Give Away Week, vintage skirts.

It may surprise some of you that I love the vintage styles and the history that goes along with it, a time before I knew. The reason I say surprise is that I don't sew alot of of vintage although I hoard plenty of patterns and clothes! The reason being is that long list of interests that I gave yesterday, I'm an active girl that need to be comfortable. The slightest pull or feeling self conscious I just cant wear it.

A era I do love to sew is the 70s,, I just love all of it! I love the smartness of the 60s too and the wholesome images of the land girls. I I love the Twiggy hair cut and it was one of the inspirations for getting my own hair cut. 

Today's give aways are two vintage skirts. The first a full polka dot number, with a waist of 30"

Secondly, is my favourite I'm only giving it away as I can not even do it up! So a lovely pencil skirt with a waist of 26". The pencil skirt is a little bit special as it it still has it's label on called Devonshire lady!

Again I will post anywhere in the world, please tell me your favourite era and which skirt you prefer and be a follower of my blog. Don't forget to leave an email address. Winners will be announced on Sunday.

Give Away Week, bits and bobs.

Here in the UK the weather has truly made it to spring, so any time inside feels like a total waste! This leads to my other passions in life, the top being gardening, not flowers but veggies. Now the weather is kinder I spend everyday in the garden planning and putting in seeds bla bla bla. This got me thinking about our other passions.

I'm an active girl I love having things to do, but all these have a great feel good factor to me and even moments of a medative state. A top few are gardening, other crafts such as knitting which I'm trying hard to improve,cooking, yoga, and cycling. All of these are great for including or do around my busy family. I also feel that all my interests have a energy that enables me to grow and technically I can improve on everyone one.

So today's is what other passions do you harbour?

 So as I' all reading itching to get in the gardening the give away is this :

Here we have various laces and ribbon all well over a meter, a purple cold dye with fix and a few buttons.

I will post anywhere in the world, please leave your comment but do be a follower of my blog. The winner will be announced on Sunday.

PS Look out for tomorrow with some vintage clothing up for grabs.

Have a lovely day.

Give Away Week, pattern sets.

What is about dressmaking that just consumes me? As a young girl I used to draw girls with matching hats and bags just like the front of a pattern, well so my Mum says, so it has been apart of me for a long time! I see dressmaking is very separate stages.
1. The poring over fabric and patterns, I could do this for hours.
2. The actual pattern and scary matching fabric, as I'm not always that confident I generally go for cheaper fabric, scared that I'll muck it all up. I think after a year it's time to take this in hand, maybe I'll cut into my peace of silk to make something beautiful?
3. The pinning and cutting, I find this really exciting.
4. The sewing and following instructions. This has been an unusual interest for me, normally I'm not very good at following instructions but strangely with dressmaking I rarely go off course! It is also the time sat at the sewing machine that I find I enter my sewing meditative state of bliss! Sadly towards the end when my something is nearly complete my mind goes into overdrive and competes with itself and it's as if I'm in a face to get to the end. Yes this is where the mistakes happen. This year to chill out more ;-)
5. The finished item, I have to say I do not always love what I have made and it can take a little time getting used to. I thinks it's because I don't look like the girls on the front of the patterns! But I have got to a stage that I generally wear something I made everyday.

What part of the dressmaking process do you like?

Today's give away will be having three winners! There are three sets of patterns, each contain a new never used pattern, each of which I really like but know I will never get round to making. The second patterns are all from my favourite era the 70s!
                         
                                          Set 1.

Set 2.

Set 3.

To enter into today's give away please leave a comment with an email address. Please be a follower of my blog and I will announce winners on Sunday. Good luck.

Give Away Week, 100% Silk.

I have totally surprise myself, not in my obsession to make clothes or just make everything for home, friends family ect ect but in my computer life. What makes logging into my blog each day exciting is the sense of community. Personally I just love to join in with the sew alongs and me mades and all the other wonderful coming together that other bloggers have spent time and energy putting together. And that is just what they do pull us together. So as you can see scrolling along my blog I have been involved in a few in just one year. What I would like to be able to do more is be involved in the meet ups, I went to one in London last May and it was so much fun, I would love to do that again.

Do you love the sew alongs? What is so good about blogging for you?

Today I would like to give away this lovely screen printed silk 112cm wide by 200cm long. Sadly the photos do not do it Justice so it will a great suprise for the winner, it is so nice. So to be in with a chance please be a follower of my blog, leave a comment with your email address. Winners to be announced on Sunday.

Give Away Week

So this week I am giving away all sorts of goodies books, fabric, patterns, notions, vintage clothing all because I want to say "THANKYOU"! My blog is coming to it's first year and it has only been as exciting and interesting as the people who comment and give me so much encouragement and support.

   I thought I would share with you how I became a blogger and my journey into dressmaking.

Here is my wedding day 1st July 2010, we had  a 1940 dress code and a pick nic and dance in our village hall.

When looking for the right outfit I realised that so many women of this time made their own clothes, even into the 70 when my mum was making my clothes, why are we not doing this anymore?

Then to make that giant snow ball rolling I found Mena  at Sew weekly http://www.sewweekly.com/ . At this time Mena was making on her own an outfit a week, so inspired by this I started sometime later I have to confess to make my own clothes. This in turn has sparked a real new passion for all crafts that I had put to one side for a long time.

So today I would like to offer  this book :

This is a lovely book that has inspireed many of the presents I have made over the last few years.

To be in for a chance you have to be a follower of my blog. Please leave a comment and a email address.I will post to anywhere in the world. Winners will be announced on Sunday. Best of luck. x x x

Oh la la Muslin.

The pattern for the french corset/ garter belt came emailed as a pdf, this was a whole new concept for me and it took time! Really it should have taken two minutes, but I got there in the end. So the real fun starts with making of the muslin, which was great because all the pattern peacies are so small, it took no time.

I think the muslin fabric is a little flimsy and I hope the fabric for the proper corset will hold its shape better and I will feel more secure in my most wobbly area, shown above ;-)

So as the whole world can see, it's not a perfect fit first time! With the floppy top I started to get a bit confused on how high or low I should be wearing a corset?

I basically reminded myself of my shape = no curves at the top, which I changed the pattern by having straight sewing lines instead of the beautiful curve! 

But look, it was worth it, a much better fit!

The sew along itself has been a great source of information for techniques and a real step by step instructions, I'm really enjoying it. I can not wait to start on the real thing!

A Week Long Give Away....

With my 101st post I thought I would announce that next week I will be holding a week long give away. This is because it will be my blogs 1st birthday! One year ago in March I started all this, and just as a huge thanks I will be giving away, books, clothes, silk, notions and more, please join me.