Knitting Aside

vintage dress patterns

What have I done?! Sometime around 8 o'clock last night it occured to me that I don't really have anything appropriate to wear to a wedding on Saturday. I'm "in between sizes" at the minute, which means that I've gained some weight and am not ready to commit to buying clothes in the next size up - with hopes that I'll trim down as soon as 1. we move, 2. I join the gym, 3. I start cycling to work, and 4. I stop drinking a glass of wine with dinner every night!

Meanwhile, I turned to my fabric stash and my ever-growing collection of vintage dress patterns. Most of the patterns in the photo above I picked up from a very generous stall holder at Cheddar Car Boot Sale. She gave me an entire carry bag full of dusty old patterns for £1. My all time favorite is the 1950's Vogue pattern in the bottom right hand side of the photo. I actually paid good money for that one in a vintage shop on Austin's North Loop. I'll need to trim two inches off my waste before I could make that one - or learn to alter patterns!

From the stash, I selected a few yards of linen-like black fabric to make a sundress. I originally bought the fabric over two years ago for £1 at Watney Market in London's East End. Now don't y'all go rushing out to find Watney Market. It's something of a shit hole, but it does have cheap fabric if you're looking to decorate your house for a Halloween party. I used this fabric to make a spooky display for the party, so it has several drips of candle wax on it that I had to cut around.

Now that the pieces are cut out and ready for sewing, I'm adding a few special embroidered touches. I'll post a full update later in the week, including plans to style my outfit. I'll also be posting a brand new tutorial on how to make the special gift that I've made for the happy couple. All this is to say that I'm not really knitting this week, but I'm also awaiting a special shipment of supplies to start on my cushions. Two bespoke designs are in the works for cushion covers, and both patterns will be given away here on the blog and on ravelry. So there's a lot in the pipeline. Stayed tuned!