Savers restyle

 I found this black dress/shirt/coaty sort of thing at Savers in Dandenong a few months ago and decided that it was very 'me'. The only thing that I wasn't massively impressed with was the transparent lace panel around the waist. This stopped it being work-friendly as most of my colleagues probably wouldn't appreciate a belly button display...

Solution: a piece of black cotton stitched as a panel on the inside of the dress/shirt/coaty thing to prevent gratuitous belly button flashing.

Finished product.

Tie Flower

Here's one more configuration of the humble neck tie.

Basically they're made the same way as a rose ribbon with some stitches to hold it all together and a friggin' huge safety pin on the back. Those with more class may choose to use brooch pins, available to all at the sewing Mecca which is Spotlight.

Cost: $1 from Malvern op-shop. However many second hand shops are getting pretty savvy with pricing silk ties and they can set you back up to $8. I usually look for ones which are patterned, but won't teleport me back to the 1980's

Extreme close up!

Summer Skirts

The weather is heating up in Melbourne, so it's time to refine my summer skirt making skills. Usually with winter skirts, I make a half wrap on a diagonal and then sew it down (see table runner skirt for reference). But I needed a different design for a cotton skirt, so I used an op-shop skirt (bought in South Australia) which fits (but is a bit ugly) to draft the pattern.

For this trial project I used a $4 a metre material bought on sale from Spotlight in an Alice-in-Wonderland key design. It will be worn with my necklaces made from antique house keys and clock keys.

Rear view.

The pattern worked really well and I was on a roll, so I made another one using the same design with Lions! Material also on sale, but actually from the kids section. Big kids like lions too..

 But, I was also super fancy and drafted some big comfy pockets to sit just below the waistband. I had in the back of my mind a skirt I used to own from 'Quick Brown Fox' in this style before it (ahem) shrank in the wash.

Pockets!

Revamping a vintage jacket

A few months ago, a friend and I went to a vintage clothes show. I picked up this number for the gorgeous green trim and the fact that it looked like something a character in 'Jeeves and Wooster' would wear. I wanted to wear it with jodhpurs and riding boots and stride around around an estate in the 1940's...

We didn't get to the fair until late in the afternoon and I was surprised that the jacket hadn't been snapped up. I suspect that it was because of this:


Hunchback back! I'm not sure WHO looks good in back pleats...

Luckily because of my reworked black trench coat, I knew how to deal with it.

Undoing the seams

 Pinning the new seam

 Finished product which has become a favourite!

Applique Love

After years of being terrified of patterns and 'real sewing', I have finally conquered my fear. So far I am the creator of THREE dresses. However, the act of sewing with virgin fabric, rather than re cutting and altering existing clothes, comes with the realisation that it is very difficult to buy interesting fabrics in most sewing store. Instead I have been using very cheap, $4 a meter cotton and jazzing things up with the addition of appliques which can be bought for a few dollars on etsy.

Here's my attempt to 'interesting up' a black top with a purple lace applique.

Before

Pinning down the lace

 After

Bird Badge and Skirt

Years ago I saw a beautiful silk skirt in an op shop which (alas) was too small. I was stoked to find this lovely thing at the Lost and Found Market on Smith St in Collingwood. It feels beautifully light, as though you could fly away...

Because it was too long, I decided to harvest a bit of the length to make a badge. Originally I had decided to make a flower, but once I'd hemmed and over-locked the skirt, there were only scraps left. So I sewed them together in a sort of patchwork with a piece of vinyl and some buttons for eyes.

The finished one has a maroon button for an eye. Y'all will have to use your imagination...

Kimono off-cut cardigan

 This cardigan was inspired by the film 'Enchanted April'. I was watching it on a horrible stormy while I was home sick with a very bad virusey flu thing. The women looked so beautiful and elegant lounging around in the Italian sun in their 1920's kimonos. So I tried to recapture a bit of that with a slightly strangled Cotton On cardigan and a kimono offcut from the Kazari Warehouse in Richmond.

Hmmm, really should have ironed it...

Simply sow kimono silk along the edges of the collar and inner swing.

It's not something that I would ever buy or make from scratch and it's not really 'my' colour. However sometimes you've just got to experiment with what you have.

Burlesque Circus Sans Nipples

I found this dress while I was hunting for potential steam punk costumes and I'm thinking that it may have been a formal or bridesmaid dress.

The biggest clue was the suspicious-looking stains right down the front. Red wine? Or something less palatable...

 First I cut off the skirt and pulled up the stained fabric to reveal...

THIS! I think that it's a bit circus-meets-burlesque-in-a-non-nipple-revealing-way.

Escape Artist Dress

I found this interesting-looking homemade 1940's dress at an op-shop. It had a beautiful sweetheart neckline and I could tell that it would fit just by looking at it. But there was one problem...no way to get into it. I'm not sure what shape the creator was, but it is a fitted dress with no zips, buttons or hooks. My theory is that the maker finished it and realised her mistake. Sometimes it's better to get rid of the evidence by giving it to an op-shop that to undo all your good work. Or she may have been an escape artist...

Sweetheart neckline with black piping.

 Seams finished with pinking shears. Haven't seen that for ages.

 I unpicked one side seam and added a white zip. Problem solved!

It's not the sort of thing I'd wear on a regular basis, but with a red cardigan and post-war hairdo, it'd be great for a 1940's event.

Here's a little show and tell from one of my favourite vintage shops in South Australia. It's the Bazaar of Strathalbyn, which is a place which probably won't mean anything to most people, but it's where most of the film 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' was filmed. Only the scenes at Hanging Rock were filmed in Melbourne.
If you want to see what the countryside around Hanging Rock looks like, you can check out 'Hanging Blog' where our friends Mr and Mrs Mac now live.There you go guys, as Ritchie would say, I've given you a 'mensh on my proge'.

 It's crammed with the sort of industrial furniture which I love and is generally VERY overpriced in Melbourne.

 It's like a museum where you can buy anything you particularly like.

 I was very restrained this year, but last year I came back with a 1930's hearing aid, a set of 1920's sheep clippers and a turn of the century type setters tray.

I can just imagine myself reclining to the fainting couch and listening to the gramophone.

When my thesis is finished...

Silk scarf halter

I know that it's been a bit quiet at 'A Sow's Ear'. I've got four weeks to finish my PhD and I'm trying to resist all other distractions. However, after my trip to South Australia, I picked up a few things which almost make themselves.

I found a big silk scarf for $3 at an op-shop in a very funky purple and green pattern.

Tie around Genevieve and knot at the back.

I already had a few silver collar necklaces picked up in Melbourne for 50c each.

 It was just a matter of sewing one seam across the top and threading the necklace through.

The top's a bit revealing in the back area - I'll probably wear a singlet top underneath.

So there you go, a piece of upcycling which took less time than uploading the photos to this blog!

Spontaneous table cloth

Cam and I are not really dining table people. 364 days of the year, our table is my desk. That doesn't really leave much time or space for entertaining.

Tonight we had 5 people sitting around our table simultaneously consuming food, which created several immediate problems:

1. We do not have 5 matching plates
2. Or glasses
3. Or mugs
4. Or chairs
5. We don't own a table cloth

Problem 2 was solved by a quick visit to the $2 shop. Problems 1,3 and 4 meant that one person had to use a square plate, sit on a desk chair and drink out of a novelty mug.

Problem 5 was solved by...UPCYCLING!

A quick dive into my fabric bags revealed a long piece of green wool cloth found at an op-shop MANY years ago and a left-over piece from the homemade study curtains.

 I cut the green piece to the right length, but didn't have any thread the correct colour for hemming (will have to do that later)

Then I trimmed and hemmed the curtain remnant into a table runner. Instant table decor!

Anything can be a brooch - Part 1

 Here's my new philosophy: ANYTHING can be a brooch. All you have to do is stick a pin on the back.

Exhibit A: A mahjong tile brooch for a very dear friend
Exhibit B: Red bakelite domino
Exhibit C: Three stacked buttons

If you have any pictures of something quirky that you've made into a brooch. Feel free to leave your link in the comments section!