Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival 2016

Just like I do every year, I attended the Kurri Kurri Nostalgia Festival.

This year I unfortunately did not have enough time to sew myself a new outfit like I normally do, as I was hard at work sewing up dresses for Elsie George Boutique, but I did end up wearing a sample of that dress on the Saturday, which was a great way to advertise the newest addition to our range. For the Sunday, I wore my Pink Gingham shirtwaister, as I needed to cover up my sunburn from the previous day (oops) and now it looks like that might be the next design in the new Elsie George range.

I was super excited for this year's festival, as Rachel had been able to secure the stunning Teer Wayde as a guest judge on behalf of Elsie George. As I plus size girl myself, I'm sure you can appreciate how awesome it was to hang out with such a gorgeous plus size model for the weekend.

Teer and I on the Saturday

Rachel and I on the Sunday

The smallest face of Elsie George, strutting her stuff in her
popcorn skirt

I know, not a great shot....

All the pretty Elsie George brand clothing!

Here are a few aerial shots taken by Krystal Sellars from the Cessnock Advertiser (our local paper)

Unfortunately, this weekend marks the end of the Elsie George store in Cessnock, HOWEVER this just means we will have more time and effort to put into our Elsie George brand, which will be available online, with the possibility of personal fittings at a Cessnock location, by appointment only.

We have some pretty huge things in the works, so I am looking forward to sharing all those with you.

Dixie

*EDIT*
Here are a few more photos from my friend Mae

A look back at my 2015

While 2015 hasn't been quite as eventful as 2014, it has still been a pretty good year for me. If you've been reading my blog for some time, you already know what has been happening, but I'll recap here anyways.

I started 2015's sewing off nice and early with a skirt made from Fabric from a Secret Santa and a shirt made from fabric from a friend's stash only a few days into the year. You can read more about the outfit here.

Later in January My Husband and I celebrated our 6 month wedding anniversary by spending the day at Luna Park Sydney. It was raining most of the day, but that just meant there were less kids there to have to deal with. We took a picnic lunch of fruit, cheese and wine, and had a fabulous day.

Frock 7852 on the left

I graded up and scanned in my first PDF Pattern! Still available for free, the pattern is for a dress bodice from 1951 in sizes 36" bust and 44" bust.

I made a Columbia costume to wear to a showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the Regal Cinema, which has seen quite a lot of wear through out the year.

I made this gorgeous pleated creation for Kurri Nostalgia Festival. Little did I know, this wouldn't be my most time consuming pleated project this year.

I Finally made a pair of well fitting pants I was proud of (that unfortunately don't fit right now)

I participated in the Sew Retro Rose Capelet Sew-Along

There was a big storm that flooded most of my town

I made a costume and dressed up as a nun for a Blues Brother showing at the Regal Cinema

I participated in Me-Made-May, and managed to get through the month wearing almost all me-made clothes, without repeating too many outfits. It showed me a few holes I have to fill, that mostly being separates, outerwear and pyjamas.

I guest posted over at Sew Retro Rose with a super easy Crochet Snood pattern

I made a costume and dressed up as Zoot for a showing of Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Regal Cinema

I made a Crazy Star Wars Cosplay for a Friend

I made a Beauty School Dropout costume (Frenchie from Grease) had a bunch of teeth pulled out of my mouth, then still went on to win best dressed at the Regal Cinema only hours after being under general anesthetic at the dentist.

I finally got up the courage to sew myself a version of the infamous white dress from "the Seven Year Itch". If I never pleat fabric ever again it will still be too soon. I still haven't managed to get decent photos of this dress, so hopefully that is something you will get to see in 2016. I am stupidly proud of how this dress turned out, as I tried to make it as close to the original as I could. You can read about it's construction here, which I highly recommend if you are considering making this dress yourself.

I went on my first Cruise (and also my second cruise later)

I hosted my very own Sew-Along with a pattern I graded to many sizes and scanned in to make my second ever PDF pattern (which is available for sale for US$2 since the end of the Sew-Along)

My Boy got sick, and was very clingy and clumsy while on his medication (but he is all better now) which made it very difficult to get anything done

I dressed up as a Christmas Elf, after making the dress using velvet remnants and my Sun Frock Sew-Along pattern

I attended the Inaugural Pinup Picnic in the Park in Newcastle

I participated in 2 vintage secret santas, 1 through Sew Retro Rose and 1 through Chronically Vintage. I sent off my parcels to America and QLD, and received some awesome stuff in return. I have already worn the brooch and necklace from the Sew Retro Rose parcel, and I am just trying to decide on a fabric to make a dress from the pattern from the Chronically Vintage Parcel. After a particularly trying Christmas day, these were a great pick-me-up.

We've now begun the New Year, and while I haven't been very productive since Christmas (about all I have managed is finally seeing "The Dressmaker") I have big plans for this year! I don't have a list of specific goals for my blog for 2016, but rather I just want to keep it going the way it has been, with more patterns, tutorials and Sew-alongs. Although I already have a very long list of things I'd like to sew this year.

The goals I set for myself last year were:

1. To Participate lots of sew-alongs.

I only managed the Capelet Sew-Along with Sew Retro Rose and my own Sew-Along. I had hoped to participate in Vintage on Tap's Apron Sew-Along, but unfortunately didn't find the time to.

2. I want to host my own sew-along, most likely with a free pattern to make it easily accessible to all.

Yep, did it!

3. I'd like to do a give away.
Didn't quite manage this one, although I do have another pattern I am partway through grading up, to give to all my Sew-Along participants. Although I guess I did give the Sew-Along pattern away for free to begin with, as well as my first PDF pattern offering.

4. Work out how to digitize/pdf some of my self drafted patterns to share with everyone. 

While I haven't tried my hand at properly digitizing yet, I did manage to scan in and PDF 2 patterns, that while they were not self-drafted, they were graded up by me.

5. Write up a few informative sewing tutorials.

I kinda managed this one. I did write a knitting and 2 crochet tutorials, as well as a drawstring bag sewing tutorial. I do however have a few in the works for 2016!

6. Collaborate with another blog
I guest Posted over on Sew Retro Rose with an easy Crochet Snood tutorial

So thanks for reminiscing with me, now bring on a great 2016!

Dixie

Me Made May, Week 3

Wow, Week 3!

May 15

The Ensemble I chose for work this Friday consisted of my self drafted yellow shirt, Resort Skirt (Sewn by me, but you can buy them from Elsie George), me-made petticoat, Teal handbag from Elsie George and chunky Orange sandals that I picked up for $3 from Target. I didn't get an outfit photo, so here is one of the Elsie George Resort Skirt, modeled by the beautiful Brooke!

Elsie George Resort Skirt

May 16
A lazy Saturday around the house, and 2 quick visits the the other side of town to check on a friend's children staffies. As I was going to have dogs jumping all over me, I decided hard wearing pants would be a good idea, and so I went with my Navy Pants, along with a polka dot knit top that I made one night on a whim in less than an hour, soley on my overlocker. It's soft and comfy, but not perfect, so I will probably make it again differently, as I bought about 20m of this fabric from one of my local op shops.

May 17
No-one said I couldn't repeat my outfits during Me-Made-May. So I wore my Border Print Dress for a second day this month, to church. As I was on Morning Tea duty, I took along a cute pink floral apron to wear while serving so I wouldn't spill tea/coffee/jam/chocolate brownie all down my lovely new dress. As usual, my wonderful Grandma made Scones for morning tea, and I whipped up another batch of brownies, the recipe to which you will find linked to this previous post

I'll just re-use this photo again....

Unfortunately when I got home from Church, Matt met me out the front saying he was experiencing severe chest pains and to take him to the hospital. I got him up there quick smart. Luckily it turned out to be nothing, most likely a strained muscle from climbing up ladders and crawling around in the roof cavity to install wires, but after all that time in the emergency department I was regretting wearing heels, and not having a big enough handbag to fit my knitting in (yes I'm still at it)
worn with me-made petticoat, teal handbag and pink heels from payless shoes (I think, I've had them many years)

May 18
Monday I had an appointment in town, so went in a little early and did a little op shopping. I wore my Cupcake skirt and matching self drafted top. I think the fabric came from Lincraft a few years ago. I managed to get about 5m of a navy knit fabric, a bit over 1m of a stripey lilac satin and some very cute sheer curtains with baby animals printed on them, for future use in a possible nursery (for $3 I couldn't leave them behind) Later in the evening we had our CWA meeting, and I changed my top to my self drafted yellow shirt as it was a bit warmer than the cupcake top. It was handicraft night, but we all brought along our own projects and worked o those (mostly knitting and crocheting)
I don't seem to have any photos of this outfit anywhere, and I forgot to take one on the day, but here is a little thumbnail of the fabric I used.

May 19
Crazy hectic day at work. I wore my pleated pink floral dress that I made for Nostalgia fest earlier this year from a 1956 Australian Home Journal Pattern. Worn with me-made petticoat, teal handbag from Elsie George and pink flats from target

But I don't have pink hair anymore

May 20
Pulled out my Floral Elizabeth dress (which features in my first blog post) to wear, despite it being a very light summery dress, and the weather outside that morning being far from summery. Even though it was a cold, dreary, rainy morning, it had all cleared up to a beautiful sunny Autumn day by 11am. We managed to catch up on a few things at work after such a hectic day the day before. Worn with teal handbag from Elsie George and pink flats from Target

May 21
Wore a dress that I made years ago and haven't worn for ages. The fabric is the cutest strawberry and polka dot border print from lincraft, but unfortunately my self drafted bodice was not my best work and gapes at the front of the armholes. I have been meaning to unpick it and remake it for a long time, so it has just hung untouched in my wardrobe. I wore it with a red cardigan, so the armhole problem was covered all day while I was at work. Again, I didn't get an outfit photo, so here is a photo of me wearing this dress in 2012

I liked the truck....

I completely dropped the ball with the Outfit Selfies this week, After successfully making it through 2 weeks of Me-Made-May, I was getting quite confident I was going to make it through the rest of the month fine, so I think I may have become a little bit complacent. All in all, I am still very much enjoying Me-Made-May.

Dixie