Feline Groovy Dress

Following on from my Kitty-A-Go-Go dress, my next make towards my Vintage Pattern Pledge is another Catzilla stage outfit featuring, you guessed it - more cats! Obviously this dress actually came first, because as you can see we started off with quite a small cat pocket which grew significantly in size for the Kitty-A-Go-Go dress. It features the same cat fabric but in green this time.

Believe it or not this is my very first proper vintage pattern and it's Simplicity 7526 - a mini shift dress with zip up front. The drawing suggests it's meant to be a young girl's pattern but our vision was a bit more go-go girl than school girl. As you can see it was shortened quite significantly but other than that not many changes were made. The pattern size is a 12 and pretty much fitted straight out of the box with only a couple of little added extras.

Cat pocket and cat zipper charm.

The back piece was quite big which I know is the style but I added in a couple of small darts and a contrast waistband to give it a little bit more shape.

The edging at the bottom of the dress was actually meant to add length as we cut it shorter than we intended to. Like, that really made a difference didn't it?

With it's twin in red

Kitty-A-Go-Go 60's Shift Dress

It's getting close to the end of the year and I'm only just getting around to fulfilling my Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge. To kick things off I've got a new stage outfit I made with my bandmate and fellow seamstress for our 60's garage group Catzilla. We used Simplicity 3833 which is a vintage reproduction of a 1960's shift dress.

This pattern was a breeze! I cut a size 10 which fit me straight out of the packet. All I had to do was shorten the skirt (a 60's go go dress can never be too short!) and the skirt was a bit too flared for my liking so I tweaked it a little at the side seams.

The bodice is made from fabric we bought in Japan some time ago and has cute little cat heads on it. Of course we then had to carry on with the cat theme and added giant cat head pockets to the skirt.

The cat fabric is actually a cream colour rather than white and the only matching fabric to be found was a linen which turned out fine but it does crease quite easily.

I'm really pleased with how this dress turned out, it was super easy to sew and I think the contrasting black and white panels worked a treat.

The full outfit as it should be worn - with it's matching other half

More vintage pledge pattern posts (try saying that really fast!) coming soon.

Ooh - an Award!

Wow, I've been nominated for a Liebster Award by my fellow singer/seamstress Ree from Ree-Sewn. I love reading her posts and seeing the clothes she makes (she even sewed her own stunning wedding dress and shared the whole incredible journey on her blog!)

So, what's the deal with the Liebster Award? It's all about discovering and spreading the word about new blogs. By accepting the award I get to share 11 random facts about myself and nominate some more fellow bloggers to do the same.

I'm so thrilled about this, in fact I'm thrilled that anyone reads my blog at all! So here goes:

1. I'm a musician. I've been singing and songwriting in bands since I was a teenager and I intend to carry on doing so for as long as I possibly can!

2. I love a lot of different kinds of music and I currently sing in 4 bands playing very different styles: Gypsy jazz, 50's R&B, 60's ska & calypso and the newest one Catzilla is 60's garage pop, in which I also play keyboards. This keeps me extremely busy rehearsing, performing and making stage outfits.

3. I'm also a piano teacher and I'm blessed with a range of lovely students from 6 year olds to 60 year olds. They're all at different levels and have varying tastes in music which keeps things fun and interesting.

4. My favourite music to sew to is anything by Brad Mehldau who is an American jazz pianist. I find his music really relaxing and somehow helps me focus on what I'm doing.

5. I'm rubbish at making decisions.

6. My favourite chocolate is Mint Lindt- ooh, and Ferrero Rochers too - yum!

7. I lived in London for 11 years and it's still one of my favourite cities.

8. I love travelling and I've been lucky enough to visit lots of different places but Tokyo and Paris are two cities that I keep going back to.

9. Ree shared her phobia of moths, birds and anything that flaps, well I have a phobia of anything that crawls - most of all spiders and cockroaches. Given that I live in Australia this proves to be a frequent hindrance to my calmness and well-being!

10. I love the warm weather and can't stand being cold - thankfully Spring is here in our part of the world - Yay!

11. My idea of paradise is lying on a beach with my man by my side, a fancy cocktail in hand, a good book and the occasional dip in a calm, temperate ocean (take me there now!)

Thanks Ree for spreading the word about my blog. I'd now like to nominate two blogs for the Liebster Award. I'm not sure if they have under 200 followers (some say this is part of the rules) but I've only recently discovered them and feel they deserve to be shared:

Coolarama with her lovely makes and fun, witty writing style
and
Springstitches - I love the gorgeous vintage outfits that Becky sews.

If my nominees accept, they get to share 11 random facts about themselves and spread the blog love by making their own nominations.

Pineapple Bow Blouse

I seem to be on a bit of a Gertie roll at the moment, having recently made Butterick 5953 finally after having it sit in my cupboard for a couple of years, I thought I'd have a go at her most recent design for Butterick - B6217. The instructions were really easy to follow and it would have come together super quickly had it not been for the fact that the armholes are WAY too small!

Unfortunately I only discovered this after I had sewn most of the garment so I just had to cut into it until I had the right fit. As a result the sleeves weren't quite the right shape anymore so I ended up putting on some capped sleeves instead and finished the lower section with bias binding. Thankfully it all worked out in the end because I really like this pineapple print cotton that I picked up in Hawaii recently.

I made a size 8 which was a very comfortable fit everywhere but the armholes. A couple of people on Pattern Review who had sewn a size 6 pointed out the same problem (if only I'd taken note of that first). None of the other reviewers that had made larger sizes mentioned this so maybe this is only the case for the smaller sizes. Be warned though, if you intend to make this pattern, I'd make a toile first.

I do intend to make more of these cos I think it's a really lovely pattern but I'll have to do some serious adjustment to the armhole pattern piece first. I'd like to make view C and I'd also like to try the tulip sleeves, they look really cute.

Not content with photo bombing my blog pics, Koko insisted on having a cuddle too.