Things for the Shop - Part Two...

Thank you for all your kind words about the first skirt design I posted on Monday – this is the second skirt design. I guess you could kind of call it a puff skirt? This also doesn’t have any embellishments either, because I didn’t have enough fabric and it’s the same story with the bold pattern – it really doesn’t need too much extra.

It was originally a terribly made hand made skirt that was basically a strip of fabric with an elastic band threaded through the waist (which was really really twisted!!). So I cut it all up and started out fresh.

At this point I’m wondering whether I’m actually going to get all the stock finished and ready for the shop opening at the end of May. You see, we have a huge two week event in May and another smaller one straight after which means my nights and weekends will soon be slightly busier than they have been of late. So, while I still aim to have the shop open at the end of May, I may need to push that date back, I don’t want to rush everything and forsake the quality of my items in the process. Making things to sell takes much more time than making something for me to wear, because I want it to be perfect!!

Any way, I have a small set of questions about my first two designs available if you want to help me out with any constructive criticism. Please just email me at prettylittlepictures@gmail.com and I’ll flick them to you! You can answer with as much or as little detail as you like!!

XX

Jen

Things for the Shop...

This is it – skirt prototype number one for the shop! It’s a full circle, high waisted skirt. I also have another that I’ll show you on Wednesday which started out life as a poorly made hand made skirt (of which the fabric is just amazing) which I then completely remade into a brand new shiny skirt, but that’s for another day.

Onto this skirt – I would like your opinions. It isn’t embellished in any way, I have other skirts cut out and have plans for buttons, pockets and bows, but this was the tester for my pattern, and the fabric is so busy in itself, I don’t think it really needs too much.

It’s also actually far far too big for me, hence the reason I have my hands on my hips!! I’m thinking about selling it at a big discount if anyone is interested – the reason its at a discount is because I made it before I got my overlocker back from getting serviced and so the edges aren’t very neat, I will however, do as much overlocking on it as possible if somebody wants it. I do really really love the fabric and there isn’t enough to make another which is sad.

Thanks to those of you who emailed me about taking part in my survey, once I have the second skirt up I’ll be emailing you some questions – so you can cast your discerning eyes over both and give me some feed back. If you want to take part in helping me and haven’t already emailed me then just flick me an email to prettylittlepictures@gmail.com it would be very useful!!

And just so you know, I have other plans for things going into the shop besides skirts and once I’ve done up prototypes of those, I’ll make sure I get them up for comments!!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!!

XX

Jen

Ps) Why yes i did get my hair cut!!

Little Red Dress...

It’s Wednesday, half way through the week! I can’t wait for the weekend, the horrible part about being on holiday is coming back and being very very tired because you have to get used to going to bed early and getting up early again. It’s also getting very cold – my car had ice on it yesterday morning!

This dress used to be hideously long! But it had such lovely detail that I knew it would be a great winter mini dress – it’s certainly bright enough to warn away the winter blues. The only small problem I have with it is that it’s a two man job to get into. It doesn’t have a zip down the side which means unbuttoning about 50 little buttons down the back and then having some one else do them up for you. And the other small problem I have with this is that David and I live by ourselves and he leaves in the morning before I even get up (although I have been trialing getting up just as he’s leaving at around 6am – and although I did rather well on Monday and Tuesday, today I slept right through and only woke up at about 7.30am!!) which means I have no one to do it up for me in the mornings. My cunning plan is to go to work with it unbuttoned but with a jacket over the top and have someone at work do it up for me when I get there – a hassle, but something that must be done if I ever want to wear this dress during the work week.


Now, I’ve read a lot about Grey Gardens on other blogs lately and honestly I had no idea what it was, except that it was a documentary filmed in the mid 70’s about Jackie O’s cousin and Aunt who lived in squalor in a mansion and that they have just finished filming the movie version of it with Drew Barrymore. So naturally, with all this talk about it and lots of beautiful photos of a dolled up Drew Barrymore floating around, I had to see what this documentary was all about.

'Little Edie' and 'Big Edie' from the documentary Grey Gardens

Honestly, I can’t say I loved it (it’s that whole ‘people are telling me it’s great so it must be amazing’ thing kicking in and then getting disappointed when it’s not what I expect). Its from the 70’s so the film quality is bad, little Edie’s voice is far to high pitched for me at times and half the time I can’t understand what they are going on about because they talk over each other all the time and they have very thick American/New York accents, so its very hard to listen to.

Drew Barrymore as 'Little Edie' in Grey Gardens

What I did find very fascinating about the whole documentary though was wondering how on earth they got to where they were. Looking at photos of both of them in their heyday they were both beautiful and had very privileged upbringings living in beautiful houses with the best of furnishings. The film doesn’t explore this enough and I don’t think the makers asked many questions, it seemed like they were just there filming and not thinking about what direction they actually wanted the film to take. This means the doco just kind of ended, with the audience wondering what on earth happened after that, so much so, I had to Wikipedia both of them just so I could find out a little bit more about what happened after the film and about their early lives.

I am still wanting to see the newest film version of it though (they made a very short running musical based on the doco), maybe it’ll shed some new light on both of the Edie’s and I am very interested to see how they actually make the film (will it be like the documentary or more like a story?).

I’m going to stop waffling now! Have a great Wednesday,

XX
Jen

It's About Time...

Sorry for my complete lack of posting last week – I was on holiday, got completely lazy and I really wasn’t wearing anything worth taking a photo of any way. I know I haven’t replied to any comments lately and I haven’t forgotten about those two lovely ladies who tagged me with memes, I hope I’ll get round to doing them this week.

While I was being lazy, I did manage to get some sewing for the shop done before my sewing machine went all crazy again with the tension for the third time!! I’m wondering about whether I need to just bite the bullet and buy a new one, my only problem with this solution is that I’ve only had my machine for about three years. I did manage to cut out and over lock (serge) about 8 skirts though after my machine went back to be fixed and they are now hanging over Madeline (my dress form) waiting to be sewn together.

I have oodles of ideas for the shop and really just want to get started sewing, but can’t due to my silly machine! The end of May can’t come soon enough as far as I am concerned, I am very excited about opening the shop, even though I have a ton of work to do and lots of things to organise.

I’ll post the picture of my prototype skirt next week and hopefully by then I’ll have some questions to ask you all. I have a marketing degree and its kicking in with the need to define my target audience and figure out what they really want which means asking you a bunch of questions about the product I’ll be producing. So if you do want to help me out with a little market research please just flick me an email prettylittlepictures@gmail.com, it won’t take long and will be of much use to me and my little fledgling shop.

The dress I’m wearing is a beautiful vintage one. It’s made of wool and is as warm as can be, and it has fluttery sleeves – lovely!

XX

Jen

Too Much Chocolate? Never...

I wasn’t planning on posting today until I decided too (Okay – that makes no sense). I’ve spent the last few days being completely lazy - as in I didn’t even get out of my pj’s/have a shower until 3pm yesterday!!

Granted, I do have a very very bad sore on my knee from when I fell over the other day, which I didn’t mention because it’s embarrassing. It’s been really painful and a bit oozy (too much information?) which has meant wearing short skirts or if I haven’t yet had a shower and am still wandering around in my jim jams, means I’ve been pulling out my inner 90’s rapper (as David so lovingly called it) and have been prancing about with one leg rolled up past my knee so my sore can get some air.

Needless to say, the outfit above is not from the weekend but from last week – this adorable little green wool cropped vintage jacket is one I also got from market day, I love market day!

While I have been lazy, I’ve still accomplished making up the first prototype skirt for the shop! It’s lovely - I’m very excited and will show you some photos soon. It’s a tad too big for me though so I’ll need to take it in (its not good enough to sell and I love the fabric and only have enough to make one more which I really want to put in the store!).

Easter has been as it should be and filled with lots of chocolate. I eat a disgusting amount of chocolate when its not Easter and so having an excuse to eat and buy even more is a fantastic idea if you ask me! There is chocolate everywhere at the moment, there were even chocolate eggs hiding in the fridge along with the normal eggs!

On Easter Sunday David gave me a huge basket full of chocolate which Mocha then proceeded to try and steal – and yes, I may have started out encouraging her, ringing the little bell on the Lindt Bunny, but that doesn't mean she needed to keep playing - the poor bunny came out a bit worse for wear.

NB: There may have been a few more eggs in the basket, but I am unable to comment.

My internet is going very slowly at the moment so I hope to reply back to comments soon - right now I need to satisfy an urge that came over me this morning (that sounds bad, minds out of the gutter please!!) to watch Anne of Green Gables. I’m not really sure why, but I do love it and it just seems like a holiday thing to watch!

XX

Jen

A Good Friday...

Happy Good Friday Readers! Its lovely and sunny here and I have a whole week of holiday goodness ahead of me.

Sadly public holidays don't really mean to much for David (he's doing his masters) so he is back at uni today, in his office, working away (or pretending to work and actually reading my blog, *wink wink!!).

Have a lovely weekend and I hope much chocolate is given, received and eaten by all!!

XX
Jen

A Conversation...

Last night as David and I settled in for the night he uttered the words "I think I've almost had enough of watching Antiques Road Show..." Silence - crickets in the background, babies crying...

XX
Jen

PS) I got my entire outfit, bar the shoes, at market day last week for all of $15!! Bargain.

Hello World...

I think I own the cutest little jacket in the world...

My brain is a smidge foggy today – I’ve started this post a few times already and don’t really know where its headed. I’m very much ready for a holiday at this stage, so I say bring on Easter and then all of next week because I am taking a very much deserved break! I plan on eating lots of chocolate and doing lots of sewing.

Some of you probably think I’ve forgotten about opening up my little shop because I haven’t mentioned it for a while – but don’t you worry, I’ve been slowly working away on it. I have ample supplies of vintage and thrifted fabric, belt buckles, zips, buttons and even cotton. I think you’d probably be able to call most of my skirts vintage because mostly everything I’m using is vintage! I’ve made up an initial skirt pattern which I need to test first and then I’ll being making the skirts during the beak which I’m very excited about – I can’t believe I have less than two months before I open the shop and I haven’t even started sewing, where has the time gone?

I’ve started watching Mad Men too - I’m probably just over half way through season one. We aren’t in love with each other yet, we are just holding hands and taking it slowly, episode by episode. I’m one of those people that expects amazing things if someone rants on about something for long enough (which people have about Mad Men) and then get disappointed if it’s not what I was expecting, I also tend to love things that get really bad ratings because my expectations aren’t high for them. As I continue to watch though I am liking it more and more, we just have to get to know each other first.

XX

Jen