Do you Vogue?

So yesterday I'm sat in the hair salon under a pile of raven black dye and I pick up the August 2010 edition of Vogue, spying an article entitled 'real clothes make a comeback' I read on with interest. And get this ladies: if you have a figure that closely resembles that of a woman and if you like to wear the odd frock you might just have made a fashion comeback. So it's out with pants that make women look as if they are doing bad impressions of MC Hammer, out with metallic leggings that make real women look like spray painted hippos, in fact out with anything any teenager in your house might want to share with you.

In are circle skirts, pencil skirts, boned bodices, nipped in waists, camel cashmere coats, long-legged-wide-legged trousers that flow all the way to the floor, satin blouses... I needn't go on because all you need do, as you are a classy woman who knows a thing or two about dressing (you are reading this blog after all), is go and look inside your wardrobe. Sweetie you're back in vogue (and back in Vogue)!

But do you care - I suspect not! We all know, don't we, the nonsense and frippery of the fashion world and we've been eschewing it for ages. Since I was eight years old I hate being told what to wear! I know what I like, what looks good, how to wear it and better still, damn, I know how to make it.

Apparently, this latest trend looks set to stay - hmmmmm. In some ways I hope not because now I'm going to have to work really hard to make sure my personal signature style doesn't make me look like a fashion victim. Sigh....

Over to you, what's your view?

A fight to the death with the dog

I've been poorly - a serious and difficult case of the black dog. And I lost my blogging mojo - well I lost my everything mojo to be honest. It's been a very difficult few weeks but thank God I'm through it now. So just to prove I'm back on track here I am working on tea dress number 2. Thanks for bearing with me...

Waspy Waist & Circle Skirt

What could be more 50s than a big poofy circle skirt. I designed and drafted this myself but those of you in the know will know (of course) that that is not as impressive as it sounds. For those of you not in the know this is simple geometry: take your waist measurement and divide by 6.28; this gets you the radius of the inner  circle of your skirt and from this you can draft a pattern. If you want to give this a go there's a great tutorial on Ruffles and Roses although I would urge caution with the instruction to measure your waist and then -4. I did this and ended up with a skirt I can only wear with a waist cincher and if I do another I won't deduct the 4 inches - the explanation on R and R is that this accounts for stretching of the fabric on the bias at the waistband. I staystitched the waistband to eliminate this problem but ended up with a waspy waist!

The photographs don't do this fabric any justice at all. The is a deep purple with a lime green dot and it's fabulous!

So pleased

If you've been reading this blog for the last few weeks you'll know that I've been attending night school to learn how to design and draft patterns for myself. In the first few weeks I designed this:

So tonight after many weeks of drawing endless amounts of seam allowances I give you:

So let me tell you that I am really very chuffed to bits with this. For starters it fits like a glove - no really it does. And secondly it looks like I envisaged it and thirdly it has a beautiful dusky pink satin lining too - I know, I know it's very remiss of me to not show it but I forgot to photograph it so you'll just have to take my word for it.

As a fitting finale to the course my wonderful tutor Maria arranged for a night out for all her students in our finished garments. What a well-dressed bunch we were too! Having been quite ill this week and last I was still covering the buttons a mere two hours before we met up and at that point I realised that I hadn't made a belt (doh!) so I whipped up the belt in a mere twenty minutes with just half an hour left before I had to leave. I think I have issues in respect of leaving everything to the last minute. 

Anyway I think it's good enough for tea on the lawn at four - what do you think darhlinks?

Twentieth Century Foxy

I've been having a difficult time recently so my DH Simon arranged to take me out to a vintage fashion show and burlesque evening on Saturday.

The event was hosted by vintage clothing company Twentieth Century Foxy and featured lines by Stop Staring and Tara Starlet amongst others.

We had a ball. So to appeal to your inner Dita here are some of the pictures it's safe to show you of the fashion show. I'll leave the burlesque stuff to your imagination.

 

Fashion Know How

I'm coming up for my last class at night school (sob). Apart from the wealth of sewing stuff I've learnt I have to say how much I've enjoyed this class and the friends I have made. I was a late comer to the group and joined them for the third session - they instantly made me feel welcome. It's been such a lovely experience and I've enjoyed every minute of it. Maria is a great tutor and has infinite amounts of patience especially with the amount of moaning I've been doing about seam allowances! Her Fashion Know How courses are a good investment for anyone looking to build their skill in many different areas.

Here we all are hard at work....

Watch this space for my completed tea dress project.

Tagged!

Phew it's too hot to sew at the moment and yet I'm fast approaching my deadline for my tea dress at night school. Arggghhh so much to do! So to take my mind off impending doom I noticed that I've been tagged by Sassy Lassie. Gosh so many questions - so here goes:

1) What outfit from a movie would you love to re-create? Audrey Hepburn's little black dress in Breakfast at Tiffanys. Beautifully fitted and with that back neckline that made it so dramatic.

2) Tell us about your sewing spot/room. What is your favorite thing about it? I blogged about my sewing room a while back. It's a great room to work in; the best part being the light.

3) Where did you learn to sew? Who taught you? My grandmother was a seamstress and she taught me plenty but the place that I really learnt was at school. I had textiles teacher who was a bit of a dragon really and we were so scared of her we just got on and sewed like mad to keep from trouble. I made a draught excluder that was a very elongated cat!

4) If you could have dinner with one person from the past, who would it be? Ohhhh just one?! If I had to choose it would be Queen Elizabeth I. I think her transformation from waif-like princess to majestic ruler was extraordinary given that she lived in the C15th and had all those men to stand up to. She could have just given in and married and handed over all the responsibility to her husband, but she wanted to do things her way. Her tenacity and will power in subjugating her own desires and putting her country first was courageous. She allowed her country to flourish by creating the longest peacetime the country had known allowing scientific and artistic endeavour to replace violence and bloodshed. What a woman.

Oh and Einstein - can I have Einstein too? There's some stuff I need to ask about relativity...

5) What/Who inspires you? My husband. He's got a real passion for style and fashion. In his own work this manifests itself in interior design but he takes the time to buy me books or send me articles/images of retro looks he know will inspire me.

6) What will always make you laugh? Monty Python and seeing my other half laugh; if he laughs I laugh, it's just the way it is...

7) What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Rum and raison. Yum.

8) What is something you would like us to know about you that you have never shared on your blog? I'm a Buddhist and I practice yoga. I live as compassionately and ethically as I know how and I'm striving to be happy each and every day.

That was exhausting. I'm going to have a quiet think about who I'm going to tag and what to ask them...