunlight reflected from water droplets

 Signing the register and sharing a glass of champagne with my new husband

Then we went on our honeymoon to Port Douglas.  It was only supposed to be a quick four day trip as we had already been away for a week getting married, but when we arrived at The Sea Temple we just knew that four days would not be long enough - so we extended to ten days.

 A walk along 4 Mile Beach at Sunset

 Monkeying about at a lookout overlooking Cairns

 As a VERY special treat, Steve and I chartered a helicopter to Sandy Cay, which is a tiny bit of sand in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef that is only there at low tide.  We had a champagne breakfast picnic, swam, snorkeled and generally lazed about until the tide came back in and we had to leave.

Steve and I on our own tropical island paradise

So thats it!  Now you've been caught up in all the goings on here and I hope you understand why I have had NO TIME to sew.  But once I tackle that mess I will be back into it... I already have some plans and I am hanging out to kick them off!

Thanks for reading

Beccie
xxx