Head-dressing

Love hats! Rarely wear them - hate hat hair almost as much as I love hats - but love hats, head-dresses, wreaths, crowns, tiaras, head scarves, and wonderful Audrey-esque hair-do's.
 

Think that I must have got this from my Dad, who tends to grace the suburbs wearing a straw boater in summer and a large felt fedora in winter. He has an extensive collection: can at a moment's notice produce anything from a fez to a deer-stalker. And he and Mum have always loved a good dress-up event...my first exposure to the press came as a grubby faced babe-in-arms cradled by an Arts Ball bound bambi look-alike mother (why? still remember the feel of the foamie antlers of her costume but have never understood the reasoning.) Really doing a far better impersonation of a deer caught in the head-lights than my glamourous Mum I made it into the Sunday papers in the days when there wasn't a great deal going on in Brisbane, obviously. Maybe hence Dad's predilection for the deer-stalker? Moving right along...

Gail Davis as the original female super-hero

I was many things out of the dress-up cupboard, but my favourite alter-ego of all was Annie get-your-gun Oakley. I had the fringed vest, the cute skirt, the cowb'y hat, and the six-shooters, with holsters, to match, and stalked around the flower beds of our family home shooting imaginary baddies for hours at a time. How healthy is that! We're talking early 60's here, when the world was in love with the USA, Disney ruled the hearts and minds of Australia's young, and we could all sing the theme song of Davy, Davy Crocket, king of the wild frontier, without have any idea where the wild frontier was, or even what it was.










This early love affair with a happier period of American influence lead me to make a number of stylised wig-wams to sell at market, and from there, naturally, to papooses and feather head-dresses. And of course, best fun of all has been the feather head-dresses...they take a disproportionate amount of time, but are much, much fun to make.
Annie's put her side-arm to bed long ago, but then I always actually preferred the more colourful side playing Cowboys and Indians on the state school oval at lunch-time, and bows and arrows are so Robin Hood (with the Richard Greene American accent) after all

Wimcee will have a full compliment of feather head-dresses (plus lots more) at the Mathilda's Christmas Market tomorrow (19/11) at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane.

Waltz on down...

Mathilda's Markets is on between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Eagle Farm Racecourse in Brisbane tomorrow, and I'll be there with bells on - hadn't realised just how much sewing I've done in the last 3 or 4 weeks until I put it all together ready to pack up and take to market in the morning, including a string of new stretchy long-sleeved tops...

 ...some way over the top skirts...

... and  a lot of smart new padded jackets ready for winter...

Plus some new aprons and bags for Mums, aunties, and others!

Come and visit - I'm in The Tote, right down the corridor - and sign up for regular wimcee news while you are there to go in the April give-away draw...more about that soon.

Have a happy week-end!

Tuesday twitters

Waltzing on to Mathilda's. I'm leaving the fabric collage to one side for a little while...would love to explore that more soon...and focusing now on Mathilda's Market, first round, Brisbane, Saturday 12th March at Eagle Farm Racecourse.

This is the first Mathilda's I've done for a while so can't wait! Plenty of new kiddie couture to present, all in the wimcee boho-chic style, with heaps of colour for Autumn, but some new styles like embellished and appliqued stretch tops with long sleeves, as well as the usual quilted jackets, skirts and trousers. Knitted goods too...just a little cooler weather would be conducive to more enthusiasm for working with wool!

Two new skirts with ruffles.

New camera is teaching me how it works too, added bonus...still early days! 

Have a great week.

Mathilda mayhem

Another flurry of couturier activity, so to speak, with Mathilda's Market this Saturday (19/6/10) at Eagle Farm Race Course, Ascot, Brisbane, from 9 am to 1 pm...the first time I've been at Mathilda in the new venue, so looking forward to seeing how it all works, for them and for me. Lots of colour in my latest work (when was there never) with more skirts, more soft toys, more trousers and knits. Even if you have no small people yourself, Mathilda's really is an ideal shopping ground for gifts that are different and of a  high quality, so worth a look. And a preview of wimcee...

Fiesta-rama!

Viva the fiesta! Check out the chicka chic! Limbering up for the lambada round...Baby and Kids Market (30/5), BiDM (5/6), Boutique Markets (13/6) and Mathilda's Market (19/6), plus a possible spot on the co-op tables in King George Square all day on Tuesday 1st June as part of the Saviours of the Lost Arts Fair, wimcee should be in over-drive this week but isn't...

The fiesta mood has mellowed the pace and I've been having too much fun with ruffled skirts and little embellished trews to feel too stressed out about anything at the moment. A few cameo peeks just to set the scene and go-go the co-co cabana!

Skirts with plenty of ruffles, frills and braids will warm up the coolest winter's morning teamed with leggings and boots, and are unique combinations of colourful cottons. Little trousers are embellished with frills and trims, this one in a hooty owl print on cord, and there are plenty of hand-knits in pure wool like this riotous rio shrug! Join the congo line...Mama-mio!!