Parcel Love

Kylie sent me a parcel to warm the cockles of my heart! It arrived when my spirits were at a lowish ebb - winter blues + birthday blues + several job rejections + writing rejection = a dispirited sister outlaw with more than a whiff of a mid-life crisis about her indeed.


But I went from this*.....

to this...

with the arrival of a parcel.

Sure -what a bundle of goodies!

A vintage luscious slip with lace and bows - still new with the tag on it! There were even matching knickers! Oh in the nineties I would have worn it as a dress ala Collette Dinnigan! Still might.

Gorgeous girdle pants with love heart details and even suspenders! For that perfect vintage silhouette .

This warm luminous pure wool mohair Scottish highland cape - Makes me want to wander the hills!

And tennis fabric and tennis dress pattern! I love that smash action that fabric girl has! Inspirational!

But wonderful as all that is - the overwhelming thing was that I felt loved and appreciated and understood.

Thanks so much Kylie for the thoughtfulness, your perfect taste and the effort in posting some love across the Nullabor to your shivering blog-friend in Melbourne. If I could parcel up my heart and tie it with a piece of string and send it off to Perth I would.

But there will be reciprocal bit of stuff winging it your way soon Ms Lucy Violet Vintage!

*is that a cowboy in drag????

vintage crochet cape

Finally finished this cape - it's from a vintage pattern which you can get HERE and I made it in vintage 10 ply purple peruvian wool(try saying that ten times quickly!)

As I suspected, it was a bit much with my purple hair.... so I dyed my hair orange.

 Yes - it goes MUCH better with orange...

recycled jumper capelet - the trials and the errors.

This way a great was to re-use some larger and very pretty jumpers - little capelets.

However - I'm still perfecting the pattern and the technique. Here are some of the trials and the errors!

1. The collar: It's hard to get a neat lined collar with the stretchy jumper. Next time I'll use a contrasting velvet.

2. The lining: The pink capelet (worn by Pepper) has an attached lining which was sewn on the wrong side with a small gap left for turning out. That was very tricky to "fit" - one being stretchy and the other being non stretchy. With the navy blue one, (worn by Wanda) I didn't attach the lining at the bottom hem, but hemmed them separately.  Then I will stitch them together (it still has pins in it! Yikes for Wanda!)

I am learning - it's all trial and error - which is a funny phrase because it's completely negative, isn't it? All trial and error. Where's the success and learning??? One thing I have learned - add pom poms. It makes everything better!

caped crusader

Well yes, the weather in Melbourne has certainly been on the chilly side of ...well...chilly. And yes, normally I would not like this at all. But the brrrrr in the air has given me the opportunity to swan about in my recently acquired knitted cape.

Complete with hearts and flowers, scalloped edge AND collar - not to mention windmill buttons.

I'm not quite Meleficant from "Sleeping Beauty"...or Patricia Neal in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" Now they really knew how to work the cape!Complete with a turban! Hmm.. I like it!

Isn't the cape above just glorious? It's a Pauline Trigere design. I found some Pauline Trigere vintage dresses for sale here for anyone with a few spare $$$$$

I'm loving my caped crusading days!