Crafty

Unless you hadn’t noticed, I’m a bit of a retro chick.  My style, whilst my own, encompasses elements from the 1920s through to the 1970s.  I tend to focus more on the 1950s, but it would be remiss of me to say that I am just a fifties chick.

There are several things you probably know about me, like the fact I’m a baker, a pin-up chick and a retro gal, but there are probably some things you don’t know about me…  Things like the fact I’m obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race, that I wanted to be a pop star growing up (and I still kind of do!) and that I’m basically an old lady in a 35-year-old’s body.  By this I mean I love all things crafty.  Not only do I bake - which I think used to be construed as something only your grandmother or eccentric old aunt did - but I also knit.  I’m learning pyrography, lino printing and Tony is (trying to) teaching me origami.  I still love colouring in, and I draw.  The other thing I’ve been recently turning my hand to is sewing and dressmaking.  As a retro girl, whilst there are a lot of companies out there now who provide reproduction vintage clothes - I shop a lot in Collectif and Lindy Bop and also buy things from Vivien of Holloway and the like - there is something in me that would much rather have clothes exactly like the ones that were worn in the 50’s.  It’s easy enough to buy vintage patterns, though sizes have changed over the years, so sometimes getting the fit right is the tough part.  Enter Sew La Di Da Vintage.  They create patterns based on vintage clothes but for today’s fit.  Epic.  I’ve been aware of them for a little while but hadn’t actually bought any patterns.  I was lucky enough to attend the Great British Sewing Bee Live show earlier this year, and happened upon Sew La Di Da’s stall and got chatting with their owner, Caroline Smith.  Both Tony and I are quite crafty and Tony is actually an amazing dressmaker and tailor - if you watched him on MasterChef and marvelled at his 1920s oxford bag style trousers and wondered where he got them from, he actually made them - so it was great to chat about dressmaking with an actual dressmaker.

​An arduous decision ensued as to what patterns to buy, but eventually, I settled on Margo, Rose and Betty-Jean

Inside you get the pattern and some great photos to give you inspiration

I am so looking forward to trawling the haberdashery for the perfect material and finally creating my own tailormade "vintage" outfit.  I will post the finished article(s) as soon as I can. But in the meantime, ensure to check out Sew La Di Da Vintage's website, Twitter and Instagram feeds and be sure to buy your own patterns!

Stay Hep, Cats!