The first snap from our living room!

Whilst there is lots we have planned for the styling of our flat, with a sofa and desks on the way, we have a lovely corner featuring our original 1960s Nathan sideboard and wicker saucer chair, both of which we cleaned up to give them a new lease of life.

This also brings me onto my next topic, a new direction for The Crafty Pinup blog! With mine and my partner's love of mid century style which we can finally indulge in our own space, I'll be bringing this to the blog. Along with my usual dressmaking ventures, I'll be dipping into home sewing & crafts along with any furniture projects we have on the go. For example, I have a 1960s dressing table in need of some love and dreams of a coordinating fluffy stool...

But I'm starting small and simple with my home sewing, with not a curtain or roller blind in sight! The lovely team at Remnant Kings kindly sent me some BEAUTIFUL Orla Kiely fabric which I've been lusting after for years. These stunning interior fabrics will bring the colour and print our living space needs in the form of large cushions, a table runner for the side board & few more small home sewing crafts I'm dreaming up.


--

So that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed the first peek at our colourful new home. I can't wait to start sewing with the Orla Kiely fabric, although my hands might be shaking as I cut into it (it's too beautiful!). I hope you'll enjoy the new added interior and lifestyle direction my blog will be taking.

Thanks for reading, pinups!
xo

P.S. I've had a redesign of the blog and stripped it back a bit for a simpler look.

Hi pinups! My blog has been a little quiet lately as my selfish sewing projects have been far and few between. But even if I haven't been sewing for myself, I've sure been planning and the Simplicity new season sewing pattern releases haven't passed me by! I thought it would be fun to share my favourites from the vintage and modern collections and share some thoughts and plans!

Below I've selected 3 from the vintage and 3 from the modern Simplicity new season pattern selections, you can see ALL the new designs HERE. Enjoy!

VINTAGE:


The 8456 pattern was the first to catch my eye from the new season collections. I'm so glad to see more in the way of vintage lingerie and I hope this continues. There's a real lack of vintage/reproduction lingerie and nightwear patterns on the market and I hope this pattern will be a popular one! Not only is this a gorgeous foundation layer for full skirted dresses, it's a great base to make a tiered patio skirt and I think the possibilities for this pattern are endless and I'm actually really excited about it.

Personally, I see myself sewing the skirt version to create petticoats out of chiffons with added ruffles for fullness, I see delicate lace trimmed versions and I definitely want to use the pattern to create a tiered dress. This is my top pattern pick of the bunch!


I never knew how badly I needed overalls in my life until I saw this pattern. I've seen it's been getting some love online too and there seems to be a bit of a buzz about this one. I always find styling this type of garment for my own every day style a little tricky. Whilst I love vintage style, I like to wear the clothes in a current way and blend the eras. I find foot wear tricky with these overalls and I'm not sure whether I'd end up looking more 'workmen' than 1940sn landgirl chic. I'll be stalking this pattern on social media to look out for people's versions for now!

Whilst I know this skirt pattern isn't particularly ground breaking, I'm still really taken by it. I always find dressing with a 1950s twist trickier in the Autumn Winter months, but something about this pattern made me think I could do it. I think this looks like a really great vintage skirt pattern with some nice design features. I'm also a sucker for the vintage illustrations!

MODERN:


Choker everything seems very popular on the highstreet in the UK right now and whilst I'm not particularly a follower of current trends or do much high street shopping, this trend does appeal to my pop punk feels. I'm ignoring the trousers in this pattern and mainly focusing on the choker detail. I think this could be a really sassy, current looking dress or simple t shirt that people wouldn't expect you to sew. For me, this is one of those patterns that just calls to me and I don't plan on ignoring it!

I can't resist a ruffle and this dress has it all! Part of me thinks it looks way too fussy with all those pleats but I LOVE the overall style. It's got some 1960s relaxed vibes and would look nice worn with tights and heeled boots for the colder months. Although I'm not sure if this style would do much for my curvy body shape, so again, I'll be stalking social media for some variations.


I'm certainly a skinny jeans girl this time of year and I have a lack of pretty me-made tops. The 8454 top pattern has some lovely variations and there's that ruffle detail again! I love version A and I actually really like the real-life version on the model and the styling. I think it's very current compared to a lot of sewing pattern packaging. I think that this will be a great smart/casual pattern to have in my stash.

--

So those are my new season Simplicity sewing pattern picks! What are your favourites from the new season? Will any of my picks be on your to-sew list?

Thanks for reading, pinups!
xo