inspiration – Stacey Stitch

Help me choose a pattern (aka being indecisive sucks)

Published on February 22, 2015February 22, 2015 by Stacey Stitch11 Comments

Well as you know we’re in the new house, all is unpacked and yesterday we had our nearest and dearest over for a housewarming. So lovely to have our friends over and the next generation ( not star trek – just our mates awesome kids).

Now the dust has settled I’m in the mood to SEW!

I took a little trip out to my local John Lewis last week and picket up this gorgeous fabric for half price but now I’m stuck on what to make with it.

A dress? Yes, but which one?

These are the three I have to choose from:

(View 1)

(also considering making the coat in the heavy gold satin I brought back from Vegas)

(with sleeves)

I’m favouring the Simplicity or Vogue at the moment, the Butterick is gorgeous but it’s quite a similar shape to other dresses I’ve made in the last year and I’d like to try something different.

Any feedback/help in making my mind up will be appreciated. What would you make?

Vintage Inspiration: Polsden Lacey

Published on August 13, 2014 by Stacey Stitch1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago me and the hublet went camping for a week (I know Vegas then camping, I am spoiling myself!).

As a day trip out and while Timothy was on his course I took a trip to Polsden Lacey, a National Trust house and grounds in Dorking. I wasn’t expecting too much, I knew little of the place apart from that it was near where I needed to pick Tim up, but the sun was shining and I thought a wander about a big house and grounds would be quite nice.

How wrong I was not to expect too much.

Polsden Lacey is a Edwardian House and was once the home of the society hostess Margaret Greville. It turns out our Margaret was well known for holding the best soirees British society’s had ever seen, counting royalty amongst her guests. Architects Charles Mewès and Arthur Davis, responsible for the Ritz Hotel – London, remodelled the house for the Grevilles and it really is a beautiful place to wander about.

The piece de resistance is the Gold Room, set for entertaining Kings and Maharajas and so full of bling it would make Vegas blush.

The rest of the house it beautiful. The furnished rooms downstairs are like something straight out of an Agatha Christie novel (swoon) and upstairs, although sparsely decorated with furniture, has the original marble bathrooms which would have matched the Ritz.

I finished the day off with a wander around the rose garden and then the gardens, stopping to watch the jazz band on the steps to the garden then I went to the cafe for a scrumptious cream tea.

So strange thing to be blogging about in a sewing blog, yes?

Well, there’s a very good reason for this. It really was an inspiring place to be. Whether wandering around the rose garden and translating what I saw into the perfect rose printed fabric for a summer wedding dress, or imagining the gold room full of glittering 30s gowns and gests dripping in diamonds, it really has given me a lot to think about and maybe, just maybe, I could dig deep and make something very special based on my thoughts and experiences of this beautiful Country Manor.

What I am trying to say is, inspiration can come from anywhere and to not post about such a beautiful house could do myself a disservice when considering what I might make next time I have formal occasion.

What are you inspired by? Do you look at vintage clothes to get inspiration or do you look to works of art and architecture? I’d be really interested to know.

Book Review: Fifty Dresses That Changed the World

Published on August 4, 2014 by Stacey StitchLeave a comment

While I was off on my camping adventures I finally got to have a good read of a book I’d had my eye on for a while an which was gifted to me by a friend as a thanks for embellishing a hen’s dress for her final night of freedom.

Fifty dresses that Changed the World promises a lot and on the most part it delivers.

Maybe I’m just more attuned to vintage clothes and therefore don’t see that Julia Roberts Oscars dress from 2011 (a 1982 original) really was a dress that changed the world.

People had been wearing vintage for some time by that point and while I accept it thrust vintage into the limelight and made it more acceptable for people to look to the past when considering what to wear, I don’t think it changed the world.

It is however a really nice little coffee table book and is full of treasures such as the Delphos gown, the Chanel suit, Mary Quant’s mini-dress, the Paco Rabanne disc dress (I really REALLY wanted to wear this in the 90s – even in my teenage years, highly inappropriate) and of course the devastatingly beautiful creations of Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell.

We can all learn a little by looking at the beautiful lines of these garments for inspiration and this book it great for a little pick me up to think outside the box when considering where to go next, or when comparing currently lines of fashion houses and which era they may be looking back to.

A great book to flick through, read through and even to learn a few new names to research.

Oh and special mention for them putting Cher in with her 80s Moonstruck Oscars dress (Bob Mackie). The showgirl in me LOVES IT.

New Pattern Heaven: Mad Men (Trudy & Betty)

Published on May 23, 2014May 23, 2014 by Stacey Stitch2 Comments

Don’t you just LOVE IT when you find a pattern that you have been looking for? For a while now I’ve been coveting Trudy Campbell’s gorgeous peach evening dress with the gold and pearl trim and the collars and cuffs, so when I saw this pattern on ebay I almost jumped out of my seat, it’s as close a match as I’ve found anywhere and I cannot wait to get cracking on it!

At the same time this beautiful coat pattern showed up and I snapped it up without a second though, it’s very Betty. It looks an awful lot like the cream number she wears in her riding outfit and I think it would look great for a smarter ensemble or something a little more casual.

This all leads me on to a thought. Do you have someone in mind when you search for vintage patterns, or do you just go for what grabs you? Do you have inspiration boards on Pinterest? If so link me up in the comments below and I’ll follow you!

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME – 7 DAYS TO GO!

Votes are super tight and only the top three go through so if you haven’t voted and you likes this blog please give me five minutes of your time and see how to vote below.

Please vote for me in the NVAs as I’ve been nominated under the Best Vintage Fashion/Lifestyle Blog category. Voting is open throughout May and it’s a simple click to select Stacey Stitch and then enter your email address to confirm the vote (you wont be spammed). Clicking on the photo or links above should take you straight to the website. It’ll only take a few minutes of your time if you have it spare! Thank you!

Sew-Inspiring: My Nana Turns 90

Published on May 21, 2014 by Stacey Stitch9 Comments

I do believe I have mentioned my Nana before but I really feel like she deserves to be mentioned a little more. My Nana turned 90 at the weekend and we went up to Sunderland for a gathering at her house to celebrate together, it was quite the turn out, with many of us sitting in the garden as the living room was packed.

My Nana and Granda brought me up when my folks divorced and I lived with them from age 1 to 7. They were the best parents a little girl could wish for; loving, kind, funny and always with plenty of time for us.

When I moved back in with the parentals in later years I still spent a lot of time with the Grandfolkage, there were the weeks I spent with them in summer and long weekends in the School holidays.

I think my love of vintage probably stems from having a quite an old fashioned upbringing in a lot of respects. I have a fondness for musicals and old films that stems from watching them with my Nana and Granda in the holidays. I distinctly remember begging my Nana to let me watch Gone With the Wind when I was 12 or so years old and being amazed at it, in all of it’s 238 minute glory.

My Nana is the reason for all of this, including this blog. I remember her teaching me how to knit when I was very young (hand knitting is still not my forte!) and she taught me to embroider and hand sew.

My holidays with them were not complete without my Nana taking me off to Newcastle to the craft shops for some craft kit of some kind.

I think she noticed in me at a young age that while I loved reading I wasn’t particularly academic (my dyslexia was never diagnosed at school – even thought I was tested) and so she encouraged me to make things and that’s where my passion ignited.

There isn’t only this I have to thank her for though. I have to thank her for everything; for her and Granda giving up a lot of their retirement to look after me and my sisters, for doing without so we could have things, for making me clothes and party dresses for School, for giving me unconditional and endless love, for teaching me to be kind, considerate and loving and being able to find the light when things seem dark, for being the strong, no-nonsense tough as old boots woman she is but with the kindest loving heart, for showing me that no matter what life throws at you, you should dust yourself off and get on with it.

So Happy 90^th Birthday Nana & lots of love, you’re my sewing inspiration.

I hope to one day be as good as you are, in many, many ways xx

9 DAYS LEFT TO VOTE – IT’S SUPER CLOSE!

If you liked this blog please vote for me in the NVAs as I’ve been nominated under the Best Vintage Fashion/Lifestyle Blog category. Voting is open throughout May and it’s a simple click to select Stacey Stitch and then enter your email address to confirm the vote (you wont be spammed). Clicking on the photo or links above should take you straight to the website. It’ll only take a few minutes of your time if you have it spare! Thank you!