OWOP Day Six: It's a mad world

I feel like I should preface this by saying that I don’t actually watch Mad Men anymore. Honestly, all the misogyny and all the Don Draper just got really annoying. I hate Don Draper. There, I said it. He cheats on his wife all the time, stole another man’s identity, was horrible to his brother who then committed suicide and is generally not a good person. I guess the glamorisation of characters like Don Draper and Roger Sterling who are sexist, racist and homophobic doesn’t much appeal to me. The misogyny I could handle if the female characters were well written but I just don’t think they are. When watching, I constantly ask myself, “Why am I meant to care about these people again?”. The clothes and the set of Mad Men are gorgeous but I find myself bored and not invested in the characters at all. Obviously, this isn’t meant as a criticism of anyone who loves Mad Men. It’s just not to my personal taste.

That said, when I saw Julia Bobbin’s Mad Men challenge I wanted to take part because there was a dress Peggy wore in one of the early seasons that I’ve wanted to make for ages. I do love the clothes in Mad Men, if not the actual show. I think Peggy wears this dress to a party sometime in season two, but I’m not sure.



I loved the shape, the collar and the bow. I did manage to find a pretty similar print to Peggy’s dress but it was $24 a metre and I didn’t really love the print to begin with. I found a red and white floral print on trademe that was way cheaper and I liked more.

What does this have to do with OWOP? Well, I used my OWOP blouse pattern for the bodice, adding a pleated skirt to turn it into a dress. The fabric is quite thin so I underlined it in white cotton. I made the collar slightly bigger and added a side zip.

The bow is just attached with a safety pin. I’m not sure I’m sold on the bow which is weird because I usually put bows on everything. I think it’s the colour. The black contrasts a bit too much with the rest of the dress.

OWOP Day Four and Five: Two for the price of one

I may have got a little Picnik-happy with these photos. Got to use it while I can.

I have two OWOP outfits today because I was a day behind, although considering the New Zealand timezone is ahead of just about everywhere (except Tokelau and the Chatham Islands, I think), I'm not really behind. On that completely irrelevant note, here's what I wore on Tuesday. My OWOP blouse is a black broderie anglaise version. I wore it with self-drafted circle skirt, op shopped cardigan, vintage bird brooch and shoes from Wellington. The tights were a birthday present last year. You can't really see but they have flowers screen printed on them. They are made by Imprint right here in Christchurch.

Excuse my really wrinkled skirt. I ironed it this morning but sitting all day left it a bit worse for wear. I wore my birds nest printed blouse, the same as for day one of OWOP. The skirt, belt and cardigan are all op shopped. Worn with my usual saddle shoes and bakelite bangles.

OWOP Day Three: ...ties are cool

For day three of OWOP, I wore my sailboat version of Butterick 9405 to uni. The leather tie is my Dad's. Mum made it for him many years ago and now I have stolen it. The skirt is another self-drafted one. I got the red plastic bangles at an op shop the other day for $1. I think the cardigan was from Vanessa and Warren's old shop Tete a Tete Vintage, when it was still standing. The shoes are from Golden Ponies.

OWOP Day Two: Bike shorts

No, not those kind of bike shorts. I made another pair of shorts from McCalls 5458. They're so good for biking in since I'm paranoid about getting my dresses caught in the back wheel.

For day two of OWOP I wore my shorts with another version of Butterick 9405. I haven't shown you this one either even though I finished it ages ago. It's made from some linen/cotton blend London themed fabric. I didn't actually like London much when I went as a kid. The sheer number of people was slightly terrifying for a seven year old from New Zealand.

The buttons on my shorts are from Madelaine of Look, Make, See, Do. I bought a couple of patterns from her etsy shop a while ago and she very sweetly sent me some notions as well including these vintage buttons still on their card. They are perfect because red is my favourite colour and, for some reason, red buttons are hard to find here.

OWOP

I know what you're thinking. What is this OWOP thing? The new Hansen song, perhaps? No, it's Tilly's One Week, One Pattern challenge. The idea is to wear different versions of the same pattern every day for a week. I chose vintage Butterick 9405, aka the best three bucks I ever spent.



The envelope may not look like much but view D is my perfect blouse. I mean, it has a peter pan collar.

My latest version is made from some quilting cotton that was on the sale table at Spotlight for $4/m. It has little nests and birds on it. I used some buttons from an op shop.

For day one of OWOP I wore it with a self-drafted skirt (and by self-drafted I mean, I took a rectangle, pleated it and added a waistband), vintage bakelite bangles and saddle shoes and some random tights.

To going against the grain, going insane, going mad

Uni has been really busy since I started back but I have managed to get a little bit of sewing done. I finished Simplicity 3911 a couple of weeks ago but didn't have a chance to take any photos of it until today.

I used some stripey cotton I got on Trademe over a year ago. The fabric had some stains on it which I tried to cut around where possible. I couldn't avoid them all so there's some on the skirt but you can't really see them because of the gathers.

Sewing this reminded me why I love stripes but hate sewing with them. I managed to cut one of the front bodice pieces backwards. This was after I'd made extra certain that the stripes were matched up. Luckily, I had enough fabric to cut it out again but it did cause me to utter a fair few expletives and throw my pincushion across the room.
I cut the skirt on the cross-grain because I wanted the stripes to be horizontal and it meant I could cut the whole skirt in one piece. I didn't do the tucks in the hem that you can see on the pattern envelope because I pinned them but you couldn't really see them because of the stripes.

It has pockets and not those stupid, tiny pockets you find in modern clothes that you can't put anything in for fear of it falling out. These pockets are huge and about 30cm deep. If I put my hands in to the bottom of the pocket they swallow half my arm.

I could've taken the side seams in a bit more but I really couldn't be bothered.



I made the bow belt too with millinery petersham/grosgrain from LuluDeux. It's really stiff so the bow sits nicely.



It closes under the bow with a big snap.

I wasn't sure I'd get to wear this dress much since it's autumn but the weather's all over the place. Today has been really sunny so it looks like I'll still be able to wear my summer dresses for a little while yet.

Captain Underpants

I haven't posted about my quest to make my own underwear for a while but I have actually been making (and wearing) some.

When I saw Zoe's leopard print knickers that she made I instantly wanted a pair.
I found some cheap stretchy mesh leopard print fabric at Kutwell. It's the kind of thing I'd usually avoid like the plague because I'm not generally a fan of wearing synthetics but I planned to line it so it didn't really matter. I used some thin black cotton lycra for lining and fold over elastic (the best elastic ever) to finish the edges. I used the same high waisted 80s pattern I used last time. I gotta say, I think they are pretty awesome but then again I love anything leopard print. They fit similarly to these in terms of high waisted-ness.

For some reason I've had real trouble finding stretch cottons with cute prints here. All I can find is solid colour t-shirting fabric. Maybe I'm the only person around here weird enough to make her own underwear. This may actually be the case. When I told the woman at the fabric store that I was using the fabric I was buying to make knickers she laughed nervously and looked at me like I was crazy.
I bought this flower and bird print off Etsy. It's a cotton interlock type knit which isn't as good as cotton/spandex for making knickers but I loved the print.

These are a completely different style to the other ones I've made. I love the look of American Apparel's unisex brief but I would never buy from them for a variety of reasons including their super creepy CEO, gross company policies and this. I used a pattern meant for a 12 year old boy and some neon cotton/spandex. They fit well and are really comfortable.
Making knickers is strangely addictive. Once you get the hang of it they come together quickly and you can make multiple pairs at a time.