My favourite new dress!

I posted a picture up on FB the other day showing my new hair do' now that I have been practicing with my new heated roller set and got a bit of an overwhelming response about that and the dress that I was wearing at the time....

Most of the overwhelming response was towards my dress rather than the crazy amount of time spent on my hair, though. A lot of people thought it was cute, so I though that I would share it today.





Its actually a 1975 Style pattern, but it could be easily mistaken for 40s because of the long skirt and sleeves. My favourite part of the dress is the little white lapels.


Here is the original pattern. I can't seem to find it in the Vintage Pattern Wikia so I can't get more information on it. I do love it though and I plan on making a few more :) This one was make with Spots and Stripes cotton from spotlight, and is unlined but has facing on the inside.

More will be coming soon, but I'm off to the Unveiled wedding dress exhibition (the V&A have lots of pretty wedding dresses in its possession, it would seem. I'm really excited to go see it though.) Have a great weekend.

Some Like It Hot.. Or Maybe Not

Greeting, fellow bloggers!

Its currently boiling over in this neck of the woods. Its after 7p.m. and still 36 degrees outside (which is nearly 97 Fahrenheit to those of you who are into that.) and I'm trying to stay far away from the sewing machine at this point in time :)

But what with all this heat, I got to thinking about all those fantastic things about summer and thought that I would post them up. Think of it as a summer inspirations board..

I have a cherry dress that looks as tempting and gorgeous as these ones.

*WANT*

A cute little brooch I saw on the interwebs

I won a swimsuit pattern similar to this one last year from A Few Threads
Loose, and I really want to make it this summer...

I don't even care if this is impractical for an Australian summer.
I would so gladly suffer heatstroke to look this adorable!

Ok, so thats probably it for today. Time to step away from the comp and into the pool for a little while, I think.

Cheerio, JacieKakes

Return of the JacieKakes (now in 3D!)

Hi all,

It's been a busy few months for me. Mainly because I started picking up theatre work, and have had to juggle that with uni and the night job. What began with making a few things here and there turned into me turning in a LOT of sewing hours for two productions. I even got my first mention in a review. You can see it here (hey, you gotta start somewhere lol, but there I am in print: Jacinta Grando as assistant designer). And I ended up getting my first paid gig after only 6 months in the biz.

Unfortunately, my first paid job was to make and fix curtains that were torn down... EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I felt like Sisyphus, rolling that stone up the hill only to have it tumbling down again. For three weeks I cringed everytime I saw it ripped, then took it home to get it all done again. Nevertheless, it was my first job, and I'm sure I'll look back and remember it as my first big break.... I think. 

I feel I should emphasize...Every. Night.

So now here I am - I have my first designing and creating job (a post apocalyptic version of the Tempest, like you do...) and by some miracle I've got some time up my sleeve to do some blogging on here. I've kind of made it my pre-New Years'- resolution to put some more time into this and my etsy store (which, by the grace of God, should be up soon. It's been like the Odyssey of Etsy store building, with Ithaca being some mythical stage where I'm selling pretty things on the interwebs). Hours of perusing on Regretsy has at least shown me what to avoid doing, and with me making up some new patterns I should be on the move once more before January is over.

I have been vintage sewing a lot in the time since, and I've actually managed to make a teensy amount of money off it too. I seem to be having more questions about whether I can make historical costuming more than anything else, but hey, anything is good at this point.

Some of the things that I've been working on have been quite 40's and 50's inspired at the moment. I shall be getting some pics up in the new few days (and this time I will do so), and to attract some new blog readers, I've been thinking about adding a few tips and tricks that I've learnt over the last few months, so that there's something to come here for other than my blathering on about what I'm doing/ gushing over fantastic patterns. Goods shall be delivered, I promise.

Have a fantastic and safe New Year. I myself will probably be spending the first few days of it researching burns patterns and prosthetics for Caliban (which shall be thoroughly nightmare inducing) and working on creating a bodice pattern with a neckline like this;




So wish me luck :)

Fare thee well.

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!