Lemon Tart

These are the "real" version of the shorts I showed you in my last post. The fabric is a drill cotton with lemons on it from (where else?) the kids section at Spotlight. I wanted the lemons to run across the shorts sideways so I cut the fabric on the crosswise grain rather than parallel to the selvedge.

I forgot to mention the best part in my last post. There's a pocket! I love pockets.

I accidentally made this pair a smidgen too big. I cut the waistband extra long because in the last pair I had to do it in two pieces as I didn't have enough fabric. I can't be bothered unpicking the waistband to take them in though.

You can kind of see the buttons up the side. They're plain white ones from my favourite button op shop. Buttons are pretty much the only thing I ever find there, but they always have a good selection.

I wore these and the other shorts while I was in Wellington and I have to say, I'm a bit of a shorts convert. They were pretty comfy for walking around in and I didn't have to worry about flashing my knickers because of the wind.

Little Bo Peep

My nephew: "That's a nice...what is that? A skirt? Dress?"
Me: "Shorts. They're shorts."

It's probably unsurprising that my seven year old nephew couldn't quite figure out what I was sewing given that I haven't worn a pair of shorts for a few years. Shorts aren't really my thing. Until a couple of weeks ago I didn't even own a pair, unless you count my PE shorts from when I was 13. I decided that I needed a pair for my trip to Wellington because it's a notoriously windy city and I didn't want to spend the whole time holding down my skirts.

This is my wearable muslin pair, made from some vintage cotton that my Mum gave me. She op shopped the fabric years ago. It has a girl playing with a sheep or goat or some other animal on it. My nephew reckons it's a dog but I'm pretty sure you're not meant to feed dogs grass.

I used McCall's 5458 from July 1960. I left off the bows and used buttons up the side instead of a zip. There was only a metre of fabric so I had to do some creative piecing together to fit it all in.



Since I didn't have a top that matched the shorts (oh, the horror), I had to make one. I used the Port Elizabeth pattern, which is free on burdastyle and which I have made about six times now. The fabric is some apple green broderie anglaise with flowers printed on it.

I've also made my final pair but haven't got a photo of them, yet. They are bright yellow with lemons on them. I mean, you didn't expect me to make sensible shorts did you?

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.

It's only rock and roll

We had a few more big earthquakes yesterday. Not really what we needed two days before Christmas. Luckily, no one was seriously injured. Since there's not much you can do in these situations except keep calm and carry on, we spent Christmas eve eve eating blue cheese stuffed olives and pepperdews and watching telly (which was still sitting on the floor where it had fallen during the quake).

I'm not heavily into the whole Christmas thing (we don't even have a tree) and I hate Christmas songs but Tim Minchin's White Wine in the Sun pretty much sums up all my feelings about it. I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday however you celebrate, and manages to drink some white wine (or other beverage) in the sun (or snow if you live in the Northern hemisphere).