A Pretty Vintage House Decorating Guide

I found this lovely 1967 Woman’s Weekly Home Sewing Decor Guide last year, but only just had the brilliant idea of making it in to a .pdf to share! 

It has lots of instructions on how to sew just about everything you could possibly need for your house; everything that that can be sewn that is, and it also tells you how to make interesting window dressings like pelmets, valances and cornices.

      

I like these examples of window treatments ~ although that floral wallpaper on the right is a bit much for me!!  >  <

The instructions for the table clothes seem simple, but with a nice variety of trimming styles from the normal boring square, which is useful. 

    

    

I love the colour pallet in all of the photos above that I saved from various websites ~ the fresh pastels really seem to lighten and brighten the spaces, don’t they?  Shabby French Country Chic is one of my favourite decor looks, although I love dark woods instead of all the white~washed furniture. 

There are of course, a ton more inspiration pictures out there, but combined with your handy DIY guide, your own vintage home decor and furnishings shall be easy to create ~ download it here.   ヽ(*≧ω≦)ﾉ

xox,

bonita

The Next Dress ~ Plotting, planning and scheming!

Start with one vintage pattern ~ Advance 9785.

Add a dash of floral fabric ~

And one excited me…

And you have my next dress project in the wings!

It wasn’t long after finishing my last dress{The On My Way Dress} that I began to wish I had another project to do.  Then I was digging through my stash trying to find fabric and a pattern that went together before I knew it.   The McCall’s I sewed up last time was obviously my first choice for a pattern, being the easiest and newest of all my patterns{most of which are vintage} but I simply could not find a fabric that worked for what I had in mind.  So I picked the biggest length of fabric that I cared the least about, a vintage pattern that seemed easy enough for me figure out using logic and decided to go to town!

 

This is my attempt at draping the fabric on Elizabeth, my dress form, to figure out whether this stripy flower pattern will work.  I only found out while tracing the pattern that the bodice is cut on the bias whereas the skirt is cut on the straight grain…  I think it will look alright, but it’s going to take some really careful cutting to match this up nicely!   : S   Eeek!  Scary stuff!  So tell me, am I being stupid tackling stripes and bias at the same time?  Keep in mind that I have never matched patterns before and I have only sewn one dress to date! 

That’s another thing ~ is it easier to start pattern matching with small or large patterns?  I sort of feel large might be easier, but I could be so wrong about that, it’s not even funny….  : \   On the other hand ~ how cute is Veiw 2 with the chevron bodice?  I am planning to do View 1 with the long sleeves as I felt this fabric has a more autumn/winterish feel to it, and Veiw 2 gives me a fairly good idea of how this might look in the end.

Oh, I am so excited to start sewing this up ~ I have to do the muslin next and after a tricky FBA that didn’t seem to work, I wonder how it will turn out….  Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if it’s a win or a fail!

xox,

bonita

CSSA ~ Pixies and Zippers and Buttons; oh my!

…And the best piece of advice given when he asked how to become a film maker? Make films. This is exactly what I tell people who ask how to become photographers: take pictures. Want to become a chef? Cook food. A doctor? Start operating on people…wait…scratch that…  ~  Elizabeth Halford

Oh, and if I want to learn how to be a seamstress?   I should start sewing.   And on Thursday that’s exactly what I did! 

Seriously, I am surprised at how well I got on.  I am way behind with the sew~along but on Thursday afternoon I was poking about aimlessly, ignoring the housework {I know, I know ~ bad Bonita!! > x < } and I thought that I would either study for my coaching course or tackle my very first zipper….

Anywho, the zipper won out and this is the result ~

 

I still find it hard to believe that that is actually my own sewing ninja skillz and not the magical pixie that lives under the tea kettle {because pixies, the sensible fairy creatures that they are, subsist on tea} that got that zip into place.  I know my fear of sewing zips is slightly irrational, but it’s there none the less. 

Of course, it isn’t a perfect job and if I could go back and make a few tweaks I probably would, but for my first go, as well as doing it all on my lonesome, I am really quite chuffed! 

I continued on the sewing spree and hemmed the cut I made in the underlining to allow the zip to open up fully.  I am planning to make my skirt fully reversible {yay! Two for the price of one!}, so I sewed on some buttons Friday night.  Three pearly rose buttons to be exact.  : )

So this is what the lining will look like when it is reversed ~

  

 

Those neat little loops?  They are ridiculously easy to do, and the tutorial for making the thread cord is here. 

All in all, it’s good progress for me, so I am happy with how things are going.  I plan to put on the waistband very soon ~ and I shall let you know how that goes.  I am freaking out a little over the thought of having to sew in two pieces of fabric and get the gathers even at the same time ~ I only hope that it turn out to be as simple as the zipper, but I guess we will see!

xox,

bonita

30 Days of Creativity ~ My Challenge!!

I saw the 30 Days of Creativity meme on Tiffany’s A Reason to be Fabulous and while my first thought was “Ooo ~ goody!  This looks like fun!” my logical side kicked in pretty quickly and put the brakes on the whole idea. 

Galloping on the heels of the initial “Yeh, I could do this ~ it looks like something I would like to try” was a very big “Are you crazy?!!? You have a BABY coming ~ as in newborn, never-had-one-of-these-before BABY and you want to start a challenge to be creative for 30 days in a row???”   ………

*sigh*

So here’s my dilemma.  Do I give this challenge a go and hope for the best or do I not bother?  See, I am the kind of person that likes to do things right or just not do them at all.  And I do not have any idea if I will be able to start this project on June 1st, let alone keep it up for a whole month!  

But I do really want to try!  I love crafting and being creative and really ~ it’s such a huge genre.  You could origami your toilet paper.  That’s creative.   Or you could ice a cake.  Or decorate your nails.  Or crochet amigurumi.  Or make a card.  Or draw a picture ~ anything goes really!

I think the only “rule” is that you have to start and finish the project in the day.  So for example, I am knitting a blanket for my baby, and although I could work on that and be creative, I am no where close to finished, so it sort of doesn’t count.  At least, I do not know if it does or it doesn’t but I think that it shouldn’t!

So I guess the long and the short of it is that I will take up this challenge to the best of my abilities.

I pledge to start and finish one creative project a day starting on June the 1st, 2011.

If I can manage to do it, then hooray!  If it gets too much to handle then so be it.  I suppose that even if I get one creative thing done out of the thirty days then it will be worth it.  

Wish me luck!

xox,

bonita

P.S.  ~ Let me know if any of you take up the challenge; I’ll follow your board on Pinterest!  Oh, and if you want an invite to Pinterest, just let me know and I’ll send you one. 

^ ω ^  ~ ♥ 

The Goals for 2011

Or to be more accurate ~ my New Years resolutions.   I want to share these with you, maybe you can keep me accountable on a few of them!   I also want to make sure that I set achievable goals and resolutions and not overload myself with expectations as I am prone to….  > . >’

So without further ado…  

My personal goal:  To be the best mother I can be.

~ * ♥ * ~  For me this doesn’t mean making sure baby is looked after perfectly, because frankly I have no idea whether I can do that or not.  I guess it depends on what your standard of ‘perfect’ is!   So this resolution is more about the child’s character.  I want to be the sort of person I want my children to grow up to be.   I say this because I believe that children learn by example. 

So this year I strive to be more disciplined and less procrastinating; especially when it comes to house chores and cooking!   I can be organized, I know that.  It’s when I get lazy that the organization falls apart and I am sick of that happening!   Less computer, more chores.  My 2011 mantra perhaps?

My skills goal:  To practise sewing and by the end of 2011; to have sewn myself a day dress.

~ * ♥ * ~  Pretty self-explanatory.   I wanted to learn to sew last year, and I started to, but then I lost track of things and I stopped.   I keep on forgetting how much I enjoy it and spend too much time mucking around and wasting time on other things.  This year I plan to change that by practising at least once a week.  {I am also trying to do a least one drawing a week too; with a similar goal to practise art but I made this resolution before the new year. : ) }

My business goal:  To set up my b dot depictions studio website properly, to get my business cards done and to go to at least one fair with my photographs this year. 

~ * ♥ * ~  Again, self explanatory, but this one is really important to me.  I feel like my business has been stuck in the one spot for the last four months of 2010 simply because I didn’t know what I was doing.   I want my studio website up because then I feel I can actually work on the studio products and promote my services. 

I can not seem to move forwards without that all important web launching pad, so this is a crucial part to the goals I can achieve for 2011 business wise.

~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~ * ♥ * ~

So those are my new year’s resolutions.  I hope I can actually stick with them!   I sometimes manage to get half way to my goals and sometimes I forget about them altogether.  But I do think that it’s a worthwhile thing to set goals and work to achieve them.  Of course, you can do this anytime in the year and I don’t think you should put off making a resolution as soon as you realize that you need to!

I have also heard that one of the best ways to help improve your blogging {if you are interested in that} is to make goals and resolutions for your blog.   It seems to me that there are a lot of serious bloggers out there that do want to achieve certain levels of performance with their blog as it is their income/day job.

I personally refrained from making any particular goal for Depict This! {besides to keep up my 3 a week posting schedule} simply because this is something I do for fun.   I don’t want to fall into the trap of trying to get x number of readers, or x number of sponsors.   My business is my studio, blogging is a hobby and I want to keep it that way. 

What do you think?  Should all bloggers have specific goals to try and achieve?  Do you have any blogging goals in your new years resolutions?

xox,

bonita

How to ~ Vintage Style Hair Bow Holder Tutorial

Sorry it has taken so long to get this up ~ unfortunately I am having a bit of passport drama at the moment; trying to lodge my form before Monday and I keep forgetting important details like, oh, I don’t know ~ the copies of the birth certificate, marriage certificate, previous passport, driver’s licence and Medicare card!!  {I.e.  ~ Everything you need except the form itself….  *facepalm* Doh!}

Anyway, it is all good now.  On to the tutorial!  I was inspired to have a go this DIY craft by two amazing bloggers.  Jill from Baby Rabies and Violet from Tales of an Ingénue.  They both did gorgeous bow holder tutorials that you can find here & here. 

However, as much as I admired the work they did, I decided that I’d like to try another style which is why I came up with my own version of a hair bow holder!  > ω <

Prequel to the Tutorial ~

At first I had the idea to use a vintage doily for my project, but I only had one the right size and I didn’t want to use it because once I did, that was it.  Instead I decided to use this lace top I bought and have never worn.  

The only problem was that it was too white for a vintage look!  So I decided to dye both the top and the hoop darker to make them look more ‘old’.

To create the dye, all I did was grab eight tea bags, a hot kettle of water and a container!  Make your “tea” in the container, stir and place object under water.  Because the hoops kept trying to float I weighed them down with some jars and left it over night.

Next morning I put the top in the same brew.  I tried tying it up for a mottle effect but that didn’t work {it probably would on cotton or something, but this was made out of a weird material.}.  I still liked the results after I rinsed it out and hung it to dry, so I was ready to start. 

 

How to make a vintage styled hair bow holder ~

 

Gather your supplies:

~  Material

~  Embroidery hoop {can be bought at any craft supplies store.  I got mine for under $10.00 at Spotlight.}

~  Ribbons  {you’ll need at least two rolls of ribbon in whatever colour/s you choose.  I decided on two different widths and shades of pink.}

~   Hot glue gun  {also found at craft shops}

~  Scissors

~  Small roses  {I used Vivaldi 25mm Foam Rose Head in White ~ I think they were $7.00 from Spotlight}

     Step 1:  Stretch your material over the smallest hoop and place the large one over the top and tighten.  I did this so that it would be easier to cut it out.  You can measure a circle if you want, but this is the cheat’s way out!   ; p

    Step 2:  Cut the excess material off leaving a 1 1/2 ~ 2 cm allowance all around.

    Step 3:  See the allowance?  You don’t want too much or you will see the leftovers from the front.  {That’s the trouble with see through materials}

    Step 4:  Hot glue the allowance down to the inside of the hoop.  Only do a small bit at one time and please don’t forget to wait a few seconds before pushing the material down onto the glue.   The glue is hot and it will burn you if you touch it straight away!  {Like I learnt the first time around…  >.>’}

     Step 5:  You should end up with something like this ~ see across for the close up.

 

     Step 6:  Lay your ribbon over the front of the hoop as you like and cut to size, leaving a few centimetres on either side so that you can glue the ribbon down.   I just eyeballed the distances apart, but you can measure it if you like.  : )

   Step 7:  Starting with the middle ribbon, put a small dot of hot glue near the top of the strip and then attach it to the top outside of the hoop. 

Do the same with all of the ribbons, then repeat on the bottom.   When you are doing the bottom, make sure to pull the ribbon taunt {but don’t pull it off!} and straight.

    Step 8:  Turn the hoop over ~ you should have a bunch of ribbon tails that you want to glue down for extra security.

    Step 9:  Once you have glued down all the tails, make sure you cut off the excess, because again, you’ll see it from the front if you don’t.

    Step 10:  Place the outside hoop on again and tighten.   Make sure the screw is up the top and in the centre because the next step is to cover it up!

    Step 11:  Get your roses.   You could use any other type of fake flower head if you liked.  Or maybe even a bow.  Really, it’s entirely up to you.  

     Step 12:  Decide on the arrangement before you glue in place.

     Step 13:  I put a healthy {read as huge} glob of glue all over the back of the roses and over the screw to make sure they wouldn’t fall off.

     Step 14:  Cut a length of ribbon and attach it to the top of the frame in a loop shape ~ this is what you’ll use to hang the bow holder up with.  And you are finished!!

~ Enjoy Your New Vintage Style Bow Holder ~

    

I am really happy with how it turned out ~ the only problem is that I need to make another one as I still have half a box of bows to hang!  

I have to say, I laughed when I had finished hanging all of these up.  I didn’t realize that I had such a theme going!  I mean, black, red and white are great colours, but do you think I should get some other shades?  I kind of do…  >o<

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I hope you all have a great Friday. 

xox,

bonita

A Thousand Squee~s

*squeee!*  I just got my first ever blog award!  How cool is that???  Thank you to Carys of La Ville Inconnue  for awarding it too me.  >U<  

Award rules are as follows:

1}. Thank the person who gave you the award:  Thank you Carys!  I find your vintage style such an inspiration and to have your support means a lot to me.  ^^

2. Copy the graphic onto your blog.  Ta~da!  Is not so pretty?

3.Pass it along!  *salutes*  Yes ma’am! 

Now here are some lovely blogs I shall pass this award to ~ please visit them because I am sure that they appreciate the support as much as I do.

 

~ ♥  Berrysprite  ♥ ~

Amazing craft ideas and cute calendar desktop downloads available for free!  Holly is very generous to her readers.

~ ♥  Casey’s Elegant Musings  ♥ ~

Beautiful vintage sewing inspiration and outfits to envy ~ but I think that she deserves it all because Casey is the nicest and of the most creative bloggers you’ll ever meet.

~ ♥  Craft My Soul  ♥ ~

Cool DYI inspiration, craft ideas and fun ~ what more could you want?  

~ ♥  Keiko Lynn  ♥ ~

Superb outfits, stunning makeup tutorials and beautiful photographs, Keiko Lynn’s blog is full of great stuff to look at.

~ ♥  Lulu Letty ♥ ~

I try not to sound too much like an obsessed fan girl with Maria, but really, her outfits are to die for….  And she is one of the sweetest, most amazing bloggers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. 

~ ♥  Only Half Dressed  ♥ ~

Lovely photographs, cute puppy dog and friendly posts ~ I really like visiting this blog! 

~ ♥  Strawberry Koi  ♥ ~

Amazing surreal and fantasy vintage photography and art work ~ Aya has great inspiration of beautiful things on her blog.

 

Apart from that exciting news, I have also joined up with the Sketchbook Project!  I was reading through All That Glitters and I saw a link to it.  I thought it looked interesting so I signed up.   Basically what it is is a the Art House Co-op sends you a sketch book {you pay for it} and you choose a theme.  You fill the sketch book with theme inspired art and send it back to them.

Then your sketch book and everyone else who participates in the project’s sketch books go on tour around America!  The viewers get to interact with the sketch books and as the artist you get to find out how many people look at it and everything.  After the tour your sketch book is stored in the Brooklyn Art Library.  That’s pretty cool if you ask me.

If you want to find out more go here:  The Sketchbook Project.

The theme I choose was “It’s raining cats and dogs” and although I do not like drawing dogs that much, I do love cats and rain and I can not wait to fill my sketch book with super kawaii images and bits and pieces!

xox,

b.

Sickness *

 

Yes,  that is pretty much how I feel today.   I was feeling icky last night, and it got so bad that I was dreaming about feeling sick and throwing up! 

@_@     Ewwww…

I do not have much else to write about, but I will give a hint to a new project that is exciting me very much ~ Amigurumi. 

Look it up here ~

What are amigurumi?

What are amigurumi?

Amigurumi

(pronounced ah-me-goo-roo-me) is a craft from Japan that makes an excellent hobby or passion; you should be forewarned that making amigurumi is very addicting. Luckily, it is a relatively inexpensive craft that does not take much time to complete. In recent years, amigurumi have become increasingly popular and trendy, due to the handmade revolution.  {…}

Amigurumi utilizes crocheting in-the-round, meaning stitches are worked in a circle/spiral (and not joined) to build shapes. The result of crocheting in the round is sculptural yarn pieces that can then be stuffed, joined and embellished to form dolls. Most amigurumi utilize only a few basic concepts of crochet, and most use only the single crochet stitch (sc): increasing, decreasing, and slip stitch, are also vital things to know how to do before starting to crochet.

Although there are many different styles (usually influenced by the individual preferences of the crafter), amigurumi are usually characterized by their large heads and small limbs in proportion to their bodies. These seemingly bizarre proportions often give amigurumi a kawaii (“cute” in Japanese) appearance, and are a distinctive feature that is common to Japanese illustrations and amigurumi designs. Although there are so many inspirations for amigurumi, the most common themes that appear are animals/creatures, people, and food…

~*~ ♥ ~*~ ♥ ~*~   Read More   ~*~ ♥ ~*~ ♥ ~*~

 

It is going to be so much fun to try my hand at these, as I already have some really cute ideas swirling around in my head.  Amigurumi ~ here I come!

xox,

b.