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

A new hat! Plus an update on the Green and Pink dress

Well look what arrived yesterday!


By some amazing coincidence I actually wore the Sheet Dress to work yesterday, and this hat was intended to be worn with that dress! The colour of the hat works perfectly with the flowers on the dress don't you think? I can't wait to wear the whole ensemble somewhere! All I need now are pink shoes and a pink bag. Pink shoes seem to be the more difficult bit at the moment... all the shoes I see are just not quite the right shade!

Also, I finished the Green and Pink dress on the weekend too, and wore it out to dinner on Sunday night. I don't have a picture of me wearing the dress yet, but I'll get that taken care of soon enough. Here is a photo of it on my dressmakers dummy:

I'm pretty happy with the end result, although I must tell you there were times when I wanted to throw it out the window, or set fire to it. The sheer green fabric with holes in it was a NIGHTMARE to sew for a beginner seamstress, but I perservered and we got there in the end. I also have a lovely vintage hat to match this dress so now I need to find two events to which I can wear a hat!

Have a great day everyone, thanks for reading

Beccie

I was thinking of keeping this project top secret...

... but I'm not very good at keeping secrets!

For those that don't know I entered a competition called Miss Pinup Australia, and I am a NSW finalist for Miss Classic Pinup. This competition has required me to buy a lot of vintage clothes and things for each of the categories I have to participate in - Day wear, Swim wear, Lingerie, and Evening wear as well as a talent. Luckily I already had this ballgown


This gorgeous confection was made by Emma Domb and it dates back to the 1950s and it was in pristine condition when I got it. It had a bit of an odd smell, but no rips or tears in the skirt that I could find. It now has a couple though after the outing it had to a ball where the above photo was taken. Going up and down stairs in this thing is a nightmare let me tell you!

Anyway!

I realised that for Miss Pinup Australia I really wanted to have a reveal moment for this beautiful, special gown and because its a difficult colour to match (much more orange than shown above) I figured I had no chance of finding a vintage one the right colour. So I thought I would put my sewing skills to good use and make one!

My mum had an early 1960's pattern for a long coat with a decent size sweep at the bottom which I thought would do if I changed the button arrangement, and shortened the sleeves to bracelet length. Here it is, almost complete


See how much more orange the dress looks in natural light!

I found some lovely pale gold curtain fabric, and some lovely slightly darker gold heavy satin to line it with. This will work well with the other accessories I have (pale gold shoes, and pale gold elbow length vintage gloves). Althought it doesn't look awesome together in this photo its not so bad in person.

I also had to put more fullness in the 'skirt' of the coat. It looked like it had plenty of sweep on the pattern envelope, but I had to add about 1.5 metres to make it big enough to fit the dress. It now has a bottom hem of over 3 metres (120 inches).

I haven't put the buttons on yet. I'm going to do self covered buttons, one on each side up near the neck with a loop closure. The dress will show a little bit when I walk, but you won't see the whole thing until I take the coat off, which I have to work out how to do elegantly. Did I mention how heavy the coat is!

All in all I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. At times its been a difficult journey and if I hadn't needed it for the competition in three weeks I would not have finished it. Lets hope it does the job on the night!

Thanks for reading.

Beccie xx