Sew For Victory: Design Inspiration

Hello there my lovely readers! Thank you for all your lovely comments on my chosen pattern for the Sew For Victory sewalong yesterday, I'm thrilled that you all approve of my choice :) 

After doing a bit of research on 1940s suits I have decided that plaid is definitely the way to go (not that I ever need much persuading on that account!) Just take a look at these beauties that I've collected for inspiration: 

Aren't those just swoon-worthy?! I love the big bold plaids, and the matching gloves, every one is gorgeous. I think I'm most interested in making a plaid jacket with a block colour skirt and trim, I love how that looks! Hopefully the jacket and skirt will look lovely together but also work well as separates :)

Next time I'll hopefully have some fabric to show you as I'm heading to Goldhawk Road and I'm sure they'll have something to get my sewing juices flowing!

I hope you're enjoying my little part of Sew For Victory so far, I certainly am!

Bye for now,

Katie xxx 

Sew For Victory: my chosen pattern

Hi there my lovely readers! I don't know whether you know it or not but the lovely Rochelle is holding a Sew For Victory 1940s sewalong over at her gorgeous blog Lucky Lucille. I'm really quite excited about this because the 1940s has to be one of my favourite decades of fashion but I haven't actually sewn many clothes from that era. So let the planning begin!

I decided to raid my stash for a possible pattern, because however much I'd love to go and buy a whole new selection of 1940s lovelies I think it would be better to use what I have first :) And lucky me, I found this little gem that I'd forgotten I even had!

Ever since completing my matching cape and skirt I have been dying to do some more tailoring, so this project will be just the ticket! I'm hoping that I will have the time to make both the long sleeved jacket and the skirt. I love the matching red look, however the plaid jacket with a solid colour skirt is really interesting too! I will definitely need research some suits of the 40s the get my inspiration in terms of colour and fabric. 

What do you think of my chosen pattern? Do you have any suggestions as the the colour or print of fabric? And are you taking part in Sew For Victory too? I'd love to hear about your plans for what you'll be making!

Bye for now,

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #108

Hello there my lovely readers and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

Images, Each Row from Left to Right:
1. Such a beautiful fair isle pattern! 2. My first ever self drafted blouse pattern! 3. Knitting pattern of joy
4. Daiquiri anyone? 5. Wearing my new hat out :) 6. Homemade chocolate and peanut pudding
7. My chosen 1940s pattern 8. The loveliest inscription in my new-to-me knitting book 9. I love hot chocolate 

This week I have been:

Sewing:

a couple of dresses into skirts for a friend, and I'm really happy with how they've turned out. I don't usually work on clothes for other people so I am worried that they are quite perfectly finished enough (that's my anal retentive nature kicking in!) but all in all they're looking great and I'm really happy that I've been able to use my skills to help someone out :)

Knitting:

my Perrault, and the body is almost completed! I just habe the sleeves and the hood to go and I'll be done. Which is a good things because it's threatening to snow again, so at least I'll be warm!

Reading:

two beautiful 1950s knitting books that I inherited from my Sweetheart's grandmother. I am completely smitten with some of these patterns! There are so many designs that I want to try out in these books I can't even tell you, I can see that my knitting to-do list is just going to get longer and longer! I better hurry up and finish my Perrault because I'm already dreaming about jumpers/sweaters/scarves/socks... the list goes on!

Planning:

what I'm going to make for the  Sew For Victory sewalong! I'm really excited about this because I want to make sure I use as many historically correct techniques as possible together with my perfect 1940s pattern. I cannot wait to see what everyone creates, I will be posting more about what I'm making very soon, so watch this space!

But enough about me, what else has been going on in the blogosphere this week?

• This looks like a brilliant hat pattern, I quite fancy giving it a try!
• I really need to get me one of these DIY brooch boards, I'm starting to collect brooches and I'd love a pretty way to display them.
• I adore these finnish knitting patterns, they are beautiful. I love a good vintage knitting pattern :)
• Are you getting involved in the 1940s Sew For Victory sewalong? Check it out, it looks like it's going to be amazing!
• And finally, Tasha has done it again, this time with a beautiful wool skirt. I love this gal's wardrobe so much!

And finally, I call upon Heather Small to ask:

"What have you done today to make you feel prooooouuuuud?!"

Day Two:

I had a productive day at work before coming home and preparing two dresses for sewing. And then I spent some much needed quality time with my Sweetheart :)

Day Three:

I adjusted two skirts for a friend and baked the most amazing cream cheese cinnamon rolls in the history of the world.

Thanks for reading, be sure to drop by again soon!

Katie xxx

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Do you ever watch "Miranda" my lovely readers? I must admit that for all it's silliness I'm a bit of a fan, it really does make me laugh and make life that little bit brighter (for any of my non-UK readers "Miranda" is a sit-com about a single thirty-something based on the life of it's creator and star Miranda Hart). But this post isn't really about "Miranda", oh no, it's about Stevie's (Miranda's best chum) favourite question: "what have you done today to make you feel proud?" a la Heather Small! Here's a clip of Stevie in action so you'll see what I mean.

I'm going to level with you my lovely readers, I haven't exactly been feeling my usual self for a little while now, what with no longer touring and feeling lost without my schedule and daily routine, and to be honest sometime whole days can go by without my feeling very proud about anything I've done. However I have decided that enough is enough and the only one who can get me out of this little slump is me. Basically what I'm trying to say, in a very long winded fashion, is that we create the life that we want to live, and I want to feel more proud! For this reason, and to put a bit of oomph back into my life, for the next two weeks I want to do something everyday that I feel proud about and I'm going to write about it here.

So without further ado, let's get started. Take it away Heather!

"What have you done today to make you feel prooooouuuud??!!"

Day One:

Today I completed my first ever self drafted blouse pattern with a Peter Pan collar which is now ready to be cut out and sewn up. After only four pattern cutting classes I think that's pretty good :)

I hope you'll enjoy following me on this mini adventure, maybe some of you will even join in too! Bye for now!

Katie xxx

This Red Squirrel has sewn some Red Trousers!

Hello there my lovely readers, guess who's finally wearing some trousers?! Yes, I have already completed one of my sewing goals for 2013 by sewing my first ever pair of trousers!

I always match my hat to my lipstick and slacks, don't you know!

These wide legged wonders were made using the marvellous "Smooth Sailing" pattern by Wearing History and the fabric is a beautiful scarlet linen mix that I purchased when I was working in Edinburgh  at the end of 2011. I can't tell you how happy I am to finally have these finished and ready to wear!

I would really recommend this pattern to anyone looking to sew their first pair of trousers, the pattern is very easy to use and the instructions are beautifully clear. Plus the wide legged finish hides all manner of sins (at least I hope it's hiding them!). I was very intimidated about sewing trousers - I think a lot of home sewers are! - because it means you're dealing with scary things like crotch length(!) and inside leg measurements, but I actually found the whole process really interesting and fun. It's so different sewing trousers compared to sewing dresses or skirts, and I enjoyed the challenge!

A cheeky derriere shot!

I also owe an awful lot of thanks to Sunni's Trouser Sewalong, which helped so much to clarify exactly how trouser fitting works and what you need to adjust in order to get the desired look. If you're thinking about sewing a pair of trousers any time soon then I highly suggest you check it out, you'll learn a lot, believe me! I did some fairly complicated adjusting from my original toile to my finished trousers and I would have been completely at sea had it not been for Sunni's help.

Back in the days that I bought modern clothes I would always struggle to find trousers to fit both my waist and my hips (there's a big difference between those two measurements!), so anything highwaited was pretty much a no no and I would have to settle for hipster jeans instead. Because of that I fell rather out of love with trousers in general, but this project has awakened that love with a vengeance! I can't wait to try some other styles of trousers to add some variety to my wardrobe :) 

I'm really pleased with how these trousers have turned out, and I can't wait to plan some more outfits around them! What do you think of this change of style for me?

Bye for now!

Katie xxx

P.S. If you were wondering, my sweet new hat was made by the wonderfully talented Jeanne of Bellapacella. We met at Anita's Vintage Fashion Fair and I couldn't leave without one of her hats!

Wednesday Wonderfuls #107

Hello there my lovely readers and a very happy Wednesday to you all!

Images, Each Row from Left to Right:
1. I love a red hat! 2. My very own LIttle Red Squirrel! 3. Our new (to us) beauty :)
4. Mac + Cheese 5. Hanging with my pal Paddington 6. My belated Christmas gift from my Sweetheart
7. New styling for my hair 8. My knitting is growing! 9. Practising my pin curls :)

This week I have been:

Working on...

my 1940s onesie pattern! I cannot wait to start sewing up my toiles, the pattern is so cute I can't get over it, but first of all I have to do some serious adjusting. The pattern is for a teeny tiny little girl, so I'm going to have to do some pretty intense scaling up, but I'm looking forward to the challenge :)

Watching...

the new series of "Call The Midwife". I cannot tell you how happy I ma that this show is back on, I love it so much! The acting is fabulous and the stories are great, but mostly I just can't get over how divine some of the costumes are! I will definitely be posting about some of these outfits soon, they are just calling out to be shared. Plus I have some CTM inspired sewing and knitting projects in the works too, so watch this space!

Inheriting...

quite a few lovelies from a relative of my Sweetheart. I cannot get over how lucky we are to have been given some of these treasures (including the typewriter above, in practically mint condition!) that have been so well loved and preserved over the years. I will write about this in more detail soon, but I'm overjoyed that we can offer a loving home to some of these gorgeous bits and bobs and that because of us they've avoided being thrown out or lost forever. Moments like that make me very happy :)

Resolving...

to wear more hats! I bought the prettiest red hat this week (pictured above) and I have decided that hats need to be worn more in modern life. I have quite the budding hat collection, so maybe it's time to dust them off and give them an airing!

Thrilled...

to be recognised on the street for the first time by one of my lovely readers! This week I was stopped by  the wonderful Nazneen, author of the blog The Postcolonial Rabbit. Nazneen, thank you so much for stopping to say hello, it was so nice to meet you and you genuinely made my week!

And to round of the day, let's see what else has been happening on the old blogosphere this week...

• If you are feeling at all blue this week then I insist that you make yourself one of these peanut butter and chocolate puddings. That should sort you right out! Unless of course you're not into the peanut butter/chocolate combo, in which case I'm not really sure what to say to you...!
• I had to share this outfit post from one of my favourite blogs, Sailing Over A Cardboard Sea, because it's so beautiful! I just adore that icy blue colour, don't you?
• And finally I think that this may be one of the best tutorials on vintage styling for curly hair that I have ever read, it's simply amazing. It has taken me years to tame my curly hair into vintage styles, so I can't wait to give some of these techniques a go, maybe I'll learn something new!

Have a wonderful rest of the week my lovely readers, I'll be back soon!

Katie xxx

Wednesday Wonderfuls #106

Hello there my lovely readers! I hope you are all well and having a great week so far.

Images, Each Row from Left to Right:
1. Fun with friends! 2. Adding to my Hitchcock collection :) 3. My new trousers!
4. Knitting joy 5. My new-to-me winter coat 6. My delayed Christmas present from my Sweetheart
7. Carrot cake and pattern cutting 8. Sweet potato fries 9. Hot chocolate is needed in the snow!

This week I have been...

Feeling...

absolutely freezing! Any of my readers in the UK will know what I'm talking about, the snow has hit and hit hard. I know I'm playing to a British stereotype in talking about the weather, but seriously it's been insane! Thank goodness it's starting to warm up a bit and the snow has started to melt, because most of the road/train/general transport routes in this country seem to completely shut down at the merest hint of snow! There are some good things about the change in the weather, however, as it's made me feel quite festive all over again. Plus I get to wear gorgeous snuggly winter coats which I love, so there is a silver lining :)

Reading...

and finishing Rebecca! I loved this book so much, even though I found the ending a little sudden. I read so many Gothic novels when I was at school and this book reawakened my love for that style of writing. I'm chomping at the bit for my next read, any suggestions my lovely readers? I'm also feeling very chuffed that I've already read 2 books this year. I'm well on my way to my 12 book goal!

Dreaming about...

all the outfits that I could draft with my new found skills. I'm seriously considering putting together some mood boards of different looks I love from my favourite eras and having a go at drafting my own pattern. I can't tell you how liberating I've found my whole pattern drafting experience so far, I feel like I could do anything at the minute! Plus I think I could save a pretty penny on vintage patterns if I coud create my own...

Cooking...

two dishes this week: sweet potato fries with a feta cheese dip and low fat macaroni and cheese with spinach (I have a cheese addiction!). I'm trying to cook once a week and I'm loving it :) Even though my kitchen is uber tiny and tending to look like a bomb has hit it when I start cooking! I think that this week I'm in the mood for some baking :)

Let's see what else has been happening on the blogosphere this week!

• I have been loving these posts about keeping warm in the 1930s over at Wearing History! There's one about knitted underwear, one about socks and stockings and one about overcoats, so there's no excuse for feeling too cold in the snowy weather :)
• I need some of this frozen hot chocolate in my life! Flakes are probably my favourite chocolate bar ever!
• I'm not sure if I would ever have the time to create my own instax wall, but it looks stunning.
• If any of you feel the way I do about tailoring then you'll love this deconstruction of a 40s jacket over at Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing, it's like tailoring porn!
• And finally I think you should all make one of these deep dish banoffee pies and be very happy with life. And if you do then please invite me over for a piece!

Have a wonderful week, my lovely readers. Keep warm!

Bye for now,

Katie xxx