I want to make one of those...

Last year we went to Twinwood Festival in Bedfordshire. It is a few days of pure nostelga. Twinwood is the airfield Glen Miller took off from on his last fight.

Anyway we could only go for one day however we had a most fantasic time. They have a great website www.twinwoodevents.com/  and are on facebook, if you wish to take a look.

While there we window shopped though the most fabulous vinatage stalls, for us seamstresses a lot of the stalls had boxes and boxes of vintage patterns however I can not say how complete the patterns were. I had to stay away unless I came away with a box load myself. And then it called to me a most beautiful and fantasic piece of work. In the most wonderful condiction was a black wool coat very similar to the Dior New Look style.

(source) 
 I tried it on and it fit purfectly, even on my tiny, short body. I enquired about the coats price and prompty wandered off saying "I will think about", which we all know is a polite way of saying "HOW MUCH?"  The above picture is the closest image I can find to show how beatuiful this coat was. So we wandered and I kept dreaming, S.H. and the girls all bought coats and in the end I decided this is why we have the invention of the credit card and it truely would be a shame not to put this great piece of plastic to work. Headed back to the stall wishing the coat would still be there and it was. I was about to purchase the coat when, oh no, they did not accept credit cards.

Still fate was to show me how good this was, as I am now still short but not as tiny. So all in all I am really glad I missed out on such an expensive item. For the past few weeks I have been thinking about that coat and could I find a pattern to make one. After all I did well on S.H. victorian/steampunk coat, which was made from a lovely soft wool fabric.

S.H. acting up for the camera.

And then I find it. I have found the pattern I have been looking for. Strangely enough my daugther had showed me these coats a few weeks ago, saying they made her think of me and I think that is what reminded of the large wrap around Dior style coat in the first place.

A few days ago In my emails I opened The Sew Weekly and saw this

And In reading the artical I saw Katwise had made a tutorial on how to make your own verson which can be found in her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise 

I have purchased the tutorial and search though a fantasic amount of colour and these are my two favourites

(both images curisty of Katwise )



How does this conect to the classic coat, I am not sure. But I love the swirl they both have, I for me I think this is the over all winner, fun, fun, fun. Do you adore the extra long hood as much as I do?

Love to all Vala x


Since writing this post I have finally seen a pattern for the coat I was orignally after designed by Gertie for Butterick, I am sure lots of you have as well. So now I want both coats.

My second item of clothing, finally.

Well here it is ladies (and gentlemen) finally i have made a piece of clothing. Well sort of, it is more of a re-fashion perhaps.

From this a charity shop buy, I loved the bottom half of the dress, it has a net underskirt attached to help keep the fullness of the skirt but I personally am not comfortable wearing strappless tops.

And this a much loved Monsoon dress that no longer can be zipped over my hips.

However the top part of the dress still fits.

I wanted to revamp the colour as I thought the pale blue did not quite go with the black. I used dylon burlesque red to create purple

As you may remember from yesterday's blog, which can be found here,  I also dyed my hand in the process. Yep its still purple, I am begining to think its perminant.

Ok, so I cut off the top of the black dress. I then sewed it to the inside of the purple dress. Unpicked the bottom section of the zip on the purple dress and cut off all the fabric below the now attached
black dress. I added a satin ribbon to cover where the two dresses meet and then sewed the lower section of the zip to the black skirt.

It wasn't all plain sailing I had to unpick and sew the satin ribbon twice as I had missed a section of about 4cm right at the front. And the zip I also sewed twice first by hand but I have never used an invisible zip before and I stitched to close so that when the zip was pulled it caught on the stitches. So I then machine sewed the zip into place and unpicked the handstitching.

It's still not perfect but I don't know how to recify this problem. My first thought was to make a detachable bow to cover but then I figured when I sat down it would come off. So my second guess is make a sash that fastens in a bow at the back. But as the dress has a slight drop waist would this just add bulk over the hips. Mmmmm, sugestions please.

Anyway here is the finished project

 I am really happy in how this turned out. I hope you lovely people like it too.

Happy sewing Vala.

First steps into the refashion trend.

There's been no blogging from me for the past few days. I have been busy sorting out bussiness stuff, and general life. But I have also been keeping up with the blogs that I follow and I came across a new one the other day that I have found rather intriguing.

Refashion co-op that can be found here .

In case you are not familer with this site, the premise is to take items of clothing and refashion them into something new.

I have been watching and learning and have decided to have a go. With the hope that this will take me out of my comfort zone of bag making and after a few go's of refashioning clothes to start what has been my long term goal of actually making my own clothes.

So at the weekend I went on a charity shop hunt and came away with these items.

A top for £3.50, the botice fits great but the neck piece is far too snug and the zip goes all the way to the top of the collar. Thinking cap is on.

A strapless cotton dress with full underskirt for £8.50. I bought this with the intention of making it into a high waisted boned skirt by following House Of Marmarlade tutoral which can be found here

So far I have cut off the top of the dress and then I changed my mind. I am much more of a dress person, no need to match separates, so off I went pattern shopping for inspiration. I have decided to add a top to the dress/skirt/dress, to give the impression of separates but the simpleness of a dress.

It's a girl's 'thing' to change her mind constantly, thank goodness. I will keep you updated on the progress.

Happy Tuesday to you all.
Sew Vala.