Just to let you know...

... the wonderful Tors from Girl Meet Wolf asked me to guest post on her blog whilst she's away working and my post on Autumn Fashion in 1954 is up. I had originally intended on a short tutorial on how to do a sleep mask but the process needs further tweaking and I couldn't pull it off in time.

...I will be tweaking the layout of my blog in the next week or so, so don't take much notice if you spot apparently incomplete things or strange additions. I will let you know what I changed when it's done and also why I changed. No major redesign will happen though.

... I am planning a post on knits fabric after reading Ruth's comment on my last post. She is asking for sources of knitted fabric and as I was contemplating using it (before on deciding I would attempt knitting) I have some ideas and possible sources.

Vintage Vogue Knitting in the 60s

Welcome to Thursdays Knitting! I am yet to complete a proper knitting project (I am the slowest knitter around) and to be honest knitting will not out do sewing for me. However I do love knitting and I'm very keen to have some time and space (in my head and online) dedicated to it. I chose Thursday because this is the day of the week I attend (when I manage) a wonderful pub knitting evening with other fantastic knitters.
So what can you expect on Thursdays Knitting? Everything and anything related with knitting. It might be a finished project (ha!), a featured knitter or knitted garment or some images of vintage knitting. Which is where I will start. At an antiques shop close to my work I found a stack of Vogue Knitting magazines from 1940s till 1960s. Needless to say I bought them all at a very good price. I have started scanning my favourite garments and adverts from these and will share them with you. If you are a knitter and want to know how to knit a particular garment you see, drop me an email and I'll happily send you a scan of the pattern instruction. I like leaving best things for last so I will be starting with most recent items.

Vogue Knitting Jubilee edition
Nothing to do with the monarchy though, it was the 60th number of the magazine. Dated 1962 shows the well known box shape from the 60s. Enjoy!

I love the suit but I also love the puppy!

Gorgeous dress in eyelet rib.

The Bombshell Meetup and what's next...

What a fantastic meet up it was! It was so awesome to meet these 5 gorgeous ladies and spend some time drinking cocktails in a gorgeous venue. Honestly, it was awesome! Much was said about it in Karen's blog, Jane's blog,  Roisin's blog and Amy's blog...go read! I'll leave you with a group photo, which you probably have seen already. The barman had to go really, really back to get us all on the frame as I decided to take my SLR camera with a 50mm lens. That means lots of space is needed for group or full body shots. And the venue was gorgeous but too dark for photos. And I hate flash! So not many photos from my part!

So now that the Bombshell is finished, what's next? 

The focus of the next month or so will be pattern making. I'm starting the 2nd part of the course and want to really crack on with some design ideas and practice the basic dart manipulations already learned on the 1st part. I want to feel confident tackling more advanced manipulations. This means finished projects might be scarce in the next few months. 

I have a cape in the final stages, all it needs is some heavy duty snaps sewn on. I will be able to share this with you at some point. I am also going to have another go at sewing little things. Now I don't particularly like sewing little things but maybe having quick, dirty and easy sewing projects to break off the pattern work might make it more enjoyable.

On my blog I will be starting a regular knitting feature and finally sort my photography tips posts...stay tuned! Oh, and my Book review that was due this last Sunday? It will be up next week.

The Camo Bombshell

The construction is over! I give you my Camo Bombshell.

I am so in love with this dress! Following Gertie's instructions was fantastic, she's really a great teacher! Obviously, there were ups and downs and this dress isn't perfect but I am quite chuffed with how it turned out. I loved all the hand sewing, which is something I used to dislike. Some parts were a challenge to sew, such as the zipper guard and bottom of lining to bodice. The polycotton I used is not very forgiving on mistakes and it was a challenge to invisible stitch to one layer only. On the zipper guard I had the opposite problem. Too many layers and little access to bottom bit (that probably don't make any sense but there you go).

A huge thank you to Gertie and the team at Craftsy for making this available. I do hope there's more to come.

Today I'm heading towards the BFI in London for the highly anticipated Bombshell Meet up party. Karen from Did You Make That? will be there wearing her fantastic Bombshell. Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons and Jane from Handmade Jane will be there too. This fantastic meet up was organised by Roisin from But it can't be Dolly Clackett? whom I'm also looking forward to meet. I have my camera on me and will report back.

Maroon Clovers

You will have to wait a bit more to see my Bombshell in action. I have tons of hand sewing and finishing to do but promise I will be done before the end of the month. In the meantime I am happy to report I have finished my Clovers from Colette Patterns.

I was quite wary of cutting the original chosen fabric for these as I knew that if major fitting issues occurred there wouldn't be much chance of recovering it. I waited for some time until chance took me to a almost local fabric shop where I found some stretch bio suiting (anyone know what type of fabric this is?) for £3.50. Ideal price for a muslin, no? Out of the colours available maroon was the most wearable so I settled for that.

I decided to sew these trousers as per instructions with pockets and complete waistband. Firstly because I wanted a practice run before I cut into the original fabric and secondly so I could use them if the muslin turned out wearable. 

And I'm so glad I did! Without any fitting alterations they are perfectly wearable. They could be a bit snugger under my bottom and the fabric is not the most pretty or comfortable against the skin but it's not too bad.

 The construction was easy and straight forward. The waistband is constructed the same way as Ginger which lends to a perfect finish. I struggled a bit with bulk in this area though and need to address this the next time I sew them. I also have a imperfect invisible zipper. I used a black one (because it was what I had in at home) and it's not completely invisible. The inside of these is very, very ugly. I decided not to try the trousers on until I was almost finished so didn't want to waste time on seams finishes. Not a problem as the fabric doesn't ravel too much.

Now that I done these I can move on and sew them again with the original fabric choice but with a Bombshell and a winter dress on my queue I might wait a few months.

In Construction: Camo Bombshell

Almost finished with my Bombshell dress...

I am loving constructing this dress. As I probably said before Gertie is a great teacher and makes the most difficult things so easy to understand.
All I have left to do is the lining, the boning and the hem!

What about you dear readers, are you sewing a Bombshell?

Clover Sewalong and other things...

Colette Patterns are having a sew along!! Woohoo, no way would I miss this! I love sew alongs, I love Colette Patterns and I love the crazy, unpractical and risky fabric I chose for the gorgeous Clover trousers.
I know, I know!!! This wasn't in my sewing list. Things changed (ha! What a surprise!).
I have decided not to do the coat. To be honest I was very indecisive on it and after the few near mishaps with my Beignet Skirt, I decided I need to take it even slower. That means not embarking on a hugely challenging tailoring project. I'm still working on my Bombshell dress and I'm loving how it's turning out. Those of you who follow me on twitter will have seen a sneak preview. If not, don't worry, I'm planning a post around it. I want to make sure I finish by the end of the month when a Bombshell cocktail party will take place. It will be awesome and I can't wait.
I realised I wouldn't have any decent coat to take to this party. It will probably be cold, although nowadays you can't trust the weather. I decided to do a quick and easy cape with some wool blend I bought in Hungary. I'm underlining it with fleece for ultra warmness. We'll see how that turns out!
After all that I will embark on another challenging project. My beloved winter wool dress. Mostly challenging because of the amount of buttons and the fact I cannot screw the expensive fabric up. I'm in dilemmas over how to wash it now. And that's all for now!