So my lovely readers I have one final Pin Up to introduce to you before the grand unveiling of the finished skirt. Here she is: Teresa!
Teresa, Pin Up number 8!
I used carnival colours of yellow and red for my final pin up, she looks as if she has just stepped out of a fun fair! I know that I've said this a lot with each of my pin ups, but I really would love a real version of her dress for myself :)
Teresa, Close Up
I also worked a lot of french knots into this final pin up, french knots have definitely become my favourite embroidery embellishment technique through this project. Plus I must admit that I'm proud of how well my french knots turn out now, all the same shape and size :)
The final Pin Up is completed!!!
So there you have it, all the Pin Ups are finished and all that is left for me to do is take my new skirt out on the town! I cannot tell you how happy I am with this finished project and how excited I am to share it with you. For now here's a round up of links to all of my Pin Ups, enjoy them, I'll be posting the finished skirt within the next couple of days!
I feel so fancy! (so please excuse my silly expression...!)
I was spotted on three separate occasions at Vintage by different fashion bloggers who liked my outfit, I felt very special indeed :) I was wearing my red pencil skirt and was especially chuffed when people liked it because it's one of my own creations. I was also wearing my 1940s silk blouse, one woman even admired my blouse so much that she gave me a discount on a silk scarf, how nice is that?!
You like my skirt? Why thank you, I made it myself :)
Anyways, there are pictures of me here, here and here, along with loads of other gorgeous attendees of Vintage, so feel free to take a look :)
Hello lovely readers! Today I'm going to share my review of the my time at Vintage on Southbank, something I did on my little blogging break. I'm sorry if you're already bored of hearing about this event, I know that others have already shared their thoughts, but I did feel like I had a lot to say after my visit so please indulge me :)
Like so many of the rest of you from the London Vintage community I visited Vintage on Southbank at the end of last month. I was very excited about attending this event, the publicity had made the whole thing seem completely irresistible, I mean who wouldn't be drawn to the thought of over 150 different vintage sellers plus musical entertainment, hair do demonstrations and make-do-and-mend workshops? It was eagerly that I booked my ticket (and my lovely mum bought one too) quite a way in advance and I was pretty giddy as I headed in towards the festival. I must admit that by the time I left later I wouldn't quite describe my mood as giddy. Now I'm not saying I had an awful time by any means, I did have an enjoyable day, but I found that my positive experiences were met with an equal number of negative ones. It was a fairly mixed bag of a day!
When reaching the Royal Festival Hall my lovely mum and I had a bit of trouble locating the main entrance as the directions were very poor, but we soon found our way and were inside and ready to go. We were promised 6 floors of vintage goodness and we couldn't wait to get started! However, I can only describe our experiences inside as being a bit of a damp squib. We were given maps of a sort when entering the event but they were not useful in the slightest and so we ended up wandering about aimlessly and hoping that we weren't missing anything. One of the first things we came across were the rooms stocked by Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair, and I was very eager to have a good old browse, but the items on sale were far from affordable. I have written on this blog before about the inflated prices of London Vintage clothes, but these prices were pushing it even for London! There were also a couple of vintage style photo shoots to be had at the event, but you had to pay quite a lot to take part so I decided to pass. I felt a bit disgruntled that after paying £60 each for our tickets many of the treats offered at Vintage could only be enjoyed if we paid yet more money.
Good old Mollie Makes!
I did love the Make-Do-And-Mend area that had been put together by Mollie Makes, providing lessons in crochet and how-tos on fascinators and brooches, but the large amount of people at the event meant that whenever I was in that area of the Festival Hall every seat was taken in each class, so I wasn't able to join in :( It was a real shame. Obviously it was great to see so many people enjoying the workshops but I would have really enjoyed giving one a go myself. Another fun activity going on were the swing dance lessons on one of the upper floors and some vintage hair salons running up there too. Both of these were free, but because of the large amount of people at the event, queuing and over crowding meant that I gave both of these a miss too. To be honest we weren't having the best of times inside the Royal Festival Hall, so we decided to take a breather outside and check out the Vintage Village.
Now the Vintage Village was a sight to see, hundreds of sellers all of whom had stalls stuffed to the gills with vintage goodness. There were also pop up shops created by some of my favourite high street shops including Benefit, Cath Kidston and Horrockses (although unfortunately the dresses in their shop were for display only, they're just selling homewares now). All of this would have added up to equal one fabulous vintage experience, but unfortunately it was not as perfect as it at first appeared. The overcrowding that had been present in the Festival Hall was also present here, but tenfold as the Vintage Village was free to all members of the public which meant that browsing was replaced by tackling your way through huge groups of people just to get a glimpse of what was on sale. The weather was utterly glorious but this also meant that in the tight throng of people the temperatures at times became almost unbearable. My mum and I were gasping after making it half way through the Vintage Village and so were thrilled to see that Crabbies (the makers of the my favourite summer bevvy, alcoholic ginger beer) had a bus set up at the fair, but to add insult to injury they weren't selling bottles of their drink, just giving out small free samples of which we allowed one each. Sad times. Now I did end up buying a very cute pink raffia handbag at the Vintage Village and a 1950s silk scarf, so I didn't walk away completely empty handed, but I didn't have the after purchase glow that I usually get after a vintage purchase. The whole experience was a bit too stressful for me to be honest!
My basic problems with Vintage on Southbank were the over crowding and costs of many of the activities on offer. I felt a bit taken aback that after spending what to me is a lot of money on a ticket to the event in order to have an entertaining and full day I had to spend even more money. Also I expected the event not to be so overpopulated as surely paying said ticket prices should mean that you can actually experience the whole event in comfort? There were some nice touches at Vintage, for example free mini tubs of ice cream, but I feel that the organisers weren't really taking a lot of basic issues into account during their planning. The actual people doing the hard graft on the day were fabulous, the people running workshops or stalls etc. were brilliant and they were what kept me going through the day, but to be honest there was only so much they could do with an event that was flawed on basic levels by it's creators.
I did enjoy some of my time at Vintage on Southbank, but all in all it was definitely not worth the money that I paid for it and I probably won't visit again next year. If I could go back and do things differently I would have not bought a ticket and just gone to the free Vintage Village, the whole thing would have ended up being much cheaper!
To close, however, I am going to share with you the one thing that almost made the day completely worth while, these absolutely incredible blow your socks off amazing singers: the Bombshellettes. We heard them sing in the Royal Festival Hall and everyone around us was swing dancing, it was an amazing experience that I won't be forgetting in a hurry! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, they blew me away :)
There are some brilliant people in this country :) how heartwarming is it when in a time of crisis hundreds of people give up there time to help clean up and get people's lives back to normal? This is the real community that no amount of thuggery can break up or destroy.
These people made me very happy, allow me to do the same thing for you! Here's a special bumper Wednesday Wonderfuls post, as I didn't share one with you last week. My personal favourite posts from the blogosphere from the last two weeks, I hope they bring you some midweek joy!
Miss Rayne of Vintage Chic was kind enough to share a gorgeous vintage knitting pattern with us, who wouldn't want one of these gorgeous stripey sports jumpers?
Check out these brilliant posts on Things to do in London Under £20 (Part 1 & Part 2), including plenty of gorgeous things like visits to Laduree and even doing the Lambeth Walk!
Esme has done it again with another beautiful outfit post, this time with wide legged trousers and braces. Seriously, I think I want her entire wardrobe, the girl has style!
Autumn fashions seem to be in the air on the blogs with lots of fabulous inspirational posts, personal favourites of mine were written by Casey and Tasha. Give them a look you won't be disappointed!
I feel that I have to take a break from my blogging schedule today because of how horrified I have been at the terrible riots that have been going on in London and now other parts of the UK over the past few days. I cannot describe to you how heartbroken I am to see the city I love ripped apart by ignorant people who's only motivation is to steal, loot and cause damage. Last night was harrowing as the majority of my dearest friends and loved ones work in London theatres and so were heading home just at the time that all hell was breaking loose. Thankfully they all reached their destinations unscathed, but many had horror stories of burning vehicles, gangs of masked thugs and even riots just outside their homes. I'm sure that these rioters feel that they have reasons for their behavior, but regardless of your financial, political or economical position there is no excuse for such a gross skewing of your moral compass. It is simply inexcusable and sickening.
This is not what this city is about. Living and working in London helped me become who I am today. I have met many of my closest friends in London, I fell in love with my Sweetheart here, and working here in theatre has been one of the greatest achievements and joys of my life. For me this has always been a city of possibilities and opportunity, and I cannot bear to see it's history and the livelihoods of so many people destroyed for absolutely no reason. I can only hope and pray that this whole terrible series of events is put to a swift end soon and that London will be left in peace.
To my overseas readers I ask you to please not judge our country on the behavior of a crazed minority, and for my UK and particularly my London readers please stay safe.
It's been a while since I gave you a Pin Up Embroidery update, so here's a special bumper addition for you, two completed girls!
First up we have Scarlet's identical twin, Sherry:
Sherry in spots
I went a bit crazy with all her spots :) she has the cutest bolero decorated with french knots and then I used split stitch for the larger spots on her dress.
Sherry Close Up
I really like this Pin Up, I think she's fun and a little bit like a circus performer in her spotty outfit. She's bringing some circus-chic to the proceedings :)
The sixth Pin Up is completed!
And now for Pin Up number seven, Marilyn's sister, Maddie!
Maddie, also a minx!
I kept things simple with Maddie, just giving her a cute stripey outfit, it reminds me of a bathing costume. I'd love to have a version of this outfit for myself!
Maddie Close Up
I also really love the colours of this outfit, the lilac with the golden stripes, it works really nicely. Plus she - of course - has perfectly matching shoes! I would love to be able to match every one of my outfits with my shoes...
Number seven done and only one more to go!
And there you have it. I have completed seven out of eight of my Pin Ups, one more and then it's time for the big reveal! I'm so excited to share the finished skirt with you, it's definitely going to be one of my favourite items of clothing I'm sure.
Check back soon for my final Pin Up Girl and then I'll finally show you what the finished skirt looks like, I can't wait!
I'm sorry about my sudden disappearance, I had a lot to do when I got home from the tour plus it was really nice to just sit back and let the world go by for a few days, have a good catch up with my family, friends and my Sweetheart :) and then I went on holiday to Disneyland for four days, so my blogging fell by the wayside a little bit. For this I am sorry, I'm all rested up now and ready to get back on the blog horse, or something like that...! I have so many things I want to share with you too, including a Pin Up skirt update (I'm so excited about showing it to you!) and a Vintage on Southbank review. Plus I have lots of projects up my sleeve, so I promise you it's not going to be dull :)
And by the way, I cannot BELIEVE that I now have over 100 followers! Thank you all so much for showing your interest in my my little corner of the web, it means so much to me (and also makes me feel even more guilty about abandoning you all for over a week! I'm sorry!). I think that over 100 followers should warrant some kind of a giveaway very soon, don't you? ;)
Thanks for sticking with me and check back for some more fabulous posts very very soon, I promise I'll make them worth your while! It's so good to be back :)
