Impluse pattern purchase

I succumbed to the temptation of Collette Patterns "Snippets" newsletter and brought a PDF version of their latest dress pattern - The Hawthorn- at 15% off.
How cute is this dress? And doesn't the model just echo Joan from Mad Men (more than a little deliberate I think)? I mean sure Betty is beautiful in her own manic way, and Peggy wins hands down for the way she strives ahead in a 1960's male dominated industry... but honestly isn't Joan the character we all want to be (maybe secretly), with her Va-Va-Voom figure and dress sense?
Clever marketing Collette, I wonder if you hooked me in on model choice alone.... ;)

Til next time...

Happy Sewing (and printing/taping/cutting if like me you are using PDF patterns!)

Kate :) 

Vintage skirt pattern from Etsy

My vintage one piece skirt pattern turned up a few weeks ago. 

Amazing that I forgot to post about!!

The envelope is in OK condition, a little brittle but that's to be expected with the age of the pattern (1950s I think?). 

I will probably do a colour scan of the envelope to use for everyday handling and pack the original away in something acid-proof. The pattern pieces seem to be in better shape, the paper isn't nearly as brittle so they should be fine to trace off.

Love the pocket details!

As you can see there is actually more than one pattern piece to this skirt, however the main skirt is only one pattern piece so I think thats where the nickname came from.

 Keen to give this one a go but think it may have to wait until all the Christmas stuff is over with....

THIS is why I LOVE Op-shopping...

I totally did not plan on posting today but after finding these goodies at a local Salvo's store just had to share!  All up I paid about a $1.00 (AU) a piece for these beauties:

Loving these little girl dresses- thinking I may have to try and make the one on the left up for Little Miss.

Have never seen this brand of patterns before but after a quick web search they appear to be Australian and 1950's era. Very cute but not sure if I could get a 6 yr old to wear - that is IF they would fit a modern 6 yr old today!

Love this insert artwork from the Fashion Cut Patterns above. Advertising direct to your target market complete with groovy font and 1 colour printing !

How "Mad Men" are these dresses? Just wondering how feasible grading up 10 or so inches would be, hmmmm...

Look at these bloomers - how sweet!!!

And finally if the "Little house on the prairie" look comes back in I have my daughter wardrobe TOTALLY sorted lol ;D

Vintage pattern love

As you may know (or may not) know I'm a pretty big collector of old, retro and vintage sewing books/patterns and notions. Op shops and bootsales always are a good way to find items and even though my free time is considerably less with the twinlets being here, I still manage to find a bargain every now and then ;)
I hadn't really considered looking on the net with the sole purpose of finding vintage patterns, but seeing this skirt (Simplicity3983) made up on We Sew Retro's blog has changed my mind - I WANT this pattern !!!
Besides being from the 1950s (my favourite era) and  freakingly cute, the skirt only has one seam - yep you read right ONE!
Now I know there are one seam skirt patterns out there (I made this one a few years back) but I haven't seen any that look this sweet AND stylish :D
All I need to do now is find and scour online retro/vintage pattern resellers....Anybody got any favourite sites they use?
Happy Sewing :)

Update 12/10/12 - I found a copy on Etsy :D :D!!! Now to wait impatiently for it to wing its way here from America.

1950's inspiration

Looking for some inspiration for that galaxy-style dress pattern you haven't gotten around to making, or simply love the glamour of 1950's bombshells? Then check out Daddy-O's website- who have the most fantastic and cutest range of 1950's style dresses I have ever seen!
I only just found out about this site due to my work colleague Mel, however I think I will be a regular Daddy-O's online browser from now on!
The cut and colour combinations are just too cute- and if you can't be bothered knocking up something similar yourself I have it on good word that they ship to Australia.
Also the styling and choice of models for their product photography is just spot-on for clothing of this era- I love the make up, hairstyles and individuals used in each. Plus as a bonus quite a few of the outfits appears to go beyond the ambiguous S-XL sizing, great for all us ladies who don't fit into an "average" size range.

Some of my favourite outfits are:
This beautiful "Veronica" dress by Stop Staring, just tell me you can't see it being worn by a sultry nightclub singer?
This red, white and blue "Marion" dress, also by Stop Staring, kind of has a 1950's secretary feel.
This nautically themed dress- reminds me of Christina's "Candyman" music video.

My colleague Mel is thinking of ordering something from this site so hopefully I will have a chance to see what the quality of fabric/workmanship is like.
BTW in case you are wondering I know this isn't strictly a sewing site review and NO I haven't received anything for writing about this site (just in case anyone thinks this is a sneaky way of doing underhand advertising!). It's just that I love so much how different this clothing line is from what we (in OZ at least) have available in stores that I had to share!
Also by "snoop shopping" fashion sites like this I hopefully will be to be more adventurous- and creative- in my own future fashion projects:)