Measuring a button for a buttonhole

Have you ever picked out a big juicy button for a sewing project? 

Have you then only measured the diameter of the button and ended up with a button hole that is too small for your chunky button? 

Fear not! There is a way to work out exactly how wide you need to make your button hole for chunky fat buttons. 
I recently read this technique in Couture Sewing techniques by Claire B. Shaeffer

Before Biba

I’ve just finished reading A to Biba and I was blown away by the vivid and wonderful descriptions of the clothes, interiors and happenings at Biba.

The end of Biba is frustratingly tragic and left me wishing I was a billionaire and could simply buy back the Biba name, gift it to Barbara and bring it back to its original purpose – beautiful clothing in wonderful designs and sold at a reasonable price.

Although Biba’s heyday has past, there are of course plenty of devotees dedicated to keeping the original look and name alive and I hope they never disappear especially with Biba’s many reinterpretations

We know the name came from Barbara’s sister Biba, but interestingly in Polish biba also means spree or jag – which is a period of overindulgence in an activity – in this case a period of luxurious design and beautiful clothing. Perhaps it is never meant to be repeated?

Barbara Hulanicki was heavily inspired by the Hollywood movies she used to watch at Brighton as a girl as well as Art Nouveau and Art Deco design. Classic Hollywood is known for is glamour, with its actresses dressed in silk, furs and feathers and with the sets fabulously displayed with rich fabrics, mirrors and lacquered wood.

There are a lot of blog posts dedicated to Biba and the beautiful clothing and girls who worked for them but I thought I might do something different.

I decided instead to bring you some images which I think may have inspired Barbara in her younger years or that hold that certain something that Biba was known for

Have a good weekend! 

The Biba brown chalk stripe dress

Dearest readers! I am looking for your help!

I'm currently reading A to Biba - The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki 
In the book she describes 2 dresses which essentially kicked off the Biba Boutique Postal Service 

The Sugar Pink Gingham shift dress and the Brown Pinstripe smock
There are limited images of the Pink gingham dress but even less so of the Brown chalk stripe dress. 

Pretty Pattie

Oh Pattie! How much stress she caused me. But in the end it turned out very well!

I cut this pattern 5 weeks ago, and other than a break to make The bliss of Mrs Blossom dress, I’ve been stitching little bits of this jacket, making improvements on the fit and fiddling around with “tailoring techniques” (which in the end were kind of useless), and having tiny hissy fits every time I tried it on

But in the end I am so happy with it I don’t even care about its remaining imperfections!

Blouse from ASOS, Patent black shoes from ASOS, Handbag - Op Shop find

So listen while I play my Green Tambourine

Today has been a rather trying day at work for me so I though we'd have a little fun this Friday to the sounds of the Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine

Nothing too hard - just a fun little guessing game!

July 1st goodies, or How to spend your tax refund

July first! For most of us that means tax returns (boring) but for the lucky ones that also means tax refunds (hooray!) 

Allow me to make some suggestions from my favourite Etsy sellers on how to throwaway invest your refund into some lovely vintage pieces!

Laurids Lonborg Coasters, Gold Bow Brooch, Floral Biscuit tin, Purple open toe heels

The Dark End of the Street

So how was your weekend lovelies? 

I had one of those 1 step forwards 2 steps back type weekends. 

The sleeves on the Pattie suit are still not right, so I thought adding in the shoulder pads and sleeve heads would help pick up some of the drooping but if anything it only perpetuated the 80s jacket look 

Looks ok...

The inside before the lining.
Not sure why I picked black pads