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!

Space Dress part II and fabric-a-brac finds

I've been taking it easy this weekend as I'm starting a new job tomorrow (eek!) and I've had a busy few weeks.

However as you guys know, I find it almost impossible to sit still, so even though I had a fairly quiet weekend I did STILL do some sewing. This project is a refashion, well, it is sort of a refashion.

Some of you guys may remember a while back I made a dress from space fabric - I was just crazy for the fabric, but the dress ultimately didn't end up being as great as I thought it would be, I actually didn't like it at all.

 When I don't like a project, it usually gets sent straight to recycle boutique, because why keep something that makes you feel unhappy? Especially if there is someone else out there that is just perfect for the dress you're not crazy about. But for some reason I COULDN'T get rid of this damn space dress - I don't know why! I loved the fabric and I had actually spent a fair bit on it (which to be honest is pretty unusual). So instead of being sent to recycle boutique it just hung out in my mending pile for months.

Then enter my current phase - my obsession with knits, as you know I've gone nuts for the Moneta and have already made two versions, here and here.I decided that I could use my Moneta pattern to rejig my space dress to make it into something I would actually wear and MUCH to my surprise, it actually worked out! Behold Space dress version 2.0.

I chopped off the top part of the dress just below the original bust darts and kept that part of the dress for the skirt on this one, so its an A-line rather than a gathered skirt. I used the Moneta bodice, but due to the leftovers that I had from the original version of the dress the bodice has a seam running through the front and the back as I had to stitch together a few pieces to make it work - but I think it actually looks ok (I thought perhaps it would look super weird).

Overall I'm pretty stoked with this dress - Rich even said I should make more dressed like this! I think I will, the  fabric is what I think is called scuba? It really does remind me of a wet suit, or at least it did when I was sewing it, but its as comfortable to wear as any of my other wonderful knit dresses (knits forever!)

Just a new dress selfie - I bought the necklace a few weeks back at a market Rich, Ria and I went to and yes they are teeth. I find teeth equal parts gross and fascinating - so I was pretty stoked with this!

I also went to a fabric-a-brac at the Dowse Gallery - this was a special fabric-a-brac event that's part of a new exhibition they have at the gallery right now "The Age of Aquarius". I didn't go to the exhibition as I'm waiting to go with Ria when she comes back from Australia (so I'm sure you will see photos of that sometime - just not today). I did find some great stuff thought, including four Maudella patters!

There were also some fabric finds - the brown fabric is so lovely, but I only have a small amount, I'm hopefully it's going to be enough for a top. I love the green lurex (obviously) and the other fabric really speaks for itself! I am hoping I will be able to make something from this fabric to attend the exhibition - it just seems like the right thing to do!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend - wish me luck for my first day tomorrow!

Little Green Dress

The weather is warmer, the days are longer and I'm going to try and do more outfit posts - it works in theory, lets see if it also works in practice.

This is a little green vintage dress I picked up at recycle boutique. It's tighter around the hips than I normally like - but I love it so much I can deal with that.

When I actually BUY stuff I tend to stick to stuff that isn't too tight around the hips, as basically nothing fits around my hips and my waist. First world problems right?

 Also my slip is sneaking out of the bottom of my dress - just another reason I will never be any kind of "fashion"  blogger and I'm more of a "general ramblings" or "stuff that happened"  blogger.

But look - I took a selfie in our hallway - so that's fun right? The glamour of big city life.

 Also my hair is slowly reaching my ideal "reverse lady mullet length" - party at the front, business at the back! Photo includes bonus drying rack in the background (oh apartment living).

Hope you guys had a super Monday - Rich and I actually spend last weekend "up the coast" in sunny Waikanae. I have some pictures to show you sometime even!

Winter Vintage Festival 2014

Hello world! yes its me, I've been a little quite on the blogging front of late - I've had a few things happening and also had a large dose of feeling pretty uninspired. However, I'm back - lots of fun stuff has been happening that I want to share with you guys.

First up the first ever Wellington Winter Vintage Festival!

This was the first time this carnival was being held and I was looking forward to it for two reasons. Firstly - dressing up (duh) and secondly it was circus themed. Who doesn't love a good circus?

Unfortunately my photos of the day aren't so great as I forgot my CAMERA! WHAT? I know, I'm just as shocked as you are! So the photos I DO have are from my phone camera, which is OK but not amazing. The festival itself is quite small - but as you can see it has a very fun circus vibe.

 Being a circus there were lots of treats to be had - like this alien sherbet! I'm not quite sure why it was Alien Sherbet, but I love he little picture. This same lady was also selling toffee apples, I bought one and shared it with a friend one afternoon crafting.

Back to the vintage fair, it wouldn't be ANY kind of event in Wellington unless there is at least ONE coffee cart. Turns out one of Ria's friends from costuming school was working in the coffee cart.

I also got to catch up with the amazing Mrs C as Constance Craving - she is the most amazing bearded lady!

After the fair Ria and I decided to headed to Expressoholic and have chai latte to warm up from all the rain (it was a horrible, cold day!).

These photos looked OK on instagram but are kind of blurry! Ria made her whole outfit - because she is an amazing costumer! She also did my hair and make up because she has mad skills, I should get her to teach me sometime. My frock is from the Auckland Vintage Textiles Fair.

When we got back to the apartment, we asked my regular photographer (Rich) to snap a few more pictures for us. He's the best.

Look at how cute we are - also now you can see Ria's WHOLE outfit....can you believe she made that in like a WEEK! Rockstar!

It was a super fun day out and although the fair is small now, hopefully it will grow and become bigger and better! The next vintage festival we will be going to will be in Whanganui in the New Year - the question is - WHAT SHOULD I WEAR??

Happy Saturday!

I have to admit that I have been down quite a bit lately - there has been a lot going on and the weather has been extremely cold and miserable. This is the first winter since we moved into our apartment where it has actually felt cold inside (our central heating just can't keep up).

However, this last weekend the weather was cold, but the sun was shining and I got to catch up with Ria for the first time in a long time (she has been busy working on a big show) and I had a genuinely awesome weekend.

So what did I get up to? Well I met Ria on Saturday and we went to the international food court that recently opened pretty much right next door to our apartment.

It's a really pretty food market and given its "sort of" open air it has been doing amazingly well in a Wellington winter. They have so much delicious food - Chinese dumplings, Korean street food, Malaysian, Filipino barbeque, Indian, roti wraps and that's just a handful of the businesses. If you are in Wellington you should really go and visit. On Sunday Ria and I choose to get some chili chicken noodles from the Vietnamese place and they were amazing.

There is also  a general market as part of the food market - at the moment its mostly vintage and a few other small businesses. I don't think the general market is doing as well as the food part, but I do hope that it becomes more popular. Maybe it will become Wellingtons first vintage market! Although I'm not sure having a vintage market and a market selling delicious food next to my house would be great for my wallet. I only managed to snap a couple of pictures at the market, nothing really grabbed our attention (although those buttons were super fun) so we headed up to Cuba Street.

After checking out a few shops we decided to stop off for what I consider to be the best chai in Wellington! It's worth buying chai tea here to make sure that you can see this fun caravan around the city. Once I was chatting to the owner of the caravan and he told me he was taught how to make chai when he was in India - so this masala chai is the real deal!

We continued along Cuba Street and eventually ended up at Recycle Boutique - where many clothes were tried on and some were eventually bought. Also I  had to share this knitwear with you guys - I mean seriously!

I did end up buying a couple of frocks - I had seen the green one at recycle boutique before but I didn't try it on. Turns out it fits perfect and looks awesome - it was meant to be!

We also paid a visit to Minerva which is a wonderful bookstore that sells loads of craft and sewing books. The books they sell are new, but they also have a small selection of vintage patterns and I was able to pick up this cute wee pattern.

To finish our day we decided to see if the Fabric Store was open, but we were too late. I thought I would share this mural with you all though. It's kind of fun right?

Finally we finished up our day out with a chai latte at Expressoholic - one of our usual hang outs.

I have to admit after this fun day out I was feeling  so much better. I also went to an amazing exhibition with Rich on Sunday (will share photos soon) and now I am also feeling so much better about everything. Plus I have Lux Festival of lights to look forward to, as well as a craft crawl and a trip to Auckland to see Conor and Sue and I will also get to catch up with Emi. It's going to be rad. I'm so happy I'm feeling more positive about basically everything again xoxo

Mending Pile - Part I

When I first started learning to sew, I was kind of excited by the fact that soon I would be able to alter my vintage and second hand finds. I could shorten skirts and sleeves, add darts and do all kinds of things. The prospect of all this was very exciting for someone who had spent a lot of money getting vintage skirts shortened. 

However as it turns out I now have a pile of stuff sitting in a mending pile - rather than a bunch of stuff I need to take to a dressmaker. 

When Curtise recently did a post about all the mending she had done, well, she inspired me to do some of my own. I  have to admit it, I only actually mended one thing. But its a start right? I do want to try and mend one item a week until that pile is GONE - but we will have to wait and see how that turns out.

So the first up on the mending list is this amazing vintage dress from Recycle Boutique. I loved this dress from the minute I saw it. However, its a super weird length and the bottom half of the skirt had a few cigarette holes burnt into it.

I love the label - "Sport Fashions"! Because nothing says sporty like a heavy polyester maxi dress.

So here's the shortened dress - I really love it! I kind of want to make more simple dresses with a collar and wee tie at the front. 

Seriously - how great is this fabric? I love it so very much!

A few of you asked on my last post if I had made the cardi I was wearing (or at least added the wee bird). Although it is something I could have made myself - I didn't make it. The cardi is from Illicit Clothing and I bought it when I visited  Auckland about this time last year.

But speaking of cardis I have signed up for a course to make my very own cardigan 

at Made on Marion next month. I'm a little intimidated by button holes in stretch fabric (or button holes in general to be honest) but I'm sure once I have a little more practice I will be able to make the cardigan of my dreams. 

I hope you guys are all having a good week - do you have anything sitting on your mending pile right now?

Winter Orange

It's well and truly winter now and its cold, cold, COLD - but I figure that's no reason to stick to the typical Wellington colour scheme of black and grey.

For me it means time to break out the most bright and colourful dress I have, right now its this orange vintage shift dress .

That badge I'm wearing is a gift from Alicia - because I'm an adult I need a Hello Kitty birthday badge (obviously).

The beads are a purchase from Indonesia, the cardi I've had forever from Glasson, boots from Lippy and the tights could be from almost anywhere really. The dress is a bit tighter than I generally like a dress to be around my hips, but I kind of like it anyways.

I wore it to work and then to a wee dessert get together we had the day after my birthday, time to finally break out the sprinkler shaker Emi bought me (its a unicorn!).

Also Ria bought over the most amazing zombie cupcakes - she totally gets me!

I hope you all have a great weekend, its totally FREEZING here - but at least we went and bought a bunch of tickets for the New Zealand International Film Festival today. When its as cold as this you may as well watch films right?