Sewing retro, Stashbusting

A doll for the sweetest baby

I’ve made a rag doll and I am totally besotted. Sadly she’s not for me – she’s for a very special little newborn girl, who I hope will enjoy playing with her as much as I enjoyed making her.  She is from the book by Jess Brown which was kindly lent to me by Carolyn, after […]

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Repurposed, Sewing, Sewing retro, Stashbusting, Travel, vintage pledge

1972 swimsuit and the Blue Lagoon

  I took these new bathers to Iceland and wore them in a sauna at The Volcano Huts, Thorsmork. I have had this pattern in my stash for a little while, and it was part of my prize in the 2014 vintage pledge and was donated by the Selvedge Shop. It is Simplicity 5027. I made […]

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Sewing retro, Travel, vintage pledge

Mirror mirror on the wall…

…which is my ugliest fabric of them all? Part of this month’s challenge on Stashbusting Sewalong 2015 is to sew the piece of fabric in our stashes that we most dislike. So I went to my stash. Deep stash. I found these three contenders. I thought I had more than this, but they must be […]

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Sewing retro, Stashbusting

1970s jumpsuit

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I embarked on this project. My friend Thelma has long said that I should make myself a jumpsuit, and once the idea was sown, it was sewn – pun intended :). The pattern is Simplicity 6959 from 1975. There were a number of things I quite liked about […]

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Sewing retro, Stashbusting, vintage

1970s mashup

This dress is a conglomeration of two patterns from the early ’70s and I thought I would embellish it with a flower as a nod to the era of peace and love. The patterns I used are the bodice from Vogue 8299 and the skirt from Style 4232 as gathered skirts don’t suit me. At all. […]

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self-drafted, Sewing retro, Stashbusting, vintage

My excuse? Movember

Actually, I can’t really claim Movember as my excuse for using fabric covered in moustaches, but it’s a good cause and I like to promote it any way I can. I didn’t have it mind when I bought this fabric, I don’t know what I had in my mind! I bought it in Spotlight from their home […]

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Sewing retro, Stashbusting, vintage

Last vintage make for 2014?

  I planned to make this my last vintage make for 2014 but I am flirting with the idea of one more. Anyway, this one has been on the table for more than a couple of weeks, which is a long time for me, although I have been away. The pattern is Vogue 6919 which is from […]

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Sewing retro, Stashbusting, vintage

Diane von Furstenberg dress and a blog hop

This is probably my penultimate vintage make for this year. It is the 40th anniversary of this iconic wrap dress, although the pattern (Vogue 1549) was released in 1976, so I thought it was a fitting make. I have never successfully bought or made a wrap dress, but have often wondered about this one as the common […]

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Sewing, Sewing retro, Stashbusting, Travel, vintage

1960s wrap dress

Well, to be precise, it’s a three armhole wrap dress made from a 1960s pattern that I bought at Circa Vintage – Butterick 4699.   The pattern that I bought was quite small so I had to grade it up. I made a muslin (gasp!) from an old bedsheet to check my sizing, and although […]

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Mark, Sewing, Sewing retro, Travel, vintage

Scuba skirt

When my eldest sister was visiting me from the UK she bought me this piece of scuba fabric, and I even managed to make it up. I used the same pattern that I used for my vintage skirt, Style 4232, and because of the drapey nature of the fabric, the look is quite different. I […]

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