A/W 11 fetishism, whats your view.

Yesterday for some reason I bought a fashion magazine. This is an extreme rareity for me. Why, because they bore me. I know what I like, I feel I don't need an expert to tell me whats what. I am the kind of gal who wears what I feel comfortable in. If people think it dont suit me, tough. I have dress days/ jeans days and even if I want and I am home sewing all day then pj days.

So I don't really know anything about designers/labels etc. I picked the magazine up because there was a runway special and I just thought, well why not. I may 'learn' something.

Well it looks like all the big names have all gone 'fetish' . Leather, pvc, handcuffs, the lot. I'm sure we'll all be shopping in sainsburys like that.

What I am actually getting to is shoes, they were big and bold. Now apart from my fabric and vintage machine shopping my other big obsession has got to be shoe shopping. I love them, the higher, the bolder, the better. So this is a bonus for me. I don't know if it's because I am only 4'10'' but I love shoes. Getting the idea.

Well I have been coverting a particular pair for a couple of months now and today I got some

Viv Westwood, Melissa, They are slightly reminisant of kids jelly shoes but deffinatly grown up and to top it off they smell like bubble gum.

While I am in shoe mode I have been collecting Biba shoes for most of this year. Almost up to double figures in Biba alone here are just two I would like to share with you



So anyway back to fetishism, whats your opinion of it crossing into mainstream fashion. For those of us who love corsets and shoes. I think it's cool. But I certainly wouldn't be out and about attaching handcuffs to my handbag. Well not now I am not in my teens anymore. Ah punk, I missed you by 5 years. Ah well New Romantics were slightly out to shock. Teens, baggy jeans and hoodies not that rebelious by far.

Going, going, gone....

Good news,

After everything I've tried it turns out shampoo is the liquid to get rid of fabric dye from skin.

My son thinks this is quite ironic, because 'if you dye your hair, then you don't want the shampoo to get rid of the hair dye.'

Quite a simple answer really 'don't use fabric dye to dye your hair'

Well he thought it was funny. Guess you had to be there really !!!

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.

Always check your rubber gloves.

This evening I have learnt a valuble lesson. I was dying a dress unfortunaly I didn't realise one of the gloves had a small hole. And now

I have scrubbed and scrubbed, and my right hand still looks like this. In fact it is much darker purple, the flash seems to have lightened the picture.

This is how my left hand looks

I hope this is not perminant. But on the plus side it hasn't caused any skin irritation. The only words I can use to express how I feel apart from feeling foolish would not be allowed in polite conversation. Oh yeah and DOH !

My Fathers' hoarding genes strikes again.

Another oldy lady.

For more pictures and details on this 1935 grand lady check her out on my In Retirement page.

Vala x

Best dressed table in town...

Well at least the best dressed table we have done. Last week my youngest daughter, the lovely Mr S and myself had a stall at a 50's dance night in little old Wotton Bassett (which is now becoming quite well know for it's repatriations for our brave soldiers).

It has taken a while for me to get the lay out just right, but I think this time we managed it. Of we went on a charity hunt for vintage objects to decorate the table. After a very successful afternoon we came back with, hand embriodered tablecloths, cake stands, and glass corn on the cob holders, which were terrific for standing bags upright on.

The evening was organized by JustJive, if you would like to learn to dance while dressed up to nines in your vintage gear then check them out here

It was a fab night, with great music, wonderful dancing and lovely people. Many thanks to Jane and Alan for all your organising. Well done. xx

Vala.x

Back to my (sewing) roots

I took a trip down memory lane while creating these little beauties. When I first started sewing it was patchwork that grabbed me. The small pieces of fabric that didn't need much concentration, no patterns, just sew together strips of different colours and textures to create a new piece of fabric. However I soon learnt that once the quilt top had been created next came the momenous task of the actual quiting part. Needless to say I have a very large stack of UFO quilt tops, some actually started but all need to be finished. On Wall hangings I am much better at getting them completed.

Anyway this leads me to my latest sweet-heart make up bags

view 1

view 2

internal view of bag with lovely pink crepe back satin

view 1

view 2 (makes me dream of lemon meringue)

more satin lining.

The outer fabric on both bags is Tilda design.  

Whats your favourite fabric construction ?  Crazy patchwork is another of mine, I think its the randomness and the heavy embelishment that I love especially when it made in deep autumnal colours.

Sweet-heart bags galore

Last week was a busy ole time. I decided to concentrate on the sweet-heart make up bags for the stall I was having at a 1950's dance event. I will blog more about that later, meanwhile this is what I spent the week making.

External and internal views of sweet-heart make up purse no 43. This was the first time I have used crepe backed satin. Love the way in looks inside a bag. I am sure I will be using it alot more.

Sweet heart make up bag 44.

make up bag 45

and another. There are two versions of this bag, one has the same red and white fabric both sides. Both are lined in white with red polka dots,

and the other has a black and white polks dot fabric on the reverse.

This is a really cute favourite shape of mine, its also handy as a small clutch.

Happy Sewing Vala. x 

Pretty Maids all in a row.

I have been away from blogland for a few days, working on getting ready for my lastest stall, I will tell you more about that on my next post as I am only able to quickly visit today. Here is a picture of some sweet-heart make up bags that I have been working on last week.

Hope you all had a fabuluous weekend , we did. How did you guys spend yours ?