We have a winner!

To ensure a fair competition, the lovely Lissanne from Sorted! chose a winner for her book giveaway, SORTED! The ultimate guide to organising your life - once and for all.

Retro Age, please contact me by email with your postal address!

Curious about the custom made side of Peta Pledger?

If you have been wondering why I have'nt added any new designs to my online store lately, it's because all of my time has been taken up by two things. The first one is being a mum and the second thing is custom made dress orders.

The 'Peta Pledger' label comprises of a small clothing label, but is primarily a made to measure service. As I handmake each garment myself, I have had very little time to devote to the label...but with a bit of extra hard work and luck, that will start to change soon!

I bumped into Justine, the editor of MixTape zine at the Melbourne International Film Festival earlier this year, and after a quick chat about what I was up to, Justine thought that some people may be interested about the processes involved in getting a custom made garment.

You can read the article in the latest issue of MixTape zine and it is available from here.

BOOK GIVEAWAY for someone who needs to get SORTED!

Before I met Lissanne Oliver 9 years ago, I was a hoarder. From shoes to magazines, fabric that I would never use, to gifts that were given to me that did not suit me or my personality.

As a person who has a parent with OCD, I was very lucky to meet her as she has re-trained my brain to think twice before keeping something.

Lissanne's company, SORTED! specialises in Organising & Decluttering people's homes, offices and anywhere else that needs a 'spring clean'.

Her company do not encourage "chucking stuff in the bin", they encourage recycling, reusing and giving unwanted goods to charity.

As this year has been one of the busiest years of my life, I am finding that everywhere I go in my home and studio, I am surrounded by imbaratz (junk, in Maltese). So I am taking a few hours this weekend to refer to my personal saviour, Lissanne's book titled Sorted! The ultimate guide to organising your life - once and for all and getting organised before the harsh Summer heat wave hits us here in Australia.

I have one copy of Sorted! to give away to one lucky blog reader who signs up to the SORTED! mailing list and leaves a comment on my blog, outlining why you should win this book.

The SORTED! newsletter is not spammy and is filled with useful tips including eco-friendly ways to wrangle your clutter.

Things that make me happy # 4 - Dancefloor memories

From the very first time I went to an alternative/indie club (Melbourne circa early 90's), I was hooked, it was such a happy time in my life and it was a time when you could walk down Lygon Street in Carlton on a Saturday night dressed in full goth regalia and not be afraid of getting beaten or chased, sure people jeered, but it was all in fun.

I also felt that I was part of an important time in 'clubland'. Sure, our generation did'nt change the face of the Melbourne music scene or anything like that, but what we saw for the first time was the bringing down of subcultural barriers....and a few hybrids emerged too!

More about that another time. I remember looking around the dancefloor at Clockwork Orange at the Chevron while this song was playing and felt happy and a little amazed at the different "subcultures" that were on the dancefloor smiling and dancing to this. If only the whole world could be that way...

'Sara's shirts on SALE until October 31st!

I have reduced all of the 'Sara' shirts in my online store until the 31st of October, shipping is free and please note that sizes 10, 12 and 14 have sold out.

If you are after a shirt and you can't see your size, please contact me and I will locate one for you via one of my retailers.

Skip straight to the shirt section by clicking here.

Studio Clearance section in my Etsy shop!

Do you know about the studio clearance section in my Etsy shop?

I will be adding new items daily and have reduced all commercial sewing patterns to USD$6 - yay!

A message from Rude Health in St Kilda...

Below is an email I received from Julia the owner of my stockist in St Kilda.

DAGMAR ROUSSET (née Rude Health)

We have a new name! Why? Well, a few people found Rude Health offensive, perplexing or just plain moronic. Thankfully, many people loved it (which made me feel a bit less lonely on my usually sparsely inhabited wavelength). Some people also thought our logo - the very cool smoking pig by Nate Trapnell, aka the Southpaw - was in some way condoning smoking. (I was actually going for irony, but I can see how people could get the wrong end of the stick!)

So I decided to re-name my shoppe Dagmar Rousset.

Dagmar - a girl’s name of German/Scandinavian origin - always brings to mind an impossibly elegant screen siren languidly reclining on a chaise longue caressing a cigarette holder between her long, delicate fingers (oops, there I go again, promoting the ingestion of noxious substances!) .

Rousset, because I am a lifelong Francophile and devoted promoter of the French language. In fact, the reason why my shop is closed for much of the week (much to the annoyance of my customers) is because I am teaching le français to eager young minds at university.

Who is Dagmar Rousset? She is everything I hope to be one day: fearless, elegant, and shamelessly eccentric.

Bisous,
Julia

I personally disagree with Julia on the last bit, I think she is already fearless, elegant, and shamelessly eccentric.