Recent Acquisitions

And by recent I mean between yesterday and months ago.

I got this vintage dress a couple of months ago on Trademe. The photo on the auction was of the dress lying on the floor so I wasn't sure what it would look like on but I took a chance and I love it. It's way nicer than I was expecting. The colours are a lot more vibrant in person than they look here.

My Mum got me the cocktail hat when she was out op shopping yesterday (I definitely got the op shopping gene from her). 

  

I love the bow on the back. It has little crocheted loops on the inside to stick bobby pins through to keep it on your head. 

 

I also recently got a couple of new (old) bakelite bangles from Dear Valentine on etsy. The new ones are the carved green one on the left and the carved red one fourth from the left. I rationalise buying bakelite because I wear them every day.

On Saturday I went to the Two Squirrels winter sale with Helga, Ayesha and Ayesha's friend Raea. There were lots of people there and lots of goodies.

I managed to nab the floral and a novelty border print fabrics (above), the 60s pattern below and some other things I didn't manage to photograph.

 

 

Summer of '65

When I saw the trailer above for Moonrise Kingdom I wasn't that interested in the film but the dress that Suzy wears  made me pause and re-watch it several times. To be honest, I'm not a Wes Anderson fan so I won't be going to see the movie. It looks aesthtically pleasing but the self-conscious quirkiness of his films don't appeal to me. I love the dress though and am determined to make my own version.  

I think the orange version may actually be tiny orange and white checks

 She has the same design in different colours. I think I like the orange version best.
I would guess that the dress has no waist seam. It looks like she's got a piece of string or something tied around her waist.

Yellow

This one looks like some sort of textured pique type fabric

I bought this pattern off trademe because it has the right shape, although it's got princess seams which I don't think Suzy's dress does. I will have to re-draft the collar and draft some longer sleeves and cuffs. I'll leave the faux pockets and the stripe off the front and change the zip to the back (the zip is covered by the white stripe). 

I have this medium weight orange cotton that I bought at Arthur Toye in Wellington. The fabric is called Mary Quant which is pretty perfect for making a 60s style dress. If this one goes well I might have to make a yellow one and a pink one too.

Oranges are not the only fruit

   
Remember my last post when I said I could make a whole pile of shirtdresses and wear them all the time? Well, this is number two. I used the same pattern as the last one but added the pleated skirt instead of the A-line one.

The fabric is an apple print cotton from Spotlight. I always complain about Spotlight but they actually have some pretty good fabrics and at the moment there aren't many places to buy material here. 

The buttons are from Unearthed in Wellington which is a really cool shop with lots of vintage and retro kitchenware and household stuff.

I think I love this one even more than the map one and you better believe I already have my next shirtdress planned. 

Atlas

Thanks for all your comments on my last post. I appreciate every single one of them. Where I live most people just think I dress weirdly (which I do!) so it's nice to know that other people like the clothes I make.   

When I saw Georgia's map dress I added 'dress with map print' to my very long list of things to sew. I found some world map print quilting cotton that reminded me of the globe we had when I was a kid.

I used a shirtdress (shirt dress?) pattern from 1972 which I found in an op shop for 20 cents. Speaking of op shopping, I haven't shared any of my finds lately because there haven't really been any. The op shopping here hasn't been very good in the last couple of months. All I seem to find are sewing notions which are useful but not very exciting. I did get the bag I'm holding the other day and some bias binding but that's about it.  

I made view 4, the blue spotty dress, but without the contrast cuffs and collar. It had this weird bit on the skirt where there was a little flap with two buttons. I cut the flap off and did buttons all down the front instead. The red buttons were from the Two Squirrels' Nest.  

I look pretty grumpy in the photos because I was trying not to squint in the sun but I'm really happy with how this dress turned out. I think I could make a whole pile of these shirtdresses and live in them. 

  

Put a bird on it

A few years ago I bought some cotton sateen with flowers and birds on it. It was after going to a William Morris exhibition at the art gallery. I became a bit obsessed with bird prints after seeing all the amazing furnishings. I would have a whole room decked out in Strawberry Thief if I could.
The fabric sat patiently waiting in my stash until I bought this pattern from Madelaine's etsy shop. I thought they would go perfectly together.

I only had two metres of the fabric so I had to shorten the sleeves a lot. I tried to cut the pieces out so there was the maximum number of whole birds (there are a few, however, that have sadly been beheaded).

The bag is one I picked up in the Two Squirrels sale. It's such a good size. I use it all the time.

I love this dress. It makes me think I need to make more slim skirted dresses rather than my usual full skirted ones.

OWOP Day Seven: Better late then never

This is my last day of OWOP, only three days late. This was actually day six but I posted day seven first so I could post about my Mad Men dress before the deadline. Thanks for your comments on my last post. It's nice to know other people feel the same way.

This is a pretty boring outfit. I find it really hard to think of exciting outfits with separates because I wear dresses most of the time. I wore my London blouse with a self-drafted skirt, op shopped cardigan and Golden Ponies t-bars.

I think my lesson from OWOP is that I need more plain skirts. I have lots with crazy and colourful prints but they don't go with all my printed blouses so I'm pretty much limited to my one grey skirt and one black skirt. I tend not to buy plain fabrics because I don't find them exciting, so I have a whole wardrobe of prints that all clash, and not in a good way.

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.