Things I Love Thursday: My Garden

To some of you this is probably going to be a really boring post, but I love gardening. Any opportunity to photograph plants, and I'm there!
Previously Alex and I lived in a 1 bed flat that (thankfully) had a big enough balcony to fit a load of pots of various things. Now we've moved into a house I'm starting to get used to the fact that we actually have a garden.
This past weekend as the weather was nice enough we decided it was time to make our annual trip to the garden centre and pick up some herbs and flowers to start littering around the garden.
When we moved we only brought with us our small (and dreary looking) olive tree, as well as our rosemary plant. So we had a lot to stock up on!

My favourite flowers are Lilies, Asiatic preferably, so we managed to pick up some red ones that should blossom in 2-3 months. We also picked up a little connifer, tons of pansies, some lavender, and finally a collection of herbs so we could make a little herb garden in our second hand tin bath.

We bought enough pansies to fill 3 pots and there were some left over that we decided to plant around some of the trees we have.

It was doing this that we discovered that there is a lone bright yellow tulip underneath the forsythia bush (small yellow flowers), which I'm assuming was one of many but the previous tenants must have taken them with them? Poor thing!

So now I have a somewhat colourful, happy garden!

Things I Love Thursday: Pin Up Art

I'm gonna start this post by saying that I love art. Like, really love it. My favourite kind has always been portraits, I think it shows true skill and talent to be able to draw people accurately. I think that's why I've always been drawn to artists that draw pin ups, it combines a lot of what I love, vintage & art.
I'm sure you've all seen at least one of the following  images before, and you may even be a lover of this type of art yourself? My favourite pin up artists are of course Gil Elvgren & Alberto Vargas.

Seriously, these guys are masters of their craft, I could only dream of being able to produce stuff like this!



Gil Elvgren creates such beautiful scenerios for his pin-ups, and always includes subtle innuendos into his work. A little lift of the skirt here, a perfect pout there, I could look at his art all day!

Vargas on the other hand uses a lot less colour, and is less playful with his girls. But this isn't such a bad thing, it lets you focus more on what he wants you to. I love the image above of the blonde in the swimsuit, I actually have this hanging in my sewing room.

And of course no post about pin-ups would be complete without a cameo from this lovely lady...

This one of the many, many, 'Betties' that has been drawn by Olivia de Bernadis.



Things I Love Thursday: Vintage Clothing

So some of you may remember that last year my mother in law donated to me about 4 rails worth of vintage clothing that she rescued. They were originally part of a collection that a local costume hire warehouse had, but due to recent government cuts their funding was suspended and subsequently had to shut their doors.
With no other place to go a lot of original vintage and some handmade to look vintage clothes were either thrown out, donated to be made into rags, or given to schools/amateur dramatic groups. Luckily for me my mother in law used to volunter her time there, and she managed to stroll out with well over 200 items (with their permission, of course!). Amongst these beauties are furs, coats, swimwear, dresses & petticoats, unfortunately a lot of the accessories had already been taken.
The majority of these items need repairing, some major, but thankfully most are just missing a button, or need some seams re-stitched. I started this task last summer, and am happy to say quite a few of these items have now been re-homed to delighted owners.
I sell these on auction on Ebay, and will be posting another batch this weekend. So I thought what a perfect platform I have to showcase some of these items, in the hopes that one of you lovely ladies may take a fancy to some?!
Here are just a selection....

1940's Day Dress

Tempted to say 1960's?

1950's Peasant Style Dress

1950's Prom Dress

1960's Brocade Dress

1960's Leaf  Print Wiggle Dress

1940's Applique Dress

Late 1950's Dress

Possibly 1930's Sheer Dress

I'm not particularly great at dating garments, I tend to judge by the shape and design. So don't take my word as the gospel!

When I've put the clothes up for sale I'll let you know, so you can have a look at some of the other items I have. 

Things I Love Thursday: Mad Men

This week I wanted to join in the much hyped excitement that is currently sweeping the internet, Mad Men is returning to our screens for its 5th season!

To celebrate this I know of 2 sew-alongs that have already been mentioned, and I'm sure as the season progresses a lot more will happen. JuliaBobbin is asking for people to recreate their favourite look, and Sew Weekly will also be having a Mad Men theme during March. So why the hype around this show?

For me, like many others I enjoy the period accurate fashion, and the fact that the show takes place during such an exciting & revolutionary time for the world. So far we've seen the characters go through the Kennedy election & assasination, Marilyn Monroes death, the continuing threat of nuclear war, and most recently 'Beatlemania'.

But this is a sewing blog after all, and with 2 opportunities to make myself a new dress I need some inspiration! So when it comes to the female characters of the show we have Betty, Joan & Peggy as the main three, but in the background we have Jane, Megan, & Trudy. When watching the show as most eyes dart towards Joan, I've always found Peggys wardrobe more appealing.

She seems to be more inclined to take a risk, and wear something quirkier than the rest. Especially during and after her friendships with more bohemian types.

But of course, nothing beats a dress that shows off your curves & Joan certainly does it best.

So much food for thought!? I have a few ideas, and have already begun looking through my patterns for similar silhouettes. Certainly looks like March is shaping up to be 'Mad Men Month'

All images sourced from google images