Who remembers Prince Charles and Lady Diana's wedding on 29 July 1981? Who was alive then! I was a teenager at High School and remember vividly watching the Royal Wedding. I really disliked Di's dress - not in style but in the way it was made and its proportions. So I immediately made a replica for my biggest doll, that went on display in a local craft shop.
We (the shop) were given a bag of old knitting patterns recently, and when Karyn dived in to raid it, she found this magazine:
It has a knitting pattern for a Sindy wedding dress in it, of course at this stage the dress was still under wraps - so the cover art was quite impressive in its likeness to the actual neckline.
It's in fantastic condition, and I wonder if it has any value?
So far the best value has come from me posting it on Made Marion's Facebook page, and the stories that have come out - my favourite being of the crowds stuck in London that night as the Tube closed early, who stayed the night in the foyers of the various stations. It must have been really annoying at the time and even scary, but a great yarn!
Sung to the tune of 47 Ginger Headed Sailors! Which is a very silly song Bertie Wooster sings in the famous TV series. Video clip below.
ANYWAY, local charity Foster Hope put a call out for winter pyjamas for children being placed in foster care. Any excuse for some selfless sewing, the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network members jump to it!
Laura and I staged a flannel raid at the local Voldemart, which was the cheapest option for good quality flannel, and bought as much as we could on our budget of donated coupons and cash. I reckoned we were going to get 25 pairs out which seemed pretty impressive!
These are all but one of the fabrics we bought. It was tricky as we wanted to get gender neutral options, but they were few and far between, whereas some of the girlier ones were on super special, so we probably ended up with more pretty ones than plain. Oh well. (the plain flannel was rubbish quality compared with the prints - what is that all about?) We (Made Marion Craft) contributed the only two flannels I had in stock - the grey with pink butterflies and the second from right top row.
On Thursday I put three loads of flannel through the wash, and dried it and pressed them dry over the next couple of nights. All 40+m of it.
I actually thought I had killed my iron at one point, and bought a new one, but it was the plug. BUT I love my new Tefal iron so all good!
ANYWAY, on Sunday a group of us gathered together to cut out, eat scones and laugh.
Left to right, Laura, Kirsten and Me. Gemma was taking the pic. Aly had been and gone with a stack to sew. I swear I did more than just eat scones ;-)
And I guess I've given the game away - we managed to get 47 pairs of pyjama bottoms out of our haul! Now we have to solve the tops problem. Knit tops, warm enough for winter with good coverage. Sourcing enough knit fabric of the right type and weight is going to be interesting!
Now folks here's the story of Constance the Moocher!
We did our show and it was fun! I found just the right jacket at City Chic, because tailoring jackets is not my bag for a costume. I made the trousers and the corset I embellished. The rad pink sequin trim that looks a bit like film was $1m. Cheapest costume I ever made!
Three rows of the trim on the lapels.
I trimmed the already pink corset with rows of the sequin
Side trim for trousers, which are super wide, in keeping with the era but also my shape! I am not made for fitting trousers!
The back wall of the stage area we decorated with clocks of all sizes.
It was strange using a hand held microphone, I usually have a head mike but it was feeding back everywhere so we ditched it. I felt very off not being able to wave both my arms around all the time!
