Fabulous frocks!

I have a serious penchant for the 1950's. I seriously see myself, in the near future, wearing fifties-style dresses a good 3 - 4 days of the week.

So in that style, last weekend I finished this frock to wear to the Adelaide Cup Races. It was so much fun dressing up.... although a couple of blokes with a few drinks under their belts commented I looked a bit like royalty. They're just not used to seeing girls dressed nicely and not showing every inch of skin possible! All I can say is that young girls (18 - mid 20's) really don't have much of a clue as to how to dress nicely at the races. It's all about showing everything to the world and not leaving much to the imagination.

Anyhoo I digress. Sorry about the blurry shot - when I handed the camera over to Mr Silly Gilly, I had left it on a crazy setting! At least the bottom half of the dress and my shoes are in focus!

It's a bit hard to see in this photo but there are lovely big box pleats in the skirt and some gorgeous neckline details too.

The Big Announcement + A Giveaway!

I'm super pleased to be able to finally tell you all about my new venture. It's been the big secret squirrel project I've been busy on for the last month or so.

As you may know, I love fabric. I also love fifties and sixties style and illustrations. Combining both of those factors into fifties and sixties kids fabric prints and I'm a very, very happy woman!

So to share my love of these things, I'm proud to announce Sew Vintage.... my new online store selling retro inspired children's print fabrics and vintage sewing patterns. Gorgeous prints from Michael Miller, Alexander Henry and more. Fabric is available in 0.25m increments.

Come and have a peek inside, find some gorgeous fabrics and stroll through the collection of vintage patterns from the 1950's, 1960's and 1970's. I will be continually adding to the collection of patterns.... I have hundreds more to add in fact!

To celebrate the opening of my second online store, I am also holding a giveaway! The prize will be a fat quarter or panel of your choice of one of the prints below. Simply pop over to Sew Vintage, then come back here and leave a comment telling me which fabric design is your favourite and why. The winner will be drawn on Thursday 21st October. Giveaway is open to readers worldwide.

So pop on over, have a look and tell your friends! Free postage on all patterns! Cheap postage on fabric! And remember to come on back and check in now and then. I'm always adding more patterns and fabric.

Have a great weekend!!

Golden Finds

To console and distract myself this week whilst Poppet enjoys her very first full week of kindy, I've been trawling the local op shops. Imagine my squealy delight when I clapped my eyes on this. An internal squeal of course. Didn't want to let the op shop ladies know how excited I was.

To the untrained eye, it doesn't look like much. And with a 50 cent price tag, you wouldn't expect much of it either.

I found a Lutterloh Golden Rule pattern book in pristine condition. The Lutterloh system is a pattern drafting system where you use a special ruler and the patterns they provide to draft up a pattern tailored to your bust and waist measurement. Alas, the book didn't come with the ruler. Now I'm on the hunt for a Lutterloh Ruler. Dang. Anyone have one lying around they don't want?!

My edition of this book was published in 1969. So not my absolute favourite years, ala 1950's, but the styles are all gorgeous and very wearable nonetheless. Lots of adorable clothes that I could make for my daughter too. And considering there are 500+ designs, I couldn't be more lucky. Well, actually I could have.... I could have found the book with the ruler!

Vintage Dress Sewing Mishap!

Late last week I was attempting to draft up my own adjusted version of this dress. It was proving to be more of a stressful experience than the relaxing one I had envisaged. It turned out I was about half a yard short of the vintage fabric so off I trotted to Spotlight to pick up some plain cotton which would make up the missing yardage.

Truly. I was only there to purchase half a yard of fabric. Plain aqua. But somehow I walked out of that very store with a new reproduction vintage pattern in my hand and 7.5 metres of beautiful cotton sateen. The pattern is Vogue 2903.Figuring I would have the motivation to complete the true vintage pattern once I had had success with the new repro vintage pattern, I set about cutting whilst adding a little to the seam allowance as my measurements were only slightly larger than the size pattern I had. I followed instructions from my 1950's vintage McCall's sewing manual on how to add to the width of a garment so I imagined it would work!

Seems like that pattern drafting course can't come soon enough! The first picture shows the tent that I have sewn and the second is the something of what it should look like if I grab half a metre at the back and pull it in! Some length needs to be taken off as mid calf length isn't working for me. There are reverse box pleats hiding in there but hard to see as I've basted them all in place right now. With the addition of sleeves I think this dress has some promise! And yes I've chopped off my head as I am having a very dodgy hair day and don't want to torture you all with that sight. My little assistant reminds me of another little girl who needs to be in her mummy's dress shots....

So off now to take in those multiple princess seams and have it look more like a fitted, flared 50's dress and less like a carnival tent complete with fairy floss hair!!

(Just looking at that sorry looking backyard... I wanted to add that the very makeshift gate gadgetry going on there is temporary whilst we wait for the new sliding gate to be made! As for the lawn or that yellow crunchy stuff in the background, it's what is left of our lawn after being sprayed in preparation for our new lawn.)

Drowning in Vintage Patterns!

Hello stranger! I'm the stranger, that is... I've been busy in the Silly Gilly household and it hasn't been sewing Silly Gilly wares. I've been busy photographing, sorting and uploading my quite hefty collection of vintage sewing patterns to a new Ebay Store, Silly Gilly's Vintage Wares. I have only just scratched the surface of my collection and I've already listed over 50 patterns!! And these are the ones that I don't want to keep. I still have my collection of patterns that I have intentions of using!

I have listed children's patterns, women's patterns, vintage craft books, vintage cook books, vintage sewing supplies... the list keeps getting longer. Suffice to say, it's a massive job and I'm working hard to get all the items listed before the end of next week. It's poppet's 4th birthday party next weekend and I've turned into quite the Alpha-Mummy organising the party. Methinks I may have gone a little overboard... but hey, we only have one child and she's only 4 once!! We have a fairy theme planned and I'm torn between two styles of cakes. Oh, the dilemmas!! Here's a little pic of the flowers I've been making as decorations.

All this clearing out is the beginning of my 'Amp Up Silly Gilly' year. Poppet is off to kindy this year so I aim to use my free time building up Silly Gilly to a bigger thing than it is now. I've been a little absent from this blog in the last couple of weeks as I'm spending a lot of time thinking and planning and sorting out my creative space both here in the Studio and in my head.

I also have some more pattern ideas brewing around in up in the cranial creative space. A couple of smashing ideas came to me at 4.30 am this morning! So up I jumped and scribbled them all down. Strike whilst the iron is hot I say!

So you will be hearing more from the Silly Gilly camp now that I'm into the swing of clearing the space here. Drop by the Silly Gilly Vintage Wares store.. you never know what you'll find!

Tieing up loose ends

Continuing the major clean out, destash and finishing WIP binge of late. I attend a felting and knitting class during the week which has the divine option of a free creche for my little poppet to attend whilst I get my dose of craftiness and adult company during the week.

This class has prompted me to start knitting a hat for my daughter whichI will felt in the washing machine or full it if I want to be completely technical. Here it is two thirds of the way through. I found the yarn at the op shop for 50 cents which makes the project even more delicious! And here's a tip for beginner knitters who haven't used double pointed needles before.... I put little rubber bands on the ends of my needles so that the stitches won't slip off. It stops me worrying about dropping all those stitches!

The test sewers Gingerbread House kits got off in the post yesterday express mail. That is a relief as now I can sit back with that project on the back burner for a little while. That is until I hear how tricky or not my instructions are!!

Don't forget I have lots of vintage sewing patterns and some modern ones finishing their auctions on Ebay tonight, including the one below for a very vintage bathing suit. Click here if you would like to have a gander. More to be listed soon over the next week or so. Just have to be a good seller and check all the pieces are in the pattern envelopes.

Happy mail

A lurvely parcel arrived in my letterbox this week, from the creative Amy of Badskirt. I had won a giveaway over on her blog and Amy was wonderfully kind to bring me back some fabrics and other goodies on her recent trip to Japan. How gorgeous is the fabric and the tape!! Definitely some personal sewing stash goodies there.

I am also clearing out some vintage 1950's sewing patterns and modern craft patterns via ebay at the moment. If you want to have a looksie, have a look here. A couple of those I have for sale I've pictured below.

I have found 3 pattern test sewers so thank you to those of you who offered your services. Much appreciated! I'll be sending out emails in the next couple of days requesting snail mail addresses so that I can post the kits out.

Off to Brown Owls tonight! My first one!!! Just a tad excited. I will be taking along a hat which I am halfway through but struggling with knitting rib. My knits and purls aren't lining up between rows!!!!

Stuff I do when I'm not feeling crafty...

I have giveaways and clear out my studio!

So here's my new giveaway. If you would like the pattern pictured above right that made the top above left, simply leave a comment below telling me what you do when you aren't feeling crafty and want to get back into the crafty mood. If you would like two entries, blog about my giveaway on your blog and link back to here!

And no, I can't guarantee wearing this top will end up with your children covered in band-aids. Them's the breaks of being three I guess!

Comments close Sunday night and I'll announce the winner Monday 27th April.

Don't forget my garage sale of vintage craft books, vintage sewing patterns, biscuit tins and soon to come, toys, golden books and more patterns.