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In the words of my friend Neddie, Amazeballs!!

In the (sweet) words of my friend Athena, Best dancing dress ever...

Yes, I had a modicum of success with my experiment - albeit with a few hissy fits along the way.

I modified this pattern for the yoke (collar for you non-sewing types). Then I cut the base fabric out to place it in - but the hole was too big... EEEEEK (hissy fit number 1)

Solution: cut at shoulders and topstitch on the shoulder panels... cue hissy fit number 2... (sewing satin on a 1960s sewing machine is NO PICNIC).

and now for hissy fit number 3... notice the very un-fabulous puckering of the fabric around the V in the yoke panel? Yes well... enough said...

Solution? My Knit / Tuck craft group friends came to the rescue, with support, encouragement, and most importantly, a great MODERN sewing machine! Notice the very fabulous non-puckered sash piece?

Happy.

Oh Husqvana, I do love you, but you really are quite irritating sometimes... I know now to never ever sew satin with you, but hell we made a dress that danced the night away!! I never sashayed so much in me life!

experiments...

For those of you who don't know this song, poor you!! It ROCKS.

And I'm trying to make this frock... without a pattern... by Saturday...

Have I bitten off too much...?

ditch the darts

After seeing image after image on streetstyle fashion blogs, and generally all over the fashion-web, I've HAD ENOUGH!!! What is it with the stinky cigarettes on everyones' fingers or lips??

This image is the straw that broke the camel's back...

The very beautiful Emily Browning looking cheap and nasty (and not in good way) with dirty dart in hand... Please oh please Vanessa Jackman, would you at least ask your models to butt out before the shot?

It destroys any concept of beauty the image might convey to have that stinky cancer stick - it's not smart, it's not funny, and it's definitely NOT COOL.

It's not limited to young folks either... Thanks Scott Schuman for reinforcing that stereotype.

And as for this little number from Wayne Tippetts... it's just so wrong on so many levels...

It's everywhere man and I object... OK I'll hop off my soap box now...

image "credits"
1. Vanessa Jackman
2. The Sartorialist
3. Street Style Aesthetic
4. + 5. Stockholm Street Style

the black house

The choice of black as a house colour really divides people... They either welcome your decision with gusto, or deride it with equal parts of disgust and despair!

We've stayed strong in our resolve to paint it black, but I truly believe it was the right colour choice for this house, for a number of reasons:

1. this house is fibro, which has NEVER been painted - consequently it's rough as, mate. The black covers all manner of sins.

2. The paint we chose needs no undercoating - and the black goes on so well, we will probably only need one coat!! Yay for black!

3. Combined with the white trims, the black disguises all the crappy bits of cover strip that have been thrown on with gay abandon over the 60 odd years this house has been here.

4. With the soft green of the trees at the front, the black makes the house appear much smarter and a LOT less hovel-like!

5. Black is the new black - didn't you know?

All praise and thanks go to Grandpa Jimmy, master painter and Mr Fixit Snr.

Now, for that bloomin' security screen...

kitchen progress part 2

Puss cats are curious about all this noise and change...

We're now cooking with induction!

The coffee machine was essential for Mr Fixit... It's his fuel...

Plinths and handles to come soon.

kitchen progress part 1

We've had the best visitor a renovator could hope for this week... Grandpa Jimmy, aka Mr White. It's easy to see where Mr Fixit inherited his skillz...

The flat pack kitchen cabinets were constructed on his second night... and lay waiting in the living room to be moved into the kitchen. The benefits of a large house are not lost on me right now!

My plans stuck up on the worksite wall...

You can see what a delightfully un-plumb house we have! Unfortunately these louvres don't close, and with the gale forced winds we've been having (65km/hour +), the kitchen has been an ice box... I really don't want to know what our electricity bill for this winter is going to be... :/

Talk about making a silk purse from a sow's ear... check out this scribing to the wall by my friend and yours, Mr Fixit...

More to come...

window seat sun trap

Mr Fixit excelled himself the other day, when I asked him to build a "sun seat"... I wanted it rugged, rough, but with no splintery discomfort...

And look what happened. What a guy.


We're also soon to have a working kitchen, with storage!! Words cannot convey my excitement. Even in itallics...