1950's Keyhole Blouse

I started last night, and finished this afternoon. I did take some progress photos but silly me forgot to put the SD card in the camera so they've been lost to the ether.

Quite chuffed with it as a first punt at the pattern. The fabric is fray-o-liscious and I should have done more overlocking but it will not exactly be hard to make myself another one. The pattern was a tiny bit small for me but some tweaking to the seam allowances and button placement have cleared that up. The collar was fiddly, but I'm yet to meet a collar that isn't. (And yes, the photo is taken in my bathroom - the lightbulb in the hallway has blown!)

Apparently my mum made a very similar blouse for a school project back in the late 50s/early 60s but without the diagonal front.

At first I thought the raglan sleeves were making it sit oddly baggy across the shoulders, but I've realised this allows a great range of movement which will get tested at lindy hop tonight :)

winter productivity

Apparently today is the least productive day of the year in the UK because it is the first Monday after the clocks going back. I was quite gratified that I was slaving over a hot sewing machine when that came on the news :)

Now I'm thinking, it's not that late, and maybe I would feel even more smug if I got started on this...
I've picked up a whole roll of suitable fabric and it would be nice to start sinking my teeth into the big pile of vintage patterns I recently bought.

However, I do also have the latest Pratchett to devour...

Decisons, decisions!

Drindl dress finished!

So I finished the dress, complete with apron this evening. Originally I was going to put lace trim on the apron too but it looked too busy. The skirt is double-layered, both lace trimmed, with the underskirt being slightly longer which gives a nice effect.

I like the off-the-shoulder puff sleeves: very wenchy :)

Dirndl dress in red gingham

Right now I'm making a commision for a halloween costume. I do love a good circle skirt, though was quite annoyed that I could only get gingham in 44" width but solved it with some creative pattern placement :)

I've drafted the pattern from a dress the customer already had with a couple of minor adjustments. There's a heck of a lot of lace involved, which I didn't realise when I quoted a price for her - luckily I found some absolute bargain lace that was just perfect! (Though it did involve spending nearly an hour searching on my hands and knees in the trimmings dept of Abakhan - good job they like me there!)

It's all looking very pretty - there'll be some pictures soon.

It's about time...

...I kept a log of some of the wonderful pieces I make. The plan is to catalogue some of the creative and technical processes behind each piece, hopefully with photos and maybe even the odd tutorial here and there.

I'm hoping this blog will be a way for people to see my work, contact me if they want me to make them something, or share ideas about current and future projects.