1950's 'crinoline' petticoat

Will be attempting to sew the petticoat which will make the 1950's dress stick out soon.

Find instructions here.

Looking at finished product made me think of a skirt I already have...

It has a attached petticoat and has a similar sort of design with the material then netting at very bottom.

Although the net is 'softer' than the netting I bought.

1920's Dress...ideas

So I want a 1920's style dress for winter. As you can see above I have a drop waist dress but its a summer one. Now |I have several options.
1. Use a vintage pattern
2. Find a free online pattern
3. Make my own using this blogger's dress as example
4. Use summer dress as basis to make pattern but use more 'wintery' fabrics and make straps ticker, then wear shirts underneath.
5. Get a cheap tunic dress or long jumper and add  pleated skirt on the bottom

And apparently its called deco grunge.
Spotted this drop waist dress...out of my budget though.

And this is the dress I'd love to have or as close as possible to it.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75004/day-dress-brique/

Focaccia - (GBBO)

Over the past few weeks I have been watching the great British bake off. And one of the recipes that took my fancy was the focaccia. So I decided to try the recipe here. The video was a nice addition made the instructions more clear.

Got ingredients together (scuse the floury hand print on the olive oil bottle)

Despide oiling the surface as instructed still found a lot stuck to the worksurface

Put in oiled bowl to proove

Prroving for 2nd time

Olives, basil, thyme and some drizzled oil

Ta-Da! Looks good...

Tastes good too...eaten 2 slices already

1920's hat - the verdict.

I tried my hand at making the 1920's cloche hat from the pattern here.
I cut out pattern exactly.

Then followed the instructions on the video.

First time I'd used iron on interfacing.

Detail round brim

When it came to the top bit of the hat. I had to undo and restitch because I sewed the wrong side of the triangles together.

I found that the hat was too small. It wasn't going to go round my head. So had to unpick it and insert a panel to extend the circumference.

Panel

Inside is a bit messy

So here is the final hat.

I think I will make the brim taller next time so I can flick up the brim as the downward one didn't suit me.

1950's dress update 3

SO I've managed to attach the skirt and hem the dress (well part of it*)...although not without some difficulty. I found hemming the circle skirt part very tricky as the material kept rucking up under the sewing machine foot. Not sure if it was because my tension was wrong? (I also burnt myself twice iron pressing the hems. Ouch.)

*Then when I tried to hem the under dress part my silly machine decided that it wasn't going to sew properly and the top thread kept coming out of the needle and trying to eat my fabric. I gave up and decided I would hand sew that bit instead.

You can see problems I had with the hem

 I've got the bias binding to do next. Will do neck area by hand but rest by machine. Hopefully by then it will decide to like me or I'll have to use the big machine (one of those that is part of a table) to do it. I find the bigger machines a little scary.

1920's Hat!

I think those 20's style cloche hats are good for winter...keep your ears warm. ;)
Was looking to buy one...but spotted this tutorial on how to make one.

And thought..why not have a go. I have interfacing left over from another project...and some lovely fabric which isn't enough to make anything big but would be enough for hat.

If it works I'll buy some nice fabrics and do a proper one to match my coat.

1950's Dress - Update 2

So with help from mum I have:

Cut out the fabric

Tacked and sewn the darts

Sewn the skirt

Attached the shoulders of main dress

Had a little trouble with getting the tension on the skirt right.

So here is the dress as it stands.

(I decided I'd prefer the round rather than 'V' shaped wrap round.

If I do the dress again, I'll try the 'V' shape)

Will just need to do bias binding, attach skirt add snaps and hem. Then I'll be finished.
But that's for another weekend.