Saturday Special: Weigel’s 2060

My pattern choice for this week is a lovely tailored 1950s blouse with options for short and long sleeves and an inverted pleat in the centre back. It’s one from the Australian pattern company Madame Weigel’s – you can read more about their history here.

As you can see from the inscription in red biro, this particular pattern was once lent to someone called Mary and it was obviously a keeper because the owner wrote a note that “this is the only pattern I would like back”. I can’t imagine (a) ever writing on my sewing patterns or (b) being prepared to part with them so easily. I’m too much of a collector… or should I say hoarder!

The hunt for the elusive light turquoise felt

Apparently you can have too much of a good thing because I have finally exhausted all my local supplies of light turquoise felt. I’ve also contacted numerous felt factories and suppliers both here in Australia and overseas – and come up with nothing. So if you happen to be in a shop somewhere that happens to sell felt by the metre/yard and they happen to have something resembling light turquoise felt, please let me know. Otherwise, there’ll be no more whale cushions. And I have two people waiting for whale cushions with their fingers crossed…

An owl to keep watch over your couch

Well, I finally finished the Bulgarian owl stamp cushion… hooray! It took a little while for me to be happy with the design and find the time to complete it (I’m still working on that back-to-work routine). I wanted to achieve the simplicity of a 1950s children’s storybook illustration in bright, happy colours. This one has a little bit of hand embroidery too – the wing and feather details. What’s next? Maybe a squirrel, maybe a flamingo.

Vintage fabric find: red leaves barkcloth

This one came from a lovely lady in Arizona – I was struck by the vibrant red, of course, which makes the leaves leap off the muted green background. I’m thinking I might back this one in grey to match the other leaves and maybe add some red piping… when I get around to it, which will be after I finish the Bulgarian owl stamp cushion that I’ve had to put aside while I get back into my normal work routine.

Saturday Special: Simplicity 3676

As promised, here’s the vintage skirt pattern circa 1960 that I found in Melbourne last weekend. It’s what my Mum would call a Sensible Skirt. I can see it in a warm grey or oatmeal-coloured wool for winter – oh, and I’ll need some horn-rimmed glasses to match!

A lady to admire

I’m always excited when the new Selvedge magazine arrives in my mailbox – it’s full of pretty things and I generally learn something every time I open the cover. Today I was introduced to a Mid-Century British designer, illustrator and printmaker called Enid Marx, who was incredibly prolific and worked on everything from textiles to posters, book jackets and even postage stamps (perhaps that’s why I’m so taken with her work). There’s currently an exhibition of her work at the Pallant House Gallery in West Sussex in the UK – a little bit out of my way unfortunately so I’ll have to be content with looking at her pictures online. Like these delightful dogs.

Image courtesy of the Pallant House Gallery.

Adventures away from home

It’s been all quiet on the blog front while Mr A and I had a long weekend in Melbourne to see PJ Harvey (who was fantastic, by the way). We arrived to 16 degrees Celsius (which felt quite crisp after the 37 degrees Brisbane had last Wednesday!) and sparrows – we never see sparrows in our home town anymore as they seem to have been chased out of their habitat by a bigger bird called an Indian Mynah.

As well as catching up with friends and checking out the shops, we spent a bit of time wandering around like tourists and noticing things we hadn’t paid attention to before – like this delightful bronze owl sculpture on Elizabeth Street called ‘Children’s Tree’ by Tom Bass, which has been there since 1963!

While we were waiting for a tram to the Chapel Street Bazaar, we admired these bright gardens in the centre of town – if someone can please remind me what the spiky plants in the background are, that would be terrific. No special vintage fabric finds for me at the bazaar, but I did manage to track down a lovely vintage skirt pattern (coming soon to Saturday Special).

And there was more inspiration from nature with these maple leaves in the water feature outside the National Gallery of Victoria, where we saw the extraordinary Mad Square exhibition of German Expressionist art (and escaped a warm 33-degree day). Autumn leaves in the middle of summer – only in Melbourne!

Saturday Special: McCall’s 9565

Remember when bib-front blouses were all the rage a couple of years ago? Here’s a shift dress from 1968 that’s based on the same design principles. I think I like View B best (the red one), with its contrasting check fabrics.

Fabric find: Miyamairi

I came across this fabric panel in one of my favourite fabric haunts and thought it would be perfect for the front of an absolute showstopper of a shift dress! It’s a Michael Miller fabric called ‘Miyamairi’ depicting a Japanese family and Mt Fuji in the background. Not sure when I’ll get the chance to make this one since I’m back at work now (and also in the middle of a Bulgarian owl stamp cushion), but I think a couple of strategically placed darts will mean I can use a fair bit of the fabric. Might have to sacrifice the blue strip at the bottom so that the hemline isn’t too long though…

I love the detail of the big sister fussing with her little sister’s hairpiece, with the little sparrows nearby.

Too many scraps isn’t enough

Remember how I said I was going to make an ottoman to use up all my fabric scraps? After spending New Year’s Day cleaning and rearranging my sewing room so that I don’t have to move big bags of felt and piles of cushion covers every time I want to use my sewing machine, I spent a morning making this calico ottoman insert. It’s got eight main pieces and the octagon patch on top, but I also added a zipper to the side so I can refill it over time without having to do any unpicking.

I thought my giant scrap collection would be enough to fill it, but even after resorting to cutting up socks that are beyond darning it still looks like a beanbag for a little person. I don’t want to buy filling or waste fabric scraps that could be used for quilting or other projects, so it looks like I’ll have to make a few more cushions and create more scraps. That isn’t so bad, I guess!