One weekend, two outfits

Yup, that's right, I wore two outfits in two days. Fancy.

What is worth mentioning is that I actually managed to take two pictures in one weekend. It's some kind of record. What probably isn't surprising it that it's taken me more than a week to post, but hey, you can't have everything!

Last Saturday I was at home, seeing my family. We spent most of the day preparing for a party to celebrate my Dad's 60th but in the evening I popped on my Simplicity 5594 blouse with my Heyday trousers (sadly this tweedy fabric is now out of stock but they have some lovely new wool based fabrics in instead) and my new red shoes and had a jolly nice time.

I'm loving my set now - it takes me about 10-15 minutes to do, usually sitting in bed watching catch up tv late in the evening. It does desperately need a cut though - my split ends are getting out of control!

On the Sunday we went out to see a couple of friends for coffee, and I threw on an outfit that I was actually very happy with. I'm less happy with the pictures - I took dozens and these are the best of a very bad bunch.

The cardigan is from Debenhams and is new - I'm seriously considering getting one in another colour , maybe this black and white one, because it's light and pretty and beautifully fitted. The blouse is very old and from a charity shop, I bought it years ago and 'rediscovered' it at my parent's house! Love it when that happens! The skirt is also very old, I bought it at Coast, on a massive sale years ago. It was the last one left and a size 8, but incredibly fit perfectly. I'm a bit bigger now than I was back then, but it just fits me slightly higher up the waist now, which suits me fine. It's a lovely heavy linen too which makes it swish beautifully, but keeps it cool for the hot weather. It's a great skirt. Finally the shoes are another pair I bought in the Clarks' sale, they have an ankle strap and a nice wide heel so they're comfy and practical. Plus, they're very similar to many 40s designs I've seen. I've worn these alot since I bought them, so I think it was money well spent!

I hope you all had a nice time last weekend! ;)

Pride and pre-theatre drinks

Another delayed post - I feel like I'm constantly in a timewarp! Aside from the 1940s clothes that is...

Last week was Pride week in Bristol, a week of arts and culture events celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in Bristol and culminating in a day long festival with parades and live music on Saturday. It's only the second time Bristol has had a Pride festival and the organisers were aiming to beat the 25,000 people taking part last year, not such a daunting prospect when you realise that Bristol has around 60,000 LGBT people living and working in the city, giving it one of the largest urban LGBT populations in the UK. Despite this, the 'gay scene' in Bristol isn't that obvious, unlike Brighton, London or Manchester, say, and it's nice to see the cultural contributions made by the LGBT community given some promotion.

So it was that I came to hear about a play with a 1940s theme on Tuesday - The Darkling Plain. It's based on the sort of slightly ridiculous humour of the era, sighting Noel Coward as a major inspiration. It follows the fortunes of 2 families as war (The War Against Terror, spelt out as an acronym) is declared and their young men go off to fight for their country.

I'm not normally one to go out on a school night, but this was absolutely worth it. The play was funny and silly in all the right places, but had enough weight to the gender and political issues to make it feel like a mature production and the love story between two of the boys fighting at the front was sympathetically developed and very touching.

Interestingly, the casting was done with a total disregard to gender, and do you know what? It absolutely worked. The twon men playing one of the mothers and her daughter were superb, they restrained themselves from being too camp and delivered their parts with depth and skill.

It all made me want to go to the theatre more often!

Sadly the promised '1940s takeover' of the theatre was limited to 2 swing dancers, some bunting and a woman doing victory rolls, but for Bristol it was about as vintage as it gets (maybe I should start a vintage pride week?) and added to the fun of the trip out for me.

I wore my red shoes and bag again (can you tell they're my new favourites?) and my Vivien of Holloway sarong style dress. I've had this for ages, but didn't like how massive it made my bust look. I realised that the sleeves were partly to blame and so I cut them off! I used the fabric to make bias facing for the sleeve holes and stitched them back together in about 10 minutes. I'm really pleased with the result and seem to have ended up with a very flattering dress (which the play's writer complimented me on! How cool do I feel?!). I left my hair down, this is at the end of day 2 of a set which is why it's looser curls than usual.

So, more fun during the week. Think I need some more evening wear...

Setting and dieting

Well, that's another week over and done with, and typically, the rain has just set in for the rest of the weekend. I was going to go to the Chap Olympiad today but ended up selling my tickets on to a friend and buying tickets to a weekend event organised by friends. As it happens, I am now in bed with an upset stomach while hubby is getting rained on in a tent somewhere in Wales...So much for my plans!

I spent Tuesday this week working at home and took the opportunity to get some housework done.

Why do my arms look massive in this photo?

I also took the chance to set my hair while I was at home. I've put it up in foam rollers with a spritz of setting lotion and this'll last me about 2 days before it drops significantly. This is actually fine for me, since my hair tends to get greasy and limp if leave it any longer between washes! When I saw my Nan and Grandad the other weekend, I was chatting to my Nan about rollers. She finds it so funny that I'd choose to sleep in rollers, just like she used to but is amazed at how soft the plastic and foam ones are, not like her metal contraptions! My Mum thinks I'm mad, of course. She is of the generation that burned not just their bras, but rollers, stockings and all those other uncomfortable things I now use on a daily basis. Weirdest of all was hearing the conversation between my Husband and my Grandad about women wearing curlers to bed, all very strange! 

If I remember I'll try to get some pictures of my set one evening. It's very easy to do, surprisingly so for someone with limited hair skills like myself, and amazingly not at all difficult to sleep in!

These are my old faithful Freddies of Pinewood jeans, teamed with a new charity shop peasant style blouse. It has smocking over the whole of the waist area, which makes it very fitted under the bust, I'm a big paranoid about the attention this draws to my boobs, but it also shows of my newly slim waist, so I take it as a win! Since I started dieting about 2 months ago I've lost 19lb and by golly do I feel different. I now only have a few pounds, maybe 4, till I reach the goal I set for myself, never dreaming I'd actually get there. Sadly, this does mean that many items of clothing, like 2 pairs of Freddies jeans, no longer fit like they used too. Even these ones are getting a bit loose in the waist. This is especially annoying when it's clothes I've made - my 1940s summer dress is now swimming on me. I don't know whether to try to take it in (tricky with the pleats and tucks on the yoke), reuse the fabric for a skirt or pass it on. It has my first ever bound buttonholes and collar, so I'm loathe to do anything that would lose them! Opinions and bright ideas welcome!

I thought I'd share this book with you while I was at it - I picked it up in a little second had book shop they have at the National Trust property I visited last week, Tyntesfield.
It was published in 1971 and is worth the massive 50p price tag for the pictures alone!

It's also full of very handy hints about different sewing techniques, like collars and buttonholes!

Of course, I didn't really need it - I have dozens of books both antique and modern about dressmaking - I just couldn't leave it there. Does anyone else have trouble resisting vintage sewing books?

Old fashioned fun

After moaning about how boring life has been in my last post, I've managed to make it out of the house twice for fun in the last week!

After work on Wednesday I went out with some of my work team and went bowling at The Lanes in Bristol.

It's a fun 50s themed bowling alley with a bar and cafe and I had a great time trying the locally brewed light ale and winning the bowling with a stunning score of 95 - more luck than judgement sadly!

My work mates had demanded I dress in 50s style, so I obliged with a petticoat and white socks to go with my glam bowling shoes!

The Lanes is also where my friend Jamie has her great little vintage shop - Gimme Shelter - and, well, naturally I had to take a look while I was there. This clutch bag was the result!

I think it's probably 70s or 80s, but it has that timeless look which carries it easily into the early 20th Century. The suede is beautifully soft and in really good condition, and the opening action is still fresh. Best of all, it's massive for a clutch and so I can fit things like my camera, purse, makeup and keys inside without over stuffing it!

On Tursday I had the day off and Tom and I went to Tyntesfield for lunch and a wander round the house. Sadly, the house is shut on a Thursday and so all we managed was a wander round the gift shop, but we did manage to get a Cream Tea in the new cafe and snap some photos between rain showers!

I wore my Heyday tweed trousers with a charity shop blouse and an elderly TopShop cardi. The shoes are new from Clarks and are really comfy - they were on sale too (still are - 50% off)! I also too my new bag - it matched the shoes perfectly!

The Cream Tea was lovely, and the hot food for lunch they were putting out as we left looked amazing, I'm absolutely going to return for a full lunch soon!

Away From Keyboard

I wish I could say that my time AFK recently has been the result of some exciting business or craft venture, but in reality it's due to a general apathy and ennui about my life in general.

Work is getting me down, my health is pretty poor and my gentle forays into Etsy and eBay of late haven't yielded any results. Life is distinctly 'meh' right now and thus the interesting things I can write about are limited. I did finally make it out of the house for a really lovely day out in Dorset this weekend, though, so I do have something fun to talk about today. We saw a friend (and got to stay on his Army base in the Officer's mess!), visited Corfe Castle and Wareham and were blessed with the most spectacular weather.

I'm wearing Vivien of Holloway trousers, M&S shirt, Vintage hat

Corfe Castle guards a gap through the Purbeck hills near the South Coast and the site dates back to the 900s, when Queen Elfrida murdered her stepson King Edward the martyr at the castle to put her own son, Ethelred the Unready, on the throne.

The castle that we see today was probably started by William the Conqueror, shortly after the Norman invasion in 1066 and was extended during the 12th and 13th Centuries, particularly by 'wicked' King John who used it to imprison some of his least favourite people, with bloody and horrible ends for most of them.

During the Civil War, the castle was a Royalist stronghold and was besieged twice. As Lord Banks, the owner at the time, was with his King, it fell to his wife to coordinate the defense and this was a great success. In the end it took the betrayal of a member of the Garrison in 1646 to end the siege. Corfe castle was one of the last strongholds to fall, and had been so difficult to capture and cost so many lives, that it was ordered destroyed by an act of Parliament. The walls were undermined and gunpowder places beneath strategic walls.

The two halves of this doorway used to meet up!

Despite huge amounts of damage, and many centuries of stone plundering by local villagers (there are some very grand doorways in the small village at the base of the castle!) huge chunks of it survive intact. They just don't build em like they used to!

The village of Corfe and the castle are both well worth a visit, it's dramatic and beautiful. The pub by the castle does very good food and has a beer garden which practically backs onto one side of the castle.

Wareham is also very lovely and there's a nice walk round the Saxon walls (now just banks of earth really) for those with the energy and footwear (neither of which I had, sadly). There are also lots of antique and crafty type shops in the very pretty streets and I had If you do visit, I highly recommend The Priory Hotel for a cream tea. We sat out on the manicured lawn and enjoyed a delicious cream tea with really solid clotted cream and fresh scones. Yum yum! It's a little spot of bliss!

More patterns on Etsy

I've been updating my etsy shop this week with lots of 1970s patterns.


Style pattern 4538 dress pattern 1974 Bust 38

I have a pretty large stash of patterns I'll never use tucked away, along with a handful of knitting patterns I found at a charity shop a while ago.

Lillie London 6889 A-line dress and jacket pattern 1970 Bust 40

There'll be more patterns going up over the next few days, so stay tuned!

Style 1591 pattern 1976 Halter or capelet sleeve tops

In between sewing, listing and applying for new jobs I've been too busy to do any blogging, but I have lots of plans, honestly!
I'm also planning to make a few things to sell on Etsy and eBay, and I'll update you when they're ready!
Lots of plans, just wish I had more time in my day!

Red ruffles

I've been feeling decidedly pants all week and, stuck at home in bed decided to hand finish a blouse I started last week. Whilst watching True Blood (I just can't get enough of Eric Northman) this morning, I finished sewing on my buttons and have a finished blouse finally!

I used a pattern I got at the Sew Weekly swap - Simplicity 5594. It is a simple pattern, though I went off piste with regards to finish which probably account for the faff I had with the arm hole facings, but it all turned out ok in the end!

I used some red fabric I picked up on the Sew Weekly shopping session, it's a slubby red fabric, I think it's probably a cotton or linen silk mix and it's beautifully soft and drapey. It's so fine it'll be beautifully cool (if summer ever arrives).

While I am happy with the result, and will wear it, I think it could do with some fitting tweeks. It's a little roomy in the waist for my tastes and my attemped FBA have left it a little gaping in the back, and pulled the fron part of the arm holes in so that my bra straps show slightly from the side.

I finished it off with some pearly cats eye buttons from my stash and am pleased with this very pretty top.

I'm still several seperates away from a me-made-month, but I'm confident my wardrobe will get there eventually!