Opportunity Knocks

I have just been working on getting something (business wise) happening based around my love of sewing and dressing up. However my lack of confidence in my abilities and creativeness, and my need to put myself down have become somewhat of a hinderance.... thankfully I have been offered an awesome opportunity by a local photographer Teegan Fowler, from Fowler Photography in Hervey Bay.

The offer... to design and make a costumes for an up coming series of photo shoots, based around a "Vintage Circus" theme. I have also asked to model in the shoot as well. In return for creating the unique costumes and modelling for her, I will have copies of the photos taken of me and anyone else wearing MY costumes... some awesome advertising photos. Nice deal

I'm so excited I can't wait to get started. Here are some examples of the style we are going for...

I'd like to have a go at this type of thing and some clowns would be fun too....

Sharing the Creativitiy

Sewing Vs Face and Body Art.

While my two boys were away I spent the week with my beautiful daughter at my brother and sister-in-law. Melanie Hughes and I are both creative people, just with different outlets. While I love to create with fabric, she loves to create with paint. So we had a few little crafty session, where I got lesson on the basics of face and body art and got to experiment with her paints, she painted my face and then I sewed her a fairy dress... nice deal for both of us.

Melanie, a budding face and body artist working in the Brisbane area (check her out at http://www.embellishfaceandbodyart.com/) asked me to make her a fairy costume similar to the ones I made for the Maryborough Pub Fest 2010. Melanie chose all the fabrics and I put it together. We were both very impressed with the end result... she makes a great fairy.

Fairy Melanie

My first ever attempt atpainting a full face... Pink Tiger Chloe Louise.This was kinda cool, Chloe has NEVER let anyone paint her face before, but she let me do it this time, and I was pretty inpressed with the result. I'm Awesome :) and best of all Chloe just loved it... RAR!

Pink Tiger Chloe Louise

While I was impressed with my face painting attempt I think several years of practice showed on my face when Melanie was finished with me. We had to wait till all the munchkins were in bed sleeping soundly, then she got to work. I was sad that I only got to wear it for about an hour, because it was so late by the time we'd finished playing with the camera I was exhausted.

Sarah's Thirty and Flirty Saloon Girl Party

Last night was the night! Finally... after spending a bit of time turning my Vintage Prom Dress into a Saloon Girl Costume, and a few months looking at it in anticipation, I was finally able to doll up and head out. I spent the day with rags in my hair to get authentic curls, which my boys though was pretty odd... but Chloe asured me "your bows look pretty mummy".

Sarah and I in our costumes

My cousins Jessie and Zoey also attened the party wearing costumes mady by my aunty Rona... there is a strong creative sewing gene in my family, my mum just missed it I think. As you can see in this photos the three of us had matching bloomers to keep our privates private... these were so simple to make. We each got a pair of mens boxers, some lace and elastic. I simply gathered the leg with elastic and sewed the lace on the bottom... they were very effective.

Beautiful Frazer Island

My son Alistair is in grade four and one of the highlights of the year is a trip to Frazer Island. I had the pleasure of joining him on the excursion. It has been about 24 years since I've had the opportunity to venture to the eastern side of the island and I was pleased to see it is still as beautiful as I remember it.

Vintage Prom Dress to Sexy Saloon Girl Costume

My beautiful friend Sarah is turning 30 in June and to celebrate she is having a themed party-Saloon Girls and Barman. Which is wonderful because we both love to dress up. I was very excited and imediately (literally as soon as she left my home after the conversation) I hit the opportunity shops.

In the first opportunity shop I went to I found this very interesting purple and aqua blue dress. Wow what a find and it only cost me $7 and with a little adjustment it could be the perfect costume for the party.

So how did I transform my Vintage Prom Dress to a Sexy Saloon Girl Costume?

Step 1: I appear to be a little more 'busty' than the dresses original owner. So I removed the zipper from the bodice section and replaced it with eyelets and a ribbon.

Step 2: I want to skirt to be longer at the back and much shorter at the front. I carefully removed the silk trim from the hem of the skirt, it might come in usefull for something else. Then I cut a semi-circle from the front of the skirt and sewed it onto the back hem.

Step 3: I want the bottom hem to match the top. Thankfully the silk trim was doubled over so i was able to cut it in half length ways, sew the ends together and it gathered just enough to look like it was made that way originally.

Step 4: My dress needs a bustle. Layers and layers of tulle sewn under the rear section of the skirt. This fulls out the rear section and leaves the front sitting flat... beautiful.

Step 5: Now I have this great dress, but it needs something to cover the zipper area on the back skirt. Luckily the dress came with a sash which I was able to use, with the combination of some coordinating fabric, to make a bow and train.

I am very Impressed with my final product and cannot wait to wear it on the night!

Repurposing Mateials... loving it

Following from the amazing success of the Wedding Dress remodelling, and the creativity stirred up for my amazing experiences at the Woodford Folk festival I have been searching for craft projects that I can do using repurposed materials. I found some amazing and beautiful tutorials at Tea Rose Home and decided to give one a try.
I made this gorgeous Jean Corsage from an old denim skirt that I got from the op-shop a few years ago to patch a pair of jeans. I also had the opportunity to repurpose one of the many beautiful buttons I have collected over the past few years. I have developed a bit of a button “thing”. I find them interesting and I think they look great in their jars on the shelves in my bed room… many different colours, shapes, sizes and textures. I was a very quick and easy project to complete, but I am so very impressed with it. I still need to find the brooch back so it can easily be pinned on…they are somewhere in my stash of craft thingies. That is tomorrow’s task!
My two youngest children have also developed an interest in my buttons… so while I was making my Jean Corsage they sat on the floor playing with two of the button jars. Ethan who is 7 and very creative made me a bracelet… it was beautiful and I thought “Wow, I would actually wear this regularly”, only it is made using a piece of pink hollow plastic tubing… so I got out the tiger wire and some pearl beads left over form another project and put them on, added a clasp so it would be small enough to be comfortable and here it is… Ethan is very proud that I re-made it and will wear it everyday.

My Clever Daughter

My beautiful 3 year old daughter Chloe is somewhat an artist. She really loved to draw and colour with textas. She has completed artworks on the blinds, walls, carpet, her desk.... but most often the canvas is her own body. Future Tattoo Artist or Body Painter perhaps?

Most reciently I was reward with a wonderful surprise, she has developed her 'signature'. I'm such a proud mummy......

It is just a shame that the wonderful autograph was on her bed sheets! Oh well... what do you do? I took a picture of it and washed the sheets. They are good as new... although I cannot soy the same for the carpet and blinds.

Thankfully our landlord is also a proud grandmother.