WIGGLE SKIRT

I made myself a wiggle skirt for work....unintentionally!

I've used the McCall's 5523 pattern (View C) and lengthened it by about 15cm as I prefer the longer line. I also made it on the more fitted side (that's the intentional part), but because I lengthened it, I should have actually made the frilled section a little fuller to accommodate walking. I can walk in it, but with a wiggle (that's the unintentional part!)....ha! Hence the term "Wiggle Skirt".

I love this pattern because of the different effects you can have on the back panel. I'll probably make this again with the View B as it was so easy

Made from Prestaline which wears really well. The pattern didn't call for lining, but I chose to line it anyway as I believe that skirts/dresses just hang a whole lot nicer when lined, and helps with 'seating' in the rear as my job calls for sitting pretty much all day (not fond of the pouchy bum look in skirts and pants!).

I also put in an invisible zipper instead of a lapped one because I'm getting really quick at these and they look better.

And for the back view...

PRETTY FLAMINGO...

The flamingo costumes (x4) that I made for the JRock Eisteddfod that I spoke about last post would have to be one of my most favourite costumes so far.

I sourced some beautiful fabric that was called "feather" and it just set the costumes off. It was a hot pink chiffon with feathery strands hanging from it. It played havoc with my hay-fever, and in fact, still over 12 months later, I still find bits of pink fluff on things!!

I made the head section using the Simplicity 3663 pattern, which were a little tricky to put together. The beaks being the hardest as they were from craft foam. Well worth the effort in the end though. And just because Bec was one of the flamingos...I ordered some extra long false eyelashes from ebay for them all and stuck them to the eye section. Then I used sparkly glue on the eyes to make them glisten. The girls thought that was a huge laugh! You may just be able to see them if you click on the photos...Very girly indeed!




I just made the necks like a bent tube that thinned out towards the head and attached them to the skirt front and head section. They're just stuffed with wadding.

As they were performing a ballet, the teacher requested that they be a little more delicate looking for the body part, so I took inspiration from this. Only as the fabric wasn't stiff, I had to find another way for the back part to stick out. Several prototypes (and weeks) later, I ended up making elasticised skirts with an extended behind so that they could hide a 'bustle' under their skirt. I haven't got any pictures of the bustles that I made them (tsk, tsk), but they were pink and made from the Butterick 3737 View D. Another 'hit' with the girls!

We just bought black skivvies and hot pink tights to finish off with.



Making those flamingos was indeed a very long journey. But the 'Ooohs and Ahhhs' that I heard from the crowd when they graced onto the stage made it so worth while.

Edit: I forgot to add that the school scored a perfect 10 for the costumes too!!!! Yay!

CHAMELEON COSTUME

I haven't posted about costumes for a while, and went through some photos that I hadn't yet sorted and came across a bunch of costumes I did for a JRock Eisteddfod that my children's school entered last year. (I've smudged child's face for privacy reasons)

The production was based on a book titled "The Cool Pool" about a group of animals giving their monkey friend a surprise birthday party (to cut a long story short).

This costume is of a chameleon, and although I wasn't happy with how the costume started, I was really happy with the end result.

I used the Kwik Sew 3104 unitard pattern (view A) for the body. I made it a few sizes bigger than required because when the fabric stretched, the shiny coating didn't seem to have much of a memory, so I didn't want the costume too fitted. The fabric I used was a shiny rainbow lycra (which was really horrid to sew as my needle kept sticking to the fabric and missing stitches....but I persevered and it paid off!)

I added a huge curly tail and stuffed it with some wadding. I also added some spikes down the length of her back and tail for effect.

I loved making the head! I just got an old bike helmet, covered it in wadding to soften the look and made an elasticised cap (like a shower cap) to slip over the top of it and added spikes down the centre as well.

The eyes were ping-pong balls that I painted with Kindy Glitz (Sparkly glue) and painted a black dot on them for her pupil.

These photos were taken at the dress rehearsal a week before and I hadn't yet made the 'claws' and didn't end up getting a photo (drats!). But these were just modeled on oven mitts and slipped over her hand.

For the tongue, we used one of those party blowers which turned out to look really cute. She was in the opening scene sitting on a rock. Her movements were so life-like and when she blew the tongue out it looked great!

On the night, with the stage make-up etc. She looked really effective.

And those pink legs in the background? They were my pride and joy....Flamingos! but that's another post!

SWEET DREAMS!

"Circles" on one side...

Which is so appropriate as the fabric range is called 'Lollipop' from Spotlight .

"Squares" on the other side...

When we moved into our new house (over 12 months ago now) I found it all too overwhelming to do the curtains for the whole house, so I called in the experts....Spotlight. They did a fabulous job with the pelmets, curtains and blinds. When I saw the 'Lollipop' range, I knew this would be perfect for the kid's rooms. The colour ranges are in pinks, aquas and blues; and within each colour range has different patterns - circles, squares and stripes.

So the I had the pelmets and curtains made in the stripes by Spotlight. And I decided to make up the kid's doona covers and pillow cases in the other co-ordinating patterns. The rolls of fabric have been staring at me for the past 6 months...

Tom wanted press studs for the opening of the doona cover. Something which I had never attempted before - punching holes in fabric used to leave me cold, but now I'm wanting to put press studs in everything, it was soooo easy! Yay for me!

Bec on the other hand wanted bows at the end of her doona cover

Can I sew something for myself now kids?

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You

A huge Thank You to Lisa from the Hemline for nominating me for a Kreativ Blogger Award. I'm ever so excited about this. I peruse the Hemline almost daily, and have purchased some patterns from her store. Very reasonably priced too, I might add!

Anyhoo, I now have to tell you 7 things you might not know about me:-

1. I am a twin to a very tall six foot red head brother (I'm brunette, or at least used to be brunette...I have to get my hair colour out of a bottle these days!). We were born in Derby, Western Australia, and headlined the newspapers in that town as we were the first twins born in 10 years.
   


2. I have been sewing since I was 10, but only sewed my first vintage pattern last year.
   


3. After studying Italian for 4 years in high school, I can only remember this..."Santo Cielo, ce non il latte!" (ie: Heavens above, there's no milk!).
   


4. My hand sewing is horrid, and I would throw a pair of socks into the rubbish before I would darn them.
   


5. I refuse to only drink champagne on special occasions. Every day is champagne worthy!
   


6. I have a thing about coat hangers...they are all matching white ones - no black, no wood, no wire (except for skirt hangers of course).
   


7. I am really wanting to sew a Mondrian style dress for this summer...the patterns are so rare, anybody have one lying around the house by chance?

So here are my 7 nominations:-

1. Linda from Welcome To My Blog (because she got me hooked on this bloggy thing in the first place!).


2. JuliaB from MarmaladeKiss (because she is so very talented).


3. Super Kawaii Mama (this gal has so much style, and I can't help but read her blog each day, and sometimes even twice a day, I've been lurking for ages and never posted a comment..tsk tsk tsk!).


4. Nikki from You SEW Girl (because I love bags).


5. Suzitee from Stitch Scrap Sew (because she seems a little cheeky to me!)


6. Janellybelly from Threads of Friendship ( because she's super, super nice with a whole lot of talent thrown in!)


7. Wikia wiki (this is not a blog, but I could easily spend an hour just clicking on the random page link...)

Ta Ta for now....

My Secretary Dress! YAY I finished!!

There's nothing like a hint of warmer spring weather to make me want to finish a dress suited to winter! I thought that I may not be able to wear this until next year if I leave this any longer. I hope there will be one or two more cooler days before the spring sets in!

The pattern is c.1959 and went together really easily. I used a lovely soft charcoal suiting (which has a slight blue coloured fleck through it), and didn't have to make any alterations at all. The only thing that I changed was to put an invisible zipper instead of a lapped zipper. And no, I didn't lengthen the skirt, and no I'm not short.....the illustration leads you to believe that it's around knee length. And I won this from Oztion the other day...I thought it would look really nice at the neckline where the split starts. It's a vintage (c 1959 ish) marcasite brooch. I haven't received it yet but can't wait!

AWWWWWW

Here are my new babies! Only a few hours old in this photo....

They were actually born last Monday morning (24th - I've just been a little behind with a few things OK) which makes them now nearly a week old. Sadly, we lost one - the runt of the litter, but the remaining 6 are doing beautifully, as is Mum. Tasha has been just the perfect Mother to them all, it's amazing that they just know what to do on instinct (not like us humans...we have to read books about it and still get stuff wrong!)

I'm loving my new job, and am still trying to get the routine thing happening, so sewing has taken a back seat to this, but I did cut my dress out and hopefully will get started on the sewing side of things tonight....if I don't have too many wines of course (tee hee)