Markets and Catwalks!

Merry Christmas all. 

It’s been super hot here in Oz this week. It reached 40°c!

In the past month or so I’ve been flat out! It’s been great but busy. At the end of October I went to the Camperdown Cruise. My friend Claire and I had a stall at the market there, called 'Cherry Taylor'. One part Cherry Pie accessories and one part The Little Taylor. It was amazing!

1950's feast! The fashion, the cars and the music!

 

Few and Far Between

It’s been almost 2 months since my last blog post... I keep saying I’ll be more pro active about it but it just doesn’t seem to happen. Although I have a better reason for the absence! A brand new, new job and a photo shoot!!!

The job is at a Dressmakers & alteration place, 4 days a week. It’s awesome, really awesome!!

And the photo shoot. It was very exciting to do a real photo shoot. We had real Pin-up style models and everything. Our wonderful photographer Black Sunshine Photography set up everything. She is amazing.

Our Models Lady O, Ruby Rabbit, Miss Katie Cupcake and LissLibertine were fantastic! They were so amazing to work with.

Here is a sneak peek of the shoot. More will be up at my facebook page The Little Taylor tomorrow the 1^st of July after 1pm.

Hope everyone out there is well and I’ll be back. Soon. Really!

Happy Sewing.

Garage Sales, How I do them.

Since moving back to Shepparton almost 2 years ago my mum and I have gone to garage sales almost every Saturday.

This is how I plan them out so we can go to as many of them as possible!

On a Friday I get the local paper, it has all the garage sale listings in it. I then cross out the ones on Sunday (only 2 or 3 out of 20 are on a Sunday) and the ones too far out of Shepp. Then I use Google Maps!

I input each address listed in the paper. I end up with 15 to 20 destinations at a time.

I then arrange them into an order so we don’t go back and forth.

I end up with a map like this:

I'm Back

So it looks like my last post vanished! I have no idea what happened to it... Very strange.

Any who, it went something like this.

I’ve been away for like 4 months! I’m a very bad blogger I know; now I’m back.

So why the absence?

Tom Dog

Well, after the death of the family fur-kid Tom my anxiety kicked in to high gear for a bit. It just sucks my motivation away. 

I’ve not yet spoken openly about having anxiety as well I was anxious about it, funny that. I’m not formally diagnosed yet, for that you need a psychologist. I’ve only seen my GP and a counselor. 

After reading this blog post by the amazing Kyla Roma, I finally found the words to express what’s in my head, even if their not mine. I’ll talk about it more in another post!

My Dress at the Retro shop

After that my volunteer job at the retro shop got super busy with car markets and stalls, custom dress orders and a possible move!

Next thing I got a paid job at good ole Australia Post! I’ve worked there off and on for 7ish years!

Then at the retro shop the ‘fit hit the shan’ and wildly inaccurate accusations were hurled my way and I quit!! My loyalty is with my family, not a job. and my anxiety went off again. I might get into that more in another post, maybe.

Almost up to date!

 I got an order to make a wonderful Deb dress for a lovely girl. 

Easter came with a huge sale at Spotlight, 40% off ALL fabrics!!! I went nuts. I ended up with 9 lots of fabric all of them 3.5m+. I will be making wonderful full circle skirt dresses out of them.

Easter finished with me seeing my favorite band New Found Glory, with the BF’s lil’ Sister! I’ve loved them since I was 16, she saw them for the first time then, at 16.

Now I’m getting busy with the Deb dress, due to make its debut May 4^th. Then getting even busier with the new fabrics and creations they will become!

I hope to keep this more up to date from now on, and not have 4 month gaps….

Until next time, Happy sewing.

No Sew this week.

I didn’t get any sewing done this week as I had a bad week. 

On Friday afternoon it was decided that my 17 year old dog Tom was to sick, old, and hot to keep going. My dad made the call to have him put down. He was 80% blind and deaf, and on his final day lost the use of his back legs completely. His last meal was 2 vanilla ice creams, its all he would eat. He couldn’t even lift his head high enough to get water.

Tom became a part of my family in about 1995/96, I was 12. He was a farm dog that chased the ducks, his then owners didn’t want him chasing the ducks. So the sold him. Thus he became our 5^th family member. I am now 27 and  miss him so much already.

I went to the vets with my mum and dad and we were with him as he passed. After seeing this transition first hand I recommend that all family members be there is this happens to you. Your ‘furbaby’ will look for its family as it happens! (For very young children it may not be the best as there is some twitching afterwards.)

Now I plan on making Missiles doggy life as good as his big brother Toms.
On a much happier note Missile turns 1 this Wednesday!

Hope your week is better than mine. Happy Sewing.

The Sew Weekly Challenge, Theme: Make This Look

We are at week 3 already! This theme is Make This Look. 

Hope all you Aussies are staying cool, its been hot! Even hottor in a polyester dress....

so here is my Sew Weekly post:

The “Master Mixologist” Dress

The Facts

Fabric:Baby Blue polyester from a garage sale $2. Baby blue cotton sheet for lining in stash.
Pattern: New Look 6968 $7.50
Year:  Contemporary
Notions : 1 x 21″ zip, in stash.
Time to complete: 7 hours
First worn:  January 2012
Wear again? Yes, When the weather gets cooler, much cooler!

Total Cost: ~$10

The Sew Weekly Challenge, Theme: Buttons

Here is dress number 2 for the Sew Weekly Challenge. Last weeks theme was buttons and I just loved it! Next week is Make This Look. We can pick any dress form the Make This Look page and make it our own! Im going a bit Glee, But more about that next week ;D

 The ‘You look like a 40′s Nurse’ Dress

The Facts

Fabric: Kelley green & White stretch poplin cotton $19.22
Pattern: McCalls 4769
Year: 2005
Notions: 7 white Rose buttons $1.99. Time to complete: 15hrs +
First worn: Jan. 16, 2012
Wear again?: I’m sure!
Total Price: $21.20

The Sew Weekly Challenge 2012

I’ve mentioned before my love for Mena and her blog The Sew Weekly. She started in 2010 making 1 dress per week and photographing it. Last year she asked if anyone else wanted to join here and 4 other wonderful ladies were chosen (Adey, Debi, Sarah and Veronica) this year is a bit different! As long as you get your theme outfit in on time and with nice photos you could be a Featured Contributor! Fun!

Last year I did a pitiful job on the challenge and only made about 10 out of 52 outfits! This year I hope to make 52 out of 52...and maybe even make it to the feature section!

Last weeks theme was: Accessorize. This is my post (also readable here)

A Tattoo is a Permanent Accessory for a Grand Dress!

 The Facts

Fabric : Rainbow Brite Bed sheet & Yellow and white polka dot cottons and lined with yellow cotton lawn
Pattern : Simplicity 9590 with some changes.
Year: 2001
Notions : 1 7″ Zip, Red Bias Binding
Time to complete: 6 hours
First worn: 10/01/2012
Wear again? Oh Yes, this has become my favorite summer dress!Total price: Well the zip was .60c. The yellow was from a UFO I started about 10 years ago…so i’d say its about 2.00. Red Bias Binding; .25c and the Rainbow Brite bed sheet was a dress that I bought off the net, I was very said that the style just didn’t suit me, at all! It cost me $95!! I used about 1/3 of the dress to make this, so the total is about  $37.50!

My Sewing Space

G'day all and Happy New Year. It’s been a hot start to the year here, between 35°C and 45°C!!

Anyway it's been a year since I moved back to my home town from Melbourne, and I finally have a usable work space!

Still needs a lot of work, sorting out patterns, peg hooks for the 2 peg boards, storage or display for my vintage suitcases! I have 10 now! The most 1 has cost me was $7 dollars, most places want at least $20...

I’m thinking something like this but free standing (renting, can’t put holes in the walls) Make each shelf the a little bit smaller than the suitcase, and space them so they just fit.

This is my little man enjoying the sun!

Anyway back to sewing!

Happy New Year all