Gem Sweater Season!

*Tacky French accent* Ahhh.. ze gem sweater. Ze armor against ze cold of Melbourne in ze Winter.
Ahem. Anyhoo, yes! Winter is fast upon us which means my winter wardrobe is back in full swing, but this time with the addition of my own DIY gem sweaters!

I love Leslie Hall. She lights up my life. She has lost a lot of weight, which I'm not quite sure how I feel about. Good for her and all, but when she was chubby it was an inspiration to see her getting around in spandex and it made me feel less self conscious about random lumps here and there.

P.S. How rad is it that the 90s are a thing again! 90s fashion makes me very happy and when I get all dolled up I usually look like an overgrown ten year old.

Also Nitty cut my hair! It was long enough to cover my boobies but I got sick of it so she chopped it off in the bath for me.

This is the first gem sweater I've made this year. I have another two sweaters ready for decoration and I'm sew excited! xo

Dolly Love!

Here's a bit of a diversion for you. I am aware that maybe 1% of you care about my Blythe doll collection, but hey. It's currently of importance for two reasons:

Reason one: I've just done a photography assignment which caused me to bond with my doll, Pip, over a two week period.

Reason two: When I have some time up my sleeve I'm going to be sewing up some tiny, tiny dresses. Stay tuned. Miniature 50s dresses on little plastic bodies excite me.

Here are some of le photos...

The top photo also shows off my glorious granny square blanket! I put this on the wall next to my computer so it's nice and cosy now instead of freezing.

I've also been getting my polymer clay on, making little eyeballs for one of my music videos I'm working on at the moment

I've ALSO learned how to knit properly! Finally! I'm working on a sweater but I'll give y'all a photo preview when I've actually done more. Knitting is so slow compared to crochet!!

Violet Shirt

We can celebrate! I officially have Internet in my apartment, which is looking superb, if I do say so myself! I think the real estate agents are going to be shocked to see it looking so cute. I've basically taken an ugly box and made it not only liveable, but welcoming and somewhere that has housed many-a-friend already.

Now, I finally was able to get some actual sewing done! Oh happy days! But I've only got one picture of it which I uploaded to my Instagram (nataliemw if you'd like to follow me there!)

As you can see, it's the Violet shirt pattern by Colette! It's no secret I love their patterns, and I think this one is an incredible muse for the time being. I've already bought the fabric to make it again in more of a western style shirt. Keep your eyes peeled! Though I must say I shall be sewing a lot less in the weeks to come as I'm currently working on three films! Golly gee wizz, pray for me, I shall need it.

I made this one with a copy-cat rip off of my favourite Michael Miller print 'Rocket Rascals'. I didn't care. It's too adorable of a fabric that I HAD to have it anyway. And seeing as Spotlight did a quilting cotton sale where everything was $9.99 per meter I went only a little bit nuts. I mean, two shirts and a dress isn't too bad for my habits! I made the collar in a hurry and I'm slightly regretting not waiting til I found the exact bright red match that I made the Ginger skirt I'm wearing out of but eh, according to my real world friends it looks fine.

At least now I will actually be able to respond to your lovely comments and such.
Much love <3

I'M NOT DEAD!

Do not fret, my dear readers. I have not off'd myself, been hit by a stolen bus, fallen off the roof after watching the sun rise, or been attacked by the Lizard People. I am in fact, still here.

But I moved!

Yes, I have moved out of my mother's home after 21.5 years of super cushy life. I moved into the smallest apartment imaginable. It is actually not that much bigger than my old bedroom, with a teensy kitchen and bathroom tacked onto the end. Here is a video I took before moving any of my stuff in:

SO SMALL

Here is what it looked like after one week of moving in:

So I haven't been doing much/any sewing. But that will change! I don't have internet yet either, so just keeping you posted before you go through the classifieds of the papers attempting to find the date and address of my funeral.

xoxoxoxox

Hooker Me Up With A Sweet Dress

A week or two ago a friend of mine was shocked to hear that I had not seen 'Cry Baby', a fabulous take-the-piss greaser flick by John Waters starring a young Johnny Depp (insert 'O' face here). So off to her house to watch it on VHS on her old Rank Arena television. Talk about old skoolin' it!

While we were watching, a particular character (that of Traci Lords) got my vote for most orgasmic dresses. Last time we went to Lincraft I had spied off a white cotton with red spots but couldn't justify buying more fabric, especially seeing as I'm supposed to be doing Finish Me February. After seeing this film and gathering more dress inspiration, I couldn't help myself.

 I made a mix of two of the dresses I liked best:

I'm happy with the outcome, having pieced together various patterns to get the right kind of thing going, but I'm not sure the women of Melbourne completely agree with me. I honestly felt like Dolly Parton in 'The Happiest Whore House in Texas' or whatever the film is called. Women looked at me in disgust as I traipsed around my local shopping center. People avoided me. Men, on the other hand, were more than happy with my appearance. The best part was when I bumped into one of my mother's hardcore Christian friends who barely acknowledged me. I was totally ignored at the post office until a nice man named Walter came to the counter and said "please excuse Bernadette, I think she's just jealous of your spotty number".

 

In fact, I put on the dress today for the purpose of taking photos and as I was getting into my car, my neighbour's daughter pulled up, saw my appearance, and told her children to overt their eyes and not to say hi to me. What. The. Fleck.

I think I should start taking care with my pattern placement

My sexy face

I honestly can't see me making anything similar any time soon. I've named it my 'whore dress' and it took too gosh darn long to make. It's a totally hot dress though and I'm happy I made it.

In other news, I arranged a party last Sunday at 1am for the following day. Nitty and I dressed up as pirates and got our rum on.

I have finished my first script for the year and will start to write hardcore for my television series :D

Finish Me February!

Been looking forward to this month since last February! For anyone who's never heard of it, February is the month of finishing things that just, well, need finishing!

I have about 10 - 15 projects awaiting finishing, but in the last two days I have finished a dress for my cousin, a present for a friend, a dress and a top of my own! Nitty calls me 'powerhouse', I call myself 'sweat shop sweetheart'.

This was actually the first dress I ever made from a pattern. But knowing nothing about sizing meant that making my usual dress size was embarrassingly small and out of the question. So I ripped out the skirt, cut new bodice pieces from the left over scraps (thank God for those!) and remade the dress.

 Still not happy with it. The pattern is New Look 6799, and I advise making this pattern about 2 sizes larger than you normally would. Or grade the arm holes down. It is horrifically uncomfortable, but at least it's finished!

And secondly, my second Sencha blouse by Colette Patterns. I do enjoy. The neck is ridiculously high though so next time I make this I'm definitely cutting that baby way down. But I loved the fabric. Unfortunately I bought all that was left of it for my work friend but I totally doubts she appreciates it seeing as the last gift I gave her she gave away to some friend who passed it on to some broad in Adelaide.

I tried really hard to match the buttons as closely with the fabric. I think it was a success?

I was supposed to be working today but my manager confused the hell out of me, so I'm off to do some modeling at $50 an hour!

Update 3.0

Thankfully I have some truly remarkable people in my life who have come to my aid with flaming pitchforks to fend off my demons and lavender oil for my wounds. It was becoming more and more apparent to those around me that I was actually going insane. My mum took the first initiative by calling up my work and telling them to let me have the next day off work, and for my working hours to return to only being every second weekend. And boy did I have a fun day on my first weekend day off since like, August/September.

Anyhoo, Nitty's boyfriend from Canada leaves today, and I can only imagine the state my beautiful bestie will be in after being attached to his hip for the last 6 or 7 weeks. I'm gearing up the ice cream for the trip home from the airport (the trip that will only take about 3 minutes because I can literally walk to the airport from my house).

So, here's what's been happening.

I made a hillbilly top! I loves it. It is actually not completely finished but I don't care!

Actually on the same day this was taken, we went to Lincraft in Thomastown, which is actually in the process of closing down. First Spotlight Brunswick, now Lincraft Thomastown. It makes me a little fearful for the future of brick and mortar craft stores. Anyhoo, Nitty was furiously trying to finish a dress to wear to the zoo, and I was trying to get Keith interested in crafting. Seeing as they had been teaching me how to play Magic: the Gathering (yep the nerdtacular card game!) I suggested we made some Fimo tokens for cards that put creatures out onto the playing field. I figured this would be a lot better than scrambling around for paper clips and bread ties to use as counters.

Here is a little snap from Misty's Diner in Prahran. Nitty had a cherry thickshake :3

And a fun snap from the park when we were taking pictures of my top:

Nitty's aforementioned dress was finished and you can read about it here!

Working on another post, slowly getting back on my horse :)