Two Lovely Squirrels

Today, Mum and I went to Rangiora to the Two Squirrels pop-up vintage shop, the Nest. The Nest is closing in a couple of weeks and the squirrels are going to open an online shop. They have lots of amazing stuff and the squirrels, Vanessa and Warren, are two of the nicest people you'll ever meet.



I bought this lovely shirtdress. The pattern is so pretty.



I didn't notice until I got it home that it has an unusual triangle shaped armscye. You can see it in the photo above. I've never seen ones like it. One of the things I love about vintage is the cute details like that.



I also got this lovely seersucker which I plan to make into a playsuit, maybe like this gorgeous vintage one but I will probably make a two-piece. I got some buttons too but I didn't get a picture of them (oops).

She's a Mod

You know how sometimes you forget how much you love something? Like, I forgot how delicious cream cheese is and then I had some the other day and now I keep slathering it on everything. I also momentarily forgot how much I love 60s style dresses. That is, until I saw the floral fabric I posted about in my last post. It's a textured cotton pique and when I saw it at Spotlight it screamed, "Make me into a 60s dress". It was $18 a metre though and that's more than I like to spend on fabric (yeah, I'm cheap) so I didn't buy it. About a month later I was in Spotlight again browsing the sales table and there it was for $4 a metre so I happily bought it.

I used Burda #104, after seeing this fabulous version. It has bell sleeves which I love. It came together relatively easily, apart from my sewing machine having a hissy fit. Luckily, I have two, so I used my 1950s Elna instead.

I made a couple of changes to the pattern. I couldn't be bothered doing a closure so I cut the back lower so that I could slip it over my head. I made the skirt flare out slightly more.
I'm really happy with the way it turned out and it's made me obsessed with sewing some more 60s style dresses.

P.S. I'm going to Wellington for a few days next week, does anyone have any vintage or op shopping recommendations?

Leather, Plastic and Flowers

My new camera finally arrived. I have been taking pictures of stuff around the house all day.

My ever expanding collection of bakelite bangles.



A new pair of vintage gloves I bought at Ferry Antiques. It's a co-operative shop with different sellers so there's loads of amazing things. I love antique shops that are chock-a-block with stuff.


Fabric I'm using to sew a 60s style dress.

A Picnic and a Check the Technique

Picture pilfered from the fabulous Helga

On Sunday Georgia and Ayesha organised a wee blogger picnic in Hagley Park. It was so nice to meet Christie, Laurel and Ayesha and see Georgia and Helga again. The weather was perfect and the rain that was forecast never arrived. It was great to chat about blogging, vintage and op-shopping while enjoying snacks and drinks.

I didn't take any photos because my camera is broken and I'm waiting for my new one to be sent but you can see more pictures at Georgia's and Helga's blogs.

Picture pinched from the lovely Georgia

I wore a skirt sent to me by the very generous Brians an unusual name for a girl. She sent me a whole package of lovely stuff including a fabulous 60s lingerie set and some great dresses which I'll show you in another post. The skirt fabric is a gorgeous floral cotton. It was too long and needed a waistband and a zip so I cut some of the bottom off to make a waistband. I didn't have the right coloured zip in my stash so I made a placket and used some snaps and a hook and eye at the top.

I decided to use some horsehair braid in the hem which is on my Check the Technique list. Horsehair braid (not actually made of horsehair, it's kind of plastic-y), is used in hems to give them a nice shape. I followed the technique from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing. You sew it like a facing, then flip it up and topstitch it. As you can see from the above picture my machine didn't really like the horsehair braid. It looks okay on the outside but the inside's a bit wonky. When I use it again I think I'll sew the hem up by hand rather than topstitching it. The braid I used wasn't very wide (about 2.5cm) so the effect is quite subtle. It makes the skirt stand out sort of like I'm wearing a crinoline which I like.