Hi there, remember me? Yes it’s been a hectic few weeks with all these events on, and I’m still right in the midst of the chaos. But to make matters worse I’ve also been coping with a total hard drive failure due to insidious spam! There has been so much rubbish going around the internet of late, that it is hard to sort out the important from the pure evil, so if anyone has been emailing and not heard back, or had your messages over looked, I do apologise as things have been in damage control mode.

Moving right along, whilst all this has been happening and I’ve been tech limping along, I’ve also finished two major projects; the first of which I soft launched on the weekend and the other that debuts on Wednesday night!  I’ve been sewing night and day to create my masterpiece for the Mission 65 Fashion event this week. Because I’m such a glutton for punishment and such a mad perfectionist, my creation includes not only all the time for sourcing, designing and machine construction; but also a grand total of 14 hours of intricate hand sewing! There was something rather Dickensian about sitting there from sun up to sun down developing a hump in my back all for the glory of the garment.

I know it isn’t all that fair to be such a tease telling you about this project and have nothing to show, but all will be revealed shortly. I can say this though; my outfit is something you’ll not likely expect and like nothing you’ve ever seen before…. cue dramatic music..

I can’t show you my finished outfit just yet, but I can show you the shopping expedition in the Prahran Mission OP shop where I sourced my materials.

Watched over by Elvis, who, for all intents and purposes could be the patron saint of vintage shopping.

I’m told the event is now a sell out, but there will be all manner of features to come later in the week.

And while we’re on the topic of shopping, here’s a look at the outfit I wore while tackling this shopping quest and a freezing cold Melbourne day.

Outfit Details

Black Woollen Sweater – Country road – Op shop find

Black swing bolero (with pom poms! Love it so much I bought two!) - Mimco

White Scotty Dog Brooch – Peta Pledger

Red and black boucle 1950′s vintage skirt – Circa Vintage Clothing

Shoes – Luca & Marc

Red Rose earrings – DIVA

Lipstick – MAC Russian Red

Oh, and the red hat box styled bag you’ll no doubt be asking about came from Circa Vintage store on Gertrude street, Fitzroy and is made by Glamour Puss. Yes, that’s right, it’s a fantastic repro!

This darling image via Flickr

Here’s a special post dedicated to all you wonderful vintage mummies out there. Especially those of you who, like me, are in the midst of school holidays and the challenges that brings.  There are always loads of general holiday activities for kids at these times, but I thought I’d share with you some of the activities I’ve organised for my girls that have a bit of a vintage bent.

You can scale the complexity of these options up or down depending on the age range of your own mini me’s.

The Art Gallery -

Most cities have art galleries with free or cheap entry for children. Do a little research into which exhibitions are currently showing and pick the one the most sparks your imagination. Spend some time a day or two before hand planning out your art gallery adventure together. Look at some of the images online and plan some thematic outfits for them, because after all, you won’t get away with dressing them like 19th century urchins or mini Monets very often.

Pack snacks, drinks, drawing pads and crayons. Then when you break for lunch, let them start drawing their own versions of the art they’ve seen.  Give them a wall at home to tack their new art works to and invite some friends or family around for their gallery show.

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High Tea -

Yes, there are venues that are running High Tea specifically for children, but you may not want to go to that expense. Hosting your own proper High Tea party, even if it’s just the two of you, can be a blast.  Break out a cute cloth, the cake stands and make up your own finger sandwiches – even if they do contain Nutella. But most importantly, dress for tea.

Here’s where party dresses, petticoats, tiaras and reams of faux pearls come into their own.  Add in a few nome de plumes, creative back stories (‘I was a Baroness, I just gave up my title.’) and you’ve got yourself one memory worthy of the Lifetime Chanel.

Treasure Hunting -

No complicated maps involved in these hunts.  Just a child sized handbag (or backpack), a little pocket money, a calculator (for mum/dad) and a list of the four top op shops or thrift stores in your town. Okay, I’ll admit this one is a little sneaky as it means you can do your own treasure hunting while they do theirs, but that’s half the fun.

Giving a child a small amount of money, freedom of choice and the chance to start learning about their finite resources, is fun and educational. (Gulp) This is one activity that helps to shape the vintage treasure hunters of tomorrow.

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Sewing-

Yes this may be too advanced for the very young, but there is a way to start developing those important sewing skills.  Choose an image that appeals to your child, and find a line drawing version somewhere online. Google Images is fantastic for finding basic clipart for these sorts of projects. Print out and paste this onto some card.  Following the lines, use a hole punch or skewer to perforate holes along the lines, keeping some space to make sure it doesn’t tear.  Giving kids a needle at this point might not be the best choice, but there’s another good option. An elastic threader! The ‘point’ is actually a dull ball so it doesn’t prick, but it has an eye opening at the other end.  Using different coloured wool, they can then start to ‘sew’ along the outline of their pictures. And there you go – basic sewing skills are born.

Flower Pressing -

We’re going a bit Victorian here as far as activities go, but this is one activity that just keeps on giving. You’ve got the flower picking (great for a bit of alone time for you), the identifying (thank you Google), the pressing and drying (under all those encyclopaedias they’re unlikely to use thanks to the same Google), then the craft activities that come from there. Turning the flowers into gift cards, book marks, decoupage; you name it! It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a bit of craft glue and clear sticking plastic (or ‘contact’ as we call it here), and let them go wild.  It’s far less messy than glitter and they’ll learn even more along the way. Another fun fact to add into this activity is finding out what each flower means, the old language of love. Does your flower mean friendship, passion or parental sanity?

These are only a few of the activities in store for my girls this school holidays. And the best bit about these activities is that it gives them even more fodder for their imagination. Basically, think outside the square, think like a child, and think about how much fun things can be if you see everything as a new adventure.

What other activities can you add to the list? Share it is the comments.

If there is one thing I love more than finding really cool stuff, that is making it.  There is such a greater sense of achievement knowing that you have made or customised something that no-one else will have. Something that reflects just the perfect vibe you felt at the time and that makes you smile each time you use it.

I haven’t bought a new purse in the longest time. Notice I use the term new, as buying vintage bags and purses is almost an addiction. My current set up is a full silver glo-mesh set, complete with change purse and key wallet. And while these are beautiful and going very well with every vintage outfit in my wardrobe, I do, (like every girl) want to keep my options open.

While I was shopping in Singapore I found so many cute purse sets, but I just couldn’t bring myself to buy one knowing that I had at least two at home that had been relegated to the back of the draw; shabby with over use. So when I came home and my girls wanted to have a crafting day with mama, I knew it was the perfect chance to break out the glue gun and get deco’ing!

Here is my okay, but somewhat tired purse before the deco madness.

Several years old, this Olga Burg purse is nice but just didn’t really have enough personality. So I set to work pulling out my “Great Big Box of Crafty Stuff”, and waited to see where the inspiration took me.

Always make sure you position your bits and pieces until you get the layout and balance just right. That way you know what needs to be added or taken away before you go crazy with the glue gun.

After a surprisingly short time and not one burt finger ( that had to be avoided at least once!), I’d managed to put together something quite cute and a totally re-invisaged version of my purse.

I thought about making this into a tutorial, but it is so painfully simple that it just seemed redundant.  But in case you want one, here it is:

* Take one purse
* Glue cool stuff that you like on it
* Fill with money
* Shop

* Take compliments on your seriously awesome, fully customised new accessory.

It may not be to everyone’s taste, but I hope it inspires you to make something special just for yourself. You may have already been hotly crafting up cool new things for this season. If you have make sure to leave me a comment with a link to where we can all see them too! If you haven’t been indulging your creative self lately, what would you like to make?

A short and sweet outfit post today as I am frantically rushing about trying to get things organised before heading off to Tasmania for this weekend’s Lindy Charm School Workshops (yay!). Today is casual errand day, tying up loose ends and rushing about with a sick toddler in tow.

Here’s what type of activities this outfit was handling – A 4 degree morning, school run, coffee with sick toddler, stationery shop, dress shop, vet. Then sorting, cleaning, packing and doing loads and loads of washing.  A pretty average domestic day really, but when I know I’ll be carrying around a snotty toddler in one arm and bags of shopping in the other I generally skip the heels and opt for something simple.

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These are the pants I was crowing about on Twitter the other week.  I knew I wanted another pair of winter weight pants that would be perfect for cleaning days and other tasks that required a lot of floor time.  So with a little dark cotton denim, a bag full of 1940′s buttons and a picture in my head I set to work.  I made these up as I went along, cutting the pieces and pinning, folding and draping till I had what I wanted.  So sadly I can’t tell you where to buy them as I made them myself, the whole box and dice!  They are kind of a 1940′s high waisted style, meets slouchy Oxford pant leg with a deep cuff.

Outfit Details

Blue Sweater – 1940′s hand knit vintage

Blouse – unlabeled second hand store find.

Pants – Made by Me!

Boots (unseen) RMK

Lipstick – Boots No. 7 Moulin Rouge

Yes, it isn’t an elaborate creation behind the scenes to rival Project Runway, but it is my suburban sweatshop. Lots of you have asked me to post more about all my projects and design endeavours.  Most of what I create I create only for myself and my family.  But don’t be fooled into thinking that this was just some natural talent I was born with, oh no. It has taken many years of trial, effort, failure, study and stabbed fingers to get where I am now.  It is infinatley reqarding though, as it seems that more often than not I don’t really want what I find in the stores and must resort to my own skills if I want the pictures in my head to come to life.

Sometimes I work from patterns, some times I just make it up as I go along, and then occassionaly I combine the two and alter basic patterns to make them do what I want.

I do have a cutting table, but more often than not is just isn’t big enough for the scale of the projects.  I tend to spread right out on the lounge room floor, shoo the puppy away and try not to cut the tassles off the rug!

I am very lucky to have a dedicated studio space that serves both for blogging as well as all my other creations.  It isn’t the tidiest but then, I can always find what I need and I fit an astonishing amount of stuff in there!

But just what am I making….?

Stay tuned to see this week’s creation in the next Daily Outfit!