Cass - The twin dress

Why hello there long time readers and those of you who have wandered over from Allie J!

Not too long ago (ok it was ages ago I'm really bad at writing back to emails in a timely fashion) Allie contacted me and suggested we do a little sew a long. As fellow 60's lovers we often don't get the chance to sew along to many things lest we step outside our "time zones" so we decided to make up our own!

So with an opportunity to sew something cute for summer and also share something from my vintage fabric stash, I sent Allie half of my stock of this fabulous vintage cotton and we set ourselves a challenge end date of November 1st

Now it is actually November 2nd so I'm late for posting too, but I felt terribly feverish last night and had to go to bed. In fact I was already feeling icky while taking these photos. 

After sending off half of my fabric I was left with two metres to sew with, so with summer coming it was obvious that I could only really make a sleeveless dress. For my version I picked Simplicity 7952 from 1968.

I really liked this fabric for the interesting pocket detail along the princess seams.

Allie's version uses Simplicity 7194 which I also used for my Sally dress so we both have dresses that feature princess seams, which can be a real trick to sew sometimes but hey, no risk of pointy bust darts!

I cut this dress at the normal size 14 and it ended up huge! Like a size 18 which was so wack! So I put it on inside out and pinned out the sides and the front middle seam until it fit right at the front

Unfortunately this means that the back has a wide scoop neck which is lower then normal, which is fine, but its just not something I normally like, but it works just fine!

Cause of the fabric limit I didn't have enough to cut the armhole facings and being a summer dress there was no way I was going to line this and make it a sweat-fest every time I wore it, so I left it unlined and just finished the arm holes with bias 

I think both our dresses turned our pretty gosh darn sweet don't you? We both have some cute striped fabric lined up from Miss Matatabi. I'd love to have that sewn up before our weekend away in Palm Beach (If your from Sydney and have seen the series Avalon now, you might find that funny)

And just like Allie I have a bruise too (on my knee), but mine is from making an epic goal save in soccer! hehe

I believe there may have been mentions of possible further twin dresses soon, perhaps a wintery one cause I basically made poor Allie make a summer dress in Autumn!

Be sure to check out Allie's Lilly dress and also her whole blog! Its a 60s dream!

Cat xo 

Sandie

Ahoy hoy readers! I hope you've all been well? 

I have some rather exciting news! I bought a car! A red Fiat 500 to be exact, to be named Fiammetta the Fiat. She's very cute and little and doesn't have much grunt but that's ok, I'm still on my learners so I'm not allowed over 80km/h anyway. I can't drive it on my own without an instructor yet so for most of the time I just sit in it and listen to music and visit it in the garage and do funny things like that. Did you do that when you bought your first car? 

Hopefully I'll have my provisional license sometime next year so I can go on opp shopping trips and be able to bring home all those large heavy items I usually pass by with a heavy heart. 

Any way - it's time for me to post up a new dress! 

Daisy chain

Oh well hey there pretty people! I promised myself I would blog at least once a week this month but I'm already behind on that little promise, oops!

Not that I fussed about it really. Everything has been pretty swell no-blog wise. I've been doing lots of sewing and this past weekend the boy and I took a little trip up to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains for my birthday! We visited Scenic World which is basically the most touristy thing to do up there. They have a train thingy that takes you down the mountain on a 52 degree incline at a nice little speed so that you can actually look around. I had this idea that it was roller coaster speed but the ticket seller just had to chuckle at me and said they wouldn't let as many pensioners on if it was!

Little Red Rooster

Hello hello readers!! How the heck have you all been? I've been having a lovely long break way from le blog to catch up on sewing and enjoy my new job which has been really enjoyable! My new boss is pretty cool and I even get to go out and play team football (Soccer) once a week, which has now resulted in a fractured second toe but otherwise, the comparison between my old role and my new role are streets apart. I'm feeling much more relaxed and I have time to do my job properly, not just squeeze 3 roles into one! 

And so yes, all this life happiness has resulted in a tonne of sewing! So many things to show you all, but first I should try to catch up on everything I'm well behind in! 

Julie

Hello everyone! I was so ready to show you the photos of this new dress but our internet allowance got gobbled up my the boys new Playstation updates which left us with snail paced internet for a week! Ah but anyway - I now present to you the most recent of my sewn projects - Julie!

Named after Julie Christie for no reason in particular! I just wanted the dear thing to have a name, and because its a darling of a dress! 

Chrissie

Hey there beautiful people! How have you been?

We've been having some mightily good weather and my garden has gone bananas! Nasturtiums, snapdragons, daisies, jasmine and more to come! Hopefully we can have a night stretch of this weather before the reliable spring rain comes in a few weeks

I also have 3 new dresses to show you! Oh yes 3! Two of them were made a few months ago, but I saved them for this article feature on The Makes Society. 

I much prefer to collaborate and share with fellow Aussie bloggers and peeps and bring them too the wider world, so any chance to support my fellow countryman I'll jump at the chance! 

I've also been trying to power through my massive pile of books - So far I've read The BIBA experience (which is if course amazing) and I'm currently reading through "Sixties Fashion" which I'll give you a review of when I'm done.

So lets take a look now at this sugary sweet number shall we? 

Chrissie is named after the lovely Chrissie Shrimpton. Sister of Jean Shrimpton, girlfriend of Mick Jagger and Steve Marriot, Chrissie's style tended to be child-like and sweet, much like this smock dress in Butterick 6959 from the 70's

Good Day Sunshine!

Hello! Guess what? I finally have something new to show you!

Yay!

It's been a little while since I posted a new dress, so thank goodness it's a super happy bright one! Are you excited to see it? 

My mum had the below Simplicity pattern from 1975 and I always remember it from her collection. I didn't take it with me when I moved out of home but a random mini 70's obsession prompted me to go find it on Etsy. 

I didn't even notice in the product description that the straps and facings were missing, so a quick call to mum and now I have both patterns! 

I'm Just mad about Saffron

"...Saffrons mad about me"

Oh Donovan! How many post titles can I come up with from his lyrics? Perhaps we can discuss that another time, because now I have my finished dress to show you! 

Biba's Pink Gingham dress

Ooh my it's been awhile since I've posted an actual project! 

But I have still been sewing and scheming (and working and slothing about) and holidays are only a few days away! So many UFOs to finish and opp-shopped clothes to repair

For now however, I bring you my reproduction of Biba's gingham shift...

Do you like my Christmas decorations?

Pine Lime Splice

I honestly thought I wouldn't like this dress once it was complete. I liked the fabric, but it had a kind of cliché 60s feel to it with the daisies and bright green and so on, but now that it’s sewn up, I’m pretty darn happy that it is so typically 60s

See Emily play

Oh my how the past 2 weeks have flown! So many things keeping one occupied and exhausted but I always make the time to sew!

I have made 2 dresses recently, but I only have one edited and ready for show today

Stockings from Modcloth, Shoes - opp shopped 

Pyjama Party Sew Along!

Time to show off my Jim jams for Did you make that’s Pyjama party!

No not that Jim Jam

These Jim Jams!

 How close is my head to the roof?

Shift!

Back at the start of Autumn I spied this image of Celia Birtwell and Cathy McGowan in simple plain coloured shifts. No bishop sleeves, dropped waists, smocking or psychedelic patterns. Just simple and casual.

So chic!

And then I noticed more....

Clock wise from top left - Jean Shrimpton, France Gall, Julie Christie, Model 

The Bliss of Mrs Blossom

I picked up this fabric from Fabric-a-brac (blogged here) and I knew it had to become a dress! The fabric is good enough that I could have even made a jacket – but alas there was only 2 meters!

Green Shell Top Tutorial

Today I will be showing you a variation on Burda Shift Dress 09/2012 #107

This variation turns the top into a tank style top with a cross back. You can use Burda 09/2012 #107 or Collette patterns Laurel as your base as we only need the front and part of the back of the pattern.

If you have another pattern for a shift dress or plain top, you can use this too! I will instruct you to make this top to fit you so make sure you have your measuring tape and if you have one a dressmakers mannequin or packing tape shell (if you ever made one). I don't have a mannequin and I did ok so don't worry if you don't have one