The Red Wren

In the drawers of the previously featured Singer were these lovely old tools and notions. I love the scissors and the wooden spools!

My great Aunt inherited a 1903 Singer Sewing Machine from a neighbour that passed away. As my Aunt is 90 and no longer sews she passed it onto mum. It’s just beautiful!

My vintage patterns arrived yesterday! I can’t wait to try them out.

Aren’t they glam?

My friend Tam held a fancy pants tea party this weekend. I wanted to make a dress to wear and as usual left it to the last minute and whipped it up the night before. It turned out  for the event, but if I were to wear it again I’d make more adjustments.

Pattern:

New Look #6557 bodice D (the blue one)

Variations:

• straps instead of a halter
• completely different skirt – I wanted a 50’s looks skirt therefore improvised with a wide piece of fabric with lots of gathering

Adjustments:

• I added about ten cm of length to the bust piece so it wasn’t indecent and added a few cm’s to the width. I overestimated though and ended up making a whole pile of adjustments (my bodice has darts!) so I’d be more careful with that next time.
• I shortened the bodice so the skirt started at my waist.

Time to make:

3 hours

The Verdict:

I like this pattern. I’ve made the red/white dress before in a navy and red cherry print with pleasing results.

I spent some of this afternoon sitting in a sunny spot in the lounge room finishing the last of this quilt;

I really enjoyed working on this and it will be sad (in a good way) to see it head off to it’s new owner – a sweet little 18 month old by the name of Georgia.

I was thinking about an article I read over at Make and Meaning (my new favourite blog), while working on this about process versus product. Normally I’m more of a product girl – I want a dress therefore I whip it up, then enjoy wearing it – but with the quilt I found I really enjoyed the process. It was quite relaxing once I got past the lining everything up (and unpicking) stage.

I look forward to working on another but for myself this time!

PS- I can’t seem to fix the RSS link up in the top corner- it seems to just spit out the feed rather than allow you to subscribe, so instead I’ve added a Subscribe button in the side bar – just pick your reader and follow along.