Kelly Doust introduces readers to her wonderful world of reviving and customising vintage pieces, while bringing a modern and unique twist to wearing vintage clothes – Dita Von Teese
Garage Sale Trail
Raggedy Ann 1930s sundress - before
Have you heard about this huge annual sustainability event, organised by the clever people at City of Sydney and local councils across Australia?
This Saturday 5 May’s Garage Sale Trail is looking to be massive, with ambassadors Marnie Skillings and Liane Rossler (Dinosaur Designs) on board, and sales all over the city at Cloth Fabric, The Society Inc. etc. Let’s hope the gorgeous weather holds out for some enthusiastic bargain-hunting. For some excellent guerilla garage sale shopping tips, click here.
I’ll be doing a workshop at the Sydney Antique Centre from 2-4pm this Saturday on how to upcycle vintage & secondhand clothes. There’s a few spots left if you’re keen to sign up, and I’ll be posting some images here on the blog soon so you can see some of the transformations we made to tired & damaged pieces.
... and after
Home sewing is easy!
Esther Han interviewed me for this piece in the Sydney Morning Herald today.
Apparently dressmaking courses are seeing a huge surge in popularity, with much of the buzz about recreating all the vintage-style frocks we’re going in for of late. Lovely news (or at least nicer than the other headlines I read this morning) because not everyone can find a true vintage frock to fit, much as they’d like to.
I’ve been dying to make a vintage frock from scratch for aeons. Inner Westies should try the Summer Hill Sewing Emporium if you can’t get to Beverley’s classes in Penshurst, or any of the squillion on offer at TAFE.
Convinced? For inspiration, see Cara Mia Vintage for some lustworthy original designer pieces from the likes of Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Pucci, Moschino, Vivienne Westwood and Ungaro. Cara Weinstock’s pieces had me positively drooling at the last Love Vintage.
Bellissima, darlings!
Itchy fingers
Carmen Cass gets toasty
I’m like the grasshopper who sang all summer (except I was getting superfit working out five times a week – no weight loss, but I can run up hills now, big ones, and not pass out or be sick, bonus! – and writing books not blog posts and making monumental plans to overhaul my life), and now it’s autumn and I have 50 projects to make for the next book, which I handed in last February but is about to be shot in just over 2 months time, and it’s scaring the bejeezus out of me. Yikes!
Met with my lovely new publisher, Tracy Lines (former Creative Director of Inside Out) on Wednesday, and she succeeded in lighting a fire underneath my butt (totally necessary – I even had Olive help me overhaul a hatstand yesterday, how desperate is that? Just a tip, three year olds make rubbish helpers). Fortunately I won’t starve or go begging the ants anytime soon, but it’s time to stop squawking.
Naturellement, this was all feeling a bit stressful. So I took off to The Corner Shop in The Strand Arcade last night to learn how to knit as part of the Campaign for Wool (thank you Corner Shop, you’re my favourite) and despite now fantasising about making my own clotted cream-coloured slouchy knit for winter (I can purl!), à la the one spotted here on the enigmatic Ms Kass, I’m also considering signing up for the always-fab workshops at Calico & Ivy Balmain over winter because my fingers are itchy, dammit, and I’m going in for a spot of work avoidance behaviour (WAB) this week. When you make for a living, making for the selfish hell of it feels gloriously subversive.
Wool week at London's Selfridges
What else?
Cloth is selling off cute bundles of all their archived fabrics at their online store, so I might pop in for a nosy at those this afternoon and urge you to do the same.
I went to Rozelle Markets for the first time in months last Sunday and was wooed by my ruggedly handsome paramour all over again (don’t tell my husband). Sometimes a vintage vixen starts to feel pure Second Hand Rose when she’s up to her ears in marketeering, but I bought a bangin’ black miniskirt, secondhand Sass & Bide tux jacket and lambskin floor rug for under 50 bucks, and now I’m biding my time until our 8am tryst tomorrow. Gotta love those cheap thrills.
Rozelle Markets, I heart you
And I’m appearing at Sydney Writers’ Festival in a month with Indira Naidoo to talk DIY! All the superlatives in the world can’t cover how XXXXXXXX I am to be part of the best festival in The Showgirl’s calendar. Love SWF to pieces. I will finish reading The Marriage Plot and Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal? before I see Mr Eugenides and Ms Winterson next month, I will I will I will.
I won’t promise to blog more, and I won’t wish to fit more in my week. I broke fast with one of my dearest friends in the world this morning, and life is GOOD (I’ve been up since 3am, can you tell?)
Much love to you & yours & keep on truckin’.
Knit-in at The Corner Shop
You know knitting’s on-trend when they start doing it at The Corner Shop… check out these free classes being offered in-store to promote the Campaign for Wool, and look to Lion Brand and Purl Harbour for inspiration on the coolest knits this winter. Planning to crack out the crochet this weekend… toasty!
Lion Brand Yarn catwalk event
Lordy, it’s Love Vintage
Back to the Future
Feels like yesterday we were having a ball at the last Love Vintage, and yet the next one’s on in less than a month. The new venue means more stalls, more events, more fantastic people-watching opportunities and more vintage thrills. Plus I’m doing workshops again on Saturday and Sunday. Can’t. Wait.
Check out these pics from last year’s festivities, and pop March 23-25 in the diary – hope to see you at one of the workshops below.
Cheongsams and fur
Lindy Charm School for Girls
Stayin' Alive
Can't beat a turban
Vintage clothing restoration with Kelly Doust
Saturday 24 March @ 11am, Sunday 25 March @ 12pm
The bestselling author of Minxy Vintage, A Life in Frocks and The Crafty Minx will be sharing her hints, tips and creative ideas for restoring all vintage clothing at this free workshop. Come along to hear Kelly’s advice on how to fix or customise preloved and damaged pieces, giving them a new lease of life for many years to come. These are fun, easy and environmentally friendly skills for even the least crafty. Feel free to bring along an item or two for specific advice on restoration – after this workshop you’ll never look at those less-than-perfect finds the same way again.
My top five tips for revitalising vintage pieces:
- Shattered silk and holes can be almost invisibly repaired with iron-on bonding – available from Spotlight and most haberdasheries – paired with fabric sneakily borrowed from a generous seam or hem (this works best on printed fabrics rather than block colours).
- Expel musty odours by dipping your vintage piece in a warm bath and adding ½-full cup of white vinegar. Dry in the shade before dipping in a second bath, this time with a few drops of sweet-scented lavender or grapefruit oil, to eradicate the smell of vinegar.
- Eucalyptus and tea tree oil remove stubborn oil stains and chewing gum. Simply apply directly to fabric, before finishing with a handwash or popping hardier items in the washing machine.
- Most other stains can be faded or disappear with Napisan. Dip item in dissolved solution and dry in full sunlight without rinsing. The enzymes react with the sun to bleach stains (be aware this may also fade bright colours or delicate fabrics – try a test patch first).
- Badly stained items are easily revitalised by dyeing to a new hue. Some shades are harder to achieve when added to the original fabric colour but when in doubt, black covers almost everything and is eternally chic.
Signed copies of Kelly’s books will be available at Love Vintage from Coco Repose (stall no.C02) and at both workshops.
Upcoming events for 2012
Visit the Events page to find some of the places I’ll be appearing at this year to speak about Minxy Vintage. Free styling sessions, workshops and champagne soirees aplenty… hope to see you at one or more.
x
Aprons in your downtime
This is Mabel. Mabel’s mother Alison came along to the handmade gifts workshop at Surry Hills Library just before Christmas, and knocked up this oilcloth apron in an hour or so following instructions from my book, The Crafty Kid: projects for and with children.
These aprons have to be one of the simplest and most gratifying craft projects to create. Excellent gifts, the oilcloth also renders them perfect for little ones in the kitchen because they’re so utterly food-proof – simply wipe clean. I even made a grownup’s version for myself.
MINI-ME APRONS
Materials
For an apron fit for your favourite five-year-old, a 35cm wide x 45cm high piece of oilcloth
2 metres ribbon
2 metres bias binding
2 colours embroidery thread; one to match bias binding, one in a contrasting colour
Embroidery needle
Scissors
Ruler
One round saucer or small plate
Pen
Instructions
1. Take your rectangle of oilcloth, ruler and pen. Measure and make a small mark 10cm in from the top right hand corner of the oilcloth, and 15cm down.
2. Place one quarter of the saucer on the spot where these two lines will intersect, and use your pen to draw around the outside, directly onto the oilcloth.
3. Use scissors to cut away the excess fabric beyond the line you have made.
4. Repeat the above two steps on the top left corner of the oilcloth.
5. Take your bias binding, apron-shaped oilcloth, and fold the binding over the edge of the bottom left-hand corner. Secure in place with a couple of small, firm stitches, then use a running stitch to affix the bias binding around the entire border.
6. When you reach a corner, fold the bias binding under itself and keep stitching. You might want to insert another stitch diagonally at each corner, just to be safe.
7. When you get to the end, leave a few millimetres and chop off any excess binding. Fold underneath at an angle and stitch firmly in place.
8. Place one end of the shortest length of ribbon to the top right corner of the apron, at the back. Use your contrasting embroidery thread and needle to affix with three small, ‘x’ shaped stitches.
9. Close the loop by securing the other side in place as well.
10. Secure the remaining lengths of ribbon to either corner just underneath the armhole with the same ‘x’ stitches. Et voila, you’re done.
Cute Christina in her adult-size apron
Crisscross
Frocks published in China & Love Vintage
I just returned home after a lovely, meandering chat about vintage on morning radio with ABC 702′s Deborah Cameron and setting up a Minxy Vintage window display at Cammeray Bookshop, when I heard the news A Life in Frocks is being translated into Chinese! What a thrill to see my book written in the language I so struggled with learning a decade ago (Mandarin, that is… although I was living in Hong Kong at the time, I didn’t even attempt Cantonese – typical gwei-lo).
Pop on your dancing shoes & head to Love Vintage
Writing this post in a stolen half hour before heading off to Love Vintage, in full shopping mode and ready to officially open the fair tonight (shopping first, officiating second). Here’s a few reasons why you need to be there:
- Discover stylish, quirky, glamorous gear for girls and guys, plus designer vintage fashions from New York, London and Paris
- Attend my free workshops on how to wear and revamp vintage for a modern look
- Shop for linen, lace, jewellery, antique tablecloths, hand-made aprons, buckles, vintage sewing patterns, magazines, antique prints, jewelled ’50s compacts & lipstick cases, rare Bakelite brooches, the prettiest parasols, and so much more
- See summer and special occasion fashion presented by Mistress of Parades, Miss Bonnie Rose
- Learn tips and tricks for perfect ‘hair and hat’ race-day styling with the Mistresses from the Lindy Charm School for Girls
- Enjoy presentations of gorgeous gowns from the 1920s-70s
- Buy fabulous shoes, hats and handbags to complement a race-day outfit, classic suit to wear in the office, or to-die-for party dress.
Tonight is ‘Best Dressed in Vintage’ night, so dress to impress. There’s also prizes being given out all weekend, so you can rock your favourite vintage look anytime at the show.
Be there or be square.
Learn of the Evans sisters' intriguing story, and see their original 1930s dresses up close
Craft me s-l-o-w
Miss Olive, all toasty & warm
I demarcated the month of June ‘relaxation’, but of course have taken such time to unwind, I’m extending the self-imposed break for another couple of weeks and James will be joining me soon with time off (hooray).
We’re staying in Sydney to be tourists in our home town for a change. With food tours, novel reading, lunch at Quay and ferry rides on the agenda, I’m switching the phone and brain off for a while before embarking on the next project, which is already underway. And I will eat with abandon – Snow Eggs, here we come.
This week has been such a happy winding-up of all the things I’ve been working on this year. On Tuesday, I journeyed in to Murdoch Books to talk to the sales team about Minxy Vintage: How to Customise & Wear Vintage Clothing, which hits bookstores in October. And on Wednesday I had a Crafty Kid workshop at Gleebooks with 15 or so children on school holidays, which was such fun. Here’s some pics from the day below.
I finally finished crocheting my scarf and love it so ‘darn much, I’ve bought some divine merino yarn in lilac, shell-pink and daffodil to create a smaller version for Olive (although she’s quite happy for the moment sporting a beanie and scarf bought from the Rozelle Markets for a few dollars apiece, and adorned with my crocheted roses). And I turned the last page on a superb novel by one of my favourite writers. I hadn’t read Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry from Kensington before, but it’s an absolute must for anyone working in, or fascinated by, the world of book publishing. Much mirth.
And we had a tradesman over the other day to quote on fixing some things in our house. In a moment of irritation, I mentioned how frustrated I am with the limitations of our tiny, rundown, fifties-era kitchen – namely, the fact you can’t swing the proverbial cat in it (not that I would, promise, but it would be lovely to not feel crowded when more than two people are in it). With a thick Slavic accent he responded, “Be lucky you have house”. Quite. All the reminder needed while these icy winds whip our city and we nestle, so cosily, by the fire.
An alien hand puppet from the Crafty Kid workshop
Sweet Alice & her ribbon brooch
Orange the Dog & Snowy the Owl hand puppets
It’s all about the crochet
Pansies made with Rowan Kidsilk Haze
Another love affair has begun – I’ve gone mad for crochet. And not just with any yarn, but the dusky-coloured wool I’ve chosen to make these two favourite crochet projects with.
The above is 70% super kid mohair and 30% silk (Rowan Kidsilk Haze). Heather Hunt, our fab Calico & Ivy crochet teacher came up with the pattern but I’ve been modifying it as I’ve gone along, basing changes on the pansies Olive picked out at Rozelle Markets last weekend.
Below is the scarf I’ve ground to a halt with. Must start up again soon, but somehow the pansies are far more satisfying, given they’re completed in under an hour.
For images of the crochet and string quilting classes I’ve been attending, check out the Calico & Ivy blog, which is of course new favourite supplier for all things woollen and haberdashery-wise.
Gaga for these Japanese pattern books as well...
Debbie Bliss Andes in a mustard tone, and more Kidsilk Haze
Knitting will have to wait -