A day out

Last weekend I visited a beautiful old property developed in the 1840's, Tarndwarncoort in a small country town called Birregurra about 2 hours from Melbourne.  It's an historical homestead and sheep farming property.   A tour through the homestead revealed some beautiful insights as to what life was like in the 19th century with a wonderful array of furniture and knick knacks.   The Dennis family, who are descendants of the original owners, still own and run the farm.

After having a short talk about how the property was developed, a wander through the wool shop revealed some wonderful eye candy.

The wool which is from the Polwarth Sheep, a breed developed from the Merino sheep by the Dennis family, is dyed using natural organic dyes.  Aren't the colours superb?

There were a few knitted items like this delightful tea cosie.
 

A demonstration was given spinning wool on some antique spindles. 

There was even the old Knitting Nancy.  Do you remember these?  I do, but mine was certainly not this elaborate - just and old wooden cotton reel and four nails with a hair pin to work it.  Aaahh... the good ole days.

I purchased a few skeins of wool.  Hopefully I have enough to make a vintage short sleeve jumper from the aqua and white.  The multi-coloured wool will become a scarf from the pattern I was kindly given when I was trying to choose the colour.  I even got to wind it into the balls myself using this winding contraption.  I don't know what it's called.

It was very easy.  You put the skein over the collapsible wooden clothesline thingy and thread the end of the wool through a guide and onto the spindle which is attached to the other side of the table then you just wind till you get to the end.  Easy as!

Then to finish off the day they were having a door prize and I won this little pack of alpaca fleece and some bay leaves from their own garden.  A terrific prize but I don't know how to spin.  Maybe  I should try to learn one day.

Another childhood memory - I had a swing just like this, chains and all

In the meantime, I promise I am working on my sewlutions and stashbusting but everything went awry and I have to practice my reverse sewing techniques :(   Hopefully I will have something to show you soon.

Oooh...1940s my favourite decade

With my ever growing infatuation obsession with the 1940s I've been wanting to try out some vintage patterns.  I've got a few that were my mother's, I've collected a few from thrift stores, ebay, etsy, etc and I have several reproduction patterns all waiting for me to make a decision on which will be the first to join my wardrobe.   My last post showed that I decided to play it safe with a very classic style skirt which wouldn't make me feel self conscious to wear a vintage outfit.  I really want to start including vintage outfits into my daily life like so many others most of them much younger that me, that I read about in our wonderful blogging community.    Yeah, I know, I'm not 20 anymore and I have the greatest fear of looking like 'mutton dressed as lamb'.  I feel there is a real stigma with people wearing clothing that is not modern and contemporary but my love of these vintage styles is slowly taking over my life and ya know what, I don't care anymore.

When I saw that Rochelle over at Lucky Lucille is hosting Sew for victory! A 40s Sewing Challenge I thought what an opportunity to indulge in this all consuming love of 1940's.

I decided that I will make a dress for this sewalong.  I've narrowed it down to a couple of dresses and now I just have to decide which one.

Sense and Sensibility's A 1940s "Swing" Dress.  I love wrap styles, they're so flattering.

Butterick 1411, View A; this is another one of my Mother's dresses.  Isn't the collar cute?

A reproduction; Vogue V8728.  This is the first reproduction pattern I ever bought and I haven't made it yet.

Australian Home Journal pattern #5963  - the green dress.  I love the faux collar on this one.

Another Australian Home Journal pattern #5966 - the red one.  I like the interesting line on the bodice/midriff and the shirring details.

They're all so nice, it's hard to choose.  I think I'm favouring either the Swing dress or the Butterick.  Which one would you choose?

In the jar - a vintage skirt

One item down, eleven to go!  Yes, my Sewlutions commitment to make at least one item per month is actually achieving the desired effect.  To get me sewing again.  Made in a navy Bengaline Suiting fabric which I've had in my stash for about six months, my first make for 2013 is finished.  I finished it a week ago and I'm only just getting round to posting about it now.

I really shouldn't do that wash'n'wear look with my hair - terrible!

The pattern; a simple 6 gore vintage skirt pattern that was my mothers.  I'm not sure what the vintage is, but I think it's around late 1940s or 1950s.   I'd love it if anyone can tell me.  It's Australian Home Journal pattern #12158.

Having never used a vintage pattern before I found it to be a very interesting experience.  Never doubting for a moment, I opened the packet and found all four pattern pieces inside and in very good condition.  There were slight tears in the edges of all pieces as you would expect considering its age and a piece of tape mending a little tear in one.  What surprised me was the fact that there were no instructions just the layout diagram on the envelope which as you can see on the left, is very faded.  Now, I know that the free patterns you get with the magazine have the instructions in the magazine but I think this is a purchased one.  Meeh... I don't need instructions, it's a six gore skirt and I've made them before.  It'll be easy.

Luckily I read the packet first as it turned out that seam allowances were NOT included.  The pattern is an unmarked pattern so I'm like, where's the straight grain?  The two center panels are on the fold, not a problem.  Guess I'll just eyeball the other two pieces.  I think I got it right because the skirt hangs well as you can see.

I chose this pattern because it has no waistband and being short in the waist this is my best option for skirts.  My biggest problem with no waistband and no instructions was how should I finish the waist.  I remembered that mum had often used petersham (the real stuff, not the grosgrain ribbon often used nowadays) when I was young, so I decided to try that.  Well, that was stupid!!  With the zipper in the side, I had been taught the correct way to insert it was to do a lapped zip.  So I did.  Turns out it's almost impossible to finish the petersham on the inside at the zip opening and anyway it was sooo... scratchy I ripped it out removed it and made a facing, which by the way is not finished well inside at the zipper either, but at least it doesn't scratch me.

Knowing that vintage patterns are less roomy than modern ones I didn't trim the seam allowances in case it was a bit tight leaving me with plenty of room to let it out.  The sizing on the pattern fitted me perfectly and being the lazy person I am I left those seam allowances in :)  The only alteration I made was to shorten the length by approximately 10cm then I took a 2cm hem which wasn't allowed for.   Because of the new length I styled it with a modern t-shirt and cardigan instead of going for a vintage look.  If I make this skirt again I will insert an invisible zipper and make a longer length to style it in a more vintage way.


Details:
Skirt; Australian Home Journal # 12158
T-shirt; Target - years ago
Cardigan; Target also years old.