Butterflies and Hurricanes

Ruffles everywhere for Valentines day... a little tutorial, design fail and spare hearts

2012-02-09T18:56:00.000+01:00

I have been busy with my Lena Hoschek inspired Valentines Day outfit, as far as personal sewing goes, and finished the blouse today. I had the skirt done several days ago and now I can't wait to wear it. I won't be posting any pictures until Valentines day. We have finally booked a table at a local restaurant.

Since I haven't blogged about any sewing details other than finished items some work-in-progress-pictures are in order. I have never done a tutorial before so I hope I am making sense. If not, I am happy to answer any further questions.

The Lena Hoschek blouse has lots of lovely ruffle detail around the collar, button front and the hear shaped front pockets. This is how I tried to copy it.

My initial idea was lace around the pockets and other bits.

I cut 2 hearts out of the blouse fabric. I wanted to turn them inside out later to avoid any raw edges.

Then I used one of the two layers right side up and pinned the lace ruffles facing inwards around the heart.

stitch everything down within your seam allowance(stay close to the edge)

then pin the other heart shape on top right sides facing (the lace is now sandwiched in between the two hearts) Don't stitch all the way around!!!! Leave about 2" on one of the straight sides of the heart unstitched so you can turn the heart inside out later.

You end up with a little poofy heart. Turn it inside out.

Press it and topstitch around the heart close to the lace edge.

I ended up not liking the lace version. It looked too much like a toilet seat cover ;-) in my choice of fabric. Then I decided to make the ruffles in self fabric as they are in the original design.

I did prefer this look but attached to the blouse I just didn't look right. Now I am going without the hearts completely.

I did however keep the ruffles around the collar and button hole panel.

I made them exactly like the hearts, pleated the ruffles between both collar pieces, before sewing them together and between the front panel (button hole side only) and the facing.

Any ideas, what to do with my two ruffly hearts? I suppose I could stitch them on a card for V-day and match my card? Then we don't really do cards and all that. Just food, just another excuse for eating out, you see. And for making outfits of course.

Any other ideas?

Valentines outfit inspiration

2012-02-04T12:44:00.000+01:00

This year I decided to make myself a Valentines day outfit. I don't even know yet what we are going to do. Dinner date? Movie? Both? Hanging out at home? No idea. But I know I want to do it in a Valentines day outfit.

I got so into the idea after revisitng the Lena Hoschek website, drooling over her beautiful collection. I love her blouses with the heart shape pockets. Perfect for Valentines day, no?

Since I get carried away with sewing pieces that are not wearable this time of the year, I need to change focus for a little while and make something I can actually wear now. My plan is to make an outfit inspired by the one by Lena Hoschek. Skirt and Blouse, ready for whatever on Valentines day.

(working on the skirt already)

Is anyone else making an outfit/piece of clothin/accessories/present etc. for V-day?

Too early, it's not Spring yet dress...

2012-02-03T12:44:00.000+01:00

I think I might have gotten a little confused lately. The sun is out shining brightly on a daily basis here but unfortunately it's freezing cold at the same time. I think I didn't get the freezing-cold-memo because I got a little carried away making a dress that could not be more appropriate for this time of year.

I had the fabric in my stash since last summer and never cut into it. It's just a cute floral print cotton in nautical colours that I turned into another 1960s shift dress. I decided to give the design a nautical touch by adding a white sailor style collar.

I added pockets into the side seams (you can see the red fabric I used for them peeking out in the picture above)

collar detail

back

Country walking

2012-01-17T15:00:00.001+01:00

As you know the husband and I are two of the outdoorsy types. We are currently unpacking our life out of boxes once again so there is not much to report from the home front other than a big mess. To spare you from that enjoy some of the shots I've taken on some of our last walks in Suffolk and Essex around Colchester.

The weather has been so good in December and January that we spend every weekend outside.

You can also tell I have been obsessed with Instagram lately. If you are on please it say hi. @beatricewinter

I will miss being so close to the seaside.

If you have any suggestions for beautiful walks in and around Berkshire, please share.

Hello new dress and bye bye Colchester

2012-01-15T20:34:00.000+01:00

This weekend was the weekend of many goodbyes for us here in Colchester.

From this week on I will be writing and blogging and sewing from the opposite side of London. We have moved to Arborfield near Reading. If any of you ladies live near, have great fabric shopping tips to share or would like to meet up for a cuppa and some thrifting,let me know. I will be the new kid on the block, Billy-no-mates and hopefully it'll change quickly.

On Saturday night we said goodbye to some of our friends and went for a nice meal and a few drinks afterwards. I got to wear my crepe dress, I was working on last week. I kept it pretty simple as the print stands out enough. Just a simple fitted bodice with a gathered skirt and 3/4 sleeves. I paired it with a little cropped jacket I made while we didn't have any Internet at home so it never made the blog. I will probably make another one as it's such a cute little jacket to just throw over anything. I usually wear a lot of cardigans for warmth instead of jumpers. This is a nice alternative if I want to dress it up a bit.

What do think about the hair? I curled it very tightly with a curling iron and after brushing out the curls, pinned it all up into a bob. I really like that look from time to time.

Bath fashion museum

2012-01-15T16:31:00.000+01:00

As mentioned before, we went to the fashion museum in Bath. I though it is worth a separate post as I went a bit mad taking pictures there.

They had an exhibition on wedding dresses there, inspired by the Royal Wedding last year.

This was the latest dress in the collection. Alexander McQueen 2011. The lace was beautiful.

Loved the 1920s flapper style number on the left. It had a shrug thing-y with a massive train that was beautifully beaded and the best bit of the dress.

I was amazed how wonderful the colours were preserved in this dress from the late 1800s and the amazing handcrafted fabric

Fashions of the 20th century

Do you think he might have had a few Martinis too many??

And of course some evening wear.

There war of course a lot more to see and you can also try on corsets and crinolines to get the feel of the period clothing.

We got a combi ticket for the Roman Baths and the Fashion Museum/ Assembly rooms for £15.50 pp. At first we thought that this was quite steep (we are used to £0 admission prices since joining English Heritage and visiting only their sites) but the two museums definitely fill a whole day with activity. There are Audio guides at both places and other little interactive activities. I highly recommend both.

Exploring Bristol

2012-01-13T15:55:00.000+01:00

Just a few impressions from last weekend's trip to Somerset. We went to see the Georgian house but unfortunately it was closed :-(((

Then we had a walk through the center, took a harbour cruise which was great. Visited the M Shed museum, Brunells SS Great Britain and the Clifton Bridge.

A pretty packed day but I recommend all of the above if you would like to go. Especially Brunells SS Great Britain is fun to visit. They have a great museum on the construction of the first ocean liner, the different functions of the ship through its history and how the got it back from the Falkland islands into Bristol harbour. But the best thing in my opinion is that they have done an amazing job on recreating it's original state as an ocean liner. The attention to detail is amazing.

Anyways, enjoy the pictures.

Harbour

Marriott Hotel, Queen Victoria and Bristol Cathedral

Bristol Council Building

Amazing Victorian warehouses

SS Great Britain

Maybe a bit too vintage?

Working hard aboard in the kitchen (it even smells like a working kitchen)

??? :-D

Clifton suspension bridge

What I am working on this week...

2012-01-12T15:55:00.000+01:00

It's the week before our next and final move for a while. Fortunately enough this time we have a removal company doing all the hard work for us, meaning I can squeeze in some extra sewing time for myself.

I ordered a few different fabrics last week and picked the lovely floral print crepe to work on first.

I was a bit indecisive whether to turn it into a dress or blouse but in the end the dress won.

I am planning on wearing this out for a little leaving dinner and drinks with some of our friends. Proper outfit shots will follow.

BTW, I know some of you lovely readers are crazy cat ladies like me. Does your cat also magically appear as soon as the fabric comes out? Mine can be asleep somewhere in the house all day and never be seen. As soon as I get some fabric out.................this happens:

Please note the innocent but surprised expression on her face.

Exploring Bath

2012-01-11T13:01:00.001+01:00

As I mentioned in my previous post, we took travelling to Somerset for our friend's wedding as an excuse to make a weekend trip out of it and explore Bath and Bristol.

After curing our slight hangover with a huge full English breakfast on Saturday morning, we headed for what is now in my opinion the most beautiful town in the UK. Oh what a stunning place with all it's Georgian architecture, Abbey and Roman Baths.

I will leave you with a few images to see for yourself. Of course there wasn't enough time for us to see everything, especially since we had started the day with a lie in. We'll have to go back.

River Avon

The Roman Baths

The Circus (The Circus and the Royal Crescent are amazing Georgian terraced houses set up in a circle and a crescent. Very iconic Bath landmarks)

We also went to the Assembly Rooms where the Bath Fashion Museum is situated. I need to do a separate post on that.

Amazing ceiling in the Bath Abbey.

The wedding outfit

2012-01-09T10:21:00.000+01:00

I was working on this outfit all through last week. If you follow me on Twitter (@Beatrice_Winter) or Instagram (@beatricewinter) you will have seen a few pictures of the work in progress already.

My husband and I were invited to go to a wedding in Frome in Sommerset on Friday night and decided to make a weekend of it. I will blog about the whole trip throughout the week. We decided to include day trips to Bath and Bristol on Saturday and Sunday as both places were close by and we had never been.

First of all the main reason we went down to Sommerset for though. The wedding of my husband's colleague Dale and his beautiful wife Anna. The lovely couple got married at Orchardleigh House in Frome. One of the most amazing places I have ever been to. We were wondering why they had chosen to get married here, when it is quite a track from either of their homes. This is why:

source: http://www.weddingvenues.com/venue3262.html

Of course I needed a new dress to wear to the wedding. I love jewel colours and opted for a teal satin.

The fabric was a dream to work with. I didn't use a pattern really, I used 2 to complete the whole look. I used the bodice of New look 6557 view E

For the skirt I chose New look 6917 view D without the waistband and attached it straight on to the bodice.

The Frankenstein project resulted in this

I decided to add a belt with a heavily beaded detail to the otherwise rather plain dress. I enjoyed beading the headband a few posts back so much, I wanted another beading project.

Work in progress, unfortunately once I encrusted the whole piece in beads it didn't go with the dress. At least not as a belt. I had attached it on some ribbon to tie around my waist but then decided to chop it off again, attach it to a comb and wear it as a head piece instead. It worked a treat.

I also wanted a little jacket to go with the dress. It's January after all.

I used another New Look pattern 6675 and made the little bolero from it.

I didn't add the bows or any other detail and kept it rather plain.

It looks more midnight blue in the picture here. It is however the same colour as the dress. This is what you get when you play around with photo apps to much.

In the end I wanted a little beading on the dress and just added a few rows of slate coloured seed beads around the neckline and et voila, the finished outfit.

Dress, jacket (all lined in midnight blue as you can see in this picture), head piece and way to high shoes....

And one of the handsome guest couple for good measure...

The bish bash bosh New Years dress

2012-01-01T21:41:00.000+01:00

First of all, happy new year my dear readers. I hope you all had wonderful New Years celebrations and have recovered by now. We didn't go crazy this year as we just wanted to enjoy each others company after we spent last New Years Eve apart from each other. We had a couple of friends around and took it easy. Therefore I haven't got any amazing party pictures to share.

Instead I decided to share a new dress I made.

I made this dress in December using some printed crepe fabric I had in my stash for ages. I always wanted to use the fabric but didn't really have a clue what to make from it.

When I was beading the headband I watched some Ginger Rogers movies as I had just finished reading her autobiography (I very much enjoyed it and recommend reading it) and hence got into the 1930s styles.

As most of the dresses from that time are bias cut and not an easy thing to sew, I came up with this idea for a dress with minimal sewing efforts. It's basically just straight seams and rectangular shapes. The waist is elasticated and it buttons up at the back.

I sewed on some sequin-y bead-y things for detail and bish bash bosh a new dress was made.

Add some pin curls hair and dramatic make up and off you go. I hope you enjoy!!

A little bling to sparkle in cold winter nights

2011-12-28T17:26:00.000+01:00

As the nights are long right now there is nothing better than cuddling up on the sofa with the kitty and a hot chocolate. I had many of those evenings lately but at the same time I felt like doing something productive. evenings

I have never been into beading much or anything else that is very time consuming. I like it when I start a project and several hours later -boom- I have a new piece of clothing or a new accessory.

However when many evenings are spend on the sofa, a long lasting, fiddly project is just the right thing.fiddly

So I decided to spark up a headband just in time for the holiday season.

I have a ton of beads I got from my mother in law, cut offs and samples from the bridal shop I used to work at and all kinds of bits and bobs. It all went on there and et voila:

There is a tutorial on Kazz the Spazz for a similar project. She made a gorgeous necklace covered with buttons. In case you have a few too many hours to spare, have a go yourself. The results are amazing.

Winter walk along the coast

2011-12-26T15:00:00.003+01:00

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T17:41:00.000+01:00

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas, eat lots and be merry.

Hopefully you have all been good this year and Santa brought you everything you wished for.

I am finally back to normal and connected to the virtual world.

Can't wait to share my creations and other bits and bobs worth with you again on a regular basis.

Again, many thanks for you patience.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

1960s crepe de chine dress with vintage lace applique

2011-12-06T16:24:00.000+01:00

It’s been nearly 3 weeks since we’ve moved house and we are STILL waiting for our telephone and broadband to be set up. I don’t know how we managed to live before all these means of communication were common in most households? It’s awful not being able to check emails, facebook, write blog posts and keep in touch with everyone?

Hopefully this situation will be sorted within the next few days. For now WiFi in local coffee shops and libraries will have to do.

Our new house is great. Too bad we won’t be here for long as we are going to move again in Jan/Feb time. That’s life being a soldier’s wife… I will miss the generous spare bedroom I am using as my work room. It’s about twice the size of my old work room, very bright and tons of storage space. I have about 3 build in wardrobes. Anyways enough showing off for now. I will show pictures some time.

I have already “broken it in” and made myself a little 1960s crepe number with a little lace applique. I haven’t had much time sewing for myself so far but this little dress fit in easily and came together in just an afternoon. The pattern is one I made several times last year. It is Simplicity 9059.

I used some paisley print crepe de chine I had in my stash for ages and some vintage lace bits I appliqued around the sleeve openings and the bust seam. I think it turned out quite nicely and is a perfect little daytime/ casual going out addition for my wardrobe.

1940s blitz blouse and super high waisted trousers....a sewing/outfit post at last!!!!!!!!!

2011-11-06T21:46:00.000+01:00

It's been ages since I have posted anything I have made and it's about time that I change that and start breaking the cycle of blogging laziness. I am trying to ease myself back into it. Not that easy but I remember how much I used to enjoy blogging and sharing my thoughts and creations with you guys.

This week I decided to start working on some of the vintage patterns I bought over the summer. I posted about a bunch of vintage blouse patterns in May and finally got around to making simplicity 4139. I got inspired after reading this post and remembered I had the pattern myself.

It was super easy to whip up. I used a very light cotton lawn in a pretty red floral print. I have the same material in green still waiting to be transformed. I think I might make another blouse from it.

I combined the blouse with one of my Autumn/Winter collection staple pieces. Extreme high waisted wide legged trousers.

I think I am really getting into 1940s designs for the winter. I need more from that period.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I did....It was the calm before the storm.We're moving next weekend. Boooooooooooo,not looking forward to the mess but I am looking forward to our new place. It'll only be for a few months until we'll be moving again but that's army lifer for you. Be prepared for possible house/moving posts coming up.

Nice people = lots of sewing patterns = super happy me

2011-11-01T22:54:00.000+01:00

I have been on lots of business related courses lately to lean and improve my own business skills. It's very interesting and slightly overwhelming if you are doing everything yourself. But if you are in a similar situation like me and start up your own business, I highly recommend getting as much information as you can. Go to workshops and use every single opportunity to learn new things, find out the latest trends in business and most of all meet new and exiting people.

I have met business owners of all sectors new to business and some who have been trading for years. I have also made some great contacts that I will probably get back to in the near future.

On one of my last workshops I met a very wonderful lady who is running a very successful company specialising in fine dining in care homes.There is a business idea I haven't heard of before but they are doing very well and I think it's a great idea.

Anyways, after a brief conversation with Marguerite (the business owner) and exchanging what our businesses are, she remembered she still had a huge box of old sewing patterns that once belonged to her mother. She said she would post them to me if they would be of any use to me. Of course I couldn't say no to a kind offer like that. After the workshop we exchanged contact details and went our separate ways......

A week or so passed and I of course forgot......I have bad memory every now and then....

And then this huge package arrived:

I had no idea what it was as I had forgotten about the promise. Please excuse my awful scarf pattern and dress pattern combo but I was ill and not prepared for pictures that day.......

At this point I started to remember.........

And at this point I felt pretty overwhelmed by the amount of patterns Marguerite had send me. What a kind lady. It's a huge selection of 1960s, 70s and 80s patterns. A few are kids patterns which I passed on to my friend as she makes kids clothing. I haven't had time to check through the patterns thoroughly but once I have and know which ones I will use in the future, I will share some of them with you lovely readers. So stay tuned for a giveaway.

I feel like so much kindness must be shared.

I did send Marguerite a big bunch of flowers which hopefully made her just as happy as me. Christmas came early this year!!!

Have you ever met anyone who over showered you with kindness like that?

Awesome news

2011-10-13T14:26:00.000+01:00

Again, it's been a while but a lot has happened since my last proper post.

I have been very busy working on my clothing label, letting out our house (still in the works) and preparing to move. I have been on endless business classes and workshops and learned a lot of new and useful things. I have also found a lot of support from all over the place for my business, reassuring me I am on the right track to success. What a blessing.

And now, the big and very exiting news...........drumroll..............

I have got a distribution deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am dancing.......

I have created a mini collection available soon from these awesome guys:

www.tokoclothing.com

The website is still under construction, launching in Mid-November. For now you can follow them on Twitter for updates. Also join their mailing list for a 10% discount.

I am so exited for all of this happening. Keep your fingers crossed that this is just the beginning of many more amazing things.

I hope everyone is well.I have seen that my followers are still with me. Thank you very much for staying put.

XXX

Bea

I am still here....

2011-08-06T21:38:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-17T20:03:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-08T18:51:00.000+01:00

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...

2011-07-06T19:00:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-05T20:36:00.000+01:00

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

2011-07-04T20:47:00.000+01:00

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

2011-06-30T15:12:00.004+01:00

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.

The journey ends in Vegas...........

2011-06-29T15:41:00.003+01:00

This is a little late compared to the other holiday posts but better late than never, right?

Our final stop of our epic holiday was in Las Vegas. The best place to end a holiday like that. What a fun place. After all the walking, sightseeing and driving we did, it was nice to be in a place where you can just hang out and do nothing. So we did...well we tried.

We stayed at the Luxor...lobby

We did a bit of gambelling and checking out a few of the hotels and their casinos on the first night, slept in the next day, went to the pool for an hour but got tiered of chasing the very small shady bit and just lying around there.....I burn too easily and do not care about tanning at all (even if I did tan) so we decided we need to do what we do best. Look at stuff and learn.

We went to Lake Mead and the Hover Damm. Very impressing!!! And the best is all the Art Deco details everywhere. Loved it.

outside the Venetian

As a German, I had to go and see stuff from other fellow Germans. If Roy's accident hadn't happened and their show was still on, I would have so gone to see it.

The of course we did more walking and checking out casinos and hotels, went to see The Secret Garden of Siegfried and Roy with some of their beautiful cats and dolphins (didn't know they had any dolphins)

YUM, all Jelly Beans
New dress (and the last one I made for this journey)

This window display was amazing. I would be happ with only one of them...or maybe 10

we quoted the film The Hangover A LOT!! in Ceasars Palace

bumped into Elvis and Bowie hanging out on The Strip

and then had to go back home :-(

Once we got back we had the Coming-home-to same-old-blues for about a week. Then had some running, biking and sewing rehab and got bac to normal. We are already saving for our next trip.

We are thinking about going to some of the national pars on the west coast. If you have any tips and suggestions, please share!!!!!!!!

Black lace and satin...work in progress

2011-06-28T20:25:00.001+01:00

This is another dress I was working on last week. It was a request from my friend Charis. The brief was a simple fitted bodice, high boat neck, lace over satin (back lace only) and a plain satin skirt, slinky.

We went fabric shopping together, found some lovely black lace and a black crepe back satin. The dress is also fully lined

So I started with the pattern, very simple bodice with a bust dart and two front darts left and right, the back has 2 darts from the waist up on each side as well. (I am so not good describing these things but I hope it makes sense looking at the pictures.

I attached the lace to the satin for the front bodice the same way I did for the navy lace dress. I went for a side zip because I didn't want a zip ruining the lovely sheer lace back.

The skirt was a simple A-line that I kept very narrow towards the hem. I asked if she wanted me to leave a little slip for easy walking but she didn't. Definitely no running on the night lady!!

The finished dress has left me on Friday and I have been promised pictures. The due is this weekend so I hopefully there will be action shots soon.

weekend bliss 2 a walk in the country side

2011-06-27T20:01:00.001+01:00

When we went for drinks with our friends last night we decided to meet for Sunday lunch with Matt and Helen, one of the couples the following day followed by a nice long country walk with them and they cute labrador Bella.

I thought it would be time for a new dress post but didn't really get a chance to make myself anything new last week. I had some orders leaving my house and will hopefully have some pictures to show soon but they kept me busy and I didn't make anything new to wear.

However I had made a dress from Simplicity 4731, I got at a vintage fair, a little while back but never blogged about it. I wasn't happy with it and didn't feel it was worth blogging about. Today I fancied wearing it for some reason and decided all it needed to be wearable is a little shortening. So I chopped 11 inches off the hem and bang I had a new dress to wear. perfect for the hot day as it covered my shoulders and neckline and protected me from burning in the sun.

Hair turned out great again. I held the sides back with a comb, the center and top was turned into a faux fringe slightly swept to the side (I don't suit the full one very much plus I always mess it up for some reason) The back is rolled into a big roll creating a short hair do.

Lunch at the Rose and Crown in Great Horksley was amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone local enough, the walk was just right after stuffing ourselves.

The best thing was the cherry tree just across the road full of sweet juicy goodness. It is now not so full of cherries anymore, therefore are we. YUM!!! I hope you all had a great weekend too.

Weekend bliss 1...cycling again

2011-06-26T20:55:00.000+01:00

It was nice to have a weekend to ourselves again after last weekend's wedding party get-away. What else are we going to do with it than of course go out cycling.You can see ever since I got that amazing bike we are out at every chance we get.

The weather forecast for Saturday was good although it rained all night from Friday to Saturday and the sky didn't look promising at all when we left in the morning. We set off to cycle to Halstead which was about 18 miles through country roads, a nice distance.

As promised I did my bike proud by dressing the part. I didn't wear a new dress but one that would not look too bad in case I got rained on. You have seen this one before, apologies for repeating a dress but it's the first time I have worn it on Betty so I hope it still counts as a new cycling outfit.

This is outside the Townsford Mill center in Halsted behind us. It's an amazing two floors antique shop and a restaurant on the ground floor. I don't know if that's any good as we are picnic people on our bike rides but the antiques place is amazing. Very expensive but fun to browse though.

I loved how my hair turned out that day. I did a victory roll on each side and then one in the front. The back is just two braids.

And later on we finished off the day with a few drinks amongst friends.

Matt and Helen

Charis and Harry

and of course us.

Wedding weekend and a new dress

2011-06-22T15:20:00.001+01:00

My friend Rene got married last weekend so Dave and I flew over to Germany to celebrate with him and his beautiful bride Sandra.

As blogged before here and here, I made a dress to wear for the occasion. I finished it as usual last minute. We were going to fly out on Saturday morning at stupid o' clock and I finished it Friday night. I was going to make a matching bolero but that of course never happened. On top of that a lot went wrong with the dress too. I was very busy with work so my own sewing had to take the back seat and when you try to rush things (as a few of you might have experienced themselves) it all goes down hill.

I was going to sew in a petticoat, which I made up and sewed in, only to then realise I put it in the wrong way around, I then tried to take short cuts to fix it but that went even worse so I decided to butcher the whole thing, take it out and wear the dress without one. In the end it didn't really matter and IMO it looked still pretty good. I got a lot of compliments for it which was nice.

I was also very please with my hair on that day. It's maybe a bit to 40s for the dress but I don't care.

I also found the perfect silver and blue shoes to go with the dress for only £0.99 on ebay. Thank you bargain angel for looking after me.

The happy couple

The other happy couple :-D

We have our 2nd wedding anniversary coming up next month, can't believe how quickly time is flying.

Oh, this reminds me.....what a perfect occasion for a new dress. Don't know what we will be doing on our anniversary yet but I am sure I'll need a new outfit for it.

Driving through the dessert...

2011-06-17T15:00:00.003+01:00

It's time for another holiday report I think. This time I am taking you on a drive through the Nevada dessert. This was such a highlght, if not the best thing ever of the whole holiday. Since we had enough of LA and wanted to get out of there ASAP, we decided to get our hire car earlier if possble and spend more time driving through the dessert towards Las Vegas. We wanted to stop and check out Joshua Tree National Park a bit.

Fortunately they let us exchange cars early and off we went. Let me tell you Europeans who have not seen anything like it.........GO THERE!!!!! I thought the dessert would be boring. All sand and stuff...I have never given desserts much thought to be honest and thought they must all be a bit same-y but OH NO was I WRONG!!! Driving to Vegas alone we saw so many dfferent faces of what a dessert can be like, it was amazing.

Anyways onto the pictures.

If you squint a bit and look very carefully you can spot me at the bottom of the rock...

...and Dave somewhere climbing it

Yep, Joshua Tree National Park, you and your rocks, rock!!!

Drove past a massive dried out salt lake which took my breath away.

pretty sweet photo location

Dave was very well seasoned after this.

Dave is a musician when he's not being a hero. I think this should be his album cover shot.

I want to go back so bad!!!

Vera's dress

2011-06-17T15:00:00.000+01:00

I finished this little number yesterday. It is another customer order and worth sharing with you guys I think.

One of my customers fell in love with a dress to wear to a wedding but it was way out of her budget so we discussed the possibility of making something similar. Most important was the colour and material. She wanted a gold silk so I send her a bunch of swatches and she picked a very nice deep gold.

The design is a simple shift with an A-line skirt, small cap sleeves, a front yoke/pocket, stand up collar, little pleats in skirt between front yoke panel and side skirt panels, optional belt and I later decided to add a small pleat into the back seam too, to pick up on the front detail and give the back a little something at least.

I drafted the pattern myself, fiddled around with the front yoke pocket, found a cute 1960s vintage belt buckle to match and then I completely fell in love with the design that I might need one for myself now.

in pieces, the pinning begins

I overlocked all raw edges first to prevent unravelling

the back

the front

the shell, still unlined at this point

finished

loving the collar

cute 60s belt buckle

little pleates

Charis's wedding and dress

2011-06-16T15:27:00.000+01:00

My friend Charis got married in April. She and her fiance Harry had planed a very easy going small garden party affair and therefore she didn't want a big wedding dress. Rather something nice she could wear again and again. They have been together since school and thought it was time to make it official and tie the knot after 8 years or so.

I went fabric shopping with Charis and she picked a cute navy floral cotton with red detail to be transformed into a halter bodice with full circle skirt and red detail. I also found some matching red lace to use around the hem. Charis was over the moon with the result and the wedding day was a blast.

Harry's parent organised a great little get together in their beautiful garden for the families and close friends. I felt very honored Dave and I were invited too.

The lads all together. Harry and my husband work together, it was great seeing them all together again after their 6 months tour. Especially suited and booted like that (Ignore Ben on the left he only stopped by on his way home to see his family)

My groom (it's been a while now...)and THE groom

The bride and I (I just posted about this dress, I was wearing it for the first time at the wedding)

Dave and I <3

And the journey continues to....Los Angeles

2011-06-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

I hope you are not getting bored of holiday posts yet, there are still two more to come. After San Francisco we headed down to Los Angeles. The drive was breathtakingly beautiful. Unfortunately highway one was blocked due to a mud slide just before Hearst Castle which we had planned to visit. Instead we stopped in Santa Barbara for a nice dinner and then headed for LA.

Now I must say I/we were very disappointed with LA. It was not at all what we expected, not that I remember what we expected but it wasn't what we found.

The beaches are beautiful and Hollywood boulevard was fun but other than that all you do is sit in a car all day going somewhere. Forget public transport, it doesn't seem to exist. Now I like to walk and unless I really can't get to where I want to get to walking.

I guess if you are a family with kids it's a good place to go because a lot of theme parks are nearby. We're not into that. Sorry LA, I do not recommend spending more than a day passing by there.

In the Hollywood Hills

Santa Monica Beach

It was cold AGAIN!!! I didn't come to LA to wear a scarf!!!

We "enjoyed" this view a lot....LA from a car window about 75% of our time there.

in front of the Kodak theatre

At the Chinese theatre. My hand fitted perfectly into Marilyn's

Dave found his idol

and I found mine. Oh Rita how I adore you!!!! Her hands and feet are tiny, childlike.

Audley End House revisited

2011-06-14T15:47:00.001+01:00

Remember when my husband took me out to visit Audley End House ad Gardens near Saffron Walden last year for my birthday? We went back this year as they opened the stables and more of the kitchen garden plus we wanted to come back and spend some more time in the house and have a closer look at the taxidermy collection. Last time we came was in April and they did guided tours not leaving enough time to have a closer look at some of the stuff exhibited in the house.

You are not allowed to take pictures in the house which is a shame as it's beautiful inside.

We brought a little picnic along with us and sat down by the lake to eat. Within seconds we were surrounded by some pretty determined ducks and ducklings trying to steal as much as possible. They were so cute and tame, they even ate out of my hands. That alone made the day perfect already.

outside the newly opened stables

outfit was nothing new, black shirt waist dress with thrifted cardigan

They have a little area inside the stables for kids (and me!!!) to dress up in ye olde style clothes...had to try on a hat (very Madeline I thought) and look silly. It went well with my oversized jacket look (I was cold as usual and didn't bring a jacket....as usual and got Dave's to keep me warm.

I was proud of how my hair turned out that day. Very vintage, very stately home maid-ish.

Sunday in Dedham

2011-06-13T15:33:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday was gorgeous and you guys know what this means.....correct bike ride.

We went on a short one this time (just over 1 hour) to Dedham which is a very cute little village just outside Colchester with cute old timber houses, an old church and church yard, old fashioned pubs and tea rooms and a very cool Arts and Crafts Center. As promised I was wearing a new dress I haven't shown here yet. It's just a little plain shift dress I made just before the holiday.

I had ordered the fabric from Fabricland a while ago (it seems like they are not doing it any more) and because it's quite a busy in your face print a simple shape of dress made sense.

close up of the fabric

hair and make up to round up the look of course

in action

working the dress for you

There was an antiques fair on in Dedham that day and of course I had to have a browse. Unfortunately if it's called antiques fair the prices are twice as high to a vintage fair and they are already taking the mickey. I manages to score some white buttons for £1, a brooch for £3 and about 6 of the cute red terrier buttons for £4. They are worth the money. So cute, but now find a project to use them on. Any ideas?

Alice

2011-06-12T10:05:00.000+01:00

Alice is a returning customer of mine. I made her a dress to wear to her brothers commissioning ball a while ago (which reminds me to maybe blog about that one too some time) and loved it so much, she came back for another one to wear to her school's summer ball I believe.

I like Alice as a customer a lot as she knows exactly what she wants, she should maybe go into design after school... The first time she made me mood board describing her idea and this time I got a painted design to work with.

A simple fitted bodice with low cut back, beading trim, full skirt with pleats in either green or blue.

We went fabric shopping together and came home with a very deep blue/slightly purple satin and a very deep navy organza overlay. The two materials and colours look amazing together and very much suit her.

I wish the colour would come up nice in the pictures....maybe as we progress.

San Francisco, the journey continues

2011-06-11T15:07:00.000+01:00

From Boston we flew out to San Francisco to explore the West Coast. When we first drove from the airport to our hotel we weren't so sure if we will like it there. It's certainly different from any places we visited on the East Coast but as soon as we stepped out of the hotel and started exploring, we fell in love. San Francisco, I love you and I want to come back some day.

It was freezing cold again which was a theme all through the holiday. Apparently we came to visit at a time when it was unusually cold for the time of year....lucky us huh?

pretty sweet view from our hotel room

iconic San Francisco architecture

golden gate park

The "From bay to breakers" 12 k annual fun run was on that day. Unfortunately we didn't know about this otherwise we would have signed up to run it as well. It was quiet a spectacle, lots of people in costumes drunk at 10 am.

Japanese garden in the golden gate park

oh she took my breath away. The most amazing man made sight I have ever seen. It's just a bridge I know but she's is beautiful.

what a view while having lunch

of course we went to Alcatraz

cool creepy water tower, a lot of the buildings on the island look weathered and creepy...wouldn't want to be trapped on the island at night.

My favourite place in all of San Francisco was (no not the GG Bridge...close) Pier 39 at Fisherman's wharf where you can see a huge group of sea lions sun bathing, showing off and fighting every day. I had to go there twice while we were in San Francisco. If there are animals anywhere, just drop me off and collect me on the way home again....I'm happy.

iconic cable cars

Dave riding on the side of the cable car

and then we had to go :-((((((( and head on to Los Angeles. We decided to drive along the coast on highway 1. The views did not disappoint and I would recommend this drive to anyone visiting both places in one holiday.

Work in progress: party dress

2011-06-10T15:09:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update on my party dress for my friend's wedding in a week's time.

I have made up the bodice so far and I am very please with it. I am currently waiting for some net I have ordered so I can get onto finishing the skirt part.

I like this pattern. It's super easy to sew, the style is very flattering on me (I have made this before for my holiday...stay tuned for the next few holiday posts...we are so not done yet.....) the only thing I have changed every time though is making a circle skirt with the bodice rather than the ones that come with the pattern. I like meself a little twirl.

I like to ride my bicycle........outfit post

2011-06-09T15:09:00.000+01:00

Last weekend we went out bike riding again. This is our Summer activity number one now and means a lot more are about to come.

On this bike ride I wore....surprise surprise...another shirt waist dress. I blogged this one before but only on the mannequin. I promise this will be the last of the same for a while. I have a few other shirt waist dress patterns lined up but this pattern will be retired for a while.

I have a basket now, yey!! I am also planning on getting a shelf and another basket for the back so I can do my food shopping old school on my bike.

little coffee break

My not very vintage husband

goats milk ice cream...I was skeptical and afraid it might taste a little goat-y

But, nope it was gorgeous.

I am interested to know if your husbands, boyfriends, partners share the love of vintage/vintage style with you or are you more like us? One trying really hard to look like someone from ye olde days and one just not interested in fashion at all?

Holyday recap Boston

2011-06-08T16:15:00.000+01:00

I know I got a little confusing because I mixed up the last two locations of our journey but after Vermont (which we visited AFTER NYC) we went to Boston next.

I had never been to Boston before but always knew I would like it. It's the Irish vibe I guess. We spend 3 days here and then flew over to the west coast.

You can see me wearing this jumper/sweater a lot on this trip. I totally underestimated the weather and DID NOT take a jacket with me. Silly, I know. I don't have a nice one for in between seasons. Always wanted to sew myself one but that never happened. I thought I would buy one on this holiday instead. That also didn't happen so I had to wear Dave's skiing jumper a lot. It kept me warm and cosy.

Harvard and another shirt waist dress. Yes, the same one as all the other ones seen before. I think I almost posted all the ones I have now. Hope you are not bored yet.

In those 3 days we continued to learn about the Pilgrims and founding fathers of the USA, drank lots of beer and cider, walked all over the place, went on trolley tours, visited military/navy museums and I had my first Lobster dinner ever. Boston rocks!!!

Have you got a dress pattern you have made something from more than once or twice? Or even as many times as I have made this shirt waist dress now??

Me and Betty Schwinn, cycling adventure and outfit post

2011-06-07T15:51:00.002+01:00

Oh how I love Spring and Summer...........and now that I have my beautiful bike Betty Schwinn in my life (thanks again to my awesome husband) I am loving it even more. Whenever we have a day off together and the weather allows it, we are out on our bikes. As promised I will try my best to look cute and vintage, to not let Betty down. She deserves the effort.

Bike short of Dave....I know his is not as cute as mine but it deserves mentioning too.

Dress, another one of the 10000000000 shirt waist dresses I have made in the past. I think I never blogged this one before because you have seen it in other prints/colours before. This one is navy strawberry print and instead of sleeves I added matching bias binding around the arm holes. The headband is a gift from by friend Julie. She makes them to sell.

Are you enjoying the nice weather at the moment? How do you make the most of it?

What I am working on

2011-06-06T15:41:00.002+01:00

My friend and former colleague René is getting married next weekend and Dave and I are flying over to Germany to celebrate with him and his beautiful fiance Sandra. I decided this is a great excuse for me to make myself a new party dress.

I am making a petrol blue satin halter dress with a full circle skirt and maybe a bolero to match if there is enough time for that. For the bodice I am using New looks 6773 view C and the circle skirt is self drafted.

The detail on the bodice and the bolero if I am getting around to making one will be silver, the petticoat too. I even found some shoes on ebay to go with it. Hopefully they match. I know being very matchy matchy might not be the best look to go for but I think it's very vintage. Oh, this reminds me...I haven't got a matchy matchy hand bag!!!!!!!!! Panic, where will I put my hanky in in case I cry.........which I know I will. I cry at weddings. I looooooooove weddings and I am sure this will be an awesome one.

How could I forget New York?

2011-06-05T15:27:00.000+01:00

Wow, I have no idea how that happened but I totally forgot to blog about our stop in New York city as part of our epic holiday. I think this happened because NYC is the place I probably took the most pictures....so many iconic buildings and places. Anyways, I don't want you to miss out on some of them........

The flat iron building - My favourite building in NYC

I was wearing the skirt and top I made as part of the Spring Palette Challenge.

I tried to pull off a Marilyn on the subway vents but wasn't patient enough to wait long enough so no pictures... It did however happen later on when I wasn't expecting it. I hope everyone around me had a good laugh....

Another dress I never posted. I made this last year. Just a simple shift dress. Nothing special.

Husband had a great time on the Intrepid air craft carrier (I enjoyed it too...they had an exhibition on women in the 2nd world war)

Of course we had to go to the garment district so I could have my picture taken with the iconic button and needle...

.....and even more important with this guy. I think every seamstress that makes it to New York, comes home with a picture taken here.

Time square magic

And bye bye NYC........

Button crazy in Vermont

2011-06-04T16:53:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd share my amazing button purchase I made while in Vermont. I only got 3 of each kind because they were kind of pricey. This might be a little stupid because how much can you do with 3 buttons but I am sure I can find some projects to use them. Any suggestions?

Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 3 Vermont....great vintage shopping who would have thought

2011-05-31T18:45:00.000+01:00

And on and on goes the holiday report. The next stop along our journey was Vermont, where I went to visit my friend Cherie (who by the way has started her own blog on felting a little while ago. You can check it out here) Cherie and I have known each other since our early teens. We started out as pen pals in school and used to send each other all kinds of bits and bobs from pictures to hair clips and whatever else young girls like at that age (and as far as I am concerned...like forever) I couldn't wait for Mr Postman to come and bring me another letter from the other side of the world. Back then Cherie was living in Washington state so the other side of the world was almost true. Anyways, the years passed, I went on my Au Pair adventure and we finally got to meet at the end of my year in America. We got a long brilliantly and our friendship got even stronger. In the years to follow we both went to College and Uni and lost touch for a while in between, we both got married, moved across country/countries and as we started planing our epic holiday I knew I had to build in a visit to see her in Vermont.

This is us today in her garden. I would love to have a view from my house like this but unfortunately the view from my house is another house. The joys of living in the UK........

Hiking in Vermont...it's a wonderful place.

More hiking

Almost on top of the hill

Shopping in Brattleboro. I loved this little fabric shop. The proprietress is this amazing lady, a bit crazy but loves and lives fabrics, buttons and haberdashery. Unfortunately all the fabrics I fell in love with were not in my price range...I am just so tight when it comes to spending money on myself. Do you find it easy blowing money on fabric for yourself? Or in fact for anything for yourself?

Bought a vintage dress each.

Very Dorothy and very Annie were the comments we got. I like that. Now go and get me some ruby slippers!!!

Sampling food. They had so much to sample there (which we obviously took advantage of and probably sampled every jam, condiment, cookie, cracker, cheese and smoked meat in this place) we didn't need any lunch that day. Yey for Vermont country store!!!

Trying hats... I really wanted a nice straw hat this year but I am glad I didn't waste any space in my luggage as it was bloody freezing most of our trip.

outside the shop

and yes we bought stuff too. Probably cost us less than all the food we ate in there. Oh well.....

And then we headed for Boston....

New old patterns

2011-05-28T08:03:00.000+01:00

I scored a few new patterns lately. I was looking for some shirts and blouses to make a few more pieces to mix and match. Has anyone made one of them before?

Have a great weekend

Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 2 Philadelphia and Princeton

2011-05-26T14:38:00.000+01:00

We left DC on Wednesday night after an extensive sightseeing tour and headed for Philadelphia, the place where some important American history making had taken place a few hundred years ago.

We didn't get to Philly until late so there wasn't anything on the agenda for Wednesday night, but checking in to our wonderful little B&B and maybe going out for a drink.

Check out the room. Isn't it amazing.

If you ever plan on visiting Philadelphia and you are looking for a wonderful place to stay, check La Reserve . The little B&B is furnished with antique pieces. Each rooms' interior is unique, their staff is very friendly and the breakfast is amazing. They bake all their own scones, pastries and muffins. Very very yummy and so good I had to give them a mention on my blog.

Thursday was reserved for Philly sightseeing, which again can easily be done in a day. A very tourist friendly place with all sights within walking distance (I am mentioning this a lot as my husband and I hate sitting in cars a lot while trying to discover a place whether it's a city, national park or any other place worth visiting and along our journey we got bitterly disappointed at some point. We do however like using public transport as it isn't as stressful as driving in an unknown place....)

So anyways we went to see Penn's landing, Philadelphia's waterfront area, Independence Hall, Liberty Bell Benjamin Franklin's House (well where it once was....) Carpenter's Hall, Thomas Jefferson's house and many other places.

Some random streets in Philadelphia. The city has a very relaxed feel to it.

Independence Hall, this is where the declaration of independence was signed for those who didn't know...

Liberty bell

Husband posing with cool military ship and submarine. Unfortunately for him we didn't go in/on it due to lack of time but this wasn't the only military/navy piece of history that crossed our path and he got his boy sightseeing tour later on along the journey.

Me in front of a cute paddle boat. This would have made a great background for showing off a new creation but it was another cold day. The sun was doing it's best but the wind just wouldn't let me dress up and be comfortable. But at least I match the boat, right?

I had been to Philadelphia before but this is 10 years ago. I had just finished school in Germany and went over to the States for just over a year to work as an Au Pair. I took the opportunity to revisit some of the places I had been to back then and share my memories with Dave. It was amazing and at some points quite emotional.

After our day in Philly came to an end we headed for Princeton which is just up the road and also the place I stayed at during my time as an Au Pair. Back then the kids I looked after were Courtney (10) and John (13) and I was more of a friend, personal chef and taxi driver for them. I loved my job, host mum, host doggie and the kids and boy they are no kids anymore.

Of course I went to revisit my host family, we went to their place for dinner and stayed over night so I could show Dave the beautiful Princeton campus and the cute town. This really took me back 10 years and the fact that nothing dramatic had changed since then (apart from the kids being adults now making me realise I am NOT a teenager anymore...far from it) gave me a wonderful feeling of comfort.

My wonderful host family Nancy and Paul. They got married just after I left, I wish I could have stayed a little longer to see them getting married.

The beautiful Princeton campus. Go and see A beautiful mind with Russel Crowe. It was filmed there while I was in Princeton. It's one of my favourite movies and I still cry at the end when I watch it.

Me and a Princeton tiger, their mascot.

I only got to meet Courtney again because John is living on the west coast in Santa Barbara now. She is just as cute as I remember her. What a beautiful girl.

After a Friday morning exploring Princeton we left our car there and took the train into Manhattan where we spend the weekend until Monday. More about that next time.....

Home sweet home..... holiday recap number 1 Washington DC

2011-05-25T11:03:00.001+01:00

Hey everyone, I am back home in the UK again. I can't believe how quickly 2 1/2 weeks go and boom it's all over like a wonderful dream only that you have pictures to remember and prove that it has all actually happened.
I hope you are all interested in our little adventure and won't get too bored by me sharing some pictures. I promise I will only pick a few and spare you the hours of boredom our friends and families will have to go through.
As the regular followers amongst you readers know, my husband had been on tour in Afghanistan for 6 months from September last year until April this year leaving us separated for an awful long time. It was a long hard time but in the mean time we planed a road trip holiday through the USA for when he returns.

The whole trip started really early on Tuesday May 3rd at about 4am after only a few hours of sleep. We had to take the train to London and the underground to Heathrow which takes forever. The flight wasn't departing until 11ish.

Here we are totally knackered after the first 4 hours of travelling and still in the country.

The flight was fun, I highly recommend Virgin Atlantic for trans Atlantic flights. They look after their passengers!!!

We arrived in DC at about 4pm local time, plenty of day time left to check out the local area. We stayed in Arlington, VA literally just across the brindge from DC and headed out to Georgetown which was lovely. It was so hot in DC, I changed into my first new dress I would like to share with you guys. I used New Look 6675, very easy and straight forward to make. I'll make this again some time I think for a quick summer dress.

paired with little navy cardi

I made view A but made separate spaghetti straps and left them really long so I can tie the straps into little bows or wear the front ones as a halter,tucking the back ones in (I hope this makes sense)

The following day was planned as a sightseeing day, checking out the Washington Mall and everything around it. Of course it rained and was miserable all day. I couldn't believe how much it had changed over night.

Watergate hotel

Lincoln memorial

Korean war memorial

Iwo Jima memorial

Capitol

of course everyone knows that one.... we saw many other memorials, government buildings and sights but as promised I will spare you the picture torture.

We also went into the American history museum. Unfortunately not for a very long time because our time in the city was so limited. I however managed to see the First ladies at the Smithsonian exhibition which I thought you might be interested in too. I got to see the first ladies debut dresses which were amazing. Here a few I managed to photograph and get a decent picture of. Enjoy:

Jaqueline Kennedy

Martha Washington

Marmie Eisenhower

Mamie Eisenhower 1953

Lady Bird Johnson (left) 1965, Pat Nixon (right) 1969, I loved the little cropped jacket. It was beautifully encrusted in beads and crystals. Plus I love!!!! yellow...unfortunately I can't really wear yellow though.

Betty Ford (left) 1975, Rosalyn Carter (right) 1977

Nancy Reagan 1981

Hillary Clinton 1993

Laura Bush 2001

And of course Michelle Obama 2009

Washington is brilliant for sightseeing. Everything in one area, very spread out but walkable which we like. We spend a total of 8 hours walking plus a little 15 min lunch break. I was exhausted but very happy that we made the most of our time in Washington. We were on a very tight time schedule on the east coast to pack as much stuff to do and see into our itinerary so we headed to Philadelphia the same day.

Still here but far far away at the same time

2011-05-15T04:56:00.000+01:00

Just a quick message to all you patient readers out there. I am still here, alive and well. My husband and I are currently enjoying the holiday of a lifetime road tripping the USA. So far we have been to Washington DC, Philadelphia, Princeton, New York City, Springfield Vermont and Boston. Today we flew out to the West Coast, to San Francisco. There are so many great pictures and travel stories to tell but I just haven't got enough time to post them as I am still out here. I will catch up and be a much better blogger again very soon. I hope you all understand and hang in there.

Until then I will leave you with a little teaser

Wish you were here...............

Best birthday pressie ever....

2011-04-21T18:11:00.002+01:00

I have been a bad bad blogger lately but I guess sometimes it's good to take a break. I have had a busy few weeks and although I am not short on topics to write about I was lacking the inspiration to actually sit down and write. I have been working on a lot of orders and didn't get much sewing for myself done. I enjoyed making every piece though.

Anyways, the greatest thing that happened while I was absent from the blogosphere was the return of my husband. He's finally back home for good. More than 6 months of separation are over and we are back to normal. After such a long time apart I am sure you all understand that writing blog posts was not on top of my list of priorities.

But, here I am back with my first post, sharing my awesome birthday adventure with you guys. My husband bought me the best pressie ever. Obviously spending my birthday with him was already amazing enough but would you turn up your nose at this???????

He got me a Schwinn Starlet beach cruiser in mint green. The cutest thing ever and of course I had to go on a bike ride straight away. Off we went to a nearly village and attraction (Layer Marney/ Layer Marney Tower) for a picnic outside and a pub stop along the way back home.

We had such a great time, the weather has been gorgeous lately so I guess I'll be out with Betty Schwinn (I called my bike Betty....I know how original but Betty Bike sounds cute enough) a lot. The other good thing is that this bike is literally screaming for cute cycling outfits so hopefully I will remember to always dress up appropriately for her and take pictures to share with you guys.

On my birthday I was wearing this dress with a cardigan I found in a charity shop accessorised with a necklace from Primark (yes I am cheap and love finding things there) and a sweater guard from my grandmother in law.

Happy Easter everyone and enjoy the sunshine. I hope you are getting as much as we are down here in Essex.

What I am working on

2011-04-03T14:22:00.001+01:00

I have been working on a few customer ordered lately that I thought are worth sharing on the blog. It's been all about evening wear lately. Apart from orders on regular day wear pieces from my shop I had some more elaborate requests for custom made festive dresses.

Number one is a 1960s emerald green satin dress I want to share with you today. My lovely customer Katja has had a wedding dress made by me last year (the wedding isn't until this Summer) and now she has a wedding to go to this year as well. This dress is what she's going to wear for that occasion.

She knew exactly what she wanted and bought a pattern for me to use. I like that because it makes it much easier for me.

The chosen pattern was this one:

view 3 with the ribbon detail of view 1 added and a big bow at the back for extra detail.

This is where I am now:

The dress itself is finished and the band attached. I will add a net petticoat underneath the skirt for extra fullness although the material holds itself up quite well. Plus petticoats are cute and skirts can never be too full.

This is the bow. I haven't attached it yet. It'll be on poppers so Katja can choose to wear it with or without the bow. I will also change the tie ends hanging down into wider pieces so the match the bow rather than the band around the dress.

Finished project coming soon. I thought since I never show many work in progress pictures and projects it's about time.

I won, I won, I won....thanks to all you amazing people who voted

2011-04-01T15:58:00.000+01:00

Thank you guys for voting for me to win the Mad Men photo competition. I won the 1960s vintage dress from Juno Says Hello, received it the other day and thought I share a picture with you to say thank you.

I am such a lucky girl. I never won anything in my life ever before (at least I can't remember). Thanks again, you guys are awesome!!!

I'm not really that cool, but I wasn't wearing any make up here, hence the sun glasses.

Cotton candy cuteness

2011-03-31T17:24:00.000+01:00

It's time for another dress. I made this one with my upcoming holiday in mind. I wanted a dress that was screaming Spring, Summer, Fun and Fairground and I think I have achieved exactly that.

I frankensteined my trusted shirt waist pattern that I have now made soooo many times I am afraid to show any other versions of it now in case I bore you to death with it. But this one is worth showing as it's different to the original pattern. I turned it into a halter dress.

I used turquoise and white polka dot cotton, some left over broderie anglaise from my Spring Palette blouse, baby pink vintage-y buttons and baby pink bias binding around the edges.

Now, who's going to buy me some cotton candy, a milkshake and a burger and fries at the next fun fair?

I am still here....back with a new outfit.

2011-03-27T19:32:00.012+01:00

It's been a while since I have posted anything sewing related but that doesn't mean I have been lazy. I have just been working lots on customer orders and Vintage fairs which left me with little time sewing for myself.

I actually want to make up a small holiday wardrobe for my epic US- road trip in May so here is outfit number 1.

I made another pussy bow blouse but this time with cap sleeves rather than puffy sleeves. I think I might make a few more of them as they are super cute and go with, jeans, trousers or in this case, shorts.

I made the shorts out of a thick plain peach coloured cotton which is nice and soft but strong and herd wearing enough for shorts. They are not high waisted this time. I decided it's time for a different style. I also went for turn ups on the legs for extra detail.

I think this is a good combo that is cute and comfortable while on holiday.

As you might have figured out by now, I have given up on Me Made March this time. I just couldn't stick to taking outfit shots every day plus sometimes my usual jeans and T-shirt combo was just more convenient than wearing cute dresses. It also wasn't always warm enough for them. I do wear a lot of my clothes but don't always do hair and make up to complete the vintage look if I am just at home sewing, making and creating. Maybe next time there is a Me Made challenge on, I will join again and stick to it.

Please vote for me in this competition

2011-03-17T20:21:00.001+01:00

I recently joined a Mad Men competition on The Vintage Guide To London and had already completely forgotten about it. I have never won anything so I joined just for fun but didn't think much more about it. Then today I saw on Facebook that I am through to the final. I send in a picture from my photo shoot for my online shop and I guess they liked it. YEY!!!

Please head over and vote for me. The price is a gorgeous vintage Mad Men dress from Juno says hello. I very much appreciate your help.

Thanks guys and happy St Patricks Day!!!

You can vote here.

A new pair of jeans and Me Made March day 6- 11

2011-03-12T15:12:00.000+01:00

To start off, I haven't got a picture of day 6 (Sunday) It wasn't spectacular, I was wearing the nautical jersey top from day 1 again with jeans. I went for an all day walk with a friend so I needed something easy and comfortable to wear.

day 7

I wore this dress.

day 8

Dress blogged here.

day 9

skirt blogged here and top here

day 10

dress blogged here

day 11

A new pair of jeans and do I love them. I really wanted to have a pair of dark high waisted jeans and here they are. They are made from my very trusted Burda pattern, however I did cut the legs a little slimmer, which still leaves them wide enough for me but not as huge as the patterns intends. I also skipped the front flap detail and added buttons straight onto the main trousers. I need your opinion on the buttons. I really liked them in the shop and I think they work with the red blouse combination but do they look a bit clown-ish? What do you think?

Me made March outfits 3,4 and 5

2011-03-06T09:28:00.000+01:00

This is what I was wearing for the Me Made March challenge on day 3,4 and 5:

This is my 1960s shapeless sack dress aka the strawberry hospital gown/scrubs. It's shapelessness reminds me of hospital scrubs. Blogged about here.

I did my hair like this after watching Casey's tutorial the other day. She's so cute. I have never styled it this way but really like the look of it. A new hair style staple for the future!!!

I don't know what happened with the light in these pictures but I kind of like the effect.

I dipped into my new Spring palette collection again on day 4.

Red shorts blogged here and checked shirt/blouse blogged here. And yes I really like that cardigan. I have it in 3 different colours. You will probably see all 3 of them a lot during March as I am a wardrobe layering kinda girl.

And on day 5 another one of my favourites. I have worn this dress so many times now and can't get tiered of it. Blogged about here.

The cardigan was a lucky car boot sale find. It's all crochet lace around the sleeves and hem. I love it!! It only cost me £1.50 thank you very much.

Please excuse the quality of some of the pictures. I took some of the pictures in a rush before leaving the house, not realising how blurry they were. But you get the idea anyway, I think.

I'd like to thank............Stylish Blogger Award

2011-03-03T10:31:00.006+01:00

I have been tagged for a Stylish Blogger award by two of my followers/two bloggers I follow too, Suzy and Andrea. I love your blogs and feel very honored that you have picked me for this award.

Part of this award entails revealing 7 things about oneself that readers might not know about yet so here we go.

1. I am a bit or a normade. I was born and raised in Germany and lived there with my family until I was 18 years old. After I finished school, I felt like I don't want to go from one school straight to the next one and decided to take a year off and work abroad as an Au Pair. I always wanted to go to the US growing up, so I did. I lived in Princeton, NJ with an amazing host family looking after a 14 year old teenage boy and an 11 year old girl. They were amazing kids and I basically didn't have to do much 'looking after' because they were very capable of that. So I was more of a chef and taxi service and a big sister which was totally fine with me. After returning to Germany I started studying Popular Music and Media and within those studies I did an internship in Laos for 3 months which was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. Growing up in one of the richest countries in the world, then living in another one just like it and then going to live in one of the poorest countries has really opened my eyes to what really matters. I met wonderful people, ate amazing food, saw the greatest landscapes and was so overwhelmed by the hospitality there. Wherever we went, the first thing was food on the table. For people that have to live on $50 a month (this is quite a good income over there) they are just so generous and giving, it makes me cry just thinking about it.

While I was at uni I met my English husband, who is a soldier in the British Army and after finishing my degree I decided to move to the UK with him. I thought it doesn't matter where I live and work as long as it is with him. And here I am, now married (for 2 years in July) and madly in love. Who knows where it'll all take us next.

2. I have a cat named Jenny. I adopted her about 2 years ago from a cat rescue. She was kept with two other cats and one big bully tomcat called Rambo and just sat in the corner looking scared. My choice was either saving Jenny or saving Mr Cheese, a big ginger cat who I also fell in love with just because he was ginger and called Mr Cheese (how cool is that for a name) but I could only choose one and my husband and I decided that Mr Cheese looked happy enough but Jenny really needed to be saved from Rambo. Now she's bullying my neighbours cat, how things change....

3. This is a big one for me to announce and I haven't blogged about it yet but I guess this is a good opportunity to do so. I was made redundant last November from my job at a bridal shop. It wasn't too much of a shock to me because the business wasn't doing well and to be honest I was bored a bit with some of the "problems" some of the customers had. After having seen people with not much to eat and rags for clothing, bridesmaids dresses that aren't exactly the same colour as the wedding flowers or the mother of the bride having shoes dyes to match her outfit and then they are just a tad off (which is normal if the shoes are satin and the dress is silk!!!!!!!) aren't really the worth fretting about now, are they? Since then I have started working on my own dressmaking business. It's all been baby steps so far but I am loving it so much I can not tell you. I have started another blog/shop over at http://www.vintagebybeatricewinter,blogspot.com/ Please check it out and let me know what you think. And please spread the word. I can use all the support I can get plus I am always happy to return the favour of course.

4. I have a huge holiday planed in May with my husband. He's currently serving in Afghanistan and has been there since September last year. He will be back in April and I can not wait to see him again (the last time I have seen him was in November on his R&R) and then we'll just run off for a few weeks, just the two of us and travel the east and west coast of the US, visiting my host family who I haven't seen in 10 years and some friends.

5. I am a runner. My husband got me into running about 3 years ago. I used to be so unfit you won't believe it. My first run was not much faster than a walk but I managed to run for 20 min. It was painful but I was hooked. Since then I have run several races. I did have a bit of a lazy spell last year but since November I am back running and huffing and puffing to get better and better. I will be running a 10k race in May, just 2 days before we are flying out. This should help me sleep on the long flight huh?

6. I have a very...hm lets say eclectic taste in music. I am very much into rock and metal and always wanted to work in music and event management (hence the subject I studied at uni) but having done that for just over a year, I decided it's not for me. I won't get into detail. Anyways, I used to be quite a goth chick in my teens all the way to my mid 20s. Apart from heavy guitar music I also love a lot of cheesy stuff. I am a huge ABBA fan and not afraid to tell. I used to sing their songs into my hairbrush as a kid, not knowing what they were singing but later on as I learned English in school I realised I was pronouncing almost everything correctly....maybe with a slight Swedish accent??? Thank you ABBA for teaching me early. I am also a fan of all sorts of stuff from the 40s, 50s and 60s (my husband then continues the collection through the decades by loving the 70s prog rock...) Our record collection is huge.

7. I haven't got a TV. I am one of the 1% of people in the western world (I think) who hasn't got a TV. When my husband and I moved to the UK we didn't have much stuff. In fact we had our clothes, our CDs and not an awful lot else. I have a whole household in storage in Germany but didn't move that to the UK. So we had to start from zero. A TV wasn't a priority as we needed furniture first and we didn't want to buy a small crappy TV, we wanted a big nice flat screen one like everyone else has a a vocal point in their living rooms. So we waited patiently and after about 6 months we thought NO, we had such a good time not watching TV (I admit I watch some catch up TV online every now and then), we don't need it. It's funny that when I tell people I haven't got a TV, they all say "well, I don't watch TV..." So why have one then? I would be on it all the time if I had one. It's just what you do. It' just happens, it sucks you in and before you know it 2 hours or more have passed, you have no idea what you have just watched because most of it was adverts and the other time you have zapped just through all programs. I am no exception. I just haven't got the opportunity and I like it that way. That's why I get so much sewing done you see. No TV + husband away = lots of time for sewing.

WOW, this was a lot of words there. Not usually my style but I hope you enjoyed my little blurb.

Now it's time to tickle some other lovely bloggers and make them spill some information.

1. Miss Tamy Lee who's blog I have only just discovered recently and adore. Plus I think she's quite an interesting person to find out more about.

2. Tempramental broad, I love her blog. It's so inspiring plus we are both in the "made redundant boat" Good luck to you, I hope you are doing well.

3. Kitten I love her style, her sewing projects and most of all the hats!!!!

4. Gabriella from Sewing is hard, she makes the cutest vintage clothing. I love her style.

5. Ruby from Ruby Murrays Musings you need to check out her awesome reconstructions.

6. Frollein von Sofa, her hat making skills are to die for. I love her blog.

and last but certainly not least:

7. Rosy from Sewingadicta, she has made some amazing pieces based on outfits spotted in old movies. I'd love her sewing knowledge

Last Spring palette outfit finished. Nautical top and circle skirt and Me made March day 1 and 2

2011-03-02T10:29:00.000+01:00

Finally the last outfit I made as part of the Colette Spring palette challenge and outfit one of Me Made March. The top is a lovely soft jersey. I drafted the pattern by tracing just one of my simple jersey tops I have in my wardrobe. Nothing fancy, just front and back piece...fits easily due to the stretch in the fabric. I made my own self fabric bias binding to finish the neckline, armholes and hem (not shown in the pictures). The skirt is just a simple circle skirt I drafted when I made the two (1 and 2) lace dresses. I just drafted a waistband for this one since it's not attached to a bodice and voila a circle skirt. I used the same button on the skirt, trousers and shorts to keep it all tied together.

I hope you like my little Spring palette collection of nautical loveliness. I am sure these pieces will occur quite frequently during Me Made March. Who else has joined Zoe's Me Made March? Let me know so I can check out your daily outfits.

This leads to another question, would you like to see my MMM outfit posts on a daily or weekly basis or something in between?

And today's outfit: The only thing MM I am wearing is the blouse. Blogged about here.

And the winner is..........

2011-03-02T00:39:00.000+01:00

First of all thanks to everyone who took part in the competition for my 100 followers giveaway. I can't believe how many new readers I have gained since announcing the giveaway. Welcome and thanks for joining me here at my little sewing blog. I will give my very best to not disappoint you and come up with new creations to share with you in the future. Please let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to blog about in particular and/or anything you like and want to see and read more about in the future. I am always interested in feedback and looking for ways to improve this blog to keep you interested.

I have picked a winner out of all the entries tonight.

The winner is Rachel from Boo Dog and Me

Congratulations Rachel, please email me with your address at beatricewinter[at]hotmail.com

High waisted nautical trousers, Spring palette item number four and an outfit inspired by Gwen

2011-02-26T15:37:00.000+01:00

Here it is, Spring Palette piece of clothing number four. A pair of nautical inspired high waisted navy trousers. I am in love with them. I prefer them to the Burda style I have made before here and here because they have pockets. I used Mc Calls M5592 that I have had for a while but always thought they might be a little complicated.

Nope they are not. They are straight forward to make and I am sure I will make them again. They are a tad big on me but that's OK. Means I can wear them out to dinner and have desert too ;-)

I used the anchor buttons again, I used on the red shorts

I lined the pockets with red start print fabric I had scraps of. I love using up scrap fabric!!!

When I was looking online for inspiration for future projects and outfits I stumbles across this picture of Gwen Stefani, who is one of my style icons for obvious reasons. After seeing that picture I thought, this is the look I want to go for today. So I did. Do you think I pulled it off?

Here are some shots of my hair and make up too. I went for a faux fringe and high pony tail (faux short ;-) pony tail ...my hair is a little longer than Gwen's) Have a great weekend everyone.

Lace dress number 2

2011-02-22T13:13:00.001+01:00

This is the second lace dress I made from the black lace I picked up at the same time I got the navy lace for this dress. I used the same pattern I drafted for the navy dress but split the top into a strapless dress and lace yoke to change the look of the bodice a bit. I am very happy with the result because I didn't make a muslin for it. I drafted the pieces and went straight for the main fabric. Lucky for me it worked out great and fits perfectly. I am not a very patient person when it comes to sewing for myself so I rarely do a muslin, which has led to many wadders on my sewing past but every once in a while I succeed.

I also cut the back lower than the navy dress and used bias binding along the neckline. I use bias binding a lot lately. I love the finish you get.

And action shots freezing in the back yard again. Has to be done, just for you.

It does look pretty goth but I made it to go to a gig last weekend where that was a much appreciated look. I used to be into that sort of look. Not anymore but with a vintage-y twist I can do it for a night out.

And this is me wearing it on the night of the gig. There aren't any other pictures from that night because as you can see in my hand, I did have a few ciders and pictures after that are just not that glamorous ;-)

Rainbow coloured roses. How do they do it?

2011-02-21T13:28:00.002+01:00

I thought these are so worth sharing with you readers. When I got back from my weekend with my in laws last Monday I had a big box sitting outside my door, waiting for me. I didn't order anything so ???

It was a bunch of the cutest roses send to me from my husband, who is currently on tour in Afghanistan. How thoughtful of him to send them on Valentines day. I am such a lucky girl. Aren't they amazing? Some of them have multi coloured petals. How do they do that? I now you can colour the water and if you put white roses and tulips into it, they soak it up and change colour but multi coloured petals???? Very clever and I am certainly impressed. They are keeping well and I am still enjoying them a week later.

Spring palette outfit number 2 finished

2011-02-20T13:13:00.000+01:00

This is actually the first outfit I finished for the Spring palette but didn't get it photographed for a while. I might not be able to wear it until later in the year but I am very happy with it.

I frankensteined the top from a 1960s pattern. It was just a simple boxy shaped top with a zip half way up the back and a stand up collar. So basically I just cut the front and back pieces from the pattern, added the front darts (it initially only had bust darts) , changed the collar completely by cutting it wider and using the scalloped selvages from the broderie anglaise fabric to make the ruffles.

I also modified the back, cut the pieces slightly wider than asked for in the pattern and used the lovely scalloped selvages again as a cute detail. I also used buttons all the way down instead of a zip. I found those cute buttons in one of my local fabric shops and thought they are perfect to pick up on the bias binding collar detail.

The shorts are cut from the same patter that I drafted for the playsuit I made a while ago. I had some red gabardine left, just enough to make them. They are high waist which I love. To keep it nautical (as this is part of my brief for the Spring palette) I used an anchor button.

And this is me freezing in my back yard just to to show off how cute this outfit is. I'll be going on a USA road trip with my husband in May and this will so be part of my holiday wardrobe. Most likely not combined with those heels though.

I hope you like! Let me know what you think.

100 plus follower give away

2011-02-10T12:16:00.000+01:00

As promised I will be having a giveaway celebrating 100 followers. I have gained a few more followers since reaching that number and I am very grateful for every one of you. Thank you so much for reading and commenting on my blog. I very much appreciate it. I hope many will follow and I will keep gaining interested readers that inspire me to make and create beautiful pieces of clothing and accessories in the future.

Since I had so many lovely comments on the navy lace dress and belt in my recent posts, I decided to make another belt and give it away to one lucky follower. To enter the competition, leave a comment below and let me know what you would wear the belt with. You will get one entry for commenting, to get another entry blog, tweet or facebook etc about this giveaway and leave me another comment with the link to your blog/tweet...

You need to be a follower of this blog. I will post anywhere in the world. The competition is open until the end of this 28th of February 12 pm GMT. Good luck to all of you and thank you for your support.

Me made March

2011-02-10T00:26:00.001+01:00

Zoe from So, Zo has announced another Me Made/ Self stitched challenge for March and since a few of you readers were interested in more outfit posts, I decided to join. So here we go:

I, Bea sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear a piece of clothing made by me paired with only vintage or thrifted pieces and accessories each day for the duration of March 2011'

I am looking forward to it. I certainly have enough dresses and separates now to not get too bored with them or bore you with showing them off and repeating myself too much. This means I better get my Spring palette collection finished!!

I have also finally found a great price for my belated 100 follower giveaway. But that will have to wait for another post.

Who else is going to take part in MMM?

Action shot of the navy lace dress

2011-02-07T20:44:00.000+01:00

As promised, here are some action shots of the navy lace dress posted yesterday. I was wearing it today to go to Londonedge for the day. I didn't take any photos while I was at the fair, sorry but I had a great time checking out some awesome alternative clothing labels. I need to investigate some of the brands a bit more and maybe I will share some of them in a later post. All exhibitors are listed on the Londonedge website though if you want to find out more.

and some detail shots of my hair and make up

Love the little anchor earrings.

I was wearing a black cardigan over the dress since it's not quite cap sleeve weather yet. My grandmother in law sorted out some of her old jewelery recently and thought that I might want it. Hello??? Of course I do and thank you so much for thinking of me. Amongst some other lovely pieces was this cute little sweater guard. Perfect to go with my outfit.

Maybe I should do outfit posts more often. Would you be interested? I am working a lot from home now and therefore don't always dress up including hair and make up. Let me know if you would like to see more outfit posts in the future.

Navy lace dress as part of the Spring challenge finished

2011-02-06T16:26:00.000+01:00

I actually wanted to wait with posting my Spring challenge collection until all pieces are finished but then I though, what else can I blog about if it's not about sewing? Plus this way it's not a complete overload of finished projects all at once.

I have a few pieces finished already, so I will show them individually. As mentioned in my Spring Challenge post, I am in love with lace dresses and needed to have one. My inspiration dresses were all cream/ ivory, a colour I don't really wear (it doesn't suit me being a pale red head) plus my Spring palette is all nautical colours. So I went for navy and found some nice lace in one of my local fabric shops last week.

Close up of the navy lace. I stitched all lace pieces to the lining (navy cotton) pieces first.

Bodice (work in progress)

Finished product. I also made a sash to go with it. I still had this ribbon at home and some really nice ribbon corsage trim I bought a while ago. I cut up the trim into individual pieces and arranged them on the ribbon. I added a few other notions and stitched it all together. Tadaaa, looking nice and vintage-y to me, just how I like it.

close up of the sash

side view

I didn't line the sleeves to show the lace off a bit better and to add detail.

Fullness of the circle skirt. I am thinking about making a petticoat for this one once I have made all my Spring challenge pieces. I have never made a petticoat. I think it's quite easy but I am not keen on faffing about gathering all the net/tulle. Not a favourite material of mine.

I drafted the pattern myself. Fitted bodice and circle skirt. I didn't line it because I didn't want the bodice to be too bulky. I only overlocked all seam allowances.

I'll be wearing that dress tomorrow. I am off to Londonedge at Olympia, London tomorrow to check out some alternative fashions etc. I am not sure if I get to take pictures at the fair but I'll get you an action shot of the dress.

Hope you all had a nice weekend and got some sewing done.

Vintage finds part 2

2011-02-02T20:25:00.003+01:00

As promised, here is round two of my recent vintage finds.

1970s boho dress

1980s jersey suit (I like the shape of this one. It's a bit 80s copying 40s style like.

1970s dress, complete with bow tie and belt (I think this one has never been worn. It still has the original price tag on it and a tag telling you to remove the belt before washing. I am very chuffed with this find.

I haven't done much sewing this week so far apart from finishing off a few bits and bobs from last week. 2 more shirt dresses, which I won't bore you with just yet. I think I have shown enough of the dame for now. Doesn't stop me from making them though. I have also started on my Spring challenge sewing. So far I have made a top, a blouse and shorts. I would like to show it all together, once the mini collection is all finished. I'll see if I can keep it a secret for a little longer.

I have also bought some navy and some black lace yesterday which I am planing to turn into full circle skirt dresses. The navy one as part of the Spring challenge and the black one because I couldn't leave the lace behind in the shop, when getting the navy.

How are you all getting on with your recent sewing projects? If you are taking part in the Spring challenge, how are you getting on? Any finished projects yet? I am intrigued.

Vintage finds

2011-01-31T20:04:00.000+01:00

I went scouting for vintage stuff today. I thought I need to get out of the house. I have been spending too much time indoors lately sewing, which is great and I love being busy making and sewing things but every now and then I need a break. I have started on the Spring palette already and will share the first pieces with you soon. I still haven't got anything for the giveaway, I'm afraid. I haven't even got an idea yet but I promise there will be a giveaway soon and then it'll be worth taking part in it.

Anyway, here are some of the lovely finds of today. I haven't taken pictures of it all yet. The light went quickly once I got back home.

Vintage C&A llama fur coat. I loooove it, it's in awesome condition but unfortunately a bit big on me, even with a big jumper underneath. I will sell this one again. So sad it's not my size.

Cute crimplene dress. I think someone made this, there is no label inside and it looks like it could be handmade. Again, amazing condition. Very cute buttons. It's too big for me too but the self fabric belt and shoulder pads work wonders and I can get away with it.

1960s Liberty of London dress. It's a 'dollyrockers designed by sambo' dress and sooooo cute. A bit tight but maybe come summer I could fit into it. I think this is my favourite of all the dresses.

There is more to come but as I said, I need to wait for daylight again.

turquoise and bows

2011-01-26T09:13:00.001+01:00

I finished this little dress last week already but didn't get to blog about it yet. It's sewn from vintage Simplicity7085. I made it even in the same colour as pictured. I love turquoise. The only thing I changed is the position of the bows. Instead of attaching them to the straps, I attached them to the neckline. The pattern was super easy to put together and I think I might make a few of this dress for summer with different details. It's just such a cute little shape.

I love the low back.

Red and navy....another shirt dress

2011-01-25T13:00:00.001+01:00

Oooops I did it again and this will probably not be the last one from this pattern. I just loooooooove shirt waist dresses. They are my favourite thin, I can't say it enough. Hopefully you are not getting bored of seeing them here. This time I went for a sleeveless version and finished the armholes of with bias binding. This might become another obsession for me. I love how easy it is to finish raw edges with it and how much detail it adds to a garment. I also added it to the belt to pick up the colour again.

I think I will add those two colours, navy and red, to my Spring challenge. I was going to go for a pastel palette but I think that would not really be me. I like strong colours. As much as I love ice cream colours, they don't really suit me I think and I haven't got an awful lot in my wardrobe that will go with those colours either. However, I DO have a lot that will go with the red and navy and I love all things nautical. I think I'll go for nautical in the challenge. But more about that later, onto the pictures of the dress.

Spring palette challenge inspiration

2011-01-24T10:14:00.002+01:00

I have started to look through my inspiration folder for items to sew for the Collette Patterns Spring Palette challenge and so far have come up with the following pieces. I have quite a long list and I am sure I won't be able to sew it all within the challenge but I want to have enough to choose from in case I get stuck with an item, can't find the right fabric or realize it wasn't such a good idea and loose interest.

1. Tops. I love frilly tops. I am not sure if the tops would be something I scout for in e.g. charity shops and then refashion them or if I would actually make them and add the detail. I am scared of sewing jersey, knits or any other stretchy material but maybe this is the time to overcome that, cut and ruin a lot of material and figure it all out in the end?

Photos both modcloth

Something lace. I love the little lace dresses below. I might not go for white or ivory (I've had a wedding dress and those are just not good colours for me but maybe mint green or a pale pink or blue and I'd make a little lacy number.

don't know where I got this picture from, if it's yours or you know, please let me know so I can credit it.

dear golden vintage

If not lace, then broidery anglaise instead. This might actually be what I am going for because I am more likely to find a colour I like in the broidery anglaise. Still light and delicate as lace but more sturdy for every day wear.

I think this is modcloth as well

Trousers, I need some proper nautical trousers in (of course) navy with lots of buttons. I am not going to make another Burda 8488. I'll go and find a different pattern, with slimmer legs. Still wide legged, just not wide legged for two.

And a pair of shorts. Maybe in red.

I am not sure, where the pictures are from, I think it's mod cloth again...I went a bit inspiration crazy there for a while...

All together, I am planing to make 6 pieces if I can in that time frame. 2 tops/blouses/shirts, a skirt, a pair of shorts and a dress.

I am going for the following colours: blue/probably more navy actually, pale blue, red, maybe pink, black and ivory I am trying to give it all a nautical theme as well. Lets see how it goes. Are you taking part in this challenge? What are your colours and projects planned?

100 followers fast approaching

2011-01-23T12:48:00.001+01:00

I am slowly approaching the 100 followers mark. You know what that means.....CELEBRATION!!! I am so thankful for all you lovely people returning again and again to my little blog, reading and most of all commenting on my posts. I so very much appreciate every single one of you. It inspires me to keep sewing and showing what I have created.

I will of course celebrate this next milestone of a hundred regular readers with a giveaway of some sort. I haven't got a clue yet what this is going to be but it will be something sewing or vintage related of course. I will be back with more information and an actual prize for you guys soon. There is still a little while to go until we get to the 100 mark anyway.