Vintage Patterns for 10c! Yay!

Today I walked into the town centre – such as it is – to get some bleach from the supermarket as I needed to turn something that was cream in colour to something that was white in colour. Anyway, I decided that I would drop into our local op shop (thrift shop) just to have a look around and see if they had anything interesting. Low and behold right near the door a stack of old patterns selling for 10c each! Bargain! I had a look through and in amongst a lot of crappy eighties dresses I did find 3 little gems that I thought were quite cute and liked the look of, and at 10c a pop, well the price is hardly going to break the bank is it?  So I fished out my selected patterns had a quick wiz around the rest of the shop and not really seeing anything that caught my eye I made my extravagant purchase of 30c!

This one is from 1973 but I don’t think I will be making the short version somehow…

This one is from1975. I thought this was quite classic really. Simple lines and a nice drape to it.

This on is also from 1975. I wasn’t too sure I would use this, but once again at 10c I’m not going to be bothered if I don’t make it. I thought the pockets were quite cute. Notice the nice wedge heels that are back in fashion this summer??

me and my vmo...

No sewing news on the blog today. 

Today I went to see the physio.

I have been experiencing knee discomfort on and off for a few months and have been finding it a bit disturbing that my knee cap seemed to be moving around in ways it is not meant to. So, finally biting the bullet before I did something really silly to it - as could be likely by being a ballet teacher - off to the physio I went.

Apparently my VMO muscle is weak. I thought it would be something like that, but am not a physio so don't exactly know these things. 

I am currently sitting here with some lovely strapping tape on my knee. I am hoping that I am not allergic to it as I am meant to keep it on for 3 days.

A little bit of homework (ie exercises) on my part everyday and it should be right. So hopefully that should be my only trip to the physio!

That is all for now. Very enthralling all that wasn't it??

Costume Update

Here is my Tinker Bell costume on our very cute student who is dancing that particular part. The dress part of this costume is finished, yay! The wings she is wearing are a prototype so all that is left to do is to finish them off properly as my boss was really happy with them! Hopefully next week I will have some more detailed photos!

I am pretty happy with how it has turned out, but if I have time I might re-do the front where the insert is to get it to sit a bit better. 

Oh, and my new dress that I made from burdastyle pattern 6000, which is shown in my first post, got its first public wearing last night to a show that I went to see! Hooray for new clothes!

Distractions of a cosmopolitan kind...

I thought I would have posted a bit earlier than this, but I must admit that I have been a bit distracted of late. You see, I bought myself the "Sex and the City" box set and movie with money I got for my birthday so I have been kind of sex-and-the-city-ing-myself-to-pieces.... I have finished all 6 seasons and am waiting for a good time to watch the movie - ie when the significant other isn't here to make boy comments about it.

But! I am making progress on my costumes for our end of year concert and after 2 fittings of drafts I have finished my Tinker Bell costume (apart from attatching the elastic straps) and am now working on the wings! The costume is very cute and hopefully I haven't made it too short. The wings I think will be okay, but I won't completely finish them as I need to get an okay from the studio principal (otherwise known as my boss). We are having some issues with getting the costumes to show up under a blue light so I have done 2 different things on 2 different wings to see which she likes best. I am still not 100% sure how I will attach them either. I am sure I will think of something.

Also, 2 fittings later and I am now up to sewing the seams on the Pan costume fully - so far they have only been tacked together - and decorating. Lots and lots and lots of fabric leave later and several 'slashes' and patches later. Still have to find a decent belt so I may take a little trip to the op shop tomorrow to see what they have. So far I am really quite happy with how it is turning out. Will be doing all the seams, elastic and filler mesh on this tomorrow. Possibly more leaves as well - I have to machine sew the leaf veins on the make them look good. I also have an issue with blue light on the this costume as well so I will need to incorporate some white on it somewhere... this needs more thought.

Hook on the other hand has proved to be a little more difficult. The unitard is really no problem and I am hoping to tackle that tomorrow. The coat? Ahhh yes the coat. I did a dummy out of a sheet and decided to alter the pattern. I cut the fabric and sewed it roughly with only one sleeve in and it was just wrong. Needless to say I was a little disappointed in myself. So I went back to the fabric store bought more fabric and I am going to make another jacket with no changes to the pattern. Hopefully it will be okay and will only need some shoulder pads in it to make it sit right. The original fabric I bought was a stretch sateen and was no longer on special so I got a different fabric as I figured the amoung to stretch that it had wasn't really going to do much anyway. On the positive side though, I put in a contrasting godet out of a gold and cream brocade and my boss thought that looked great so I will do that on the new coat. I am also thinking of making the cuffs not quite as big as they are in the pattern. I ordered some stretch vinyl today as the boot tops we got from the fancy dress shop would have required a lot of altering and it would be just as easy to make a new pair. I need to investigate this as well and will probably end up asking a fellow sewer at the ballet school.

Photos to come when I take some, and have some bodies to put in the costumes!!!