Monster Mash Dress

I don't often buy new fabric (especially when that new fabric is from Spotlight) but when I found fabric with old school movie monsters, I had to have it, because I love monsters so freaking much.

Obviously this dress has a LOT going on, so I  wanted a simple pattern (who am I kidding, I really only like to wear simple frocks as I'm all about comfort). This dress is the "back to school shift dress" from Chic and Simple Sewing by Christine Haynes. I added a bit of length to the dress, but otherwise made no alternations to the pattern. Here's a close up of the pattern - its includes wolfman, a vampire and a zombie (oh my!).

I also love that the background of this fabric is  a really pretty blue colour - not just boring black.

I've worn this dress twice - once to a burlesque show and once to have lunch with a friend and both times I got comments from random strangers. It's nice for your friends to notice your handmade things, but when total randoms say they like something you made its a bit of a buzz.

Hope you folks all had a good weekend xox

More Easter Adventures - Sunday and Monday

I realised I didn't finish posting the rest of my photos from Easter weekend! Easter Sunday involved a lot of eating and Easter crafts.

I went to my friend Shell's place to hang out and dye Easter eggs, Shell is from the USA and had ALL kinds of Easter treats from the USA.

My friend Joy gave me this cute little Easter present, the wacky balloon cat guy was in  my kinder surprise egg!

We dyed Easter eggs with food colouring and also Kool-Aid - we don't actually get Kool-Aid in New Zealand, but Shell had a stash that she had been sent from friends back home. We even managed to mix some colours and create black eggs.

Shell lives in Highbury and I took this view as I was walking home from her house - such a pretty view.

I found this map as I was walking home - I'm a bit of a map geek, so this is the kind of street art I totally appreciate.

On Sunday we decided to walk to the summit of Mount Victoria, via the suburb of Mount Victoria. I was pretty excited when we found these rabbits along the way. They are appropriate guys to find on Easter Monday and also rabbits are one of my favourite animals.

I haven't spent a lot of time in Mount Victoria as a suburb, but its really a cute neighbourhood. Maybe I will live here some day!

Next stop the summit of Mount Victoria - its feeling autumnal up in the town belt now.

On the way back down from the summit we stopped off at a look out which is a kind of memorial to the Duke of Wellington and Thomas Wakefield.

Finally on the way home we saw this - I think I kind of prefer it to "Keep Calm and Carry On"

"Turning Japanese" Dress

So I made another dress recently from Japanese style print fabric and it makes me think of this song.

I bought the fabric from a New Zealand fabric destash group I'm part of on facebook - isn't it pretty.

I decided to use a tried and true pattern and make another Salme Patterns pussy bow dress with the sleeves from the Colette Laurel dress. It's the same franken-pattern I used for my Hearts and Anchors dress, the only difference was I added a little bit of length to the skirt of the dress.

It's getting dark earlier and earlier at the moment, but Rich was still able to take a few photos for me in the courtyard before the sun went down for the day.

The dress is pretty simple, I've not put in the darts as I wanted a more blouse type fit. It has elastic around the waist, but the best part of the dress is the bow. Because obviously bows rule.

I hope you've all had a good week, I've been off work with a spider bite that got infected. It was a bad times, but at least I can sew and have a courtyard.

Hope you all have been having a good week and an even better weekend!

Something for the "kidlets"

Sometimes my brother texts me to tell me about how my niece and nephew are doing, he calls them the "kidlets" and I think that's kind of cute. I don't see my niece and nephew much and sometimes I struck by the urge to make something for them as I actually really like making kids clothes!

First up is this little dress I made for Sophiia, I got this vintage girls dress pattern in bulk lot of patterns - its a vintage girls dress and I LOVE the pattern envelope, I just think it looks so great. Look at the cute trim! The knee high socks!

Seen as I was making a vintage dress, I figured I may as well see what I had in the way of vintage fabric. As Sophiia has become older she's become very much a "girly" girl - its all pink and princesses. I don't really have a lot of that stuff in my stash, but I did have this flowery purple fabric - its not quite pink, but I was hoping she's be happy to wear it.

Here's the final dress - I decided to make version 4 on the pattern envelope, its the most simple version of the dress. But I figure Sophiia is only four, so she doesn't want to be wearing anything too fussy.

Here's a photo of Sophiia wearing her dress - she doesn't really like to smile in photos. Can you tell? Also this is a photo taken on my brother phone, so its kind of crap quality.

I decided to make my nephew Lukah a tee shirt, I really wanted a raglan tee but I didn't have one in my stash. But the op shopping gods were smiling upon me as the weekend I decided I wanted to make a boys raglan tee I  had to go to the salvation army to drop some stuff off we didn't need anymore and I found this in their sewing section. There's actually a lot in this pattern - men and boys tee shirts and track pants, a hat and for some weird reason a cushion (whatever).

I had some fun space invaders fabric that my friend Jo had bought for me from Levana - thanks Jo!

When I was making this tee shirt it occurred to me that Lukah would have NO IDEA what space invaders were, as he's only 8 years old and space invaders would seem like ancient technology to him. I just hope he liked the pattern!

Here's the finished tee shirt - its not really sitting so well on the hanger but you guys get the picture right? Unfortunately my brother didn't send through a picture of Lukah wearing it so I don't have any "action" shots for you guys.

Hope you guys have a fun weekend - I'm going to be catching up with some friends and hopefully I will get to do some sewing too!

Anchor Me Dress

It's time for another recent make - yes its another Laurel dress, but this version is made with fun anchor fabric and has frilly cuffs! Fancy.

The first outfit posts in out new house were taken in our courtyard and these have been taken on the balcony outside our bedroom that overlooks the city -  our lives are awesome.

I've made this dress a number of times before, but this is the first time I've added the gathered cuffs and I  actually think they are pretty cute. There's another version of the dress with pockets, so maybe I will add them next time.

The view of the city sure is pretty from up here - especially late in the day (these photos were taken Friday after work).

 I've given the dress its name as the fabric is covered with cute little anchors and its a bit different from the typical anchor prints that you can get. It's from our local craft store, Made Marion

You can even see the the tallest building in Wellington from our deck, its called the Majestic Centre. I used to work in here, but I'm glad I don't anymore as its a bit of a downer when you can ALWAYS seen your work, even when you're hiking in the town belt.

As for the name of the dress, it obviously comes from the fact that its covered in anchors *duh* but I also named it after one of my favourite songs from a pretty amazing New Zealand band - enjoy!

Me Made May 2015

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember when I took part in Me Made May last year - you can see posts here , here, here, here and here. I've decided up for another round of Me Made Made in 2015.

This year I've decided I want to wear at least one Me Made item for each day of May, I decided to chose one item as I mostly wear dresses so it makes sense. I've also decided I want to make one tried and true pattern each week, I've been feeling a bit hum drum about my wardrobe. I think this is a good chance to make a few new things to make me happy and also to use up some of that stash I have! So here's my pledge:


 'I, Trees, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '15. I endeavour to wear one hand made item each day for the duration of May 2015. I will also make one tried and true pattern each week'

Are any of you guys going to try and do Me Made May 2015?

Age of Aquarius Exhibtion

During my absence from blogging, I was still doing a tonne of fun stuff. Including attending this amazing exhibition at The Dowse with my friend Joy.

If you've been reading my blog for a while, or if you actually know me in real life, you'll know when it comes to vintage I'm all about the 1970s. So I was so excited to have a chance to head along to this!

It was good to see this exhibition actually included some menswear! How rad are all these suits? Also those shoes on the bottom right of the photo above are platforms. How great is this carpet as well?

I love the colour blocking on this dress, and the rad carpet of course!! The dress below is so pretty, I'd totally wear that.

I love that one shouldered frock. I remember when I was in university the whole one shouldered dress/top was "in" but I didn't have the confidence to wear it. I have been thinking of making a one shouldered dress to wear to a friends wedding later this  year. Also LOOK AT THE SPARKLES on that shirt!

Some parts of the exhibition did not include clear descriptions - including the cabinet with this in it. Naked yoga before bed anyone?

These craft and design type books were in the same cabinet as the naked yoga book. The house in the bottom left image is amazing.

These were also  in the same cabinet - I really wish there had been more information. Who owned this shirt and badges and what were they like? I would love to have know more about the activism they were involved in.

 This part of the exhibition was pretty glamorous - velvet, satin, furs...

I loved this sparkly lurex top and the super cute camel skirt - I don't really even LIKE camels that much but there was something appealing about this skirt.

 This velvet frock was absolutely beautiful - I loved the flowers on the bottom.

 This dress is tricky - it looks like the mid-drift is exposed, but that's actually just white fabric!

 There was also a very disco type display - so many sparkles, I do really love sparkles!

How great is the fox detail on the back of this dress - its incredible! Although I'm not convinced that it would be that comfortable to wear, wouldn't it be heavy? I guess its worth it for the sake of fashion.

I hear that "cut outs" are a "thing" in fashion right now (I don't really understand fashion). Look at all these 1970s cut outs - they really had cut outs down to a fine art.

Not sure what underwear you would wear with this and I'm pretty sure you WANT to wear underwear with lurex.

Finally my favourite dress of the exhibition - this little green dress. Its not as flashy as some of the other frocks, but I would totally wear this to the office tomorrow if I could. I might even add that headgear, its pretty much a flower crown after all!