Cool weather sewing plans

Hello readers! 

I have a very funny situation going on. Its March and normally around this time its starts to get a little chilly, but summer just wants to hang around for a bit more! Which I'm totally cool with cause I love warm weather. Luckily its not the stinking hot version that saps your energy and makes you want to eat icy-poles all day on the couch. Though I have been doing a little too much of that anyway... 

So regardless of what its like now, the cool weather will eventually come and I've got a pile of projects I plan on executing in the next 6 months. 

I have this idea that I'm going to be super productive over the colder months (like I was last year) so I've created quite a large to-sew list.

Would you like to see? 

Charlotte, the dancer

Oh hi there! You've come back! Hurrah!

Last week I promised I would post the pictures of my Charlotte dress like the next day, but I never got the chance to.

It was a very eventful week last week. In both good and bad ways

Bad because I was swamped with work one day which required me to stay back, I fell ill with a cold and needed to go to bed early and then had a super large hangover yesterday

But also good as I was randomly invited to see Phoenix on Wednesday with a friend, had my birthday on Friday and birthday dinner on Saturday (hence the hangover) and then an urge to cook a lot of fancy things on Sunday whilst hung-over. 

We had roast pork with all the trimmings and I made banana bread for this week’s morning teas! Yummy! 

So you see. I'm very bad with time management lately, for both good and bad reasons. Add the warm weather lethargy and I'm just a hopeless sloth! I really must learn to get back on top of it because my sewing is looking quite neglected =( 

So finally, I will now give you my lovely Charlotte! 

Being sewcial on Satuday

Hi there lovely! How was your weekend? 

On Saturday I met up with a group of sewing bloggers from Sydney for a little sewcial outing.

The very well organised Mel from Made by Melanie set up the whole day and we all had a pretty darn good day! 

Dressing the Decade - 1964

It's been a fair while since the last installment of Dressing the Decade, and I do apologise as I've just been too busy to spend the time researching and so on. But this weekend was a lot more relaxing. Catching up on blogs, baking and catching up on some TV shows has been really nice while writing this post. 

Speaking of which, if your in Australia I hope you've marked Mondays at 8:40pm in your diary to watch Love Child! For those not familiar with the show, Love child focuses on the lives of the Nurses and girls at a women's hospital in Kings Cross, Sydney set in 1969. The main story line focuses on Nurse Joan Millar who has just moved from London back to Sydney and discovers her new place of employment engages in illegal forced adoptions on un-wed mothers. A poignant and sensitive topic for Australian women's history as forced adoptions were something practiced quite often - so much so that the government was compelled to make an apology in 2013 to the Mothers and Children involved in the practice. I highly recommend watching it not just for the story line, but also for the music and of course costumes!

Anyway, so back today's blog post. I last left you in November with 1963. That year we started to see the emergence of youth fashion with silhouettes slimming down and the cinched in waistlines almost disappearing 

So lets continue now 1964!

Put on your dancing shoes!

I'd been keeping my eye out for the release date of the Orla Kiely for Clarks collection since they announced their collaboration last year, but when they were put up for sale a few weeks ago they didn't include international postage - I assume because Clarks wanted to keep all the Orla Kiely loveliness to themselves* and not share it with Australian Orla lovers.

*Not actual reason, I just made that up

But with thanks to my sister-from-another-mister Nicole, I was able to have a pair forwarded from the UK to me and when they arrived I put together a little outfit to wear to work to compliment my adorable new shoes! 

Jumper - Supre

Blouse (collar only shown) - Top Shop

Mini Skirt - Self made

Shoes - Orla Kiely for Clarks 'Maggie' in Mustard

Charlotte Dress

Hey there fab people!

Thank you for all your comments on my last post, I'm feeling much better about my choice. I've decided to put my the chiffon frock away for a bit until I feel ready to sew it again.

It's not often that I completely feel the need to just stop a project, even at work or in regular life situations. Normally I have the energy and drive to be able to complete projects and deal with any little pains that come up, but not this time!

It's probably something as silly as the hot humid weather we're having, exhaustion from work or distraction from watching the Olympics that's making this dress less interesting. Combine all of that with something as tricky and fiddly as chiffon and well it's a drag. I hope that explains whats going on in my dear little head! 

To get myself back into the right frame of mind and refresh my 60s love, I've been spending lots of time of Etsy looking at fun 60s frocks, trawling through my Pinterest pins and visiting my favourite place for ideas - Vintage Pattern wiki! 

I also created a separate Pinterest board for sewing patterns only, so they aren't all mixed up in fashion, sewing and private boards.

One particular image which I pinned not too long ago, came back to my attention whilst going through my pins   

Couple attends the Festival of the Flower Children at the Windsor Jazz Festival,  August 12, 1967

The big chiffon mess

Hi hello how are you? 

Me? I'm not so good. You see, I seem to have lost my sewing mojo! 

How could this have happened???

Well I blame it on this little scamp of a dress. Currently titled "the big chiffon mess" It's just not doing it for me. 

I know it will look good in the end because it is chiffon and very forgiving, but right now I just don't have the energy to be dealing with fussy little bits and details. Not to mention I never really had enough fabric for this dress in the first place and so things like the facings have to be replaced by organza and the ruffle at the bottom is non-existent!

The whole project is making me feel very ho-hum. 

Gosh! Even the photos are uninspiring!