I am still here....

It's been very quite here lately, apologies for that. I have once again been away with the husband. This time to Germany to see my family and to celebrate our second wedding anniversary. We got back over a week ago and I had to catch up on work and just general stuff. We have been away a lot this year........

I couldn't really come up with any good blog post ideas so I just took a little break. I thought I'd rather not write a lot of boring crap just for the sake of it. There will be more sewing, outfits and cycling adventures soon. I just need a little longer to come up with things worth blogging about.

One thing, that might be of interest to some of you readers is that I am selling off some crafty books on Ebay. My husband and I will be moving in February (the latest) and we decided to get rid of a lot of stuff we don't need or use. As much as I love books on arts and crafts, I have not done any of the projects and I don't think i will. Most of them are brand new, some are used vintage ones. Here are the listings in case you are interested. I am currently not offering international postage but email/message me and I can change that if you are interested in any particular items.

I will also add some clothing items and other random stuff within the next few days too.

"The dairy book of home management" for the vintage home goddess

The Stencil Book by Amelia St.George

The complete practical guide to stencilling and stamping

Yours: 50 Years of Every Day Fashion

Wicked Women of the Screen

Dressmaking by Design by Charmian Watkins this is for anyone who wants to learn a bit more on pattern cutting. The projects are very 80s though. I guess you could adapt them for a different look. I never got around to doing that.

Essential Guide to London's Retro Shops

 Alternation: Transform. Embellish. Customize full of projects, especially reconstructions.

 Handbook of crafts - 1960

Simple Glass Seed Beading: Bead Stitches, Tassels.....

50 Easy Home Projects by N. Martyn John (Hardback)

The Cheap Date Guide to Style

I am also working on building up my own business. Is any of you readers self employed or even running their own business in fashion? I could use advice wherever I can. Please get in touch!!!

Getting rid of STUFF is great. I love it!!! Not so long ago I was one of the worst hoarders ever (it's in the family....) but my husband is slowly turning that around. Being a soldier, living in a small space that gets inspected on a regular basis makes you good at being tidy and letting go of clutter.

Are you a hoarder or are you pretty good with keeping on top of what you need and what not?

New old patterns

This weekend was pretty lame as the weather was crap and we didn't do anything exciting. No cycling and therefore no new outfit shots. I have a couple of new dresses finished but no nice pictures yet so stay tuned.

I have been busy with customer orders last week and didn't really have anything exciting to blog about hence the lack of posting. I hope this will change again soon as I am working on a few cute new projects.

I bought a bunch of new vintage patterns that I am hoping to make up very soon. They are all shirt waist dresses which I am a bit addicted to as you know.

I am not too sure about the last one as it could turn out a bit too granny-ish, what do you think?

I hope you had a more exciting weekend and got some cute sewing done.

Wedding dress in action

Last weekend was finally THE DAY!!!! for Katja, who ordered a wedding dress from me last year. She got married at Lake Konstanz to her fiance Julian and looked absolutely gorgeous.

Doesn't she remind you Audrey Hepburn too?

Instant improvement...

I made this dress last weekend. It was an UFO I have had abandoned for a while. Since the hubby and I had planned another bike ride on Saturday  and I had worn the bombshell dress already the previous day, I went into panic mode and thought of the quickest way of making a new dress to go cycling in and take cute outfit shots of for you guys.

That quickest way was finishing off something and make space in my sewing room as extra bonus.

The dress is one I had started before our epic holiday but didn't finish in time so it got dumped on the UFO pile (there are a few)

The pattern I used is New Look 6557, which I bought a while back when New Look patterns were on sale here. I only buy current patterns in the sale.

It's such an easy pattern and comes together in no time...don't know why I never finished it. If you wake up in the morning and need a dress by the afternoon this is the one to make.

I made view B.

The colour is a similar shade of green as the bombshell dress.... I guess I have a thing for green at the moment...certainly this week huh? Must be a red head thing. I paired it with a purple belt and cardigan for a GOOD colour clash.

I didn't like the neckline of the dress very much as I felt a bit cut off with the big triangular bust pieces. My quick fix solution for that was cutting off a bit of the far too long halter strap made and tieing the strings around the top of the triangles. Et voila...two dresses in one. I prefer it like that (at least on me) what do you think?
And here comes the cycling shot:

Charis and Alice revisited

Remember the dresses I was working on over the last two weeks for Alice and Charis? The event was last weekend and they were so kind and shared some pictures with me to share with you.

Here they are both together looking gorgeous. Charis accessorised her dress with a red ribbon. A nice touch as it easily changes the look of her dress and ads a splash of colour.

Alice dress was a bright purple-ish blue satin with a very dark navy organza overlay. The colour effect it created was great. It really suits her.

I wish I had a picture of the back of Charis' dress as it was sheer lace and looked amazing.

Looks like they all had a great time. It was Alice's school leaver's ball. Congratulations Alice!!!

The bombshell dress

I finally got some sewing done again for myself last week. I was working on a few dresses for a customer and got inspired by all of them leading to a new dress for myself.

I had some fabric over from my 1940s shirt dress I blogged about recently. I made that one from a huge double sheet I found in a local charity shop and had lots of material left.

The green glazed cotton was given to me by a friend ages ago. I have a few different colours. This colour matches the flowers in the sheet pattern like a dream.

I used an old STYLE pattern (according to the envelope it's from 1997), a pattern company I am not very familiar with so I guess they weren't around for a long time. It's a bridal pattern which I am not too keen on but the bridesmaids version is quite cute so I used it for the basic shape of the dress.

I chose view D with straight instead of puffed sleeves

I cut the bodice from the sheet left overs and the skirt from the green cotton

I then decided to draft a collar to pick up the solid colour again and think it turned out rather cute.

Of course I went cycling in it to get some cute action shots for you guys. I wore it to go fabric shopping...of course ;-D

Photoshoot

I had two of my playsuits borrowed by Laura Naish (facebook), a make up artist from London. Her work is beautiful so how could I say no. Here are some of the pictures from the shoot. I hope you enjoy them.

Photography by Danmi Lee

I blogged about this playsuit here

and this one was blogged here

Thanks Laura, Danmi Lee and your beautiful model.