A Little Vintage Inspiration

Its always nice when you go somewhere and get a little bit more than you bargained for. The other Sunday, on a normal day out to Sheringham, we stumbled across a 1940's steam day. Of course the junior members of the family weren't interested in the slightest by a parade of military vehicles and lots of people dressed up from that era. Their main focus was on the beach, playground and ice creams. In that order. So I left Mr B for half an hour to take a quick wander through the town and see what was going on.
It was great to see so many people turn out in their finery for the day and I have to say I've never seen so many dead foxes hung around ladies necks in my life. Glad that is a fashion that hasn't resurfaced.

Everyone had got into the spirit of things and there was a fantasic atmosphere to the place.

I don't know whether that has directly influenced the last weeks makes or not. Not that I've stuck to the 1940's, but I seem to have definitely taken on a retro vibe. Now this thing is out of my life:

Bye Bye Baritone...

My evenings are once again free for making stuff. So stuff I have made.

A rather smart set of decoupage coasters:

A new batch of notebooks in the same theme:

And a lovely bag made with vintage style linen , with a silk lining and an over sized purse frame.

I love being back in the swing of things. Even starting to think about the C word...

First foray into dressmaking

I've had a couple of goes at very simple making of clothes before (to call it dressmaking would be overstating previous attempts drastically!) but its never really interested me. Considering I spend a fair number of evenings plonked behind my sewing machine making one thing or another there has to be a reason. There are several. Firstly I like projects I can finish in an evening, I like the instant gratification. Plus clothes are so cheap these days that to buy a pattern and material often works out considerably more expensive than just going out and buying it. So I've never bothered.
However Project Corset is getting closer and before I launch into that I wanted to give myself a run up as it were. So I had a look at the Simplicity patterns which were half price at the time -might still be- and ordered a dress pattern. I bought a gorgeous dress a few week previous in a similar style, but at the moment I can't afford anymore. Now I can make as many as I like.

There we go! Its not perfect, but I have learnt, we who make see the imperfections most people don't. I'll happily wear it and that's the most important things. So if you can cut round a patterns, use a sewing machine and follow instructions, there's nothing to it! (Well its probably more complex than that, but I'm not looking to become a tailor..)

Just a shame I've made a summer dress just a little too late in the year!