I met the Pope of Trash, and made a new sleazy dress for the occasion.

Remember this post? The one where I pretty much ended up collapsing to my knees and wailing "WHY GOD? WHYYYY?" at the top of my lungs after royally ballsing up a great many times?

Well yeah, I tried again. Only this time it worked!

 

Hell yes. That's bright.

I had a stroke of luck, and the first time I visited the Liverpool branch of Abakhan Fabrics after moving here, I evidently had a stroke of another kind and bought another piece of the same cursed fabric which had led to the crushing of my dreams a few months before. I used iDye again, and despite the high synthetic content I used the all-purpose dye in bright yellow, and just ran it through a hot wash in my machine.

Here's the finished article! I added pom-pom trim and black facings to the petal bust and skirt drape as planned, and made a little kitty ears hat to match! I felt very Poison Ivy wearing this! You too can look fabulously feline in a kitty ears hat of your very own at http://www.kalandrajane.com/ and if any of you fancy one in the yellow leopard print, I have a little left for custom orders.

I wore it with my cropped fake leather jacket and some 1950s deadstock vintage black velour killer stiletto heels, and off I trotted with le boyfriend in tow to see John Waters! The performance was part of Liverpool's 10th Annual Homotopia event - a celebration of all things LGBTQ which even from the limited bits of it I experienced, seems a hell of a lot more inclusive and community-focussed than the commercialised 'pride' events of certain other cities *ahem*.

The Liverpool Echo gave the performance a great writeup, and I had such a good time! His Highness was as witty and acerbic as you'd expect him to be in person, keeping everyone enthralled and amused (and feeling a little bit guilty for laughing at some of his more ribald anecdotes), every bit the expert raconteur.

Then we got to meet him! Squeals of delight! The queue for book signing and photographs was rather long, luckily there were only about 25 people in front of us. Mr. Waters was charming and funny, sent get well wishes to a friend who'd been unable to attend the show due to an operation, signed a book for him, and one for myself of course! He sent me on my way with a fantastically bitchy joke I won't repeat here, and a sly wink!

PS. I read the whole book the next night, and will certainly be buying his new book when it's out next year!

Catching up! Sewing news.

Hello all,

I have been super busy these last few weeks, but have still managed to get quite a lot of sewing done, and yet more sewing planned.

I made the melon dress as promised from my last post, here it is! Excuse my sweaty demeanour - this was at the end of a three-day psychobilly festival and I was a little worse for wear.

As you can see it's a little... bursty. The lining shrank when I steam ironed it, and I'd stupidly cut it out to my pre- Christmas measurements. I'm about 1" bigger all over now, but as it's such a close-fitting dress to start with, an inch unfortunately makes all the difference. I will be making efforts to rectify this situation over the next couple of months with copious amounts of exercise and salad.

I also made myself this black and red taffeta sarong dress, you can't see how gorgeous the fabric is here so I will get a better picture this week. The fabric was mainly left over from a commission dress I made for a friend to wear to the launch of the latest in the Style Me Vintage book series, and it's just lovely, so authentically 50s with its tiny flecks of shiny black and red on the black base.

I also joined the SewToday Club for £7.50 a quarter, for that price you get a magazine every month, any two patterns free when you join, plus 50% off all Butterick, McCall, Vogue and KwikSew patterns. They also regularly have buy 1 get 2 free events for their members, one of which started less than a week after I joined, so I have ordered five patterns so far.

So far I've been scooping up Gertie's patterns, and I can't wait to get started on them. Here's what I've ordered:

B5882. How could you not?! It's gorgeous... the shelf bust is such a nice feature. Apparently a lot of sewers (as in sow-ers, not suw-ers. Ewww.) are waiting with bated breath for Gertie to do a full bust adjustment for this one, so keep an eye on her blog if you're amply endowed up top. Tits ahoy!

  

B5895 - I got two of these, one for me and one for my sister Ginny over at Buttons and Bobbins. I've got a modern capris pattern but this one looks to have a more vintage-styled higher waist, and the simple retro blouse pattern will be really useful for Summer and would make some super cute Hawaiian print tops.

B5814 - I wasn't sure about this one, so I looked at some pictures online of other people's dressmaking efforts with it and decided that my misgivings are mainly down to the envelope photo - the dress itself is lovely but the styling isn't quite right, and the model, bless her, isn't really filling out such a bodacious garment. I think once you put someone with some bigger curves in there and add some more vintage accessories this dress will be a killer.

KwikSew 3491 - This one could look a bit dodgy at first glance, but disregard the hideous violet/greige ensemble the model is wearing, and look at the construction, and you have a perfect little 40s/50s Ike Jacket, a bit like this one:

Via the Vintage Pattern Wikia

This 1940s Hollywood pattern was the one that Tasha at By Gum, By Golly! used in the Sew For Victory challenge, and it looks great. I'm more of a 50s than a 40s girl though, so the later style knitted bottom band and zip front of the KwikSew pattern are just fine for me. I'm envisioning it in a yellow and black or red and black extra large check or tartan, and maybe a black twill version with a big back patch design for a more rockabilly look.

I've also got my beady eye on this brand new release of a 1951 pattern from Butterick, no. 5880. I'm hoping to buy this, Vogue's new mens suit pattern (for Aerospace Boyfriend now he has conferences and stuff to attend, and now Vogue have finally brought out a suit that doesn't look like something out of Miami Vice), and whatever else tickles my fancy before the 3-for-1 offer is up.

It's just lovely, and a bit easier to wear that my usual boob-bearing, boned, skintight affairs. So just to make sure it's still utterly unsuitable to wear in polite society, I've been utterly stubborn, or perhaps utterly stupid, and decided to attempt the fabric dyeing that failed so comically in my last post, and make it from that. I went into my usual fabric shop for trimmings, and lo and behold, sat on top of the bargain basket was another piece of the dreaded white leopard print fabric. I bought a shade lighter of the yellow iDye, and it is running on a 90C cycle in the washing machine RIGHT NOW. I don't know if I even dare look. To be continued...

Haworth 1940s Weekend 2012

I spent this weekend walking up and down very steep cobbled hills in the lovely Yorkshire village of Haworth, which was holding its annual 1940s weekend. The whole village is decked out in Union Jack bunting and sandbags, the residents decorate the outside of their homes and the charity shops bring out all the vintage treasures they have been stockpiling! Vintage cars, military vehicles and wartime reconstructions lined the streets providing plenty for us to look at.

I had organised a trip over for several ladies on the Saturday, and although they all enjoyed it and found some great vintage buys, it was very stressful. The crowds were enormous, it was like a city shopping street on Christmas eve, except worse because nobody was in a rush to be anywhere. My sister also had her daughter in a pram, and found it very difficult to get around. I didn't get a chance to take any pictures that day, because if I had stopped to extract the camera from my bag I would have been knocked over, and the scrums in the vintage shops were shocking, there were elbows and snatching hands everywhere!

Today (Sunday) was a far more leisurely affair, the village was still busy but the crowd seemed more courteous and far less jam-packed. I risked taking the dog with me, and despite an incident with an unfriendly Jack Russell and my poor Scamp getting exhausted from walking up and down hills (he is fifteen, after all) we had a good day, he didn't get stepped on by anybody and enjoyed a picnic in the park with us.

Here is what I wore today, my new jumper knitted by my mum from a 1940s pattern. You can buy this pattern from Bex at Subversive Lesbian Anarchic Femme, available here in her etsy shop, although my mum sized it up, made the sleeves in the rib rather than cherry motif as the cherries took forever to knit, and omitted the collar.

Here's another pic of the outfit, with some chaps dressed as members of the Home Guard. Why am I doing that with my face, you ask? Well, the guy on the left of the picture is squeezing my bottom. That's why. How rude!

 

This duo were playing on the bandstand in the park, she sang a lovely rendition of La Vie en Rose.

Now, onto the vintage purchases! There was so much to choose from. Haworth has two gorgeous permanent vintage shops, loaded with *actual* quality vintage and antique clothing and accessories, not the 80s tat that shops in the city pretend is vintage. There was also a vintage fair in the church hall, and several curio and charity shops in the village which were loaded with lovely items.

 

Lovely teal mini suitcase!

I have been looking for a small suitcase or train case for ages, to store bits and bobs in at home and for when I go away for a few days or to stay at my boyfriend's at Christmas. This one is in great condition and such a pretty colour!

The lining looks good too! Inside is a pair of fully fashioned stockings I got in one of the charity shops. They are Aristoc Harmony which are quite late (I'm guessing 60s?) but were apparently some of the best ones made prior to the hosiery industry's takeover by ghastly crepey brown tights in the 70s.

1930s Uranium glass dish and spoon from the hospice shop

Another piece for my uranium glass collection!

1950s folding coolie sun hat! This is a flat shape with a popper so it can be easily packed in a holiday bag, made from some sort of straw or string, which folds into a cute cone-shaped sun bonnet.

Babycham deer!

A Babycham plastic fawn! I have eight Babycham glasses and collect fawns too, so he fits in with two collections. This is about 6" high and cost just a few pounds due to the damage on his ear. I saw one of the 4" ones in worse condition priced at £35 in Manchester the other week.

WWII Navy Sweetheart Pin

WWII Navy sweetheart pin. This is about an inch high in total. It is pretty grubby but is made from enamelled silver, it just needs a good clean!

On the way home we were behind this tiny old car! The right wheel was rather wobbly, the window flapped open whenever they turned a corner and it could only manage 20mph due to the hills.

Here is the bad part about this weekend...

Arghhhh horrendous sunburn! It's just on my right forearm and there is a touch of it on the back of my neck, this happened during the ten minutes of bright sunshine we got during the day - time to break out te factor 50 sunscreen for every day, I think. So sore and itchy!

Another Tiki Shoes Revamp!

Following my successful Tiki Shoes Revamp last year, I have the urge to do it again!


I saw these gorgeous shoes on the irregular Choice website and fell in love with them, only to be disappointed that they have very non-vegan suede uppers.


There's a leopard version that appear to have fabric uppers, but I think that the trim round the sole is leather, and the little leaves on the fruit look like it too, plus I don't actually like them that much - I think the small print makes them look too busy, and therefore less striking.


Also... I don't have £64.99. What I do have is a marvellous boyfriend willing to enter into ebay battles on my behalf while I'm out doing a stall. Luckily, nobody decided to engage him in battle for these, and I got them for £26.50. I think having a vintage carved wooden sole is much better than a modern moulded plastic one!


The uppers are brown felt backed with thin fake leather, and the felt is quite watermarked and needs replacing. I plan to do leatherette uppers covered with either a coral coloured velvet in the style of the red Irregular Choice ones, or with straw braiding to match this hat, and add a big bunch of fruit and flowers! (Picture for Kalandra Jane Designs by Berni Harris).


I really want the coral velvet, but can't find any anywhere - only ribbon, or some silk velvet on etsy, which obviously isn't vegan either. Booo!

Bath trip part one: Marilyn Monroe and the American Museum

This week we made the 400-mile round trip to Bath to see the Marilyn Monroe exhibition at The American Museum in Britain, and it was fantastic. There were amazing costumes from her films, the highlights for me being the Red sequinned gown from 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', the highly embellished pink and white show costume from 'There's No Business Like Show Business' and the risqué sheer black beaded dress she wears whilst singing on the piano in 'Some Like it Hot'.


There were also original film posters, clothing and jewellery from her private collection, and personal effects from her childhood and film career, most of which were very interesting but some of which were a little upsetting, such as her prescription pill bottles.


Photography was not allowed in the exhibition, so Paul tried to sneak a picture for me on his phone, but as you can see the focus did not work at all! Considering we took some great pictures on the day with the same camera, it's a shame this one didn't come out.


I would highly recommend a visit to this exhibition for any Marilyn fan. It runs until the 30th October, after which all the items will return to Jersey where they reside in a private collection. I loved seeing the costumes in person, examining the details of their construction and getting to see a glimpse of Marilyn's personal life.

The rest of the American Museum is well worth a look too, with exhibits on early US folk art, Native American artefacts and beautifully recreated period rooms from various eras of American history.


Native American beaded waistcoat, showing clear influence of French and British design style.



The display of traditional patchwork quilts was lovely, many of them came with stories attached such as the rather sad one above. This was my favourite quilt of all the designs, the fans were made from such luxurious fabrics - a contrast from some of the cotton designs or Amish quilts in the museum's collection.

Art Deco Beauties

When I first moved into my flat, there were three framed prints in the hallway waiting to be thrown out. I saved them, of course, and they have languished in a corner ever since. During a cleaning frenzy the other day, I decided to take a closer look at them. One of the frames is coming apart a little, so I managed to take a peek beneath the backing paper.


The pictures are artwork prints given away by the Pompeian Beauty Company, and date from 1924! The glass needs a good clean, I think they'll look considerably brighter once they've had a good polish as I suspect the yellowish cast is nicotine staining on the surface - hopefully the paper itself has been protected by the sealed frames.


One of the prints sold on eBay this week for £34.49 (here), as you can see it has the Pompeian Beauty logo at the bottom with the artist's name, Gene Pressler. This part is cut off on my prints, obviously whoever framed them didn't like the branding on there so cut it off rather than folding it under, which is unfortunate.


Information on the company is fairly scarce online, but I came across this small article on Massage Magazine's website, about the history of Pompeian massage cream which has a little of the company's history. Though much of the available information relates to the brand's Canadian roots, it was in fact an international company, with its British headquarters in Leeds.

"The Pompeian Manufacturing Company began in a small drugstore on the outskirts of Cleveland, Ohio, in the late 19th century. Among its product line, the Pompeian Massage Cream was a favorite with barbers around the world - even though it was promoted to men and women alike.

Pharmacist Fred W. Stecher, the son of a German immigrant, created the soothing after-shave massage cream in the back room of his small drugstore on the west side of Cleveland. But it was Otto F. Leopold, who after Stecher's death would become president of the company, who led the creation of its famous "Pompeian Beauty of the Year" contest. Film star Mary Pickford was one of the first Pompeian beauties to grace the advertisements of the company, and helped Leopold to become one of America's early cosmetic tycoons.

In 1927 the Pompeian Manufacturing Company was sold to Colgate Palmolive Peet for $1 million. Six months later the entire Pompeian line of products was discontinued and the legacy of Pompeian Massage Cream and its "Pompeian Beauty" ended. But the legacy was the first great advertising campaign using the word massage in its product name. From the examples shown here you can get an idea of the broad approach the company took in marketing its Pompeian Massage Cream product.

Today the Pompeian Massage Cream jars, sample tins, ads and posters are considered collectable antiques."

-Robert Noah Calvert

There is also a more thorough history of the company and its products on the Collecting Vintage Compacts blog, which is full of interesting bits about vintage cosmetics and has some lovely Pompeian advertising pictures.


I had a chuckle at this inscription which is at the top on the back of the panel, hopefully he married her for more reasons than just her 'lasting youth and girlish loveliness'.

Shoemaking - carved tiki shoes revamp!

A couple of months ago I bought some cheap vintage carved shoes on etsy. I don't think they're 1950s, maybe 70s? Anyway, despite being deadstock the leatherette uppers weren't in the best condition, they looked like they'd been stored somewhere damp. Then, to top it off, they were so tight I couldn't even get my feet in! So I decided to revamp them... here's what I did!


First I removed the uppers using pliers, and put the decorative tacks aside. I made a new paper pattern for the uppers, measuring against my foot as I went.


I cut out new uppers from tropical barkcloth, adding a quarter inch seam allowance. I also cut linings from red fake leather, with no seam allowance.


Next I used these Miss L Fire shoes to make an ankle strap pattern from paper, but as I knew the ends would not be sewn in I made them rounded, and big enough to acommodate a metal eyelet.



I used fabric adhesive to stick the seam allowances in on the uppers and ankle straps, then stitched together the barkcloth outer pieces and fake leather linings.



Next I used small nails to attach the uppers to the wooden soles, and added the decorative tacks to cover the small nail heads and make the uppers more secure.


The wooden soles already had holes drilled through them, so I used nylon cord to thread the ankle straps onto them, after hammering metal eyelets into the strap ends. I knotted the cord and melted it a little.



Next I threaded small buckles onto flat elastic, and firmly machine stitched them in place between the ankle strap outer and lining.


Holes were punched in the straps using a large needle...


...ta daaaa! Finished!