More than polka-dots

Shhhh, I have to be quiet, because I am up out of bed really really early and its not a work day.  Shhh I might wake the family.  Well unless the intense meowing of two cats didn't already wake them.

Saturday morning and I am all by myself.  Lit the fire.  Made a hot drink.  Internet humming.  Toast has popped up.  (Cat just re-entered house after post-breakfast stalk around the garden to check for invading felines from outer-space). Time to blog.  

You know me, I love polka dots - spots, dots, blobs, repeating blobs and spots and dots. So lets look at something a bit different:

stripes  stripes  stripes 
stripes  stripes

I got stripes, stripes, stripes.  With sincere thanks to Johnny Cash.

Striped shirt from Savemart (love the frills, striped tights retail - the black stripes are velvety!!

NZ designer label Boucle skirt, 50 cents from Presbyterian Op Shop, 

designer belt, $3 from St Vincent de Paul, 

patent brogues (NZ Made) from Toffs $3, 

vintage glass striped necklace about $4 from Salvation Army. 

or how about:

oriental    oriental  oriental  

oriental  oriental  

Hommage to a geisha.

 Vintage (1950s) , home-made blue dress, Toffs $2

embroidered leather boots Savemart

obi made by me

vintage necklace  Hospice Shop

bracelets all secondhand from antique store, trade me, school fair and op shop

((please excuse the crockpot - had to improvise when cat had to be kept inside))

and then there is inspiration from fabric:

 pacific  pacific pacific

pacific pacific

Pacific print polyester dress

Pacific print polyester dress from Presbyterian Support

Aqua Glengyle cardigan Toffs

Aqua vintage beads opshopped

embroidered leather boots, silver belt  retail

Okay, 12 yo is up and out of bed now.  Time to plan our long (Queen's Birthday) weekend.  Sure there'll be some chores, but we are also planning a walk in a park or along a beach, a bit of op-shopping (of course), maybe some baking and cooking.  As a family we don't have to spend a heap of money to have fun together.  

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Penny-Rose xxx

Some sewing projects and the world's Ugliest Pullover.

I am in awe of sewing bloggers like Trees who manages to showcase several homemade outfits in one week. My effort for Me Made May started off with good intentions and then fizzled a bit.  Let me explain why.

Here I am wearing my miami does cuba print top with a cord skirt, leopard tights and never fail bow boots.  

My photographer cunningly took this photo from an angle that reduces the amount of thigh on show - the truth be told, this skirt is a lot shorter than what I am used to. Although both items are functional and not unattractive I do not consider either to be favourites - the cord skirt crunches when I sit down and the rayon cotton mix top needs fastidious ironing.   

Now, dear readers, I want to share with you something truly hideous.  I trust you by now to share my absolute worst sewing project.  Ever.  I present to you, the worlds ugliest pullover:

I am so unimpressed with this Me Made sewing project that I deliberately cut my head out of the photos.  I dutifully followed a vintage pattern - even measuring myself and then comparing with the "Finished garment size" on the envelope.  I sweated over the V neckline and even accepted a compromise V with a slightly rounded bottom, used some groovy floral fabric for the facings, and twice took in swathes of fabric under the arms all the way to the hem to try and get a better fit.  In the eternal words of Grumpy Cat.  I hate it.  

I am not being harsh, the fact is that I never thought that the top part would be so ugly and unflattering.  The shoulder seams are so wide and the V so small that you can barely see any of the fabulous blouse I am wearing underneath - a gift from the lovely Vintage Bird Girl.  

Vertical darts in the front and back may well give this pullover a bit more shape and therefore appear more flattering.  But the time spent doing this would be wasted as it is the top I hate.  Off to the op shop it goes.  The material - a lovely grey wool poly blend was $5 for about 2 metres from the Hospice Shop.  The pattern was probably 50cents or less and the facings were a $2 shirt from Toffs.  I do not begrudge the expenses on materials, only the hours of time spent crafting this object of hideousness.  

I am not letting this get me down and have several other UFO's stockpiled and ready to be completed for next summer.  Next post will be about op shop finds and a new polyester shirt dress!!

Bye for now, Penny-Rose 

Some sunny weekend days

Dunedin is being tormented by a number of cold fronts at the moment.  Yesterday there were wind gusts of 130km hr.  A couple of weeks ago or so, there were some stunning sunny days.  I rarely take outfit photos in the weekend because I am usually too busy!  

Today, I thought I would give you a peep into my weekend world:

 Left: embroidered skirt from Toffs, thrifted top and cardigan, various plastic bangles, vintage necklace.  Attractive gum boots (Wellingtons) worn due to mud at the soon-to-be-building site. Earlier in the day was spent in town getting hair cut for 12yo and other chores.

Right: jacket, teeshirt, jeans and boots all op-shopped.  My usual weekend garb. Photo taken in the Dunedin Botanic Gardens. 

On this particular day the gardens were looking beautiful - it was one of those days were the simple act of strolling around in the sun was good for the soul.  

I bought three romance graphic novels the other day and a pin-up tin tray.  I played around with the images and made a collage.  I think I might add it to my blog page! 

Hope you are all having a great weekend, I have some outfit posts from last week to show you so be sure to stop by and say hello.

Bye, Penny-Rose 

 

Bright is Might

The highlight of this week for me was a lunchtime catch-up with my friend Tanya.  We went to The Cuckoo's Nest store in St Andrew Street which is closing down sadly.  As well as selling some lovely vintage items from Most Wanted Vintage there are a number of ethically dresses, bags and jewellery from Africa and Asia.  New Zealand also features strongly with jewellery made from all kinds of materials including recycled remains of homes which were destroyed in the Christchurch earthquake.  Afterwards we crossed the road to visit the Presbyterian Support Shop.  In the dress-up box I discovered a fabulous gold belt which matched my outfit:

 Paul Klee print skirt - originally a maxi dress but cut in half by me to make a skirt and a top - from the Presbyterian Support Shop.  It once belonged to the Manager!! One day when I was wearing it she saw me and told me!!  Various plastic bangles from Trademe or op shopped.  Old pearl necklace belonged to my Grandmother, the blue and orange beads both thrifted.

Yesterday, Friday I decided that I needed more brightness, more colour and more, well more WOW.  I wore my new favourite polyester shirt dress which is garish neon green yellow purple and blue.  The left hand photo is what it looks like in the car.  I was playing with my camera.

 Garish polyester shirt dress, op shopped.  

Cardigan, boots and most jewellery also op shopped.  

I think I am in love with turquoise. 

The neon yellow tights are from KMART - one of the few budget brands which actually fit properly.  

Its been a lovely sunny day here in Dunedin - I managed to get several loads of washing dried and this afternoon I hemmed a grey pullover dress which I made a couple of weeks ago and made a big pot of pumpkin soup.  One of the joys of autumn is the comfort from a fire and a bowl of soup.

Hope you are all having a good weekend, xx Penny-Rose

Its definitely Autumn now....no more bare legs that's for sure

Hello!!  As I was inserting my photos into today's post I noticed that I was wearing tights in each photo, and that lead to my post title "no more bare legs".  The fact is that although there have been one or two nice sunny days it is now too cold to have bare legs.  Tights are now compulsory. 

Left, 1980s polyester dress with circle skirt and bat wing sleeves, $3 from Toffs

Right, polyester shirt dress of a similar age with geometric print pattern and raglan short sleeves, $6 from Presbyterian Support.  

I have been quite busy the last week or so including two days with my daughter during the school holidays -  12yo and I went to the Famous Regent Theatre 24 Book Sale and visited several op shops too.  I also went on an overnight trip to Wellington for an important Union meeting, sadly no time for opshopping or any photos :-(  I have nearly finished my current sewing project (photos soon I promise) and I also put all my summer clothes which are not able to worn with tights or boots away into the top of the wardrobe. 

On a more formal note, one very special event was to attend my first Bat Mizvah for a dear friend's daughter.  I had not been to a synagogue before and was fascinated by the whole ceremony. After the service a delicious long lunch was held at my friend's house, and as I left in the late afternoon I noticed a gorgeous doe peering through the fence.  I think she is the one who is so tame my friend can hand feed her apples (just visible in the top left). 

Purple polyester dress worn with vintage Glengyle angora cardigan.

This last weekend I helped the same friend move out of her office which was located in an old insurance building.  The ceilings are dizzyingly high and all the walls are bare brick with exposed beams of wood and steel (photo bottom right).  There is no outfit photo because I wore jeans and a teeshirt and got all hot and sweaty.  Afterwards I  managed to squeeze in some shopping at Port Chalmers and called in to Box of Birds which was having a sale.  I bought this unusual border print polyester dress by Norman Linton for $10 which more than I would usually spend on 3 items but I think it was worth it:

Norman Linton polyester dress with unusual border print in dark blue and pink.

The autumn weather and the slowly encroaching dark in the evenings makes it really hard to take photos during the week.  One thing I have been doing is reading nearly every night and I was delighted that 12yo found me several more Stephen King hardback novels at the book sale - all for $1 each.  

Right, my laptop is practically burning up!

All for now, Penny-Rose xxx