Bag Project

I recently stumbled upon www.livingcreatively.com.au...not sure how I've missed it, but its full of great stuff for craft obsessed people like me. Anyway at the last minute I decided to make a tote bag for their April competition, which turned out to be lots of fun but way too much work for one night (how typical of me). Anyway I managed to finish it, and was quite happy with the result. I used the vintage fabric that was rescued from my friend's parent's place, who were using this big fabulous piece of floral fabric as a drop cloth! I am so glad I was able to rescue it and give it life, and a huge thank you to Melanie for donating it to my cause! My friend Lisa (another fabric nut) has a piece of it too, and I look forward to see a divine bag come out of her lair!

60s Dresses Complete!

A success all in all, and my dress didnt fall apart despite my accidental last minute unpicking!

60s Dress Update - Ivy's Sunshiney Yellow Number

Our challenge with Ivy's dress was:
a) make a summer dress that is big enough to fit her next summer but doesnt swim on her.
b) make something she will look adorable in.

Well (b) wasnt a challenge at all I really dont think it would matter what she wore, she always looks adorable.
I used a gorgeous sunshine yellow linen and lined it with a yellow voile, and used the cute 60s daisy trim that I've had for ages. So here is her dress mid construction, from the fabulous window at Studio 22 (ie what used to be our dining room):



And here she is looking exquisite:

60s Dresses Update - Nicole's Dress

Snizz found a gorgeous Alexander Henry fabric online but could only get 1m. So our first challenge was to make a dress with limited fabric. Bring in the denim! I jotted down a few ideas while on the train to Sydney (great time to jot things down by the way) and this is what I came up with:



Our choice was unanimous and it was time to GET BUSY:



My first experiment using silver metallic thread that I picked up at spotlight proved successful. This little detail really made the dress I reckon. But I am a huge textile nerd so others may not agree.

60s Dress Update - The Mondrian

It took a while to work out how to tackle this one, but eventually after many scribbles I got the courage to take a pair of scissors to the fabric:




Then I thought I'd be really clever stitching on the last black stripe to hide any bits where things didnt line up properly. Great plan, until, while ironing inside out, I saw what I thought were leftover basting stitches and UNPICKED them. I was infact unpicking my delicate hand stitching, and didnt realise until I put my dress on before the party. OOPS.

Easter Project

Well I have to hand it to myself I know how to give myself a huge amount of work to do in a short time! Its all good though, I could think of nothing lovelier than burying myself in sewing for four consecutive days! Next weekend is my folk's 40th wedding anniversary and we are throwing a 60s themed partay. Project No. 1 is an attempt to recreate Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian Dress from the 60s....I just love this! But because my body is not exactly the same as TWIGGY's I might have to modify where a few of the seams go. Anyway I think I have my head around how to tackle it. Time to get busy! Then I can tackle two more dresses: one for my spunky little niece Ivy and my sweet sista-in-law, Snizza. Ready? I am!!