I'm Baaaaack...

Hi everyone!
No, I'm not dead. Or on a secret mission. Or enjoying a secret overseas adventure holiday with Johnny Depp (I wish).
During the past 6 weeks I've been settling into the new house and planning for the CSFC (I've been upgraded to Events planner and Sponsorship Coordinator) and so busy stuff abounds for that. So between a massive plaaning for stuff for that (we're having a medieval feast as a fundraiser in August. Guess who's in charge of the cooking... Yep. Lucky old me) and work I've been trying to sew as much as possible.

SO,  dear reader, I hear you ask "What have you been making, Jacinta? Show us photos."
Weeellllll, unfortunately I seem to have lost my camera, so for the moment I'm stuck taking pictures on my phone (not the most fabulous of devices) and so, I hope that you will forgive the resolution for the photos I'm able to put up here until I can get a new one.

Meet Pandora.
And then quake in fear at her powers of destruction, for she is the Harbinger of Doom for my sewing area. She let me get this green dress finished though (mainly because she was waiting to pounce on it and claim it as her own). Its quite cute - note the lace details. I was trying to combat the winter blues when I made this, so it turned out quite girly (though the long sleeves are a practical necessity for this freezing cold.)
Dora apparently likes it as well.
As well as this I"m almost finished - *FINALLY* with the 50s pin up bra I've been trying to do. The short waist one only has straps waiting for it (I'm off to Textile Traders or Spotlight for loops tomorrow.) That one has a matching pair of tap pants to go with it.
The other one I have nearly ready is the long waist version, which I did in peacock satin (I think I mentioned it in an earlier post). It s got 8mm boning and hook and eye tape - a million and one challenges that means when I'm finally finished my achievements will be documented in a ten paragraph blog of how fantastic my boss skills are... swaggin' a plenty coming up lol (jokes).

Other projects are waiting for my undivided attention - I also have a costume to make for a uni friends production - a fantastic floral 50s full skirted sweetheart neckline dress - with a petticoat with fabric petals sewn into the layer at the hem

I love theatre :D

Look forward to the next post. You may be surprised to find out that I haz been experimenting with scanning patterns into the computer and trying to make them PDFs. I've managed a simple one that may be coming up in future :D Thank you, Burdastyle!

Anyway, enjoy the rest of your week, and as always, feel free to comment or whatever :P

On track to Freedom

Hey all!

nearly finished up with the semester stuff: thought I should post the photos of my finished design 100 project!

For those that have read my older posts, I'm sure you remember the long and arduous road to this point. I'm looking forward to putting this far, far behind me :)


Hence:





and here is a copy of the Alice dress (my personal fave :D)





    














DONE!! yay!

Now, back to my other projects haha... Unfortunately, that wont be happening until I finish moving on Sunday :) looking forward it! However, I think dads going to miss me a bit, however, so I made these for him last night, in a fit of pique :D






Anyway, I'm off for the next two days, and I'll be back on the weekend :)

Bye all!

Lack of writing time

Hello all!

So, as you have probly noticed, sweet FA has been done on this blog in the past two weeks, (I know, I know, I am a bad person.) Its coming up to the last weeks of semester and trying to do everything is making me want to rip out my hair from stress lol... however, I think that there is light on the horizon (It should hit in about 12 days lol) so look out for a deluge of blog posts on what I've done lol... (And I have done some stuff, believe me.)


Until we next meet, enjoy this picture. In honour of Pandora, the kitten who lives in mah new sharehouse :)
(and who I hope will not go too close to my sewing machine :S)
Cya!

Inspirations

Ok, fellow sewing afficionados and bloggers alike, since I'm bored (i.e. in the abacus lab at Curtin, procrastinating from writing this 2400 word essay about The Bard) I thought I might share some of my weekly inspirations for those future projects that I am heartily looking forward to.

Hence, INSPIRATIONS







Because this einstein felt brooch is soo cute... I had to add it :)
























I love the ruffles and details on this...                                       






















This was basically the dress I found, if you added a peter pan collar to it  and it was cotton instead of wool blend :*(


Ok, that definitely enough procrastination for me, I'm off :) wish me luck getting this essay done!

Retro Vintage fairs ftw!

Hey guys! Busy week as it has been, I still have reserved fifteen minutes to show you a couple of awesome things I found while at an awesome retro and vintage fair at Claremont showgrounds on Saturday.
And the best bit is that they were all so cheap, which is great for poor struggling uni students like me :)

SO....

After I walked into the place, hyperventilated for a few short seconds from joy, I scoured all of the places for patterns (like you do...) and I found these awesome peices for just $1 each...

Yup. One dollar each.

And then I hit the racks and racks and RACKS of awesome vintage finds. There was this gorgeous peter pan collar sheath dress in this gorgeous green I had to tear myself away from, mainly due to the $60 that the person wanted for it. But, after I had run around gathering as much inspiration for new dresses and thingts I found this piece of remnant (about 1x1.5m) of 8mm houndstooth knit for $5.

I think its going to be a good fabric for the peter pan collared sheath I plan to make myself to make up for the one I couldn"t buy. Which I'll be putting in the massive pile labelled "Stuff I Have To Make When I have Time During The Semester Break." I also grabbed some spotted material for the first pattern (not in red and white, hopefully it will be just as cute though.) which will also be going into the aforementioned pile.

It's nice to have something so great to look forward to, though. Looking longingly at all of the projects I'm going to do after these two dresses I'm making atm for Design 100 is keeping me going like the clappers to get everything done :) Its more tempting than a packet of Tim- Tams and a bottle of red wine (or a date like the one I'm going on tomorrow. Maybe the colourful dress can finally get some usage lol).

Anyway, have a great week. Comment me with any interesting thoughts on alterations on the two dress patterns, or if you've made anything similar :) or even if you were at the same fair and found yourself unable to leave without a snazzy new purchase. Have a good week, everybody.

Photos! News! Superlatives! Exclamation Marks!!

Hi everybody...
This is it... the moment you have all been waiting for. Lots of photos, lots of catching up on past projects. Lots of other stuff..

So, I'll start with the dresses I finally took photos of lol. They have, after all, been long overdue...

 This is one of the first dresses I made this year. Its suiting cotton, I think...

Technically, it needs buttons, and I'm sure that you guys can see the BIG boo-boo I made on the front of the skirt panel (which I'm still trying to find time to fix...) But I like it. Its one of the first patterns I tried to cobble together on my own, and I hadn't really tried to adapt anything until that point.

                                                                                                                      



And THIS one is my favourite dress I've made so far. I found the fabric for $6/m (which is just over a yard for you crazy imperial measurementists :P) at Spotlight and fell in LOVE. Unfortunately, I haven't worn it yet, as I'm looking for a special occasion which merits something this bright being worn in public. I made this one before I made the Elenore dress, and this was the one where my patterning skills actually strated to develop :)

And this is the teddy I made a couple of weeks ago from an Anna Depew pattern :) Of course with a slight twist...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
























Basically the same pattern, but I had a problem with the length of the thing vs. the length of my torso and I had to take out about 5 cm around the hips. I put a frill on the front because I could, though :P


And pearls, and pretty ribbon lol. I may be a sci fi nerd, but a do have a perchant for frills and lace and pretty things...





Unfortunately, it being on my mannequin doesnt do it justice, so I'll have to don it and take photos sometime :) In the meantime, I have heaps of projects that are finished to photograph. Or to finish...



Like the ones that are actually coursework lol   






Anyway, I'm back to it but I hope you'll leave feedback on what I've dont so far. Have a great weekend and hopefully I'll be back on here next week :)


Bye!!

Normality levels set to sane again :)

Hello all :)

And I do say all, because I came back to this today and realised that people were actually reading this now lol. Thank you for taking an interest :) I'm writing you all a very, very long one to compesate for my lack of new posts.

Ok, so I'm finally back, which is the biggest news of all. Relay for Life was fun: I dressed up as a Weeping Angel (foolishly spending three hours hastily painting a set of cardboard wings and experimenting with talcum powder and pomander instead of getting much needed rest the night before). I rocked up, freshly face painted and eager to make some money for cancer research :) then I realised one massive fault in my plan for walking laps around an oval for hours at a time.
Mainly the wire that I had sewn into the hem at the bottom to weigh it down.... which kept catching at my ankles and feet as I walked. ^_^ My lack of forward thinking amazed me, I can tell you. We won first prize on the day though for theme and most amount of money raised by a Curtin Guild club (hence the attachment of this rather fetching shot of my cleavage)

Immortalized in grey poplin...

Regardless, I made it. I am alive, kicking and sewing... Plus I won a digital camera for most funds raised in chocolate selling so more pics will be up soon :) and with my new sewing machine (Igor was on his last legs and finally carked it, rest in peace my friend, the last 5 years have been wonderful) I plan to kick back into it.

Thats all for now, but the next post won't be too far away :)