Works in progress

Here's what I'm working on this rainy afternoon...
This dress:
with this homemade bias binding. I'm hoping to get it finished in time to wear it out tonight...story of my life!

And this watercolour painting:
It's for the new zine I'm working on, along with this painting I did the other day. Speaking of zines, I got Stolen Sharpie Revolution out of the library yesterday...there are lots of good zine-making tips in there.

How about you, what are you up to on this rainy afternoon?

New Year's dresses old and new

I was looking at some old photos the other day and found this one of me in my new year's dress in 1999, in all my dreadlocked glory. I remember sewing until 6am for a few nights making that corset thing! I'm drawing a tattoo on my arm with a marker pen, a tattoo that looks like a practice for the one I have now, for better or worse.

And it seems that I'm still making new year's dresses...I finished this one on new year's eve. Here it is in action:

Or more extreme action:

It's my old faithful pattern, Vogue 1923 from the '90s and, luckily, it withstood a bracing new year's day sea swim.

Happy new year to you!

My creative space - black and white and polka dots

My creative space today has lots of polka dots and black and white.  I finished this dress yesterday, it's from my old faithful dress pattern, Vogue 1923, from the '90s.  I didn't have quite enough fabric so I had to do a bit of a jigsaw with the back!  It's a bit more A-line than the many many other versions of this dress I've made because I took the pattern up on the shortening line before I started, a step I usually forget.  I just realised it matches my polka dot stockings!  I wonder if I should wear them together.

 I think it's going to be a cheery summer staple.   

Speaking of black and white, look at what was in my letterbox this morning!  There's going to be a whole lot of stamping on fabric going on around here.  I played around this morning with stamping leaves directly onto the stamp pad which made some nice ghostly prints. 

 

And speaking of polka dots, this fabric is next in my sewing queue.  It's a piece of cotton/silk that was the skirt of a voluminous dress in a past life.  I think I'm going to make it into a breezy summer top.  

 

What have you been making?  

To see lots of other people's creative endeavours pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Hope you're having a good Thursday!  

My creative space

I was gifted a wonderful dress a while back, it's the perfect shade of green and I love it to bits and pieces. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't fit me quite right. So I decided to do a little watercolour portrait of it, and hopefully one day I'll come up with a way to alter it to fit me.

While I've got the green paint out, I might paint a portrait of my two green gravy boats, too!

What have you been making?

To see other people's creative spaces, pop on over to the "our creative spaces" blog.

Happy Thursday!

Green means go

I've spent the week sewing this green dress from my old faithful pattern...

It matches my green jandals perfectly!

And this green chair.

And now I'm off to Wellington to wear it to a wedding! Happy weekend to you!

Green fabric

I have a bit of a green fabric problem. My stash of it is threatening to take over the house. Here are a few favourites from my stash, awaiting the perfect project:
This last one is neeearly a dress now...a bit of hemming and it'll be done. I love the big flowers on it; they kind of remind me of these stencils by Flox:

You know it's time to go to bed when you've sewn your finger to your dress.

This is another version of my old faithful dress, I've got some others here and here. This version has pockets inside, rather than sewn on the front. Hopefully it'll get its debut tomorrow at Frocks on Bikes. If this storm ever stops!