Going High Waisted...

Highwaisted4, originally uploaded by ThePaperDoll.

I’m done – what do you think?

Making the pant part of the pants was actually fine and I had no troubles at all but the high waist was incredibly difficult. I initially had designed the waist to be one band that went around and did up with a zip at the back, but I used the scraps of fabric from the bottom of the cut out pants to make the waist band and so didn’t quite have enough to cut it out in a curve, so I had to fit the waist band on Madeline. However, because I had designed the waist to fold over, I had to fit the inside and the outside. Suffice to say it was harder than I thought it would be and next time I really need to tweak my design.



I didn’t make them super high waisted and I think I might make the pant a bit looser up on the hips next time because I feel like they are a smidge too fitted for this look and for the weight of the denim.

Yes, that is pink Highlighter you can see - my fabric chalk is pretty darn average and I needed something to mark with that would stay!!

But other than that I think they look fine for my first ever pair of self designed and made pants!! Actually I lie, I made a pair of jeans in 5th form sewing – they were terrible.

The scarf is one from my massive vintage stash and here is a close up of the pattern – it’s really quite pretty.



This weekend is moving weekend too so I won’t be around to do any posts – I hope to be back up and running next week sometime!!

XX

Jen

I've Been Tagged Don't Ya Know...

Tehee, there seems to be a lot of 'playing blog tags' at the moment - The lovely Lavender and Yolk tagged me with a set of questions, I've always wanted to be tagged with a set of questions and now I have been. My life's mission is complete...

1. Were you named after anyone? Yes, one of my mum's friends in high school, although I didnt find this out until I met her a few years ago.

2. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes

3. Would you bungee jump? I think I would like to think I would, but in reality, I really really wouldn't!!

4. What is your favorite cereal? I'm not a big cereal person, gluten free cereals are gross, expensive and don't fill you up terribly much.

5. Do you untie your shoes when you take them of? Yes, if I have to.

6. What is your favorite ice cream? Probably chocolate, I love anything chocolate.

7. What is the first thing you notice about people? Whether they have a wedding ring. I know, weird but its something I always look for - I don't know why.

8. What is your least favorite thing about yourself? Must I answer this?

9. What's the last thing you ate? Chicken in a can on rice crackers.

10. What are you listening to right now? The traffic go past my window.

11. Last movie you watched? This sounds weird but I can't remember.

12. What did you dream about last night? Can't remember

13. What book are you reading? The first wheel of time book - Just finished the Time Travlers wife and it was such a great book!

14. Summer or winter? Can I pick Autumn?

15. Do you have any special talents? I can curl my tongue into a three leaf clover kind of thing. Thats my party trick!!

That was fun, I now tag Jen at The Fabled Needle!

XX
Jen

I hate figuring out titles!!

The weather has taken a sharp turn from the 29 degrees we had on Saturday to the cold and rainy day that is today.

None of my outfit except the scarf falls into the secondhand/thrifted/vintage/self made category which is a hard thing for me considering most of my wardrobe is made up of those things now. The blazer is one I got on Friday because it was on major sale from Jeans West – David went in to get some new jeans so I browsed the sale rack (as you do) and came out with this blazer - the only one left and in my size and a cardi which I didn’t end up buying.

Outfit1, originally uploaded by ThePaperDoll.

Everything else you’ve seen before except the scarf which is one from my major stash of vintage scarves I got a while ago :)

I tried making my hair ‘big’ up the top but because it is of the extremely fine variety it really doesn’t look that big at all, it actually looks quite flat which is a bit disappointing. I think I need more hair spray and thicker hair to work with!!

I’ve also given myself a challenge, I’m making high waisted pants! Yup, I’m designing them myself and then making them. Yesterday I trucked out to spotlight, got some dark, not too heavy denim and proceeded to start making them. Am I a bit crazy? I think so, but I can be quite the eternal optimist at times and this just happens to be one of those times :) I am documenting the process and hopefully if I don’t end up with a camel toe (for lack of a better word!) I’ll be posting them up as soon as they are done. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll suit them either so, I’m taking a gamble but it’s a learning curve so if these don’t work out then I can just alter my pattern and design a bit to make them work for me.

So wish me luck :)

I also have three blog awards that I’ve been given that I need to pass on, recently I've been drawn to other blogs who either fit in with the 1940's-1950's aesthetic or who are creative and make/design/redesign their own clothes, crafts, food (basically anything creative). I love creative people, and those who can transfer an idea into a reality is most definitely a gift I find inspiring and one that makes me want to better myself in those areas.

The first two are from the lovely Seeker who awarded me with the Premio Dardos award, which "is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing."

And in Portuguese reads "O conceito deste prémio passa por reconhecer valores culturais, éticos, literários e pessoais, transmitidos de forma criativa e original nos pedacinhos rabiscados por cada blogueiro que o receba."

I would like to pass this award on to:
Vegan and Vintage – she has already been given this award but you can never have too many can you? She’s absolutely gorgeous and you should check her out!!

The second award from The Seeker is the blog love award.

Which I would like to pass on to the following:
Lavender and Yolk – she’s very cute and I love her sense of style

The third award is from the lovely Jen (yay, another Jen) at The Fabled Needle, it is the Kreativ Blogger award and the rules for this particular one are:
- List six things that make you happy
- Pass the award on to more Kreativ bloggers
- Link back to the person who gave you the award
- Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know.

So, six things that make me happy are:
- I have a small obsession for old Victorian houses, they can be villas or huge mansions but I love them anyway. I’m not sure what it is about them, they are beautiful, a bit spooky and they seem to have a presence and a history behind them. I’m lucky to live in a place that has millions of them too and David’s dad lives in quite a large one with a tower!! A TOWER!!
- Long lazy drives. I like knowing I’m moving, doesn’t matter where I’m going, it sort of lulls and calms me for some reason. But I shouldn’t be trusted to drive if we are going somewhere new, my obsession for looking at houses means I’m constantly looking to either side of me rather than in front of me. David did grab the wheel once when I was looking where I shouldn’t be and I veered off slightly. That makes me sound like I’m a bad driver, and I’m not, I just get distracted easily (so maybe I am a bad driver???).
- Sunshine, but that makes everyone happy!!
- Kitty cats, but don’t get me started. I’m one of those high pitched people when I see a cat - that’s all you need to know.
- Getting up early on the weekends. Yes, strange, I do love a good sleep in but I also love getting up early, it makes me feel like I can accomplish something because I have the whole day to do it.
- Designing and making my own clothes – I feel productive and creative and its so nice when someone asks me where I got something and I can reply “I made it!”.

I would like to pass it on to:
1) My 50’s year – this is a great blog and you should check it out, it’s such a great experiment and I love reading what she’s up to everyday!
2) Loz and Dinny – just found them and they are awesome!!
3) Bird Bath – lots of fun creative things going on here, let me tell you!!!


So, that’s it, a long Monday post

Have a great week,

Xx
Jen

Another Miss Deb...

MissDeb2, originally uploaded by ThePaperDoll.

Its been a while - I do have an excuse but I'm not going to bore you with it. I'm back now and thats enough right?

I have a few things to show you in the coming days and that surprise I was meant to be working on didn't quite get around to being worked on due to my excuse so I'm hoping to have it up next week sometime - I hope its worth the suspense!

Any way, this is another vintage Miss Deb dress I found (do I hear a collection coming on? I still haven't been able to find any more info on the company - I guess a good old fashioned jaunt to the library is in order). I did originally buy it with the intent of making it shorter but I'm now undecided. I don't have any long dresses and so this is a nice change but I think I'll get more wear out of it being shorter. So theres my conundrum. It is a beautiful fit though and I love the detailing on the bodice of the dress - and as far as long dresses go its the perfect length for me.

I am getting around to those blog awards too - thank you so much for giving them all to me and I'm so sorry for keeping them all to myself!!

I also again want to thank you all so much for the support I've had with this blog and the friends I've made. Its been a fantastic journey so far and getting feedback on the things I make and wear are great motivators to continue designing and making my own clothes. I think I've also greatly improved my writing skills (although some of you may disagree perhaps) and I think I've found my own style and way of doing things in relation to writing and how I choose to dress myself - its been a huge learning curve. All the comments and emails I get are all so sweet and always always brighten your day!!

So thank you all again so much, you are all wonderful and I find each and everyone of your blogs inspiring,

XX
Jen

Navy Skirt

Navy Skirt, originally uploaded by ThePaperDoll.

This is the skirt I whipped up on Thursday night - it was much much harder than I anticipated it would be without a pattern. I unpinned it so many times that I almost thought I should just give up and make the tried and true pencil skirt (and yes I do have enough to make one of those too!!). But my persistency paid off and the skirt turned out much prettier than I thought it would.

I made it out of some of the fabric I thrifted a while ago and I'm really loving the colour. I'm having a bit of a thing for navy at the moment and I've already dreamed up millions of outfits with this skirt in mind!! The fabric also has some light pinstripes which makes it even more cute.  I was thinking about adding some small pockets that fasten with little ribbons but I'm worried that will make it too cute if you know what I mean.

I wore the skirt to work yesterday and had many a compliment which is always nice - my favourite one was when a friend told me I looked very 50's in it which made me smile!!  The cardi is a recent thrift find and is probably going to become one of my favourites - its so versatile and I love the little buttons up the front.

Any way - today is the day we vote in our elections, and while its not as important in the grand scheme of things to the world, its very important to those who live here. Results are out tonight and I'm sure we will all be on the edge of our seats - election parties tonight anyone? I think I've been invited to three - decisions decisions...

Have a great weekend everyone,

XX
Jen

Grays for Rainy Days

Today's weather has been terrible!! Its supposedly spring and today it rained, snowed, hailed, sleeted and was freezing - I had to bring my woolen stockings out of retirement!! I'm also wearing one of the new scarves from my stash :) I wore gray, white and black to compliment the weather and then added in my bright red umbrella for a little something fun :)

Grays for Rainy Days, originally uploaded by ThePaperDoll.

And congratulations America on your new President-elect, unless you didn't want Obama to get in... and in that case, erm, sorry? Today I voted in our elections, the official voting day is Saturday but I'm out of my electorate that day (in other words didn't really want to wait in line for hours for my chance to vote so I did it today *cough*).

I also have a little something I'm going to be working on in the weekend for you all that I hope you will enjoy and find useful. But I'm being secret squirrel and not telling because I'm mean! Well not that mean but I'm still working on the details and don't want to tell just in case it doesn't work exactly how I've planned it!! Got you guessing now?

Stay warm and have a lovely night,

XX
Jen

Busy Bee...

I feel like I haven’t posted in billions of years and I have so much to talk about!! Conference in Wellington was great – exhausting though and there was no time to catch up with Louise or do any shopping even though this time the weather was beautiful (no wind in sight – or feel or something!!)

I also happened to buy skinny jeans this weekend – when I told David I was expecting the “but I thought you strongly disapproved of them’ look but all I got was a ‘cool!” which was nice. I did once strongly disapprove of them but I think it was mostly out of me not being able to find a nice pair that didn’t make my hips wider than they are!! And so Ladies and gentlemen you are allowed to change your mind about fashion trends and I won’t judge you J I’m wearing them with one of the cute pieces that came in my vintage package. I love this little white jacket with its cute little pocket. I think I’m going to sew a button on just so I can wear it open or closed at will - it reminds me a bit of a safari jacket but in white!!

I also got the sweetest little vintage half slip – it’s beautiful and I love it!!

And 14 vintage scarves for only $20!! Oh yes – 14 of them. My drawer is over flowing and they are all fabulous! I think I can give my scarf buying love a bit of a break now. I tried to take photos so that you can see them all but I’m not sure if I succeeded that well, so you’ll need to wait until I wear them all individually – but at least you got a bit of a sneak peak?!?

David and I are also moving in three weeks time – out to a beautiful house on the bay. It’s about 10mins drive into work but there is a bus stop near by incase petrol prices get up again like they did (and still are although we have been given a bit of a reprieve). It’s sunny, extremely private with a cute little garden, quiet (you can hear birds), views of the water and - wait for it….A BATH!! I’m so excited about the bath, I haven’t had a house that I’ve lived in with a usable bath in 5 years! I feel all relaxed just thinking about it :) And I’m quite excited about finding new places to take photos.

This week is also a very busy week work wise – we had one of the new people start and because it’s getting close to me taking over the managers role there are meetings galore! Feeling a smidge over whelmed – I’m not really a huge meeting kind of person and I know next year I’m going to be at tons of them.

Oh well, have a lovely rest of your day - I’m really looking forward to catching up with all of your blogs, I feel like I’ve been a bit disconnected with the world because I haven’t been reading them each day!!

XX

Jen