All posts filed under: Sewing

Things I sew – historical and modern

Goddesses and queens in the Rose Garden

Last Sunday Elisabeth the Sewphist and Sarah of Capital Adventures and I had a photoshoot in the Rose Garden and Greenhouse at the Wellington Botanical Gardens. The photoshoot didn’t go quite to plan – Madame O was supposed to join us and wear her fabulous frilly pink polonaise gown, and I was wearing my chemise a la reine and was going to bring 18th century for Elisabeth, and we would have been the perfect late 18th century trio. But Madame O couldn’t make it, and I couldn’t find a petticoat for Elisabeth, and we ran dreadfully late in getting ready. And my hat just wouldn’t sit right. But I sucked up the hat, brought my green silk satin pseudo 1930s Stella gown for Elisabeth to wear, and we caught the last hour that the Greenhouse was open and the last of the Rose Garden sunshine and had a lovely time anyway. Elisabeth channeled the (rather strange) statue in the begonia house in both elegant and literal fashion. Sarah wore the tropical flowers without picking them. …

The ‘Deco Echo’ blouse

Published by The Dreamstress

I’m madly sewing something new and exciting, and working on the tutorial for this blouse, so instead of spending a lot of time on writing a post for today, I’m concentrating on those, and instead you are getting (a slightly better and updated) version of my post for the Sew Weekly on my ‘Deco Echo’ blouse (I want to have a version on my blog…just in case): ______________ Planning my wardrobe for Art Deco Weekend in Napier, top of my list of things I really wanted to make was a pair or beach pajama pants made from fantastic Art Deco inspired fabric. Problem. The fabric is maroon and dark teal on white. And maroon and dark teal are not colours I usually buy — it’s just so hard to find fabrics in them that don’t look cheap (why is that that some colours always look cheap in most fabrics?). I don’t own any maroon and dark teal fabrics! What on earth was I going to do for a top? I completely turned over my stash, …

A Little Bit of Red dress

Published by The Dreamstress

Last week I blogged about all the stuff I wanted to get finished for Art Deco Weekend. I didn’t get everything I wanted done, and that wasn’t all a bad thing – it turns out that evening gowns aren’t really a great idea for street dancing in sweaty heat (actually, street dancing and sweaty heat aren’t a good idea either, alone or together). One thing I did finish was my floral chiffon 1930s dress. It’s made from Excella E3137, one of my vintage patterns. I made it up without the hip ruffles, because really, hip ruffles? I’ll do a proper review of the pattern in a bit, once I finish the dress properly. I mean, it’s finished properly (rolled hems, French seams & double sewn seams), but I’m not happy with it. Somehow it just looks uninteresting. Somehow I failed to notice that except for those hip ruffles it’s just a sack with quirky seaming. And the quirky seaming doesn’t even show with the print! Maybe it needs those hip ruffles after all! So I’m …