Facile Patterns

Hello one and all! I hope you've been having a pleasant week?

Last week I had a rather full mind posting often, but this week I decided to sew and let the blog breath a little. 

But anyway I'm back and in the mean time I've received these lovely Australian patterns from Bella's Vintage Affair - (She has a great floral Oilcloth rain coat for sale at the moment!)

Legend of a Girl Child Linda

It’s been a rather nice weekend – warm and sunny 23 degrees which is lovely for Winter and hopefully and indicator of the next few months to come

This new dress will be perfect for when the warmer weather arrives and I’m very excited to show it to you.

My Sewing Space

Today I took the day off work for an Orthodontist appointment so it was nice to be home on a week day morning.

Outside kids are walking to school, cars are making a fuss about getting through the traffic and neighbours are going in and out to leave for the day. I was going to do a little sewing before my appointment, but in the bright morning light everything looks much newer and fresher. Something I only get to see on the weekends

I thought I'd take a photo of my sewing area for you and the tools I use most while working

My sewing area is at the end of the dining table in a corner so I can spread out and make a mess in one little area if I need. The spare room is dark and pokey so I'm not keen on being in there much and from here I can watch TV, listen to music or keep an eye on my cooking.

My pretty sewing machine Dolly has been behaving well since her return from repairs

60s fashion elements - The Drop Waist

Well, another dress down and a new one already lined up! I'll of course take some photos for you all this weekend, but in the meantime I'm making plans to use this modern pattern to make a deep red drop waist dress with white buttons and bias binding

In my research for an inspiration image I came across a reoccurring trend of 60's drop waist dresses, so let us delve a little deeper shall we?

60's Australia

Sometimes with all the excitement surrounding London or New York in the 60's, I sometimes forget about my own little country.

During my late night trawling of the National Archives of Australia, I came across some images of Australian fashion in the 60's and realised that although we weren't the center of the cultural revolution like London, we still were there doing our own version of the swinging sixties

Here are a few of my favourites

The Bliss of Mrs Blossom - the movie

In case I haven't made it clear by naming one of my dresses after it - I'm a big fan of the movie The Bliss of Mrs Blossom

I came across it back when I was 16 or so on a Saturday afternoon when channel 9 took a rare break from Clint Eastwood and Elisabeth Taylor films to show this visual treat.

I finally got a DVD copy a few years ago, so now let me share with you some of my favourite scenes and clothing from the film

(Note: This post is a little picture heavy!)

Queens & Quilts

The lovely Lena from The Vintage Guide to London and Style High Club has been ever so kind to let me be one of her Queens of Vintage

Thank you Lena for featuring me!

Take a pop over the to the Queens of Vintage site to see all the other lovely Queens and Kings of this wonderful community of vintage lovers

In other news, I can finally show of the little quilt I made for my friends Baby!

I made it double sided with 2 prints, as I wasn't sure of the colour scheme of the baby room. I used geo giraffe and chevron ikat both from Spoonflower (where else?) and I added some bias around the edges. I initially started quilting the layers together with 10cm rows of stitching, but I changed it to 5cm when it wasn't giving me that “quilted” look

Quilting when you think about it is pretty easy – There are more complicated and decorative techniques out there with patchwork and so on, but if you can do a running stitch you can make a basic quilt. This one is just a sandwich of fabric, batting and fabric so there are no overly complicated techniques involved. Give it a go if you like!

The future Mama and Papa! See how they glow!

And now back to our scheduled programming – the next project begins!

Take Care!
Cat