Two Years...

Two years ago, I married the love of my life...

Happy Anniversary, I love you.

XX
Jen

Lady in {a} Red {skirt}

Yup, that's right, I'm totally a Lady (in a red skirt...).

I actually finished this self-drafted circle skirt a few weeks back and it's quickly made itself a staple in my wardrobe. I've worn it at least once a week since I made it - pretty and functional, perfect!

And on a totally different (but red related) note, did you know Christmas is only 5 weeks away? Yay! Not that I'm counting or anything though...

XX
Jen

ps) It was David's 30th birthday 2 weeks ago and I surprised him with a weekend away in the Hunter Valley and I made him an awesome 1Up Mushroom cake.

Note to self - don't use a crumbly cake when you need to make the cake look pretty.

Second note to self - probably not a good idea not to embark on a cake decorating career.

Vintage Pretties - London

1950s polkadot ball gown - I love this dress!

I took these photos at the V & A in London. They had a ball gown exhibition happening when I went (and I see they have a costume exhibition coming! I wish I lived a little closer to London...) and while I wasn’t allowed to take any photos in that area, they had a great little pre-exhibition set up where photos were allowed.

The inside of the bust of a couture Christian Dior gown...

 

Suits by Balenciaga - including a miniature day dress, cute!

Christian Dior miniature day dress

Don't you love the miniature dresses? Couture houses made these as mock ups before they would actually make dress in full size.

I hope your weekend is going well - I have baking, cooking dinner and sewing on the agenda!

xx
Jen

Vintage Pretties - Paris

While I didn’t actually buy any vintage pretties in Europe (I was sad to leave behind a beautiful blue 50’s dress in Paris due to its teeny tiny waist!) I did take lots of photos for sewing inspiration.

The photos below are from the Puces de Saint-Ouen (Paris’s largest and oldest flea market). It was amazing to wander the tiny passages and walkways filled with knickknacks and treasures. I walked away with some lovely French Marie Claire magazines from the 30’s and 40’s. They even had a small vintage wedding gown exhibition happening. Swoon...

 

A gorgeous 1940s wedding dress

   

Stunning delicate lace shawl from the 1920s

 My FAVOURITE dress of all - I have several photos of this dress, it is just beautiful...

Wedding dresses in the window...

Later in the week, vintage pretties from the V & A Gallery in London.

It's so nice to see beautiful creations up close! It's especially useful to inspect how they were constructed for help with my own sewing - though I wish I could have kept them all...

xx
Jen

Spring Dresses...

Leaving my Cambie woes alone at the moment, I wanted to show you this dress I finished up a week ago. It's another version of this dress but with a deeper neckline, a waist band and a gathered skirt instead of a pleated one. Again, I made my own bias binding for the arms - tutorial coming up! - instead of using the pattern facing. This is number 5 on my sewing table completed!

  

 Self made bias binding

Added waist band 

Dress number 5 on my list

Sydney has been doing that strange Spring weather thing lately where we get really hot Summer days then in the blink of an eye it's back to Winter again. So this is how I actually wore the dress that day - snuggled up in a vintage cardigan. 

I can't wait to wear this dress in proper summer weather - it has the perfect mix of work appropriate-ness that can also be dressed up for the evening.

What have you been working on lately?

Jen

ps) Sorry again for all of the random 'test posts' that have been popping up in your feeds! Hopefully it's all sorted now.

Sorry!

Hi everyone, I just want to apologise for all the strange posts that keep popping up - I'm not sure if you have noticed, but the blog is under going a little make over! We seem to be having a few small teething problems at the moment but should resume to normal service again soon. Thanks Jen

I know what you’re going to say...

I do know what you’re going to say, but I just wanted to make sure you were going to say it, just in case, ya know, you weren't (but you're going to, I just know it...).

Below is the bust of the first muslin of my Cambie dress. As you can see, I haven’t got far mostly because I’m getting weird, sticky-outy bits around my underarm. I have three options to fix this (well actually, only one, but I’m trying to avoid it if I can):

a)      a bust dart – okay, not really an option, but I thought I would try.

Edited to add - I've had some questions about why a bust dart wouldn't really be suitable. To explain, I think it would really ruin the lines of the dress. If I was making it in a busy fabric I might get away with it, but making it in a plain fabric, the dart line would be really noticable. It wasn't designed with a bust dart in mind so I would really want to avoid it if possible!

b)      really huge waist darts - this would mean a lot of bulk around the tummy area (so probably not really an option...)

c)       a small bust adjustment – there, I said it!

So my question is, do I really have to do a SBA? I have a few tutorials lined up on how to do it because I’ve never done one before (more help is welcome if you have it though!), but I just wanted a second (and third and fourth etc) opinion on whether that was actually what I needed to do.

I think I have an irrational fear. 

Do I have to?

Jen