The Help - Whitetrash Wardrobe Inspiration

April 5, 2013, 4:08 am

The other day I watched The Help, the film version of the book of the same name by Kathryn Stockett. I read the book in 2009 when it came out and I enjoyed it a lot. It tells the fictional story of a young white female journalist in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. She decides to write a book from the point of view of black maids, detailing the racism they suffer while working for local white families, which becomes a surprise best-seller.

The film version, while faithful to the novel, is a little more touchy-feely and lighthearted, but I did really enjoy the costumes, especially those of one of the characters, Celia Foote. I love the way her clothes are all a bit too revealing, too tight, too sexy. I want to look like a 1950s tart too!

Played by Jessica Chastain, Celia is a white-trash girl with a heart of gold. She wants to fit in with the prissy and conservative young wives of Jackson, but you can see that her clothes signal that she doesn't quite belong. Here she is on her poolside phone wearing a custard-yellow playsuit with white piping. Note the daisy earrings, and matching pale yellow sunglasses and bracelet!

I found a couple of costumes sketches from the movie. The costumes were designed by Sharen Davis (who also did the designs for Dreamgirls and Django Unchained among others). Looks like she left off the little tie at the front of the playsuit in the final version.

And these are Celia's shoes! Floral slingbacks with rosettes on the front. Aren't they darling?

Celia in her grand old house. I love this outfit, it would have looked SO tacky in the early 60s. The skirt is too tight, the top is too sheer, it looks cheap and tarty. I love it!

The blouse looks like it is made of a seersucker printed with tiny pink flowers. The skirt is perhaps a stretch corduroy? The belt is elastic with a patent buckle, and she has matching red earrings.

A very blurry picture of the whole outfit, see the red patent heels?

This is the outfit Celia wears when she is learning to cook - it's a comfortable at home outfit of red slacks, a pretty top and a tight belt.

A close-up of the top, which I really like. It is darted over the bust so it is quite fitted, but has that nice soft neckline and the cute knotted shoulders. Even in the kitchen, Celia wears matching earrings, you can just see the clear red hoops she has on.

Her shoes are beige or tan leather heels, which don't match with her black patent belt, but are much more flattering, as they would make her legs look longer. Clever!

In this scene Celia is taking a pie round to Hilly Holbrooke's house, so it's kind of dressy casual. It's a great winter look - a bit sexy librarian!

The skirt is a sort of nubbly flecked tweed, and the neckline of her plum-coloured sweater is very flattering.

This not particularly flattering sweater is hardly worth looking at. Boring.

For a charity dinner, Celia has this dress specially made, to the horror of the other women and the delight of their husbands! It's too tight and revealing, but isn't it the most divine colour! It looks like it has been made of a silk brocade which has been embellished with beads.

The original costume sketch. Although I love the version in the film, this one looks more showgirl-ish with the all-over squiggly sequin decoration.

Finally, this pretty frock for playing the happy hostess in. It's similar to that worn by many of the other well-to-do white women in the film, with its full skirt and floral print, but of course Celia's version is a one-shouldered dress, more revealing than anything a nice society matron would wear.

There are some other nice frocks in the film, but they are standard late 50s wear.

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Barbie Downunder

April 13, 2013, 11:34 pm

≫ Next: The Art of Spinning

≪ Previous: The Help - Whitetrash Wardrobe Inspiration

I was recently asked to make a pink Barbie-sized jumpsuit by a PR company for a client of theirs. I hadn't got a clue what it was for, although they said it should be similar to the ones that people wear when climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Here is Oprah wearing one while doing just that. Luckily they didn't need it to have raglan sleeves and all those other set-in coloured bits.

Anyway, it turns out that Barbie actually wore it up the Harbour Bridge! The client was Tourism Australia and Barbie is in Australia, "in search of her new Dreamhouse, with Tourism Australia using her as a platform to showcase Australian tourism experiences to the world", according to this article.

I also made this little satchel and tiny envelope purses out of leather. The purses are about 1.5" across. All of them open up too! You can see Barbie carrying one of the purses in this photo.

And here she is with the satchel.

It's very fiddly making such tiny things, but it was a fun experience and I was paid too, which is always nice.

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The Art of Spinning

April 27, 2013, 7:58 am

≫ Next: Spotlight haul

≪ Previous: Barbie Downunder

Look, I can spin! My friend Wil from work, who is really quite amazing when it comes to anything fibre or cake related, recently taught me how to spin with a spindle. He lent me one of his spindles (it's an Ashford top-whorl drop spindle) and very kindly gave me some roving to spin on it.

On the left is the roving, which is a fibre (in this case wool) which has been washed and carded. Carding is like combing the wool, so all the fibres lie in the same direction, ready to be spun. On the right is the yarn I've spun so far. After a while the spindle gets too full and it has to be wound off onto something (an empty toilet roll tube in this case).

As a long-time knitter and general crafter I picked up the basics pretty quickly, but it's still very laborious and slow. Before spinning wheels were invented (in around the 11th century) all thread was spun on drop spindles, like the one being used by the woman on this ancient Greek vase, dating from around 490 BC. It's amazing to think that for thousands of years this was the only way to spin all the thread that was needed to make fabric for clothing and things like sails for ships!

Attic white ground oinoche , c 490-470 BC, British museum

Medieval woman spinning with drop spindles. The roving is tied onto distaffs, which they hold under their arms. From their outfits they look like upper-class women, but I imagine that spinning was something done by all classes of women as such a large volume of thread needed to be produced.

Women spinning, from Augustine, La Cité de Dieu, c.1475, Koninklijke Bibliotheek manuscript collection

Although men did spin (Ghandi was one notable practitioner) it was usually a womens' job, hence the word "spinster" coming to mean an unmarried woman. The subject of a woman with spindle and distaff was a fairly popular subject for artists, although I must say these women look a lot more graceful spinning than I do!

Young Woman Spinning Wool, Abraham Solomon, 1862

Venetian Women Spinning Wool, Marius Michel, 19th century

The Spinner, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1873

The Spinner, Goatherd of Auvergne, Jean-Francois Millet, 1869

The Child Mary Spinning, 18th century, Peru

And let's not forget Sleeping Beauty, who pricked her finger on a spindle, although most illustrations show her pricking it on the distaff attached to a spinning wheel. Here are a few illustrations where the old woman is actually spinning with a spindle.

Walter Crane, from The Bluebeard Picture Book, 1875

Andre Richard

If you've ever wanted to have a go at spinning, do give it a try, it's quite a soothing, meditative thing to do. One day I might even have a go at spinning silk!

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Spotlight haul

May 10, 2013, 11:51 pm

≫ Next: Cherry Cardigan and Knitting Inspiration

≪ Previous: The Art of Spinning

I got a voucher in the mail the other day for Spotlight - spend $100 and get $40 off. I couldn't resist, as I'm always nipping up there for this and that. I got a French curve, which I've been wanting for ages, 2 packets of glass-headed pins, a zipper, dye, black twill tape, thread and a bobbin case. I already had a bobbin case but it's pretty hopeless, the bobbins just get tangled up and unspool themselves all the time. This one has a foam insert, so the bobbins squish into the little slots and can't move.

The fabric in the background is 8m of denim-blue corduroy, which was on sale for $6 a metre. I'm going to make a slip cover for my sofa, which is a horrible squishy beige leather one. It's like a beige lump in the middle of the sitting room.

The dye is for this cardigan, which I bought on sale from Dangerfield. I already had a pink one, so I bought a second one so I could dye it red. Hopefully it will work! I haven't dyed anything since I was a teenager.

The cherry fabric is to make an apron for my niece's 15th birthday. Last time I spoke to her she was really into baking, so hopefully she will like it. It will be a bib apron with a frill at the bottom and a little pocket, quite simple. I'll do a post about it and hopefully I can make a downloadable pattern too!

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Cherry Cardigan and Knitting Inspiration

May 21, 2013, 11:52 pm

≫ Next: Call the Midwife: Nurse Jenny Lee

≪ Previous: Spotlight haul

As the weather gets colder and colder here, I'm rediscovering my love of knitting. I've started on the Cherry Cardi by Sasha Kagan, which I've wanted to knit for ages. It's supposed to be knit in Rowan Cashsoft 4ply, but as that yarn has been discontinued, I'm substituting Adorn Yarns Silky Cashmerino 4ply. I think it's actually nicer as it's 70% superfine merino, 20% silk and 10% cashmere.

The cardigan is a simple 2x2 rib, but it's quite a challenge increasing in ribbing while still keeping the rib pattern. I made it more difficult for myself by choosing to make the waist in the small and the rest of the cardigan in the medium size, so I'm having to increase a lot more. Hopefully it works!

Of course along the way I've found a whole lot of other cardigans and jumpers I want to knit! Most of them are by Susan Crawford from her Stitch in Time books, which are packed with original vintage patterns rewritten for today's knitter (multiple sizes, modern yarns, etc). A Stitch in Time: Vintage Knitting and Crochet Patterns 1920-1949 Volume 1 contains 59 patterns, which seems like value for money!

These are a few of my personal favourites. Blue Bird (from 1945) has a lovely lattice pattern and slight puff sleeves.

The Blackberry Cardigan (from 1947) is wonderful - I love the deep v-neck and those hilarious bobbles all over it.

Jersey with a Soft Bow is knit up in fine silk, it's so prissy and librarian-ish.

Sun-Ray Ribbing looks amazing and quite easy too, I love it in bright red.

I also rather like Such Flattering Puff Sleeves, although being rather large of shoulder, it might make me look a bit like a linebacker.

Volume Two has a whopping 80 patterns from 1930 - 1959, and is available as a PDF to download.

Again, my favourites. Dinah's Lacey Jumper is so cute, especially the little button at the neck. I'd love to make it in pale pink or black.

The Tri-Cable Stitch Jumper is actually a cardigan, and looks so very warm and cosy. I particularly like the colour it's shown in here.

The promisingly-named Quick Work in Thick Wool is knit up in 10ply and looks fun and easy, although I'd be tempted to make it in a size smaller to get that negative ease I love so much.

Susan Crawford also has two other books, Vintage Gifts to Knit and Coronation Knits, both of which contain patterns inspired by the 40s and 50s.

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Call the Midwife: Nurse Jenny Lee

June 16, 2013, 7:35 am

≫ Next: Bump and Grindercise

≪ Previous: Cherry Cardigan and Knitting Inspiration

Call the Midwife is a BBC drama about four young nurses working in the slums of London's East End in the 1950s. It's been out for a while but I've just finished watching Season 1 and I really enjoyed it. It's a nice blend of comedy (the nuns that the girls live with in are wonderfully funny) and drama, and is in fact based on the memoirs of a real midwife, Jennifer Worth.

From left to right: Trixie, Chummy, Jenny and Cynthia.

The four nurses in the show live with four nuns at the fictional Nonnatus House. While they mostly wear (admittedly quite adorable) uniforms, there are a couple of scenes per episode where you see them in plain clothes. Jenny and Trixie have the best clothes (the other two are a bit frumpy) so I thought I'd take some screenshots and do a post today on Jenny's outfits, and another on Trixie's a bit later.

SPOILERS: I'll try not to give too many plot twists away, but if you haven't seen the series and you don't want anything spoiled, maybe come back later. I don't want to ruin it for anyone!

Jenny

Nurse Jenny Lee is the romantic character of the group. 22 years-old, she is classically beautiful, plays the piano, is well-spoken and comes from a middle-class family. Her clothes reflect her conservative background. Her wardrobe is made up of good quality, classic pieces - in fact Jenny has a perfect capsule wardrobe of mix-and-match separates with a few dresses for "best". Her colour palette is cream, bitter chocolate and pale yellow, with an accent colour of slate blue.

The Suit

We first see Jenny in the classic 1950s wardrobe staple, the Good Suit. Jenny's suit is beige (probably a fine wool) and has a tiny check woven into the fabric (you can just see in the photo below).

It's a fairly utilitarian suit, although it does have few nice touches such as the little tabs on either side of the jacket waist.

These are repeated in the tabs at the top of each side vent in the straight skirt. It looks here as if there is a panel of fabric behind each split, which would be a nice touch. Love the seamed stockings!

I couldn't resist a side view of these beautiful brown suede pumps - you just don't get anything with such an elegant line these days. You can just see her little matching brown suede handbag as well.

A back view of the suit jacket, showing that the sleeves are cut in one with the body rather than being set-in, a very 1950s construction. Strange darts at the back.

Everyday Wear

Jenny favours wool skirts worn with cardigans and blouses, or sweaters. I counted three wool skirts, five cardigans, one sweater and four blouses. This skirt, a full-circle cream skirt with a brown and blue check is seen quite a few times in the series, matched with various tops.

Here Jenny wears it with a classic fine wool cardigan (I like to think it's cashmere) in a buttercup yellow. The white collarless blouse has a sort-of herringbone pattern down the front. Over it, she is wearing a boxy, cream wool car-coat with large decorative buttons on either side. This too is a often-worn classic piece.

At first I thought the skirt was just cream and brown, but in this shot you can clearly see the blue running through the tartan. It's picked out nicely by the slate blue sweater she's wearing.

The next combo is the same skirt and cream coat, but with a cream blouse and brown cardigan, and the brown suede shoes and handbag that she wore with her suit.

The cardigan, in a pale chocolate colour, has a collar, breast pockets and large mother-of-pearl buttons. The blouse is cream with self-embroidery decorating the front.

Different day, same skirt. This time she's paired it with a cream sweater with a shawl collar.

This is Jenny's other main skirt - a sensible pleated wool skirt in a blue, yellow and black check on a cream background. The cardigan she's wearing it with is a different yellow cardigan to the one shown before - a paler colour, more of a lemon yellow.

In the close-up you can see that it knitted in a fine lace pattern.

Here's the whole outfit again, you can see she's wearing cream peep-toe leather pumps, and carrying her brown handbag. She's wearing her cream car-coat too, which seems to be an everyday staple.

Jenny also wears this skirt with her blue cardigan.

And her other yellow one. Different blouse too, this one has some delicate embroidery running down the front.

Jenny's third skirt is a grey pleated wool one. She wears it for a funeral, and this is the only time she wears it, so I wonder if it is a bit unfashionable, something she keeps in the back of the wardrobe. It seems shorter than her other skirts too, just knee length.

She has found a black cardigan and a sombre black and white scarf to wear with it, also items that she doesn't wear usually.

She also has black shoes, rather pointy ones, and a small black leather handbag to match.

Leisure Time

Jenny has a few nice outfits that she wears when she goes out. The first, which she wears in two different episodes, is a floral skirt and sweater. It's pretty but casual, suitable for a picnic or a summer walk along the pier. The circle skirt in fine gathered cotton has a floral pattern in light blue and greeny-yellow on a cream background, matching the colour scheme of Jenny's wardrobe. She wears it with a cream fine wool sweater.

This is a terrible picture, but you can just see her shoes, which look like cream heeled sandals, or slingbacks.

Jenny wears this dress to go to a concert. Again, it's in her signature colours of cream, pale chocolate brown and yellow. The design is very simple, with a high boat neck and a full gathered skirt. Jenny wears it with her yellow cardigan and a pale chocolate belt.

Over the dress Jenny wears a very New Look style coat in a creamy-beige fabric. It's quite long, and is fitted a the waist and flares out again.

The silk scarf that Jenny wears is printed with scenes of Paris in brown and green on a cream and pale yellow background. It's the ultimate in chic, conservative wear.

You can see how long the coat is here - longer that her skirt, which is tea length.

Another pretty dress for attending a luncheon. This one is quite loosely cut, and has a row of tiny buttons down the front. Once again you can see the brown handbag, which matches everything!

The fabric is cream with a pattern of dots in brown and orange, connected with fine lines in an almost "atomic" print.

This is the only view of this outfit, which I'm guessing is an embroidered blouse or cardigan. Jenny wears it for a concert where she plays the piano. The colours are very similar to the dress above.

Party Dress

Jenny's "best" dress is perfectly 50s. Sleeveless, with a drop-waist and full skirt, it's classy and demure. The fabric is cream with a fine check woven into it. She wears a long brooch on the left side (you can just see it behind her hand).

The back of the dress. I like the constrast between the high almost cowl-neck front and the deep v-neck back with the little collar.

The full outfit. Jenny wears her cream jacket and cream pumps.

Lingerie

All the girls have a dressing-gown, for sitting around the kitchen table and drinking cocoa in (or more realistically, when they have to get up in the night to go to a patient).

This is the only time you see Jenny's underwear, a slip that she goes swimming in. It's so pretty that I tried to get a few shots of it. Pale pink with beige lace in an asymmetrical pattern.

And you can just see in this picture that the side of the skirt is also lace. Very pretty.

Well, I hope you're enjoyed looking at Nurse Jenny Lee's outfits. Next up I will be doing a post on Trixie's wardrobe, which is full of cute sweaters.

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Bump and Grindercise

July 10, 2013, 12:17 am

≫ Next: The Little Paris Kitchen

≪ Previous: Call the Midwife: Nurse Jenny Lee

Bump and Grindercise logo by Gypsy Taylor

On Saturday I went to my new excercise class - Bump and Grindercise! Run by the glamorous burlesque dancer L'amour, the class is like a burlesque aerobics class with some twerking thrown in for good measure.

As you can see, L'amour really dresses up for her classes, so I felt I had to make something exciting to wear.

Tada! My new burlesque workout outfit! The bra is from a belly dancing costume I made for the end-of-year concert last year. I had some lycra left over, so I made a pair of high-waisted knickers to match, and wore them over fishnets.

I used The Betty High Waisted Panties pattern from Ohhh Lulu. It's very good, you just pay and get a PDF emailed to you instantly.

The ~~panties~~ knickers (sorry, it's just the most awful word) have a shaped front and back piece, and side panels, so you can make them out of contrasting fabrics if you so desire. The instructions are quite brief (no pun intended!) but there is a tutorial on making them on the Ohhh Lulu blog.

Gertie (from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing) made some and posted about them on her blog here - she mentions that she modified the pattern slightly to make them nip in at the waist more, and that's what I did too. Although the pattern uses lingerie elastic around the waist and leg openings, I bound the legs with strips of lycra and just folded the waist over and made a casing for elastic, as I wanted them to look more sturdy and less lingerie-like.

I'm definitely going to make some more pairs of knickers with this pattern - you can also use non-stretch fabrics cut on the bias for the front and back panels, so it would be nice to experiment with silk!

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The Little Paris Kitchen

August 2, 2013, 6:54 pm

≫ Next: More Spinning

≪ Previous: Bump and Grindercise

About a month ago I discovered a new cooking show on SBS. I'm not usually interested in programs about cooking, but a friend from work told me that the chef in question was like a cross between Nigella and Amelie, so I had to have a look!

Of course I'm talking about the lovely Rachel Khoo, a British girl who moved to Paris to study patisserie at Le Courdon Bleu, and who subsequently turned her one-room Paris flat into a restaurant so tiny that she could only seat two diners!

I fell in love with Rachel, who is cute, down-to-earth, and most of all, very real. Her food is classic homestyle French cooking with a twist. I can definitely see the Nigella in her (both women love cream and nice cardigans) and she charms every French person she meets. As well as showing her cooking in her miniscule kitchen (she only has a toaster oven!), her program has Rachel visiting some of her favourite food suppliers and places to eat in Paris, and taking inspiration from them.

Naturally there is a book, My Little Paris Kitchen. The recipes are a nice mixture of classic and adventurous. So far I've only tried the Potatoes Gratin, which was delicious, but I'm hoping to try more soon.

You can find the 12 recipes that were featured in the show on the BBC website. I can't wait to try her Madeleines with Lemon Curd!

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More Spinning

August 5, 2013, 11:39 pm

≫ Next: Tiny Food

≪ Previous: The Little Paris Kitchen

My first lot of handspun yarn! I finally finished spinning all the green and yellow stuff a while ago, and then I had to ply it, which is when you spin two or more strands together. This makes the yarn stronger and thicker, and stops it from unwinding itself. This is a 3 ply.

I've already started on my second spinning project, with some tops that I picked up very cheaply at the Handweavers and Spinners Guild sale day. It's much softer and I can spin it so much more finely. The tops are mostly royal blue with bits of yellow, white and pink included. At first I was going to leave the other colours out, but they actually make it much more interesting to spin, so I'm changing colour for a bit every now and then. They will probably be knitted into socks for Mr Macska eventually, but I'm sure he can cope with a tiny bit of pink.

The fabric in the background is a beautiful piece of Hungarian embroidery which I am going to make into cushions (I have two of them). It almost looks like it is woven, but it's actually stitched in lines on the red fabric.

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Tiny Food

September 3, 2013, 1:38 am

≫ Next: Mermaid Birthday Card

≪ Previous: More Spinning

I've always loved tiny things ever since my father made me a doll's house when I was a child and filled it with beautiful tiny furniture. So I was enchanted when I found the blog of Stéphanie Kilgast, called PetitPlat.

Stéphanie discovered miniature food making in 2007 when she was studying for her Masters in Architecture. She opened her Etsy shop the following year, and has been making increasingly amazing miniature food ever since.

All the food is made of Fimo, but she manages to get such an amazing range of textures. Look at this beautiful cake, it looks so spongey!

Or this tasty looking bread! It's so crusty and delicious looking, I can almost smell it.

If you are interested in how Stéphanie makes her amazing food, there are a few tutorials on her blog, including one for making lemons like the ones in the picture below.

Or better still, buy her book! It's self-published, and includes instructions in French and English on how to make tiny food for Easter, Halloween, Christmas and parties in general.

The instructions and photographs look great, I've ordered a copy and I can't wait until it gets here! I'm sure having a go at making this tiny stuff will give me even more of an appreciation of how difficult it is to make.

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Mermaid Birthday Card

September 4, 2013, 5:38 am

≫ Next: Librarian Ken

≪ Previous: Tiny Food

Sunday is my grandfather's 94th birthday. When he was 14 he ran away to sea to be a sailor, so I thought he might like a mermaid for his birthday.

This is before I coloured it, the birthday card was coloured in pencil but I was thinking of doing a version in watercolour which will give some nice effects.

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Librarian Ken

October 3, 2013, 9:20 pm

≫ Next: Sketches for Noir Comic

≪ Previous: Mermaid Birthday Card

Meet Librarian Ken: he likes coffee, cats and dystopian-future novels. I made Ken's outfit for a competition at work, which was to raise money for charity. He even has a tiny Melbourne Uni staff card on a lanyard, and yes, that's actually his photo on the card. Originally Ken looked like this:

I gave him a haircut and then made a completely new outfit for him. The only thing I kept were the shoes, cream loafers. The pants are made from men's kimono fabric, using the trousers from these patterns. The shirt I just made up on the spot (I cheated and didn't make any sleeves). The bowtie is a piece of velvet ribbon, and the glasses are made from fine black wire twisted into shape.

The cardigan was knitted using this vintage pattern from Free Vintage Patterns. It was a little bit small for a modern Ken (I think he's been going to the gym) so I added some more rows to the sleeves to make them longer. I knitted it up with 4ply and it took about 2 evenings to finish the whole thing.

Here I am looking embarrassed! The competition was judged by Pam Mawson, who is the Creative Director of the Country Women's Association Victoria, and who was actually in town to judge the cakes at the Royal Melbourne Show. I won a CWA cookbook, so I shall be whipping up scones and lamingtons in no time.

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Sketches for Noir Comic

October 17, 2013, 7:30 pm

≫ Next: Noir Comic Finished and Launched

≪ Previous: Librarian Ken

I'm working on a very short (4 page) comic at the moment, which is a new experience for me. I've been reading comics for years, but I've never drawn one, and it's certainly a learning experience. This one is to go in a noir-themed short-fiction journal called Bordertown, which is a creative writing project that Mr Macska is involved in for uni.

The comic was inspired by this amazing piece of work by Melbourne jeweller William Llewellyn Griffiths, of Metal Couture. A few years ago he created three wind-up dioramas using taxidermied mice, and when you turned the handle the mice moved around.

This is the Swan Lake one, when the handle is turned the curtains open and the three little mice pirouette slowly to the sound of Swan Lake coming from a tiny music box inside. William made the chandelier and the tiny tiaras that the mice are wearing, and his wife Alice made the tutus.

These photos must have been taken before it was fully completed because the finished one is more elaborate, with jewelled trees on either side and some drapery in the background. You can see it in motion on this little video.

Anyway, here are a few poorly photographed sketches from my little comic, which concerns a mouse detective interviewing a serial killer cat who has been murdering and taxidermying mouse showgirls in a perverse attempt to "purify" them by turning them into ballerinas.

I've been tracing over the pencil drawing onto tracing paper with fineliner, and then I plan to scan the images and clean them up in Photoshop.

The finished comic will be a little A5 booklet, made to look like a pulp detective paperback, with the comic inside over 4 pages, and then a little bio of William and a picture of the original Swan Lake dancing mouse contraption. I'll post more pictures soon as I get more done!

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Noir Comic Finished and Launched

November 3, 2013, 4:46 am

≫ Next: "Dance For Me" - My Noir Comic

≪ Previous: Sketches for Noir Comic

Finally the little comic is done and printed. It was two weeks of hard work, more time consuming than I thought (of course I still had to go to work, etc).

Here are some peeks at the two pages of drawings. This was when they were still on the tracing paper, before I scanned them in and fiddled around with the on Photoshop.

I wanted to make the cover look like one of those pulp detective novels from the 1940s and 50s. First I needed a sexy dame. With a bit of inspiration from Dita Von Teese and a book about the history of strippers in America, I found my lady.

After a harrowing night on the computer (it had to go to the printers the next day) I got it all finished, including the cover. The background was a photo of theatre curtains, and I used free fonts I downloaded for the titles. Detective Novels is in Government Agent BB, and Dance for Me is in True Crimes. I added the wear around the edge by using this great tutorial from Storyteller's Workshop Inc.

I sent the pdf off to Officeworks to have 100 copies printed out, and picked them up a couple of days later. What a disaster! The test copy I had printed at work on the new office printer turned out fine (see above), but the ones from Officeworks were really dark and inky. You can see below that they were much darker, and the paper they used had a sort of greyish blue cast to it so that contributed to the issue.

Luckily there's a copy shop in the basement of the library (why didn't I go there originally? I know, I'm kicking myself) and they printed them out again for me, in half colour, and it turned out looking more like the original. What a silly waste! Now I realise that it's always best to go to a printing place where you can talk to the people and get them to do a test print. Well, it's a learning experience!

So I folded 200 sheets of paper in half and stapled them all with my new long-arm stapler into little booklets. Ouch, my hands were hurting after I'd finished all that!

The launch went really well and all 100 copies of the Bordertown journal (with my comic as an insert) were sold! Yay! I completely forgot to take any photographs except a couple of very blurry ones with my friend Robyn.

Dress: Malibu Tiki Dress from Deadly Dames

Necklace: Metal Couture pistol pendant

And this selfie when I was getting ready. I made the orchid in my hair to match my dress, and I'll put a tutorial up about it next week.

And last of all, a couple of little author/illustrator profile pictures I did of me and Mr Macska to go in the back of the comic. I think we make quite a cute little mouse couple.

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"Dance For Me" - My Noir Comic

December 22, 2013, 3:40 pm

≫ Next: Books of 2013

≪ Previous: Noir Comic Finished and Launched

I've been shamefully absent from this blog for a while, due to a combination of family things and work. I've been meaning to post the entire Dance For Me comic for ages now, so without further ado, here it is. Hope you enjoy it. (Click to enlarge pages).

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Books of 2013

January 3, 2014, 6:10 am

≫ Next: My First Knitting Project of 2014: Cropped Jacket from 1954

≪ Previous: "Dance For Me" - My Noir Comic

"Woman Reading" by Torajiro Kojima.

I was a bit disappointed that I only managed to read 49 books in 2013, missing my goal of 52 books (one books a week) by only 3! Each year I try to read some books from the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list, this year I managed 12. According to the Goodreads stats page I read 14,226 pages which is rather a lot when you put it like that!

I keep a notebook of the books I read, with the details of the title and author, a brief description of the book (so I remember what it's about), my comments, and a rating out of five stars. 2013 was a fairly good year and I read some really interesting books. These were the five star books:

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel (2012)
I do love historical fiction, and this is it at its finest. The sequel to 2009's Wolf Hall, this again has Thomas Cromwell as the main character. Henry VIII, tiring of his second wife Anne Boleyn and desperate for an heir, has Cromwell bring her down at any cost. The writing is superb.

Embassytown by China Miéville (2011)
Only China Miéville could make linguistics cool. As usual this novel isn't just escapist sci-fi - you really have to stretch your mind to grasp some of the ideas here. Interstellar colonialism and aliens who's language doesn't allow them to lie. It's brilliant stuff.

The King Must Die by Mary Renault (1958)
My father said that it's much easier to remember historical dates and events if you read a novel about them, as the story helps them stick in your mind. I find the same with myths and legends. For someone who studied Classics at university, I'm pretty shaky on a lot of the ancient Greek myths, but after reading The King Must Die I'll never get mixed up with the story of the Greek hero Theseus again. Mary Renault tells the story of Thesesus' early Cretan adventures as if he were a real historical figure, adding in details from archaeological findings to give a wonderfully evocative sense of time and place.

The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003)
I put off reading this for ages because it looked like such a mushy, romantic book. Judging by the reviews on Goodreads this is a book you will either love or hate. Personally I really loved it and found it incredibly moving and bittersweet. The time-travel is possibly a little flawed if you really dig into it, but it worked for me.

Rabbit, Run by John Updike (1960)
Set in 1959, Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom can't bear the constraints of his ordinary life anymore and suddenly leaves his pregnant wife and young son. The writing is incredibly fresh and vivid, with a beautiful poetry to the descriptions.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (1938)
A young girl, orphaned and working as a ladies companion on a trip to the South of France, meets the brooding Max de Winter, an older, handsome widower. Stunned and flattered by his proposal of marriage, the couple return to his ancestral home of Manderley in England. But the new Mrs de Winter becomes obsessed with her husband's former wife, who's memory is kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper Mrs Danvers. The sense of slowly growing tension is quite masterful, and your heart just aches for the young, shy girl trying to please her aloof husband and the disdainful servants.

The Prestige by Christopher Priest (2004)
Two Victorian stage magicians begin a rivalry that soon turns into a bitter feud, with each trying desperately to discover the secrets of the other's signature trick. It's a real page-turner and even if you have seen the film (which I had) it's significantly different and so much more detailed that it's worth the read. Gripping.

The Orchid Thief: A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean (2000)
An absolutely fascinating book about obsessions. In 1994 John Laroche and a group of Seminole Indians were arrested for poaching rare orchids in a nature preserve in Florida. Orlean meets and interviews Laroche, who wanted to clone the elusive and highly sought-after Ghost Orchid, thinking he could make his fortune. Along the way, she also looks at the history of orchid collecting and meets other orchid enthusiasts, and finds that something about orchids brings out incredible obsessions in some people. They will do literally anything to get their hands on particular rare specimens and orchid collecting becomes their whole life. Orleans' writing is so skillful and interesting that even if you have no particular interest in orchids, you can't help but be intrigued.

In the Land of Invented Languages: Esperanto Rock Stars, Klingon Poets, Loglan Lovers, and the Mad Dreamers Who Tried to Build a Perfect Language by Arika Okrent (2009)
Most people have heard of Esperanto and Klingon, but did you know that since the 17th century people have invented hundreds of languages, almost all which have faded into complete obscurity over the centuries? Me neither until I read this wonderful book. The passion that these people had, and the certainty that their language was so much better than the natural languages that had evolved with all their messy grammar is amazing. Even today, people are somehow driven to keep inventing "better" and "more logical" languages. One for all you language nerds out there.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century by Ian Mortimer (2008)
A wonderfully fresh look at life in England during the 14th century. Mortimer advises the reader as if they were able to time-travel back into that period and the focus is mostly on the daily life of the different social classes. What I found really interesting was the way he looks at the way medieval people thought as well as acted. The way people thought about the geography of a place before maps were widely used is entirely different from the way we think today.

Did you have any particularly good books you read last year?

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My First Knitting Project of 2014: Cropped Jacket from 1954

January 12, 2014, 10:42 pm

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≪ Previous: Books of 2013

2013 was not a very good year for knitting. I started the Cherry Cardigan, but I ended up abandoning it because I decided it would probably gape at the buttons across the bust. Also, knitting all that ribbing was really really dull. But I've determined to do some more knitting this year, and I've already started my first project. Behold the Cropped Jacket Cardigan.

This cardigan (or maybe it's bolero as it doesn't actually have any fastenings?) is from Housewife magazine November 1954, and I found it on Vintage Chic. The instructions are fairly minimal but perfectly succinct as long as you have some experience in knitting. It's knitted in moss stitch with a garter stitch border (that's seed stitch with a stockinette border for those of you in the U.S.) and the best thing is that it's knitted in 12 ply on 6.5mm kneedles so it knits up tremendously fast.

Moss stitch uses a lot of yarn and I had calculated the it would cost about $95 in Patons 12 ply to make the cardigan, which was a bit more than I wanted to spend. Luckily a fellow librarian told me about the Bendigo Woollen Mills. They are based in Bendigo, an historic gold-mining town not that far from Melbourne, and their yarn is made from Australian wool. Best of all, if you send them an email, they will send you all their shade cards for free!

Most of their yarns come in several plys, and I went with the Rustic 12 ply because it felt quite soft. The prices are incredibly reasonable, $11.50 for a 200g ball (that's 4 times the size of a normal ball of wool) and I think with postage the whole thing cost me $40. The shade I chose is a new one, Cinder Fleck. It is black with flecks of white and camel through it, which I thought would be a bit more interesting than just a plain black yarn. So far it's knitting up really quickly and the yarn soft while still having a lot of body.

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Heatwave

January 15, 2014, 3:25 pm

≫ Next: Holiday in Tasmania

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You may have heard that Melbourne is experiencing a heatwave this week. Temperatures have been over 40 degrees from Monday onwards - today is going to reach 44 C (111 F). What can you wear on a day like that?

This is my outfit today: my Edgeley Lenore dress from the SS 2012/13 collection. It's made out of 4 panels of silk, tied at the waist with a silk sash. I have a matching red silk slip to wear underneath because the side panels are quite sheer.

Here it is from the Edgeley webshop.

I'm also wearing my Edgeley Tassel Earrings, which were a present from my cousin Bella. They go with everything and I love the feeling as they brush against my neck!

I bought a few pairs of espadrilles at the beginning of summer from the Espadrille Store, and these are my favourites. They are silk, lined with canvas. I wish I had bought a black pair too.

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Holiday in Tasmania

January 30, 2014, 4:52 am

≫ Next: Why I Need to Do Some Sensible Sewing

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Last week Mr Macska and I went down to Tasmania for his parents' wedding anniversary and a little holiday. It was a lovely refreshing break from all the hot weather in Melbourne. I'm terrible at remembering to take photos when I'm out and about, but I did manage to snap a few. So here are some of the highlights of our trip:

Sailing a yacht under the Hobart Bridge. Yes, that's me at the tiller! Mr Macska's very good friend James took us out on his 40 ft yacht, and despite getting rather seasick I had a fantastic time. We even got to put the sail up.

Playing the pokies for the first time in my life and winning! I'm not really the gambling type, but when we happened to end up in a pokies pub for half-an-hour I thought why not? I put $1 into an Elvis-themed machine and won $9. I promptly collected my winnings and that was the end of that.

Catching the Striborg gig at MONA. Striborg is a one-man ambient black metal band from Tasmania, which sounds a bit like Burzum. He happened to be playing as part of MONA FOMA while we were there, so we caught the show, which was pretty cool, and I took a terrible photo in the dark!

One of the best things about the show was it was held next to the amazing new chapel at MONA which is by Wim Delvoye. It's a seven-sided Gothic-inspired structure made of rusted iron lacework with seven stained glass windows set into the central room.

Of course because this is MONA the stained-glass windows depict the museum's main themes - sex and death. Some of the windows had giant maggots in leadlight, while these ones had x-rays of people engaged in...ahem... intimate acts.

The next day we headed up to Launceston for Mr Macska's parents' 40th wedding anniversary party. They owned a fabric shop for years, and I couldn't resist taking a photo of this amazing quilt that Mr Macska's dad made. It's almost three-dimensional, each little square sits up off the circle it's on. Beautiful work.

Gorgeous flowers at my mother's place, brightening up the day every time I walked past them.

Eating homemade profiteroles off my mother's amazing 1930s tea set. The pattern is "Carnival" by Royal Doulton, and it seems to be quite a rare colourway.

This lovely stretch sateen with roses on it that I didn't buy (curses!) in a fabric shop in Launceston. I did get some grey, black and white very large check silk to make a skirt thought.

And of course going through the old family photos. Me as a little child, my father called my ears "paper ears" because they were so soft and bendy.

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Why I Need to Do Some Sensible Sewing

February 9, 2014, 12:20 am

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≪ Previous: Holiday in Tasmania

A little while ago I was looking in my wardrobe and wondering why when I have so many clothes does it seem like I have nothing to wear? Then I read this post at By Gum By Golly and realised what was wrong.

As you can see above, almost everything in my wardrobe is patterned. I've got spots (a lot of spots), checks, florals and leopard print, not to mention a lot of other novelty patterned items. Which is fine, I love patterns. The problem is that I don't have any plain things to wear them with.

For example, shirts. I've taken to wearing shirt more over the past year as they are a bit more demure for work and I love a shirt paired with a gathered skirt and a tight, wide belt. And these are my shirts - tiny horseshoes, checks, skulls, spots and leopard print. I also have black with cherries and a bright Hawaiian print. Not one plain shirt amongst them. This would be fine if all my skirts were in plain colours, but apart from a nice black wool pencil skirt for winter and a teal pencil skirt that I'm wearing to death, all my skirts are patterned.

This means I end up with things that only go with one other item, and that gets boring. I like the flexibility of a mix-and-match wardrobe but at the moment I've got a few things that I love but have nothing to go with them.

The upshot of this is that I need to do some Sensible Sewing. For starters I could do with:

a black voile shirt
a black cotton dirndl skirt
a black denim pencil skirt
a blue denim pencil skirt (I've got one but it's getting really faded and ratty)

This is going to be my challenge for 2014 - to sew some plain basics pieces that I can wear with several things. What do you think? Do you sew plain things or just buy them?

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