Birthday Dress on a Birthday Budget....

Twenty-Nine. Everyone seems to be freaked out about turning thirty but twenty-nine is my scary age. It's the "Pressure Year". The year when you have to achieve all the things you were supposed to have been achieving before the big 3-0 strikes, but yI'm the genius who left it to the last minute and now I'm left pulling an all-nighter cramming for life's first big exam.

What do I do when I'm freaked out about falling head first into my scary age? Throw a party of course! And a party needs a fabulous dress (clearly...). And fabulous shoes (new of course, my old ones don't match!!). And fabulous jewellery.

So the search begins. As I've left my charity working life (I couldn't support my shoe habit - and now volunteer my time), my current workplace is a minefield of fashion magazines and designer catalogues containing items I can't afford. One sunny morning - the large glossy Giorgio Armani Spring/Summer 2010 floats onto my desk. Seriously - I'll never be in a position to afford the hemline of an Armani dress let alone a full garment yet I open it just to torture myself, just a little. There it is - my birthday dress. Ok so not exactly MY birthday dress, but it was so close I could smell it!

Back in the real world the hunt was not going well. I had spotted the Bluejuice Baroque Rock Brocade dress in Seduce and although it looked awful on the website was pretty cute on. Cute is good but it's not HOT. To get over the fact that I was turning twenty-nine and feeling old I needed to look HOT. I mean smokin' hot. This was getting desperate.

M my birthday twin, resident blonde bombshell and with whom I was sharing my birthday celebrations decided we needed a shopping day to solve a dress dramas.

M's colleague had suggested a few dress options in Kookai and the overwhelming favourite was a Fushia Pink Lycra and draped Chiffon number. Now M looked HOT. Being blonde, tanned, stunning (and yes nice!) she was going to kill it! Despite wandering around half of Sydney I was still dress-less (unless I was going for cute, clearly not an option... with blond hot friend as my party twin).

On my way home - I stopped in to Mushu (my new favourite store in Surry Hills). There it was.. THE dress. Manning Cartell - Paper Lantern in Enamel. Leather - hot. Fitted...HOT. Zippers H-O-T. Um. Size 6. Hmmmmm. I am a perfect Size 6.345. Sometimes an 8, Mostly the non-existant 7.

Did I mention that this dress was on sale from $500 to $250 as it was the last one in Sydney? No? That's because apparently my ribcage is just 1cm too big!!! Not my butt, not my hips, not even my boobs! My ribcage!!!

Dressless, P minus 7 days it was not looking good for the year of twenty-nine.

On Tuesday night, the night before my actual birthday, I dashed to Bondi for one last recon. Twenty minutes before closing I gathered every contender and decided I needed a new tactic. Skirt and Top maybe? New style. Five minutes to closing and as I walked into the fitting room there she was. "It's like the Armani" I yelled at the assistant who glared at me and told me one minute to closing....

Pilgrim Buckle Me Up in Blue and Aqua (attached in Fuschia). No - it doesn't sparkle. No, It doesn't have a special skirt designed to cover my butt. But it was perfect. And I wasn't going to live on Maggi Noodles till I was 35. I was saved..... My luck had just begun...

Shoes!!!!

In mad rush during a "work errand" to the city I dashed into Nine West and there they were. I didn't even need to take my usual precaution and a buy "back-up pair". They were perfect. Nine West Beepers. A dash of blue, plenty of sparkle, loads of much needed height for the 5"1' midget, and the right amount of glam. Welcome to the Family.

With my new Marcs bag (birthday present from work!), jewelled statement necklace from Mushu I was set. Tanned, Manicured and Made up thanks to Benefit (Brow ZING!!!), I was heading out for some Rum Cocktails and some dance floor action.....

Let's Party like I'm Twenty-Nine!

The Art of Fitting (in!)

I'm in Lincraft. I'm standing with my homework notes in hand (yes, even sewing class has homework) and for some reason I just don't fit in. Its a shop and I'm definitely very comfortable with shopping. I'm wearing a cute little ensemble with my new Sportgirl ballet flats and on sale Diva earrings so it's not my outfit. So why is it when I'm Lincraft I feel like I'm in a room full of Rocket Scientists holding my school science project?

Is it the group sitting around flicking through hundreds of patterns? Or the lady walking around casting an expert eye over rolls of fabric? Or even the nanna's picking out their rolls of knitting wool and loading up their baskets?

I have my piece of paper scribbled with exactly what I'm supposed to buy (granted not my usual approach to shopping) and yet I'm wandering around in a daze getting confused and flustered.

In the end I hurridly purchase my two patterns because I have the exact pattern numbers (and the assistant went and found them for me) and some earring hooks because I have a pair at home that are broken.

Fabric? Nope. The lining backing stuff (called Interfacing according to my piece of paper)? Nope. Thread? Nuh-uh.

Why do I feel like everyone is looking at me staring at the "AMATEUR" letters scrawled on my forehead?? Is it only me who feels like this? A few days ago I was a Master of Design and now I'm master of hiding in the crafts section where I least I know my puffy paint colours.

I'm going home to practise my zig zag.

Master of Design - sort of!

I knew it!, I am a Fashion Genius, Master of Design, Sewing Whizz! Ok, "Whizz" may be a stretch but I have mastered sewing straight lines, zig zags and swirls on pieces of paper and even perfected a button hole!!

Nadine my new guide on the path to Fashion Enlightenment generously gave me two hours on one on one time and took me through how to use my machine (I'm slightly incapable of reading the manual), sewing on a bright orange scrap which I will keep as a little reminder of how I started, and then let me loose on my pieces of paper!

In a stroke of luck I realised I had found a teacher who wouldn't leave me just knowing how to use my machine, she sat me down and talked to me about fabrics (Who knew there was only black and white interfacing? Who knew there was interfacing at all??), then guided me through laying out a pattern and cutting it on a fabric. this may seem a simple task to those with experience but for the girl who casually pronounced to her mother when she was offered to be taught sewing at a young age "Mum, I'll just pay people to do that!" this is all an exciting new venture!

The best part of this all is next week I will actually start making a skirt! A real skirt that will fit me! None of this little pin cushion rubbish for those not Masters of the Fashion BIz. A real skirt. Watch out Project Runway... I'm gonna be IN!

2010 - The Year of Positivity, And The Year of CJ

Well today it BEGINS!!! Yes, I concede, small steps, but armed with my brand new Brother NS-20 (Project Runway edition for extra motivation) Sewing Machine that my Mum gave me for Christmas I'm off to my very first sewing lesson! I figured I could sit at home reading the manual whicb got me as far as getting thread on the bobbin or I could get a certified professional to guide me on my way to fashion genius and inevitable glory!

So Nadine, a tailor of 20 years in Newtown, will be my first of I hope many guides on my Fashion Journey. On the phone she assured me that by lesson number two I would no longer be a beginner and left me feeling like in a matter of weeks I would be mastering tasks well beyond straight lines and seams! Maybe not, but it's the thought that counts.

On the 8th of February I start college and my first subject is Fashion Buying. I'm pretty sure buying is not my problem and I'm positive I'd flunk Fashion Restraint. Buy 8th Feb my goals are to know how to at least take up all those trousers I own that I keep saying I'll get altered (the curse of being 5"1') and maybe even following some simple patterns.

Oh and did I mention I need to find a job??? More on thet next time!!!