Look at her. She looks like she washes her hair in streams and milks things. - Black Books

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

I open the door and there is a youngish man from some courier company with a largish box in hands.

"Sign here" he mumbles.

He is barely down the steps when I eagerly slash into the box like a crazed killer from an Eighties horror film.  

They have arrived.  

Spotlight Stores have ever so generously sent me a big box of the new range of the International Sewing Starlet Gretchen Hirsch's (aka Gertie) fabric line. 

I hold the fabric to my heaving chest and stifle a sob of joy.  So much loveliness.

I whisper "Welcome Home". 

I decided that my first frock make from the pile of divines should be a Hawaiian rayon frock due to the fact that I will get heaps of wear from it because of our unbearable fucking horrid humid bullshit summer/spring/autumn heat.

I wanted something flouncy and light so I chose this fake wrap dress from Simplicity.

I will say it was an easy to intermediate pattern to make and the advice I would give to anyone making this is WATCH THE SIZING. I followed the sizing on the pattern and still had to take it in 2 inches on EACH SIDE.  The end result though, was great.

Gertie's rayons are just wonderful and soft but still have enough weight in them to give a beautiful drape.  The tropical hibiscus & pineapple print is super bright and again, suits a Queensland summer.

I am a sucker for anything with those fluttery sleeves, especially because of the ole 'tuckshop' arm thing, plus they are comfy 

(which as I'm getting older seems to be becoming more & more important).

The perfect accessory - hair flower from Kat's Cadillac Vintage

I couldn't wait to wear my new creation so I was stoked when the bullshit amazing Rewind Mid-Century at Shorncliffe announced that they were having a huge garage sale.  Because of my insane sewing & clothes buying addiction I have SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many clothes to sell and they agreed to let me have a stand. 

Holy moley the sale was MASSIVE and I reckon about 300 people came through the doors in the first 2 hours alone!!   I sold a fair bit of stuff but to be honest I had a great day just drinking coffee and chatting to the punters coming through. 

I met a STACK of great people and even added a couple to my FB and Instagrams to stay in touch!  I had a great pozzy out of the sun and with a frigging glorious breeze off the water.

There was so much AMAZING things for sale and all for great prices. 

I told myself that I was banned from buying ANYTHING!

BUT

then I saw this 4 metres of new hawaain rayon for only $20.

Seriously, it would have been CRIMINAL to just LEAVE it there!

After the sale was over I wandered over to the main shop.

If you are into Mid-Century Modern and you haven't been to Rewind you need your head read. First time visitors, be prepared to hyperventilate upon entering the main doors.

If I won lotto and had a lovely open plan home I would just go straight into Rewind and go 

"I'll take THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT THAT & THAT OH & THAT".

or

I could just LIVE at Rewind.

Holy shit. So much incredible amazing beautiful pieces.

I REALLY wanted the concrete cockatoo

I managed to snaggle Collette the boss-lady to take some snazzy pics of me in my fancy frock posing against various incredible furniture pieces.

I liked sitting on the lounges and pretending for a moment that I was in my ultimate dream home.

I got a lot of compliments on the dress which was noice.  This pattern will definitely be going into my 'Will Sew Again" drawer.

I am super excited to have been chosen by Spotties to trial the awesome Gertie fabrics and I am already onto frock #2 which will be a sexy little number made from cotton sateen navy with pinky/red roses. 

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

If there are any OTHER fabric companies out there who would like to send me samples of fabric and have me make them up into something fabulous just contact me.

Just sayin'

hint hint fabric.com

www.facebook.com/rewind-mid-century

Rewind Mid Century - Sinbad St, Shorncliffe

https://blog.bygertie.com/

www.spotlightstores.com

Meet n Greet with Gertie

Sorry about the late post but life has been caaaarrrraaaazzzzeeee. 

I won't get into it now but I am about to embark on a new journey. Oooooooooo.

Anyways.,........

GRETCHEN HIRSCH aka GERTIE

The vintage sewing circles were a flurry with excitement with news that THE Gertie would be travelling the hellish 16 hour plane trip Down Under to promote her new line of fabrics at Spotties.

OK I hear some of you yowl "Who the heck is this Gertie woman?"

Oh..... only the writer of the successful blog Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing that has like 50 gazillion followers, the writer of not one but THREE fantastic sewing books (yes I have all three)

, designers of gorgeous vintage patterns for Butterick (yes I own most of them) and creator of a stunning line of vintage inspired fabrics...... THAT'S ALL !!!!

I almost peed my beige seam frees in excitement when the wonderful Kristina from Needlefruit Sewing Lounge invited me to come along to an intimate meet n greet with Gertie.

The night was held that  Needlefruit at the Gap and it was just the BEST NIGHT.

KRISTINA - HOSTESS AND OWNER/MANAGER/TEACHER AT NEEDLEFRUIT

I was nervous about meeting Gertie because I was intimidated by her incredible beauty and well, freaking amazing success but ...... dammit.......she was just so gosh darn lovely and sweet.  

During the night she chatted to us all and had a Q&A session about what's next for her 

(SPOILER - Her own line of patterns called CHARM PATTERNS BY GERTIE), more fabric designs, more tutorials and maybe even another book! PHEW!!

My date for the night - Susan

I had to admire her patience as we were like a interrogation mob firing questions at her like machine gun. But she was the ultimate lady and answered all of our questions with a beautiful smile and openness.

She went through her garments and verbally deconstructed them to show us how they were made and what notions she uses . eg horse hair braid and steel boning. 

I stood there like a doofus with my mouth a gape. 

I am the world LAZIEST sewer and so the thought of going to all that effort was mind numbing to me.  

It was such a wonderful atmosphere to be surrounded by like-minded people.  People who are passionate about creativity. People who are passionate about individuality. People who are addicted to purchasing insane amounts of fabric with no hesitation. Everyone was commenting about how lovely it was to be able to chat to others who 'get it'. The whole WHY DO YOU SEW?  Even though we didn't physically do it.... (might have been a bit awkies)... the room felt like one big group hug.

Everyone was so lovely and friendly and funny. I also got to meet some of my Facebook group (THOSE DARN SEW AND SEWS) members which was freaking awesome!!!!

 It became very obvious to me early on that I was definitely the least experienced sewer in the room and I was in the company of some VERY experienced dressmakers.  I hung my head in shame when I learned that I didn't know use LAP ZIPS in my sewing. The shame of it.  However, I was directed to some great youtube lap zip tutorials so that is about to change people.

At one stage a group of us were all around the table each comparing notes on the best way to gather 6 metres of fabric so it is even and you don't get RSI within half an hour.

Kristina and her husband were just the most wonderful hosts and Needlefruit is a lovely sewing space for classes. I am SEW (see what I did there) jealous of their sewing space. Oh that cutting table is to die for!

I must hand it to Gertie. This is quite the whirlwind tour of 'Strayla and by jingies I don't know how she does it.  I'm sure by the end of her trip, if she wasn't already famous in Australia she will be a Goddess now.  

I'm sure she must be sick to bloody death of having photos taken with people .... 

or in my case me whining to her "Gertie Gertie Gertie just one more selfie. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese"

She posed with everyone (looking breathtaking) and everyone was beside themselves with excitement and fan-girling.

Thank you Gertie for venturing all the way down the bottom of the planet to share your dreams and success and tips with us.  You are one of the most down to earth beautiful people I've met.

We hope you come back again one day.

Just not in Summer. It's just unbearable hot. In case you didn't already know 

http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/

https://needlefruit.com.au/

I am a Lady. I press Flowers and stroke Kittens and Swim in Rivers wearing Dresses and Hats and shit - Emily Howard

Because I am a lady and I do lady things, there's nothing I like more than gathering a bunch of ladies together to do lady things as a lady group.

Actually, it more like I really like whacking on a frock with a flower and some red lippy, eating a shit load of calorie laden food and talking about all the important topics with gals. 

(like who would you rather give you a foot massage Tom Hardy or Jason Momoa)

I decided that because life is too short not to eat all the cake that I should have a ladies luncheon.

Life for me has been a wee bit ..... well..... black dogish lately  and I desperately needed a big hit of estrogen pheromone combined with loads of hugs, cheek kisses and filthy filthy smut talk.

http://paddingtondeli.com.au/

The Paddington Deli came highly recommended by the tres chic Mz Billie and Mrs Kelisha and those dames know their shit....so I locked it in.  

Where do I start?

Firstly, I HAD to sew myself a new frock to wear of course.  

I chose Butterick B5951 in a noice brown & cream florally cotton.  It was a real mongrel to sew the weird high gathered neckline and I threw it into the corner a couple of times in frustration and called it some very unladylike names. 

I finally finished it and it turned out pretty good in the end. Winning.

On to the luncheon..................

From the moment we all arrived, Annie the owner/manager could NOT do enough for our rambunctious group of dames and I think some of the other diners were wondering who the heck this bunch of dolled up dolls were.

ANNIE

We were taking advantage of their lunch special which was $25 for a set menu of either entree & main or main & dessert WITH a glass of wine.

I had the herb/garlic bread for entree and the eggs Benedict with smoked salmon for main.  Luckily for me Mrs Simone is on a diet and I was donated her dessert of lemon meringue (MY FAV).

The food was AMAZING and for my friends with funky guts they had a great range of gluten free.

So fresh and tasty and the sizes were huge. TWENTY FIVE BUCKS!!!

We hardly had to wait at all for the food and drinks and the tables were constantly cleared so we didn't knock over the glassware while gesticulating wildly while describing our latest news events.

The beautiful young lasses who work there were just so friendly and professional.

The restaurant itself is so lovely with lots of brickwork, chandeliers and fabulous artwork. .... 

AND it's right next door to the Paddington Antique Centre.

How convenient !!!!

After gorging ourselves silly most of us then went next door to the Antique Centre for a quick *cough* "look". It has been a few years since I've been and I must admit I didn't see too much of interest to me. A lot of  ye ole antique things but not much mid century and alas, no squeekie toys.  (The exception being the gorgeous Mrs Anna's store Mrs Duchess Vintage.... 

I want ALL THE HATS).  

I naturally was drawn to The Button Shop which sells a lot of ........... well.... buttons.  

Even though I wanted to buy everything I ended up only buying 3 belt buckles. I was surprisingly restrained.  Oh I could have spends thousands on glorious marcasite brooches too. Sigh.

Everyone had a lovely time of it catching up and having a laugh.  

I think there is a few of us who really needed a relaxing lunch with other chicks that we can relax and cack ourselves with and not to mention we all LURVE an excuse to pull a fabulous frock out of the cupboard and get tarted up to go out for some good company.

I am very very blessed to know a stack of incredible, talented caring wonderful ladies who support each other.  They make my heart all warm and gooey like a Cadbury cream egg left on the dash of your car.

I am still smiling like a Rottnest Island Quokka taking a selfie.

xoxoxooxox