Sewing Is Hard

Shifty 70s

2012-02-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

Working on this 1973 shift dress drove me crazy.

All the problems are my own fault for being impatient and not following instructions to the letter, but still... It is so frustrating when things don't work! This one was tossed into (and retrieved from) my sewing trash bin more than once before it was declared complete.

It called for a stretch fabric and I used a woven poly gabardine with only a little give. The sleeves aren't too tight (for once) and I can move my arms just fine, but the back neck curves up towards my hairline and floats away from my neck in this really strange way. It might not do that if it was able to stretch properly across the shoulders.

My trusty Husqvarna portable died (permanently this time) mid-sew and I used the Pfaff, which does not have a zipper foot, to complete the dress. ...why yes, I did attempt to stitch in a zipper with a regular foot. In case you were wondering, it doesn't really work all that well.

I ended up sewing over the zipper teeth in a few (read: a zillion) places. In other places the fabric is stitched so close to the zipper that it catches badly. For a while there the zipper was completely un-usable. Because I'd stitched it in with extremely tiny stitches and the fabric was fraying like a mo-fo, ripping the whole thing out and starting over wasn't going to work. Instead I had to carefully pick out all of the stitches between the teeth with a seam ripper and then tack the zipper down again. Next time I haven't got the right foot I will sew the zipper in by hand. I detest hand-picking but it couldn't have been worse than the amount of struggling I had to do to get the zipper to work. It mostly works now and it doesn't look as bad as I'd feared.

Side Note: All my seam ripping and crying made my husband feel very bad for me and, as usual he came to my rescue. He figured out a way to make the old Husqvarna's snap-in feet work on my Pfaff...AND bought me a new vintage Husqvarna machine. Yay!

Anyway, despite being snug in the shoulders and hips, I still had about 4 inches of extra fabric in the waist. After re-curving the side seams and adding back darts it looks much better. It was worth all the suffering and I like the way it came out, but next time when a pattern calls for stretch fabric, I'll use stretch fabric!

Edwardian World's Fair

2012-02-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

Mid-January the hubs and I, along with our friends Kristen and Shelly, attended the Edwardian Worlds Fair. The Worlds Fair is part of a weekend-long celebration of all things Edward Gorey capped off by the Edwardian Ball. As usual I neglected to bring my camera but you can see event photos at the official website here. (If you happen to be in Los Angeles, the Edwardian Ball is coming to you on February 19th.)

The hubs and I prefer the Worlds Fair to the ball as it is a bit more relaxed but just as fabulous. People dress to the nines for both events and the costuming ranges from characters from Edward Gorey books, to Edwardian era styles, to steampunk, to 20s gangster/flapper, to general chappishness, to just way out and drool-worthy lush and louche fantasy ensembles. More photos here.

The headliner was Professor Elemental and despite the sound system refusing to play his backing music with any kind of consistency, he was wonderful. He had the crowd chanting along with Cup of Brown Joy. "When I say Earl Grey you say, Yes Please!" "Early Grey!" "Yes please!" etc. Great fun.

I self-drafted a 20s-ish dress by tracing together a 1980s dress pattern and a 1950s blouse pattern and I think it worked out rather well for a first effort.

I should have graded the underarm section a little differently because it sticks out a bit and I probably should have finished the bottom of the drape instead of leaving the selvedge edge. These are things I can fix at a later date though.

As usual it looks better on the dress form than it does on me. Naturally I neglected to take any photos until late at night after we'd gotten home from the event. It's really hard to pose at 1am when you are half asleep.

This Time It's Green

2012-01-15T09:04:00.000-08:00

This 1965 pattern is a little more fitted then the last one.

I wasn't too sure about the big bow in the front. It looks great in the drawings, but I'm not really a giant bow kind of girl. I ended up attaching it to a pin rather than stitching it to the dress. It doesn't lie flat which is annoying.

This dress was super easy to put together. The only thing I can't quite figure out is how to iron the collar. I haven't been able to figure out a good way to get the wrinkles out and still maintain the curve, so it looks a little rumpled. I will see if the dry cleaner can do anything with it. If not, it may have to go.

Again, I can't seem to get the waist fitted enough and it's still baggy. I've intensified the curve in the side seam and deepened the front darts. All told, I've taken it in by about four inches and, while it does fit better, I've messed up the way it drapes in the back. Oh la! A little more fiddling, I think and it will be fine. As it is, it's fine to wear to work.

Go to the Dickens!

2011-12-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

...and we did.

The Dickens Christmas Fair is so much fun, but I have been wearing variations on the same outfit for the past three years. I simply could NOT wear the same velvet jacket and plaid taffeta skirt again this year. I had this fantasy that I would finally sew something this year, but it didn't really pan out.

Instead, I procrastinated until the night before we went to the fair. I decided to dig through the closet and try to come up with something different from my usual outfit. Unfortunately there were not a lot of choices that didn't somehow involve some combination of the plaid skirt or velvet jacket. Grr!

Eventually I decided to take a page out of Barbara's book and steampunk it up a bit. I'm so glad I did! I was actually comfortable all day. I love my What Katie Did corset. Win!

The husband wore his explorer ensemble. So handsome.

The fair was the fair. It's always sort of the same...and always sort of magical. We saw wonderful performers, ate great food, chatted up the chimney sweeps, and tasted many delicious beverages.

We didn't take any photos (I didn't want to carry my camera) but here is a link to the official photo galleries. If you want to know more about what the fair is like, here's an article from a local paper. If you are in the Bay Area and want to check out the fair, it's running for one more weekend!

Happy Christmas!

You Are Gold

2011-11-18T11:09:00.001-08:00

I buy 60s (and early 70s) shift dress patterns. I love them. They rarely look good on me, so I rarely sew them but they are like kryptonite or catnip or ... anyway, I can't resist them.

Lately, I've been experimenting with making the 60s shift dress work on my super curvy shape. If it works on Joan Holloway, its got to work on me. Right?

This very mod McCalls pattern from 1969 was super simple to make.

First pass of completion it was like a big shapeless goldenrod sack. I had to do a pretty intense curved side seam to follow my waist and hip curve. I also added two long darts in the back to nip in the bagging midriff. The midriff is still a bit loose, but I didn't want to add darts to the front.

The soundtrack for this dress is Gold by Spandau Ballet, of course. I can't get it out of my head.

I Wear The Pants

2011-11-03T14:50:00.000-07:00

Despite sewing dress, after skirt, after dress, some mornings I just want no, need, to wear pants to work. Most of the time I go straight for classic, dark-wash, high-waisted jeans but I'm trying to break myself of the denim-for-work habit.

Actually, I've been trying to break this habit for years, with only moderate success. I think if I had more trousers like these, I might just be able to do it.

100% wool plaid Scottish Tartans by Corbin men's trousers. Thrifted in San Diego for a mere $7.

Baubles Bangles and Bright Shiny Beads

2011-10-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the hubs and I went to the Burgundy Tops Scooter Club's 25th anniversary party in Sacramento. It was a wonderful party held on the Delta King Riverboat. ...and it gave us the chance to dress up for a change!

I wore this dress that I got at a thrift store some time ago. I love it so much! It doesn't quite fit right in the arms and shoulders, so I'm thinking of selling it, but I'm so glad I got a chance to wear it at least once. The top is a fine beige net covered in jet beads. Its crazy beautiful!

This is the back.

And the Hubs looked dapper in his creme tuxedo jacket.

It was a really fun party! All my friends are silly and stylish and I love them.

7 Things About Me

2011-10-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bea from Butterflies and Hurricanes for this Stylish Blogger Award! I got this award many months ago and for some reason it took me forever think of seven semi-interesting things about me. I don't understand why it was so difficult. But anyway, here are 7 things you don't know about me.

1. I had a tiki themed wedding and a Hawaiian honeymoon. This photo is from the Luau we went to on the last day of our honeymoon. They had a photographer that snapped your photo on the way in, and later you could buy it for $25..? I loved the way ours came out and I'm so glad I bought it. This was taken only a few years ago an I'm amazed at how young and fresh we look. I guess we were pretty relaxed after a week in the islands.

2. I'm a total vampire nerd. If there's a vampire in in it, I'll watch it. Or read it. I'm not terribly choosy. I like it all. Actually, I love pretty much anything supernatural (or Sci Fi) and the more preposterous the better. (Ghost Hunters, Stargate, etc.) Except for Zombies. Zombies scare the crap out of me.

3. I really love images of bullfighters. I even went to a bloodless (Portuguese style) bullfight once. It was thrilling and strange and beautiful. I'm not sure I could stomach a real bullfight, though. Anyway, my grandfather was from Spain so my grandparents had a lot of Spanish-y stuff scattered around their home. This relief hung over the fireplace for years. When my grandma sold her house, it ended up in my cousin's garage and when I found out she had it, I begged her for it. I'm so glad she gave it to me. I love it so much.

4. My cat had to to have a lung removed last year. Thanks to lots of time spent at the vet he is the most expensive thing we own, other than the house. (Although I suspect he really owns us, not the other way around.) Here he is after surgery in a t-shirt I made for him because he kept escaping from his Elizabethan cone. He HATED that t-shirt, but it kept him from licking his scar. He is perfectly fine and happy now. You'd never know he's only got one lung.

5. I have been wearing the same vaguely pointy 50s style bra since high school. I bought my first "old lady bra" when I was 16. It was black and had a little pink rose between the breasts. I'm not sure if I was emulating Madonna or Marilyn, but I loved that bra. I was so sad when JC Penney discontinued them. Over the years this particular style, in black, has gotten harder and harder to find. The only brand that still makes them is Hanes/Bali and for a while they discontinued them in black, and I was reduced to dying my bras. So glad they've brought the black back! (Now everyone go out and buy this bra in black so it doesn't fall out of production again. M'kay, thanks!)

(Photo: One Hanes Place)

6. I mostly listen to mid-century mood music & standards and I have a lot of old albums on vinyl. My favorites are the 60s Brazilian jazz and samba records. When I lived in a town that had seasons (unlike Fogville) I would open up all my doors and windows on warm summer mornings and play the soundtrack to Orfeu Negro at full blast. My neighbors must have loved me.

7. I don't shave under my arms. I hate the way it feels to have stubble there and I get awful razor burn and ingrown hairs if I shave every day. Plus I am an excessive sweater and shaving seems to make it worse. Instead of shaving, I bleach the hair under my arms every couple of weeks, about every time I dye my hair, and I keep it pretty short. Honestly, though, I'm not super fastidious about it. Having fur there doesn't bother ME, though it might offend other people. In my wonderfully cosmopolitan city, I have met many stylish European ladies (mostly French, for some reason) who don't shave either, so I figure I'm in good company.

For this blog award I'd like to nominate 7 bloggers who inspire me:

Fiona
Tasha
Barbara
Peter
Isis
Charlotte
Trixie

Beigey Flowery Top

2011-10-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

While I was making the Flowery Frankendress, I was able to set aside enough fabric to make a blouse. I used this pattern.

The flower fabric is 100% polyester so I decided to line it with some cotton muslin for comfort. It went together incredibly fast...and then stalled at the Peter Pan collar.

Friends, I simply could NOT figure out how to attach the collar. I tried. I really did. I read the instructions multiple times. I looked up peter pan collars in my sewing books. I even found a great tutorial on-line but my brain just could not understand the geometry involved. After several false starts and one really poor attempt at banging the collar on and pretending that it looked fine, I enlisted professional help.

Is that failure? I'm not sure. The collar is on and the lady at the dry cleaners in my office building only charged me $5. I feel good about that. But someday I really need to learn how to attach this type of collar.

The pattern called for a zipper up the back, but I thought it would be nicer with a slit and a button instead. I really like the way it came out.

...and here's a front view. My jeans are a little low and the blouse is riding up a bit. I think it will look nicer with a skirt.

Dining Room Done!

2011-10-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a year since we moved into the new house and we've been extremely busy. All we have left to do is the interior stairs, deck, kitchen, and then paint the exterior. There are a few other little things like trim that still needs to be painted and some baseboards that need to be installed, and a wobbly fence out back that needs to be replaced, but we are mostly finished.

I know I took a zillion before pictures...but they all seem to have disappeared. I'm afraid I may have taken them on my old phone and not moved the snaps over to the computer. Sigh. That means that all I have to show you for "befores" are the ones the realty company took before we bought the place. FAIL!

Anyway, the first space I want to show you is the dining room. See that area off to the side of the fireplace? That's what it looked like before. A small white rectangle connected to a larger white rectangle. Meh.

See the mirror on the wall? Well, we thought the whole interior of our house was painted white when we bought it. Once the mirror was off and we could see actual white paint underneath were it had been, we realized that everything was painted a sad greige which inspired us to choose light but bright tones for almost every wall in the house.

Here's what the dining room looks like now.

The Hubs built the cork hanging lamp over the table by combining a bunch of different pendant lamp kits from Lowes.

Our wonderful friend and interior designer extraordinaire Janel Holiday helped us find just the right grass cloth wallpaper for this space. The Hubs put in the bamboo floors. The bright yellow-orange paint adds a little more light to the space and it brings out all the deep orange tones in the furniture. I love this room!

Dear Coty

2011-09-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

This packaging

Is not nearly as lovely as this packaging. (Even with the de-laminating paper.)

Loose powder is one of those cosmetic items that is about the same brand to brand so one of the main reasons I buy Coty translucent powder is the old style cardboard box. I hate that they've gone plastic. Not only is it less pretty but it's not as readily recyclable. Bah!

Which one would you rather have in your makeup kit?

Fishy Blouse

2011-09-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Remember the Fish Dress? I made a blouse with the leftovers.

I made version 3.

When the pieces were cut out, I was baffled as to how they were supposed to go together, particularly the front piece. It took me forever to realize that it had to fold back in on itself and go under the collar/shoulder piece as a facing.

Once I figured that out, this blouse went together with relative ease, although it lived on the dress form for weeks while I tried to summon the courage to do the button holes. The first one is a bit dodgy but the rest look pretty good.

I thought it would be a good idea to line the blouse as quilting cottons get a bit floopy after repeated washings, but the lining made it a bit more stiff than I would like. It floats away from my body in a way that makes me look a little wider than I actually am. Or maybe I'm just used to wearing skin tight stretchy tops?

Anyhoo. I like it.

I'm still haven't discovered a really good spot for photography in the new house. I tried outside for this shot but, as it was a beautiful sunny day, I wasn't able to stop squinting.

Pattern Haul

2011-09-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

I continue to buy patterns...

I bought this one because I thought the bodice might work for the sundress I am hoping to make from that Hawaiian print duvet I bought last year. The bodice looked a little more constructed on ebay than it does in person. Oh well. Eventually I'll find the right pattern.

* * *

I have a thing for jumper/pinnafore patterns. I love everything about this one. Hello, Von Trap Family Singers! Maybe I'm projecting my wishes, but in the pattern illustrations as it appears to be made up in a heavy fall fabric. I'll be keeping an eye out for floral-printed velvet.

* * *

Found this one at the thrift store. The photo on the pattern sleeve is awful, in my opinion. The under-blouse makes it so frumptastic. But wouldn't it be cute in a rayon novelty print? Minus the tie belt and pockets, of course.

* * *

I keep buying 60's patterns and yet I rarely make them up. Still, I couldn't leave this one at the thrift store. The (dreaded scalloped + Peter Pan) collar is so cute.

* * *

I saw this one over at Lisette's blog and had to have it. Surprisingly I found a copy on ebay right away! I love it! Look at that sweater vest! I wonder, is it possible to buy yardage of sweater knit fabric? I'm not sure I've ever seen it on the racks at my usual thrift store. If it exists, I wonder if it's difficult to work with...

* * *

Another thrift store find. I had to have this blouse pattern even though its an extra small. The pieces are fairly simple so I imagine that I could grade it up. However, the reason I wanted it was because of the cowl-front version, which to my eye has a 40s look. Guess which piece is missing? Bah! I can grade up from the illustration tho, right?

* * *

Another purchase inspired by the Hawaiian print duvet. Now that I have it in my hands, I'm thinking it might be better in a crisp, bright colored shantung. Loving that neckline!

* * *

Did I mention that I go crazy for retro (30s/40s) inspired 1970s patterns? I do! If I was to try sewing a suit, this is the pattern I would start with. (I'd move the trouser zipper to the side, however.)

* * *

When I was in high school, I had a couple of vintage blouses like this that I wore until the fabric was like tissue paper. Love!

Changes

2011-09-08T07:21:00.000-07:00

While I was away I changed my hair. It's such a relief to have bangs again. I always like my face better when its framed by bangs.

I like the way it looks straight and I feel much less inclined to set it every day. It still looks nice when I do set it, but it's nice to have the option to leave it straight.

Anyone else make a major style change lately?

Am I Back?

2011-09-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

I don't know...

But I thought this was too neat not to share.

Lost: One Mojo

2011-04-08T07:29:00.001-07:00

Hi All.

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I've been away for a bit. A combination of work kicking my ass, preparations for Viva, psyching myself up for an upcoming performance (I'm not really a performer), and a family health tragedy that is breaking my heart, I sort of lost my will to blog. I've been thinking about blogging, heaven knows I have stuff to show you, but I just can't seem to sit down at the computer and DO it.

So in order to prevent my lack of blogging from making me feel like a loser, (or becoming one of those situations where you wait too long to write a letter and then feel like you would have to apologize so much when you finally sit down to write it, that it's better not to even bother) I am officially taking a break.

I will be back in mid-May with some new projects, that 200 followers giveaway I promised, and maybe some photos from Viva.

In the mean time, I will breathing deeply and trying to keep up with reading your blogs. You all keep me going, one vintage dress at a time. Thanks for sticking with me!

...and so that this is not a completely picture-less post, here is today's outfit.

Shoes: Sofft Venezia
Skirt: Self-made Vogue 7523 c.1950
Tank: Forever 21
Cardi: Old Navy
Black Cherry Pendant: So Good Jewelry
Glasses: Allyn Scura Eyewear

xoxoxo
Gabriella

A Slightly Disorganized Post and an Award!

2011-03-03T09:12:00.000-08:00

I'm nearly prepared for my 200 followers giveaway, but not quite. I need to take some photos and add a few more things to the prize package. I'm hoping I'll be ready by next week, but I've been so tired from work that blogging properly (or staying awake past 8pm) has been difficult.

I am so late posting this! I started writing this last Thursday, but ran out of time and wasn't able to finish!

I began the day watching Fleur's Victory Roll Tutorial and thought -I know, I'll give this a try and post the results. That will be easy and fast and I can do it before work. Fleur's tutorial gave me a much better understanding of how Victory Rolls are supposed to work. I've never been able to do them before at all but after about ten minutes of futzing with my hair, I had two passable rolls. I gave them a good shellacking with hairspray ... and then I decided that the roll on the parted side of my hair wasn't quite right.

Unroll. Roll. Unroll. Spray. Brush. Roll. Unroll. Spray. Backcomb. Brush again. Roll. (repeat ad nauseum)

And poof! 40 minutes had gone by, the part side of my hair was in complete revolt, my fingers were sticky with hairspray and slightly orange from residual hair dye, and I had to leave for work. I scrubbed my hands, slapped a comb in the parted side, snapped a few quick pix in the mirror and was out the door.

I love the roll that worked. Clearly, though, this sort of thing takes practice and one should NOT give one's hair a thick and liberal coating of hairspray until they are completely done working with it. I think that was my big mistake. All that hairspray changed the texture of my hair and made it very difficult to work with. Not to say that my hair is easy to work with ever, but this really is the easiest way to do Victory Rolls I've come across and everything was going fine until all that spray.

In other news, Bea over at Butterflies and Hurricanes gave me a Stylish Blogger Award! Thanks Bea! I need to nominate a few of you for the award and write up 7 things you don't know about me. That will be in my next post!

Until then, I'm off to work!

A Flowery Frankendress

2011-02-24T06:43:00.000-08:00

I love this fabric. Love love it. Its a relatively modern sheet from the thrift store, but the flower pattern just looks so vintage.

After my success with the fish dress, I decided to do something a little similar. My plan was to use the sleeves and skirt from this pattern.

and the bodice from this pattern.

Cutting was a little tricky, because I wanted to be able to conserve enough fabric to get a blouse out of it as well. (More on that in another post.) I cut out an extra skirt panel as I really wanted the skirt to be extra full. It was a bit of a geometry problem, but I managed it.

Look at how long the skirt panels are when stitched together!

It stretches from the door of the sewing room all the way to the closet. And to think I had to gather that down to fit my waist!

Construction was straightforward and simple as I've used both patterns before. I only had two major problems. First of all, the lining I used was horrid! Its a gorgeous lavender that is so pretty but it just frays and frays and frays. I attempted to finish one of my seams with the rolled hem foot but that just created weird bulk. The worst is around the waist. There were big floaty clouds of frayed polyester all around the waist...so I Fray Check-ed the whole thing. (Fray Check should come in an aerosol. Really it should.) Guess what happens when Fray Check dries? It gets scratchy! Good times. I am reluctant to put seam binding over the waist seam, as its already super thick, but I'm not sure what else to do.

The other error I made was, uh, well, I forgot to cut out the damned sleeves. I'm not sure what happened. I didn't even realize that they weren't cut until I was mostly done with the dress. I was certain I'd made sure that there was enough fabric left over for the sleeves...but then there just wasn't. I had to dig through the pile of scraps to come up with enough fabric to make sleeve facings and even then one of them ended up being cut on the bias. I hope it doesn't end up doing something weird to the way the sleeve hole pulls around my arm.

Also, I noticed very late in the process that the sheet is made of 100% polyester...as is the lining. I think this will be a very warm dress and I will be sure to avoid heat and flame while wearing it.

The zipper went in beautifully, for a change, but the hem is a bit of a mess. This is probably the worst blind hem I've ever done. I just couldn't get the fabric to feed in evenly so the picks aren't consistent at all. From the outside you can see a few places where the picks just stop and then start up again a few inches later. That's because I ended up just catching the just the lining instead of both layers. It causes the hem to bubble slightly. At some point I think I will go back and hand pick the hem, but I'm just too exhausted by this dress to do it now.

It does this funny thing on one side where the waistline flips under when I move. I'm not sure why that is. I've never had this happen before. I don't know if its because of the bias cut armhole facing, or the bulk of all that gathered fabric, or something else, but its really annoying.

Still, I think its a very pretty dress

I Survived the Book Party!

2011-02-11T09:09:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of your encouraging comments (and free wine) I survived Book Party night. It was really nice to meet Erin and she was lovely! I got a signed copy of her book and one of her totally cool A Dress A Day tape measures!

Unfortunately though, I was still horrifically socially awkward.

I met the lovely Mena of The Sew Weekly which was a thrill, although she probably didn't think so because I was all "wait, which blog do you write?" Even though I KNOW Sew Weekly. Damn nerves! I am SUCH an idiot. Mena was sweet and she was wearing the most incredible vintage knit dress. She looked AMAZING! I forgot my camera so I didn't get a photo, but if you pop over to her blog, you will see that she has some serious style!

The book party was held at a little vintage shop in Hayes Valley called Ver Unica. They had some amazing stuff, although the dresses were a bit out of my usual price range. I am admittedly extra cheap and shop thrift stores far more frequently than vintage stores, so they might have been reasonably priced...I have no way of knowing. Anyway, the accessories, on the other, hand were within my reach and I got this AMAZING gold belt!

Speaking of amazing gold things, back in September the Long and Winding Bobbin had an 80 Followers Giveaway and I won! Not only that, I won the BEST prize: a super neato retro Olga Berg gold bag.

Thanks to the US post office having difficulty finding my house it got returned to Australia and she had to mail it again. The package finally arrived a week or so ago and I LOVE it so much. Since she felt bad that it got returned the first time she sent me an additional prize, this little had mirror! Isn't that the nicest?

The bag and my new belt go together perfectly! I am a happy gal.

Stay tuned as I now have 200 followers (?!) and am working on a giveaway!!

Its Thursday

2011-02-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

...which means its post-day. Unfortunately, I am still unable to locate the rest of the photos for my Flowery Frankendress post. Looks like I'll have to re-take them. Grr!

In the mean-time... Look! I made a brooch from ribbon, fake leaves, and plastic grapes from the craft store.

It refuses to hang straight, probably because my hot-glue-ing talents are crap, but I like it. Grapes!!

Tonight my friend Tricia (of the faboo blog Literary Sluts) and I are going to the book party for Erin McKean of Dress a Day fame. I feel a smidge fan girl-ish and SUPER excited, which means that, in order to avoid being all fawny and annoying, I will stand in the corner and drink free wine (I hope. Book parties usually have free wine, right?) and not talk to anyone. Then, later I will regret not telling Erin how much I love her writing and her site and how inspirational she is to me. Sigh. Being shy is lame. Anyhoo...

Guests are encouraged to wear vintage. None of my "real" vintage fits me, so I'll be wearing a home-made vintage jumper.

Blogging Is Hard

2011-02-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

Uh, sorry guys. I went away for the weekend and while I was gone my unfinished post posted. Oops. Blogging is hard.

Pretty Pretty Paper

2011-02-03T07:54:00.000-08:00

This is the wallpaper we've chosen for our downstairs bathroom. Its called Hula Hula by Crezana designs. I love it so much! Its a bit spendier than we would like. Okay, a lot spendier. A LOT LOT. So spendy that I'm not even going to tell you the price. But its SO darned cute.

The hubs and I had a long talk last night about whether or not we could afford it. I'm in charge of the dollars and I run an extremely tight ship, moneywise, and most of the renovations and home purchases we've done so far have been accomplished on the cheap. Initially, paying so much money for a design item was hard to fathom. It's not going to support the structure of the house or cook a meal or chill beverages or run water to the house. What it will do, is sit there and look pretty and make us happy every time we see it. After much discussion and a lot of math, we decided it was worth it. Its just so gorgeous and it fits our personality so well.

It is grasscloth so it has a fabric backing which makes it a bit like a very heavy upholstery fabric. Maybe a bit less flexible, but probably sew-able. In fact, the Crezana blog shows some throw pillows made with it!

http://crezanadesign.blogspot.com/2009/12/aloha.html

Aren't they just the ginchiest? I wonder if I could make something cute from the scraps...? A wallet maybe? Here's hoping for scraps!

So who else has gone mad and purchased something totally non-functional for your home despite the cost because you just loved it so much? We can't be the only ones?

Photobooths are Fun

2011-01-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

Aren't they?

Now if I could only stop talking long enough to pose properly...

Pattern Crazy

2011-01-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

For some reason, the last time we went to the thrift store it was full of cute patterns. This is what I got...

Simplicity 5556

I love this dress. I think that, made in something other than polyester, it could be super cute and sort of Joan-esque.

* * *

Simplicity 5215

I had to buy this one, even though I don't make doll clothes, and the instructions and most of the pattern are missing. I think I will frame it and hang it in the sewing room.

* * *

Simplicity 4539

At some point, I will get over my terror of sewing lightweight stretchy fabrics and make some knit tops. Really! I love the one with the tie neck, though its probably way beyond my skill level.

* * *

McCalls 7356

I don't usually make loose fitting clothes clothes because they don't work that well with all my curves, but I love this dress. I really do. Its way more late 70s/early 80s than I go for, but its also sort of "McCalls knocks off Halston doing Grecian Fabulous." Gotta love that!

* * *

McCalls 4897

Yes, the pattern illustration is hideous, but peasant tops always rock. I love the midriff version, though I would not wear it unless I was also wearing very high-waist trousers or shorts. Nor would I wear it (or any of the others) off the shoulder. I like the rick-rack version lots. It would be super cute and Western-y with a tiered (broomstick) skirt or a circle skirt with matching rick-rack trim.

* * *

Butterick 5774

See? Terrible drawings, but cute peasant tops. Irresistible.

* * *

Butterick 6124

I bought a dress just like the short version in an awesome Hawaiian print at Hilo Hattie while on my honeymoon. Unfortunately, I have since (cough) grown out of it. Its super comfy on hot days, except for being too small. Grr. But now I can remake it in a size that will mostly fit! Yay!

* * *

Butterick 5939

I honestly don't know why I bought this one except that I love wedding dresses and I lost my mind a little bit. I see a little Regency influence, and maybe a little Edwardian...but it mostly looks like a nightgown.

* * *

NewLook 6340

This one had to come home with me because the bottom view is just SO 1990s swing scene. (That's retro, now, right?) It reminds me of learning to dance and meeting all my wonderful girlfriends and going to swing dance camp and Viva Las Vegas. Such good times!

Fish and Wine

2011-01-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

My intention, when I got my first paycheck, was to get my machine tuned up, buy a bunch of nice wool suiting, and make a bunch of work clothes. Well, I got the machine tuned up... but I just couldn't fall in love with any of the suiting at my usual fabric store. Fabric.com has some that looks very pretty but I really shouldn't buy any more fabric online. Its too addictive and I need to sew up some of the fabric I have. So that's what I did.

I used this fabric.

This is probably the most mid-century looking fabric in my stash so I wanted to be sure that I used exactly the right pattern.

After digging around in the stash a few times I finally decided on this one. Its from the early 60s and definitely the right era for the fabric's mid/mod print.

It doesn't look like much on the pattern envelope, but it looks good sewn up.

I flat lined the skirt and bodice with a deep burgundy poly. I didn't line the sleeves because I wanted to take advantage of the fabric's stretchiness. My arms are a little, ahem, big and I usually have problem squeezing them into vintage sleeves.

In the past I've avoided dirndle skirts because I thought they added too much bulk around my waist. I think the key is making sure that the bodice fits the waist properly. When you create a smooth and snug waistline the gathered fabric should accentuate it, rather than add bulk. Well, that's my theory, anyway.

I followed the pattern exactly and it really was simple to make! I usually make some grave error that has to be torn out and re-sewn or end up with some kind of weird fit issue. Not this time. I can say with complete confidence that I love this dress!

This is the first full skirted dress that I've completely lined and I love it! It is absolutely luxuriant! The slippery lining slides over my skin and underpinnings beautifully. The extra weight of the lining adds to the way the dress hangs and moves.

There is a v-back under all that hair...

I think we can call this one a success! Not only is it my first fully-lined full-skirted dress but it is the first garment that I feel really truly 100% proud of. I almost feel like I know what I'm doing, for once. I'm sure that feeling will be shattered by the next project but until then I'm going to revel in my completion of a perfect dress.

Thank You Santa!

2011-01-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. I'm still clearly missing some of my blogging mojo. It took me forever to get this post together. Yikes!

The Hubs and I had a wonderful holiday. It was nice to see family and my in-laws are always full of the holiday spirit. We went to visit them on Xmas Eve and I wore the apron my ma-in-law made me last year. I put a zipper up the back and made it into a holiday skirt.

Santa was VERY good to me this year! I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the awesome stuff I got. Yay stuff!

I got...

A rotary wall phone for the kitchen!

We thought that, rather than remove the old wall phone mount, it would be much better to hang a vintage phone there. I looked and looked for just the right one and then gave up. Its very hard to find a yellow phone that isn't either orangey or greeney. But, leave it to the Hubs to make it happen! He was able to find just the right one in just the right shade.

* * *

A Mason Pearson hairbrush.

I put this on my Amazon wish list at the very last moment, and my brother in law did the rest. Thanks J! I love it so much. It makes my hair so smooth. I can't wait to use it to brush out a set!

* * *

A vintage Sunset magazine cookbook.

The thing that's so cool about this book is that its full of home recipes that people would send in to be published in Sunset's Chefs of the West column. Because it was published in the 50s, some of these recipes date back to the turn of the century and first world war. ...and also the pasta recipes are written as if pasta is some kind of exotic food, which always cracks me up. What on earth did people eat before pasta? Potatoes, I guess?

* * *

Vintage Art Glass (very hard to photograph, for some reason)

From the Mom-in-law. Isn't it gorgeous? She said that she got it at a yard sale from someone who's uncle (?) was a glass blower. I love how its a very simple shape, but when you look close you see all these little details (like the inverted bubbles at the ends) which must have been super hard to do.

* * *

Hubs got me this gorgeous coffee table book with photos of the people and places in our neighborhood in the 1970s.

I know it's supposed to be all journalistic and important, but I can't get past the clothes! Oh and the hair! I am absolutely in love with the fashion. The knitwear and jumpsuits and 30s/40s inspired looks, that were so popular in the 70s, are enough to blow my mind but then there are leisure suits and hot pants and biker-wear. Wow! Plus its super cool to see local landmarks that I recognize. This book is amazing. I just can't stop looking at it.

* * *

A tiki dress from Lady Luck Brand clothing.

The Hubs bought this for me from a local designer/seamstress in the hopes of inspiring me to do my own designing and selling. I don't think I'm quite ready for that, yet, but I do love this dress! It fits like a glove and the fabric is just gorgeous!

...and the best gift this year?

Oh man oh man oh man!

This!

Its a vintage Pfaff sewing machine with all of the feet and the carrying case and users booklet. Squee!! I could die. It is completely gorgeous and the engine is so quiet! It's much more complicated than my every day machine (my trusty 70s Husquvarna portable) and I'm a little intimidated by it.

Fortunately, whoever owned it before put color coded stickers on each of the feet to coincide with sections of the users manual. If I go through the manual one step at a time I should be able to teach myself to use it, right? Also, Morgan discovered that by turning the three cams to different positions, it can do something like 80 different embroidery stitches. It's completely mad and a bit beyond my skill level and wonderful!

I'm going to finish up the many projects I've started on the Husquvarna and the next new thing I start will be on the Pfaff. Hopefully, it wont be too scary and difficult to figure out.

I hope that Santa brought you everything you wanted and that you all had a wonderful holiday and an excellent New Year celebration! I've got one completed project photographed and another project finished so I should be back soon...

Disneyland Dream

2010-12-28T09:10:00.000-08:00

While I work on my "what I got for Xmas" post, please enjoy this film from 1956. (The year our house was built!) Try as I might, I can't embed a smaller sized linky thing that won't bleed into the side bar. If you'd like to see an unobstructed version, click the "Internet Archive" link below.

From Internet Archive: "In July 1956, the five-member Barstow family of Wethersfield, Connecticut, won a free trip to newly-opened Disneyland in Anaheim, California, in a nationwide contest. This 30-minute amateur documentary film tells the fabulous story of their fun-filled, dream-come-true, family travel adventure, filmed on the scene at Walt Disney's "Magic Kingdom" by Robbins Barstow.

In December 2008, "Disneyland Dream" was named to the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress."

Oh, hello there!

2010-12-21T07:30:00.000-08:00

I disappeared again. Sorry!

So Thanksgiving happened and then we lost our internets for, like, ever and then we got them back and I got sick and was too tired to post and then... Oh never mind. I think I'm finished with all that and I'm finally back. Hooray!

Thanksgiving was nice. It went a little differently this year. Instead of Turkey Day alone with the Hubs and then off to visit family on Friday, we did the opposite. It was a nice switch and the weekend seemed a little longer because we were finished with family stuff by Friday morning. Here is a table photo, taken at my in-laws house.

Since it was Thanksgiving, Hubs and I took the opportunity to get dressed up a little fancier than we would on a regular weekend afternoon. I considered doing an outfit post but I was too shy to ask anyone to take our picture. I did manage to get one really bad self portrait.

Yikes!

I got a nice candid of the Hubs, though, talking to my mom and sis. I think he looks rather dapper. In his hand are a bunch of '40s ties that my sister's roomate/best friend/ex boyfriend gave him. They are gorgeous! Thanks N! I wish I had pictures but they've been put away already and I don't want to dig around in his closet looking for them.

We did quite a bit of thrifting while we were up in Rosatown.

I got a striped sweater

and a grey sweater

A cute gold bag

some reproduction vintage canisters for the kitchen

and this crazy beautiful 70s(?) dress from FINLAND. Unfortunately, it's a little snug. I barely got it zipped up so you don't get to see the back.

On our way home from Rosatown, we stopped at our favorite Fogville thrift store. I got an old sheet in a totally cute flower pattern. It's being cut up for a project right at this very moment!

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we went to the Candlestick Park Antique Market for the first time. It was nice. Not a lot of people and good prices...except for the guy who wanted $40 for four really messed up 1940s tropical curtain panels. That would have been a great price but most of the pleats were ripped out and they were filthy, torn and WET. Ew. If you are trying to sell a pile of soggy, moldy fabric you should at least be willing to haggle. The lowest he would go was $35. He kept saying, "But if you take em home and wash em they'll be fine." Um. No.

The Hubs got (almost) a whole set of the Popular Mechanics Home Handyman encyclopedia from 1961. Only number 11 is missing. They are perfect inspiration books for updating (retro-dating?) our 1950's home!

In other news, I've been sewing! I have completed a dress, which I will photograph and post soon. I made a blouse too, which is awaiting buttons or rather, waiting for me to be brave enough to do the buttonholes. I've also started on a dress and blouse made from the sheet pictured above. I am looking forward to showing you some new projects very soon.

Happy (very very very late) Turkey Day and Happy Holidays! THANKS for reading my blog and sticking with me while I've been outta commission/distracted/exhausted. I'll post again after Xmas.

An Award!

2010-11-04T11:51:00.000-07:00

Look! I won an award!!

Full disclosure: I won this award WEEKS ago. Ever since my job ate my life (I will stop kvetching soon, really) I've been having a hard time keeping up with the blog. Posting has been near impossible, responding to comments has stopped entirely, although I was crap at that before too. But I am trying to keep up, really, and I value every comment and, well, an award is a special thing and I really should have posted this sooner. Nancy at The Hem M A Blog was so sweet to give it to me and I really am thankful. Thank You Nancy!

The conditions that come along with this reward are:

1. Accept the award. Post it on your blog along with the name of the person who awarded it along with a link to their blog.

2. Pay it forward to 15 other bloggers that you have recently discovered.

3. Contact those bloggers and let them know they've been chosen.

I'm paying it forward to my 15 most recent followers with blogs of their own. For some reason Blogger isn't letting me access some of the blogs in the first 15 followers so some had to be skipped. Stupid Blogger. I know that some of you who were skipped have blogs, but for some reason, I can only get to your Google profile, not your blog - or worse yet, I click on you and nothing happens! Urgh! I am SO sorry about that. I really appreciate all of my followers, and am still amazed that I have any at all, so if I skipped you and you do have a blog, please don't feel like you were skipped intentionally!!

Aaaaanyway...

Here are 15 blogs that you should really go have a peek at, if you haven't already:

The Vintage Kitten
Incendiary Blonde
A Make It Yourself Mom's Diary
Like A Silent River
That's Stupid What You Just Said
Land Girl 1980
Bygone Glamour
Those Were Very Good Years
Go Chanel Or Go Home
The Legacy Of Home
The Musings of Miss 1941
Elusive Reveries
Ivy Black Chat
Adventures of Girl from the Naki
Straight Talking Mama

Whew! Now I'm out of time and I have to run out the door to work!

Work. Shoes. Fun.

2010-10-24T18:38:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow begins the third week of my job. Thank you everyone for all of your nice comments and congratulations!! I am very happy to be employed once again.

Working is way better than being broke but it takes up so much TIME!! I'm having a hard time with my schedule. For the last ten years or so, I've managed to arrange it so that I get in super early and leave around 4/4:30 pm. At my new gig I don't get to leave until 5:30 and it is killing me. I feel like I basically get home, eat, go to bed and start all over again. I hope that I start to relax into my new schedule soon. At the moment, I'm so tired and busy that I feel like I barely have time to blog, much less read everyone else's blogs. I miss you all so much!!!!

- - -

I've worn my new shoes (not the boots tho) more than once and have found them to be mostly comfortable.

The Clarks are the best of the bunch as they broke in almost immediately. I had a little rubbing on my baby toes on day one but that was all. They are nice and wide, for a pump, and the leather stretched out to fit my feet really quickly.

The Sofft are second best. The arch support is really great and while my toes did get a little achy on the first day, it was definitely manageable. By the third wearing, my toes were happy and snuggly. No pain. Good shoes. LOVE that arch support!

...and I kind of accidently bought another pair.

The day after my big shoe binge, I was killing time in Ross and I found another pair of super cute comfort shoes. They just happened to be a pair that I'd wanted to try on at Macy's but they didn't have them in my size. When I saw them at Ross, I had to get them. They were $22 at Ross and $85 at Macy's so it was a no brainer. They are Aerosoles Beninsula.

Cute huh? The peep toe (which is impossible to see in my photos) just kills me - too adorable. I really wish they were more comfortable. They are very flexible and the heel is nice and sturdy but they aren't leather. By the end of the first day my toes were really pinchy and I couldn't wait to take them off. The second time I wore them it was better but I am worried that they will always hurt a bit, since plastic doesn't stretch like leather. They would have been more of a bargain if they were leather. Oh well. Live and learn.

- - -

Tonight is Halloween. We bought some candy to give away, but we haven't had any trick-or- treaters. This is first time in years I've been home on Halloween night, so maybe I'm doing it wrong? The porch light is on... Is there something else I'm supposed to do? Do city kids even trick-or-treat? I guess they probably all go to the mall or something? Or maybe everyone did thier Halloween stuff Friday and Saturday night?

Hubs and I attended the Zombie Prom on Friday night. He was a calavera and I was a flapper. I took a few quick shots of our costumes before we went out, but I was in a hurry. They are not the greatest snaps ever, but you get the idea.

I am especially excited to show you all my hair-do because, shockingly, it totally worked! I hope that's not too immodest. The fact that my hair worked at all was a miracle as I really had no idea what I was doing.

I dampened the front with product, slapped in some wave clips and let those sit while I put the lower sections in Hot Sticks. I applied some heat to the wave clips with a blow drier, just to be sure that the waved areas set properly. Once the hot rollers were cool, I unrolled the sections and pulled them apart with my fingers, just to fluff them a little. Then I re-rolled them loosely and turned them so that the curls were flat against my head. It was extremely difficult to pin them down and hide the pins at the same time, so I had to re-do the rolls a few times and re-position the curls. I probably still had some pins showing but I tried very hard to camouflage them as much as possible. A good shellacking with hairspray and I was ready to go.

See? Good hair! Amazing!

We had a wonderful time at the prom, although I ended up overindulging a little bit. (Damn you, tequila.) There were so many great (and scary!) costumes. I wish I'd brought my camera. Kim over at The Kim Show has lots of great photos of the event so you really should pop over there and have a look.

Happy Halloween!

New Job, New (Work) Look, New Shoes

2010-10-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

After a year of unemployment I finally have a job. Naturally, I celebrated by buying new shoes!

I need new shoes for my new job. No, really, I do. ;)

I've worked for as an assistant to lab scientists for the past ten years, but my new job is at a trade organization that serves the local biotechnology community. That means have to dress a bit more like a professional than I have in the past. I'm trading my jeans, t-shirts and cardigans for skirts, dresses, and blazers so, of course, my Converse are being replaced with footwear that is more office appropriate.

Admittedly, I already have a LOT of shoes and lots that would work in an office setting but most of them are cheaply made. Cheap shoes are, unfortunately, not the most comfortable thing for wearing all day, every day. Luckily, several of the comfort brands have come out with some really cute vintagey options. I am now the proud owner of three new pairs of comfortable office-appropriate shoes!

First I bought a pair of boots to wear while commuting when the autumn rain starts. Fleur's post from last year inspired me to keep an eye out for a pair of modern boots with vintage charm. I think the Arrow boot from Fitzwell, fit the bill nicely. To me, they look like a modern twist on the galoshes that Emily from Livin' Vintage scored at a flea market. If I could find galoshes to fit over my shoes I'd be in heaven!! Until then, I'm happy with these warm and snuggly boots.

* * *

These are Venezia by the brand Sofft. I think they have a very nice basic look that goes well with pencil skirts and pouffy dresses. The best part is, they have actual arch support so I know I can wear these all day without pain.

* * *

These are my favorites! They are Diamond Star from Clarks Artisan line. They have a wonderful '40s look and will be great with trousers and a-line skirts. They are super flexible and comfy and feel like sneakers.

Also, now that I have a job, I can afford to buy notions and linings and...fabric! YAY! Sewing will return to Sewing Is Hard. From my first paycheck, I intend to get my machine tuned up and buy some nice wool blend suiting so that I can whip up a few more office appropriate skirts and maybe a pair of trousers. Stay tuned!

Awesome Neighborhood Thrift Store, Bad Blogger

2010-10-12T17:33:00.001-07:00

The Hubs commutes to work every day on his motorcycle down a long stretch of our neighborhood's main street. It's not much of a main street because most of the business cater to the industrial portion of the neighborhood and are primarily hardware stores, dry cleaners and sandwich shops which are only open from 8-5. I would love a little breakfast spot, more restaurants that are open for dinner, and one or two boutiques, but I think I will have to wait a bit. The neighborhood become less industrial in the last few years, but it will be a while before the greater number of shop owners expand their focus to serving the residential population.

Anyway, last week on his way to work The Hubs happened to pass a brand new thrift shop on the main drag, down by the freeway on-ramp. We took a nice long walk on Saturday morning and popped in to see if there were any treasures to be had.

Mrs. Jenkins Clothing Store and More is a lot like a church charity shop: it's not super organized, there is a ton of inventory, and you need to dig to find the good stuff. The prices, however, are amazing. I found two adorable home sewn items: a super cute 60s house dress and and a drop dead gorgeous 50s strapless evening dress in hot red satin brocade with a wing bust. I paid a grand total of $6 for both items. Wow!!

Mrs. Jenkins herself is adorable. She told us that she opened the store on her birthday last month because she's 75 years old and wanted to finally do something for herself. She has gospel music on the boom box just out side the door and a TV on in back by the sales counter and she loves to chat with her customers, which makes for a bit of an intense sensory experience, but she's just so darned sweet and she has some good stuff. You just need to be patient and carefully comb through all the racks. The Hubs and I fell in love with her and will definitely be back in a week or so to see what new treasures she's got in stock.

Here's the '60s house dress. ...I"m pretty sure its '60s... The cut of the collar (which you can't see in the snaps) and the tent-like shape of the dress make me pretty sure that it was cut from a 60s pattern, but the fabric is a gorgeous rayon and it looks '40s to me.

The photos don't do it justice. (I'm still trying to find that perfect photography spot.) It's even cuter in person.

I wish I could show you how incredible the red dress is, (this is the part where I fail as a documentarian) but I only took one stupid camera phone picture, and I can't figure out how to get it out of my phone. ...and I've already given the dress to a friend as it didn't fit me properly. I suppose I could have altered it, but it occurred to me that there was someone out there who would look a zillion times better in it than I.

I saw Kim (of The Kim Show and Vanity's Only Virtue) on Saturday night and told her that I had a dress that I thought would look awesome on her. She stopped by the next day to try it on and I was right. It looked amazing. Really, truly. The color suits her skin and hair so well. It looks like it was made for her. I really should have taken a picture of her in it. I am the worst blogger ever!

OH well. This was a great reminder to always photograph everything if you want to have pretty pictures to add to your blog. Oh, la! If I can ever figure out how to get the damn picture off my phone, I'll add it to this post.

UPDATED: Thanks Sarai!

In Which a Movie Trailer Greatly Improves My Attitude (and a Giveaway)

2010-10-08T08:43:00.001-07:00

Sorry 'bout the radio silence. The home improvements are at a bit of a standstill and I haven't been sewing much at all. I'm sort of dying to start a new project but my machine is acting up. Something about the tension isn't right, and I can't seem to get it to cooperate. I think it needs service...which I can't afford.

Honestly, I've been in a bit of a funk. A deep, unpleasant, cobwebby funk.

However, last night a friend and I went to the movies (The Town. Really liked it.) and when we were leaving, I saw a poster for this.

(image found here)

Oh. My. God. I am SO excited. This movie looks like it's gonna be reeeeeely bad, in the best possible way. I can't wait.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't want either of these ladies to suck. I love Cher and she can act. And Xtina? I love her too. Her voice kind of gives me a headache when she's all belty over the top, but when she just sings, I'm floored. Her talent can't be denied. "Beautiful" is inspiring and makes me cry every time.

Even so, I am really hoping for a camp disaster/unintentional comedy classic. By all indications, I think I'm going to get one. Hopefully it'll be Showgirls bad, not Glitter bad...I'd even settle for Coyote Ugly bad.

Here's the trailer. So. Much. Awesome.

And here's the frame-by-frame trailer breakdown from Jezebel. Love!

* * *

So that this post isn't totally Random Junk, there is a sewing related GIVEAWAY over at the Blue Gardenia. You could win this vintage Vogue sewing book and a totally cute handmade pincushion. Drawing ends October 10 at 3:30 pm PDT. Go check it out!

Hopefully I'll be back with a sewing project soon...

In Which I Continue My Battle For Cute Workout-gear and Finally Conquer Sweatshirt Fleece

2010-09-14T12:26:00.000-07:00

This post contains photos with really terrible lighting...and everything I photographed is black. Not a good combination. I am still working out where to take photos in the new house.

Anyhoo...

Remember awhile back, I made a shorts jumper inspired by vintage gym-suits? If you recall, I put the zipper in too low and couldn't rip it out again. I added some hook and eyes above the zipper for modesty's sake, but they didn't stay closed properly. Not good. Fighting with hook and eyes while you are trying to work out is not fun. I only wore it to the gym a couple of times before I went back to my old "rock t-shirt and capri leggings" gym style.

I recently bought a new seam ripper at the Japanese dollar store and was amazed at how sharp it was. I decided to see if maybe I could rip out and re-install that zipper with a new sharper seam ripper. It worked! The new tool plus the much better lighting in the new sewing room made it easy to remove the zipper. I re-installed it and now am much more confident about wearing my gym suit.

I also replaced the leg elastic. I used a much wider and longer piece of elastic. The legs no longer climb up and I don't have thigh rolls below the elastic any more. Success!

I was so inspired by the new look of my gym suit, that I decided it was time to make another one. I had a lot of sweatshirt fleece left over and I thought that this 70s jumpsuit pattern would be relatively easy to put together.

I made a sleeveless version with capri length legs. Construction was a breeze. The fleece didn't fight me nearly as much as last time and nothing major went wrong.

I left out all of the facings and, instead, rolled the fleece over at the stay-stitching line and then sewed it down with a zig-zag over a straight stitch. I trimmed off any excess fabric on the inside of the sleeve and it looks great. It's almost like the edges have been serged. Almost. We'll see how well the sleeves and neckline hold up after a few washings.

The final result is a bit more Bananarama than "glamour girl goes to the gym" but I like it.

It's so very comfy and soft: kind of like zip-in pajamas for grown ups. Plus it will make a great last minute Halloween costume, if need be.

I still had a bunch of fleece left over so I made a pair of shorts from this pattern.

Instead of putting elastic at the waist, I used grossgrain ribbon to make a drawstring. I love how it looks! They will be great for dance class...when I can afford to take dance classes again.

I don't know why I had so many problems with fleece the first time I used it. I had no trouble at all this time. Maybe the pattern I used before was too complicated? It's possible that I was just so nervous about using a new material that I made it more complicated than it needed to be. I actually, really liked using fleece to make these two projects and I think it's kinda cool that I can make my own workout wear instead of relying on whatever is on sale at Target.

...and I am seriously considering making big-girl zip-in pajamas.

Yesterday Was My Day on The Blue Gardenia

2010-09-14T08:43:00.001-07:00

On Monday I was featured on The Blue Gardenia Learns to Sew Her Blossoms as part of Denise's "sewing spaces" series. Click here to read all about my space. I am so honored to be included along with so many people who I consider to be incredible fiber artists! I guess I'd better get working on my new project, huh? :)

Don't forget that Denise is sponsoring a giveaway for Erica B's favorite sewing book: The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing. Click here to read all about the giveaway!

...aaand if that's not enough exciting Blue Gardenia related stuff, I was just over at Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing and noticed that there is a sale on patterns at The Blue Gardenia. The sale ends at midnight tonight so get to shopping. You'll need to enter the code ILoveGertie at checkout to get the discount. Click here for more details.

Giveaway over at The Blue Gardenia!!!

2010-09-12T15:18:00.000-07:00

Denise over at The Blue Gardenia Learns to Sow Her Blossoms is having a giveaway for a super duper extra cool sewing book, The Complete Photo Guide to Sewing. Follow the link above for all the details.

Also, be sure to check Denise's blog on Monday as I will be featured in her series on sewists and their spaces!! Squee! Thanks Denise!

A New Stove

2010-09-08T11:03:00.000-07:00

Not much sewing to speak of lately. I have a few projects floating around my brain but, with the new house creating all sorts of new chores, it's been difficult to sit in the sewing room and concentrate.

I do have exciting sewing-related news though! In the next few weeks I may be featured over at the Blue Gardenia Learns to Sew Her Blossoms as part of Denise's series of posts on home sewists and their spaces. I'll be sure to let you know when/if that happens.

In the mean-time, the Hubs and I have been working on our new house and trying to make it into a home. Unfortunately, things keep breaking. It's a little frustrating, but I've been told that it's just one of those things to expect when you own your own home.

I had PG&E do a free appliance check first-thing after we moved in, and they red-tagged our furnace. That was exciting and expensive to deal with! The first quote we got was just insane and sent the Hubs and I into a bit of a panic. Luckily, we know a lot of people in the trades and were able to get some help with finding a reasonably priced furnace and installation.

If you ever buy a home, you might wanna have the gas company check the furnace out before you start signing papers. Our home inspector missed that it had huge cracks in all of the chambers and was a hazard both for fire danger and carbon monoxide poisoning. It's the kind of expense that would be nice to include in your contingencies, if you can.

PG&E also inspected our stove and discovered that the oven and broiler no longer worked. I can't really live without an oven. One of the things that is making unemployment less sucky is being Suzy Homemaker while I look for work. I bake things for the Hubs to take to his co-workers, and once a week I baby-sit a money-saving roast in the oven all day. Must. Have. Oven.

We thought about getting a vintage stove, but the space between our cabinets is too narrow for any of the vintage stoves we looked at. We don't intend to rip out our cabinets when we remodel our kitchen, so instead we looked for a retro stove that would fit in the space.

I would have really loved to have a stove like this from Big Chill.
Or one like this from Elmira Stove Works.
Unfortunately, these stoves are really expensive! We are on a very tight budget and I don't think we could ever afford either one of those stoves. We ended up with this one from Frigidaire.
Aside from the digital readout, I think it has a retro look not that much different from the Elmira or Big Chill stoves. The cast iron grate that covers the burners is pretty and I think the knobs look vintage. The center burner is another nice retro touch. I had a vintage stove in one of my apartments that had this feature and it's great for things like pancakes. I will be asking for a griddle pan for xmas, I think.

I've been using my new stove and oven for a couple of weeks now and it works great! It's a budget model so it doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (like self-clean or auto-off) but it cooks and bakes just fine. I like that the grates cover the whole stove because it's really nice to be able to simply slide a heavy pot to the other side of the range without having to pick it up. I've used the center burner quite a bit already. It's especially handy when browning a large roast right in the roasting pan.

Here is a photo of the new stove in its new home in our kitchen.

In Which a Fail Becomes a Win and I Attend an Event in Something I've Made

2010-08-19T07:10:00.000-07:00

We're still trying to get the house into some kind of order. Most of the painting has been done. We tore up some carpet and put in some flooring. ...and that's about it. I keep wanting to show you stuff but nothing is really completely and totally finished.

The sewing room is painted (bright blue with white trim!) and the green linoleum has been covered with carpet that we re-purposed from the living room. All of my sewing stuff is in there and, let me tell you, it is a positively glorious place to sew...but it's still not a finished room. The pocket door needs to be sanded and painted, all the outlet, switch and vent covers need to be replaced (along with some of the plugs), I've got to deal with some furniture that may or may not be staying, and there's really no art on the walls...

The upstairs bathroom has the same issue. It's been cleaned and painted, the horrific 80s light fixture has been replaced...but it's still not really done. I caulked after I painted (rookie move) so I need to do some touch-ups. All the pink stuff I bought (chalkware fish!) to decorate with is too pink because the tile looks peach under the natural light from the light well. Plus I need new towels and there's a shelf that needs to be put up and... Well, you get the picture.

I decided that making curtains for these spaces would make me feel like I was approaching done-ness. I bought white eyelet for the sewing room. I just did four simple panels with rolled hem edges and a fold at the top for the bar to slide through. Easy peasy. See? Pretty curtains.

In the bathroom, I removed the cabinet doors from the cupboard under the bathroom sink in order to paint them and then decided not to put them back on. The doors were so big and the room is so tiny that they made it difficult to get into cabinet without doing a little dance. (Open door part way, step to the side, open further, step forward, bend and search, step back close the door part way, step to the side, close the door.) Of course now all of the junk under the sink is totally exposed and looks horribly messy.

Taking a cue from the catbox cosy I made at the old house, I thought I'd just slap together an easy curtain. Except it didn't really work.

I bought a yard of extremely pale pink cotton broadcloth and, just in case, a yard of red kona cotton. The pink clashed with the tile so it was a no go. The red matched the accent tile above the sink but after I'd cut out and sewn the panels and put them up, I realized that a curtain was just a terrible idea, even temporarily. It just looked lazy and wrong. So wrong that I'm not even going to show you a photo. The only way to deal with the bathroom cabinet is to put in pebble glass sliding doors and it's going to be a while before we have the dough for that.

Fail.

But wait! Win!

I had just under a yard of eyelet left over and a full yard of uncut pink cotton. What does that spell? Outfit! I watched Swing Shift last month and was inspired by the super cute and girlie summer clothes in the scene on the pier. So, I decided to make my own 40's hot weather outfit. Fogville weather be damned!!

This 1940s pattern again.

I used the leftover eyelet for this blouse and flat-lined it with white muslin from the stash. I love flat-lining! It is so easy and effective! I wish I'd learned this technique long ago.

In order to cut out the shirt and the sleeves with the limited amount of fabric, I had to shorten the shirt considerably. ... to midriff length. No really! Midriff tops weren't that unusual in the 40s. Maybe they were unusual on matronly married ladies but, since I live in the city of eternal adolescence, I refuse to dress like a grownup just yet. (Mutton/lamb, yeah, I know...blah blah blah.)

I decided to try the lingerie elastic idea for the sleeves. I used the rolled hem foot to finish the outer sleeve edge.

Then I pinned the elastic over the hem and stitched it down. Success! Purchased bias tape finished the underarm sleeve edge and the neckline and I added a satin bow at the center neck. To finish the bottom edge of the blouse, I made a casing by folding the hem up and slipping in an elastic band. It was really ridiculously easy, and despite being a teensy bit shorter than I'd envisioned, I like it.

The pink cotton became an a-line skirt using this one-yard skirt pattern.

I love this pattern. Even though it's '60s I think that it works really well as part of a '40s outfit because of the A-line shape. I bag-lined the skirt with some pinky-beige lining from the stash and did my lazy fold-over waistband.
All in all a very successful and cute outfit, I think. My tripod is MIA after the move, so I had to take snaps of myself in the mirror.
The best part is, I had a chance to actually WEAR this outfit in public! Around people! (Because my city is trapped in a perpetual bubble of Autumn, and I only make lightweight cotton clothes, it seems like this never happens!) My dear friend Brigid and I went to the Keep '45 Alive event at the History Park at Kelley Park. It was a wonderfully warm summer day and a super fun event.

A Big Band played and there was an area for dancing in front of the stage. There were quite a few veterans and also several groups of reenactors who all looked very handsome in uniform. There were female reenactors too which got me thinking about possibly making a women's service uniform, although it's pretty daunting. (Blitzkrieg Baby is a great link for further inspiration, if you are curious.)

The history park itself was just amazing. The city of San Jose has moved a whole bunch of old houses and other buildings to this strip of parkland and has created an old fashioned town complete with a village square, churches, family homes, a hotel and a gas station. Each structure contains a different museum dedicated to the people who settled the San Jose area. It's so cool. I hope that there are more vintage events here in the future!

I am so terrible at taking photos at events. I bring my camera and then I'm too shy to use it. These are the only snaps I got.
Unfortunately, after something like three hours in the car (thanks to stupid Fogville traffic) I was pretty rumpled by the time we arrived. Even so, I got some nice compliments on my outfit. What a fun day!!

Hair Fail

2010-08-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

So... I have gray hair. I used to be a natural redhead long ago, but no more. For a while I went "strawberry blonde" because it was so much easier to hide the gray, but I like being really red so much better. With red-red hair I feel more like myself.

The super red isn't that hard to keep up, now that I have a system. I usually do a root touch up every four weeks and then two weeks after that, I hit it with Manic Panic or some other vegetable based dye to really bump up the color. That means I'm doing some sort of treatment every two weeks. Hopefully my hair won't all fall out! My hair actually feels really healthy but with all this processing I do feel like I'm tempting fate.

Anyway, now that I've got a system it usually works pretty well. Neither process takes that long and I'm even getting better at not dying the whole bathroom red. Of course sometimes I make stupid mistakes. The last time I did my root touch up, I really screwed up.

I did my root touch-up on a Sunday and three days later I set my hair for the first time in ages. (It just been too much to deal with since we've been moving house!) While separating the sections I noticed a little spot of gray. I wasn't too worried at first. I usually miss a spot, but its never too big so I don't worry about it. Then I looked closer.

Somehow I managed to miss a GIANT spot. Basically, the entire right side of my crown is still TOTALLY gray. I can't believe it. Well, I guess I know why there was so much dye left over this time: I was squeezing the bottle, but somehow managed to avoid getting dye on my head!!!!

It's pretty upsetting. This is the best picture I could get. It's blurry, but I think you can see how bad it is. Ick!

Its a pity. I was really liking the way my set came out, too.

Knowing there's all that untamed gray lurking in there kind of ruins it. :(

I hate to do another process just for one (enormous) spot, but I'm really not sure how else to proceed. If I do another root touch-up so soon, then I should probably forgo the color boost and that will leave me looking brassy. Ugh!!! I will probably just do nothing and hope that the gray stays hidden until I touch up my roots next month.

Sigh. Has this ever happened to you? Please share your home hair dye horror stories so I don't feel so bad.

Sassy Lassie Giveaway

2010-08-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Sassy, over at Sassy Lassie's Vintage Life is having a giveaway! All you need to do to enter is go to her blog and leave comment on the contest post, saying which of her recent creations is your favorite and why. For bonus points, you can repost her contest on your blog. Follow the link below for complete details.

http://sassylassiesvintagelife.blogspot.com/2010/08/sassy-lassies-100-followers-giveaway.html

My favorite is the Betty Draper dress. Isn't it just the Sassiest?

PS: Still trying to get the new house into some kind of order. I am dying to show it to you but while some rooms are close, no room is completely finished yet. However, I had some extra curtain fabric left over and I'm attempting to whip up a little outfit with it. Hopefully, I'll have something of my own to post very soon.

Yeah, um, so we, like, bought a house

2010-07-29T18:24:00.000-07:00

I guess it's official, I am a grownup: we bought a house. I still don't have a job, which is weird, but I've had a few nibbles lately so hopefully that will work itself out soon, too.

It took us three years of on-again off-again looking to find something good. We live in a very crowded city with insanely expensive house prices. I wasn't all that excited about most of the houses we looked at anyway. This city is FULL of Victorians and I'm more of a mid/mod kind of girl. Mostly, I just wanted to get out of the fog and into a neighborhood with a little sun. The "good" non-foggy neighborhoods just didn't have anything for us.

We looked at SO many really, truly, sad homes. It seemed like everything in our price range was in extreme disrepair. We'd have to live in one room for months while we brought the rest of the place up to some kind of minimal live-ability. Imagine a tiny, un-maintained, turn-of-the-century house with 20 tenants, false walls everywhere, shanties in the backyard, and people living in the kitchen. Sad. That's pretty much everything we looked at for a long, long time.

It became clear that we'd have to re-assess our plan. Our agent had been suggesting that we look in one of the the less "good" sunny neighborhoods and finally we agreed. Am I glad we did! We found lots of cute mid-century houses at good prices, direct sunlight, and no visible crack-heads or prostitutes. Even at night! Much better than the so called "good" 'hoods we had been concentrating on!

We found a two-story 1956 beauty with a big deck and amazing views that was in move-in-able condition, affordable, and had no tenants. It is on a quiet low-traffic street too! The whole process took a really long time because we were the second people to put in a bid, and our bid was lower. Our patience totally paid off. The first bidder couldn't get his financing together and it was OURS!!

The house is on a little winding road on the top of a hill. The whole street was developed at the same time so the houses are all from late 1950s. We were extremely fortunate in that our new home is pretty much unmolested by updates, except for a really hideous 1980s kitchen remodel, some poor lighting and fixture choices from the same era, and the ugliest pink/white tile flooring imaginable covering the entire downstairs.

Unfortunately, this home was ignored by the landlord for about ten years. The owner lived out of the country and the tenants, well, it appears they had an indoor farm in the garage and upstairs bedroom. Nearly every surface was painted a dark grayish beige. It looks white in the photos below but, trust me, it's not. It was also scandalously dirty and smelled like wet dog but it's still a zillion times nicer than anything else we looked at. I LOVE THIS HOUSE!

The snaps below were taken by the realty company, so they're not the best, but I think you get the idea. We are going to work very hard at getting the 80s out and the 50s back in, as much as possible.

The Deck and the Tiki Spa Hut (Yep. Cold city + hot tub = happy me!)

Guest Bathroom
The Most Hideous 80s Kitchen

Master Bathroom
Living/Dining Room

Rather than start a whole new blog for home renovation I'll prolly post stuff here. Instead of chronicling each little change in the new house, It'll probably be just before/after pictures from time to time. We have been repainting like crazy so you might see some snaps relatively soon.

The sewing will slow down for a bit while I get my sewing room set up again. This blog is supposed to be about sewing so hopefully we will get back to that relatively soon. I'm itching to start a new project and it will be fun trying out new places to do photographs.

Yellow Peasant Blouse

2010-07-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

There was just enough yellow broadcloth left from Simplicity 1954 to make a blouse from Advance 3790. I didn't want to go too crazy with the ruffles and I am not a fan of long sleeves so I made View 2 with the sleeves from View 1.

This pattern is only three pieces but it is a little labor intensive with all that gathering. They included a guide piece for the front gathers that you were supposed to stitch on to your fabric and then rip off. (Gasp!! RIP OFF the TISSUE?? I think not.) I photocopied the pattern piece first and then cut it out again on some leftover tissue wrapping paper. It was a really easy way to make sure the gathers came out just right. (Without destroying the original pattern piece.)
The instructions from the sleeve were worse than useless (basically: gather and attach sleeve) and I had a heck of a time figuring out how to center the gathers on the lower part of the sleeve. Eventually I used the same method as the neck gathers. I cut a piece of tissue the circumference of my arm and pinned the sleeve to it.
Then I stitched over it and ripped off the tissue. Perfect!

The sleeves and neck were trimmed with self-made bias tape. It seems like everyone makes bias binding themselves and its no big deal but to me its a great BIG deal! I am SO proud of this new-found skill and I have to say, my bias tape looks amazing. I use the "pull it through a pin" method which I think I talked about before but this time I discovered something that made it even easier: spray starch!

If you spray a bit of starch on the cut strip, it will begin to curl itself up before you even pull it through the pin. This one little step makes it so much easier to be sure that you are folding it in the center of the strip and your creases come out extra crisp. The only downside is that your ironing board gets a bit sticky. Next time I'll do it over a pressing cloth.

Applying the binding was easy although I struggled with the bows for a bit. After searching the interwebs for help, I found this article on how to tie a perfect bow. And that was it: Blouse complete!

I really like the way this blouse came out. I think if I was to make it again I'd do the sleeve a bit differently. The lower part of the sleeve fits around my arm just fine, unless I try to do something crazy like reach forward or lift my arm up. The sleeve hole would gape if it was any larger so next time I would consider gathering and finishing the sleeve end with lingerie elastic or elastic lace, instead of bias tape. It would still be cute, and much more comfortable.

Playing with different ways to style the finished blouse was fun. I discovered that it didn't really want to be tucked in. Despite tucking it into my slip and adding a belt, it kept trying to climb out of the top of my skirt, especially in back.It looks cute just belted, instead of tucked.
Its at its absolute best with jeans, though, as a casual top.

Lip Curlers

2010-07-22T22:18:00.000-07:00

I found these totally awesome lip hair curlers while I was out thrifting.

They work basically the same way as rag curlers except there is a wire inside that you bend (instead of tying a knot). There is a small opening in the center of each curler that you slip your hair through. Then you just roll it up as usual and twist the ends. Pretty neat. AND there's the extra added bonus of looking like Heat Miser when you are done rolling.

The packaging says that they are extra soft so you can sleep in them. While not the most comfortable things to sleep in, I find them more comfy than foam curlers. The set is less frizzy than foam roller curls too.

Unfortunately, two of the ten curlers are missing. Its a bit hard to separate my hair into eight rollers and still get as much curl as I usually like. Not sure why, but I seem to have better results when I use these with a center part rather than a side part.

I've set my hair with these a couple of times with varying results and, of course, I don't have any pictures of a good set. The set below came out a little puffy and un-curly. I think its because I used too much product. I went a little crazy with the curly mousse and water and this is what I got. The sets with less product yielded defined smooth curls that lasted about two days.

...and here's some more Heat Miser for your viewing pleasure.

Home Decor VI - Duvet Cover

2010-07-17T14:34:00.000-07:00

Need a new duvet cover? Hate all the colors/patterns you've seen in the store? Maybe you just don't have the money to buy a new one, as they can be pretty expensive.

Here's an easy fix.

1. Buy two flat sheets one size smaller than your mattress size. Ikea or Target should have good quality, inexpensive sheets. Thrift stores can also be a good source, but for this kind of project I like something new and crisp.

I know it sounds odd to recommend buying the sheets one size smaller than the mattress, but I've done this a few times, and I always buy smaller sheets . Flat sheets are usually quite a bit wider than your mattress so if you buy one size smaller, the cover should end up being the same size as your down comforter. You don't want the comforter to be floating around inside a giant cover. It will flip, and fold, and bunch up inside, leaving you with cold spots.

2. Lay out the sheets right sides together. Pin the long ends together. Stitch all the way along each long edge, just inside the sheet hem. This will give you nice finished seams inside.

3. On the short end with the wide hem, pin the right sides together and stitch all the way across. (Again, just inside the sheet hem.) This is the top end of your cover.

3. At short end with the narrow hem, pin the right sides together along one third of the end and sew one third of the way across. Then repeat on the other side. You should end up with an open space in the center of the end that is one third the width of the sheet. This is the bottom end of your cover.

5. Now you should have a big envelope with an small opening at one end. Trim the inside corners and turn it right side out. Taa-daah! Instant duvet cover! Shove your comforter inside the opening and take a nap!

If you like, you can add buttons along the opening. I've found that with a one-third width opening they aren't really necessary. If you decide you want buttons you can make the opening much wider.

If you are feeling particularly crafty, you can use the embroidery stitch on your machine to decorate the sheets. You could also sew on appliques, or make a design with fabric paint or silkscreen. Its best to apply the decorations before you stitch the cover together.

I suck at using the embroidery stitches on my machine, and I'm not sure that putty was the best choice of colors for the cover as it kind of blends in with the walls. Even so, I think this project came out just fine.

Here is my decoration...

...and here is the cover all filled up and ready for snuggling under.

Naptime!

$3 Top = $70 Repair (Almost)

2010-07-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Broke my machine refashioning a knit tank top.

I found a bunch of these tank tops in the sleepwear section of Forever 21 and broke my "oh my god, seriously, STOP buying stuff until you have a job" rule. I bought three of them. Its not my fault! They were calling to me and they were only $3!!

They were nice and slim in the body but the hem ended at my crotch. (Is it me or is every RTW top in the world ridiculously long right now?) When tucked in they were bunchy. When left out they accentuated my gut in a very bad way. They really needed to be shortened. Starting with the red one, I cut off about six inches and moved the lace band up. I used the straight/zig-zag/straight "fake serge" method I learned from Casey in her sweater tutorial. The top worked out fine and then I had to go all crazy and try and make the leftover fabric into a headband.

It was the last seam. It was super hot in the sewing room. I was getting impatient. I wasn't paying attention. I was going too fast. My pins weren't in perfectly straight... I made this.

Yep. A crooked pin got shoved into the needle space in the foot plate. The needle slammed into the pin, bent it in half and then slammed into the pin-head, stopping the machine cold. It made a really loud noise and I practically jumped out of my chair.

The needle was embedded in the head of the pin, and the pin was shoved down into the space inside the bobbin carrier. I managed to get the pin out and the sewing needle wasn't even bent but, boy howdy, the bobbin carrier sure was. When I rotated the wheel, the carrier spun drunkenly and the needle smacked into the edge rather than going through the hole to pick up the bobbin thread. NOT A GOOD DAY in the sewing room.

I took a deep breath, tried not to cry, and told my husband that I'd just created a ginormous repair that I couldn't afford. Then I wandered off to watch TV and calm down.

About half an hour later, the hubs popped in to tell me that he'd fixed my machine. FIXED IT! I love him. Readers, if you aren't mechanical yourself, its never a bad idea to have a SigO (or a best friend, or at least a housemate) who is. Especially if you're impetuous, impatient, and have a tendency to break things.

I must try to remember to slow down and pay attention. At least the finished top and headband came out super cute! Tra la la...

Swirl-tastic Yellow Pinnafore

2010-07-08T09:01:00.000-07:00

This pattern was listed on EBay as "40s maternity dress". No one bid on it, except for me, so I got it for a song. I was so thrilled to have won it as it reminds me of the Swirl dresses that everyone is so crazy about.

My original plan was to make View 1 with the red/white/blue rayon my aunt sent me a while back. The rayon is intimidating because its a LOT wigglier than what I'm used to working with. Rather than plunge right in with the rayon, I decided to make a test version in cotton, a fabric I'm a lot more comfortable with. The stash yielded a sunny yellow broadcloth that would be just right.

With so many pieces, I was sure this pattern would be a bust but it actually went together well. There were a few new techniques in this dress that I hadn't tried yet, so I learned a lot. Here are the new things I learned:

Underlining - I thought I knew what to do so I just cut out each panel twice (once in the main fabric once in the lining) and stitched them together before assembling the pieces. After the dress was finished I Googled this technique and discovered that I should have turned the panels inside out before assembly. If I had, I'd have ended up with perfect finished seams on the inside. Oh well. I'm still happy with the way it worked out.

Ruffles - It turns out that sleeve ruffles like these aren't difficult, you just have to gather a LOT of fabric. Instead of gathering by hand, which is what I usually do, I used the zig-zag technique. It was SO much easier! Basically, you sew a wide zig-zag stitch over a piece of string (see below) being careful not to catch the string in your stitches. Then you just pin your pieces together, at the ends and center, and pull the free ends of the center string. The gathers magically appear and are ready to be pinned down and stitched.

Seam Binding (around the arm holes) - I'd never made my own seam binding before but it ended up being pretty easy. I cut out my strips and then made a guide on my ironing board using two pins. All I had to do was pull the strips through the guide and press the folded fabric flat. Then I folded the strips in half and pressed again to make it double-fold.

Aside from the challenge of learning new techniques, this dress went together really well. The only major issue was that, for some reason, the neck facing was an inch too short in the back. Weird, but an easy fix. I simply patched the center with a bit of scrap.

I normally detest making muslins or doing test runs of patterns but this was a big success! And cheap!! I purchased nothing new except for an extra spool of thread, which I didn't actually end up using. The rick-rack was left over from the belt I made for McCalls 5490. The trim (ruffle/pocket/ties/binding) was left over from Simplicity 1657. The main body (yellow broadcloth) was purchased, but not used, as lining for Simplicity 1657. The underling is a floaty white muslin (voile?) that I'd originally bought to line the living room curtains.

I just adore the Swirl-tastic style of this little housedress. The back is a little poofier than I'd like, but I think I just need to come to terms with the size of my caboose. This test run went so well that I think I am actually brave enough to try making this dress up in rayon.

Home Decor V - Curtains (or A Clown Car Explodes in My Living Room and I Get Over My Fear of Button Holes)

2010-07-01T13:31:00.000-07:00

Our living room has five giant beautiful windows set in a curve. I love them. I love how much light they let in. However, I don't love that everything in my living room is fading because there is no way to block out that light. Also, watching TV or a movie during the day is pretty much impossible.

We need window coverings. If we owned this house, I would have scrounged together, and then forked over, zillions of dollars to have some really lovely long 40s/50s style tropical print curtains made. But - its a rental and we are not rich so I decided to cheap out and make something easy and inexpensive.

I let the Hubs pick out the fabric and its, well, a bit kooky to say the least. The fabric pattern is bright, the red flowers pick up the red of our area rug nicely, and its also totally clowny-circus. Marriage is about compromise: I can live with the loud fabric if he can live with my total half ass window covering design.

I started out by cutting panels that would fit perfectly inside each window with a little left at the top and bottom for hems. I used the rolled hem foot along the edges and made a 1" hem at the top and bottom. I left the edges of the top/bottom hem open. I slid a tension bar through each top hem and inserted the bar into the window frame.

At this point I realized that the fabric was way too heavy to use a simple tie back in the center. The canvas was very stiff and looked bunchy and weird when held back with a tie. I considered making the panels into roman shades, but all of the sites I checked online listed the roman shade hardware as about $30 per window. Yikes! I had to come up with something else.

There were just two long strips of the curtain fabric left so I had to get creative. My solution is totally weird, but it works. I folded each strip down the center and made a seam so that when unfolded the strips would be about 1" wide. Cutting the strips into equal lengths (and two strips per window) gave me ten 12" long pieces.

I stitched the open end of the strip on the shade at the top seam with the right sides together and then pressed them down. Buttons were sewn on so that when in the top button hole, the shades would completely overlap. I inserted dowel rods into the bottom hem to give the shades a bit more weight so they would hang straight down. I will need to sew some rod pockets on the back of each curtain and insert another dowel behind the buttons so that the folded panels don't wilt when they are buttoned up.

Let me tell you, after doing 40 button holes for these shades, I'm a lot less afraid of making button holes with my machine. I finally figured out how to use the button foot and it is the only thing that made it possible to make all those holes. Some are good and some are awful, but they are ALL so much better than the freehand button holes I've made in the past.

Button holes I no longer fear you! I can now make a shirtwaist dress, or anything from the pre-zipper era without trying to figure out how to fudge all those buttons. Hooray!

Its not the best solution ever, but at $5 dollars a panel its certainly was inexpensive and I think it looks okay. If ever we are visited by a circus clowns, they will surely feel right at home.

Awesomeness and The Shanghai Dress

2010-06-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

I have the nicest friends in the world. They are always giving me little gifts " just because." I am truly lucky and I really value my friendships.

My friend Yo went to Shanghai (for the world expo) and she brought me back this gorgeous strand of pink shell pearls. I love them so much! Thanks Yo! You are awesome!

Its hard to tell in the photo but they are the softest shade of pink. Isn't the clasp gorgeous?

I wore them to an event at the Asian Art Museum earlier this month. The event was called The Shanghai Dress and was a celebration of a traditional style of dress made in Shanghai called a quipao (pronounced chee-pao, which I only mention because I walked around saying key-pao until someone corrected me). You can read more about it here. I was particularly interested in this event because designer Jane Zhu was presenting a talk and fashion show!

Attendees of the event were encouraged to wear their own quipao. I have one made of bright blue satin, from when I was a bridesmaid, but I was afraid I'd be overdressed. Instead I wore a Chinese inspired t-shirt (there is a mandarin collar hidden under all that hair) with a pencil skirt.

The exhibit was small but there was so much to see! I was particularly taken by how much Shanghai art and fashion was influenced by the West from the 1930s up until the communist revolution. It was fascinating to see so many images of Chinese life painted in the style of Monet, Picasso and other Western artists.

Jane Zhu's talk as great! She told us how she she became fascinated with qipao by watching movies like In the Mood for Love and The World of Suzy Wong. Her curiosity lead her to an apprenticeship with a dressmaker Shanghai who taught her the art of making qipao. She produces seasonal collections like any other designer, but those collections really are just "for show." Each qipao she makes for sale is custom-created for the client. She's not so much a fancy-pants designer as a passionate fiber-artist with a taste for vintage style. (Just like us!)

I thought the most interesting part of her talk was when she explained, using a muslin on a form, how meticulously each quipao is measured to match all the of the curves of a woman's body. A perfect qipao will fit like a second skin and not pull, crease, or bulge when you walk, sit, (dance!) or move in any other way. Sometimes the dressmaker will even use a tailor's ham to bend the fabric into the clients exact curves!

Photography of the fashion show was allowed, but without flash. Unfortunately I still don't quite understand the settings on my camera so my flash-less pictures came out like this.
Luckily, the museum set up a flickr page for the event. Follow the link below and enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/asianartmuseum/4686520164/

We had a wonderful time at this event! Now am inspired to pull out the 1970s qipao pattern I have in my stash and make a go of it. Fit is not my best skill so I'm a little intimidated but it would be a fun long-term project.

Giveaway Winner Miss Patti Darling

2010-06-24T09:17:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone who entered the giveaway! I enjoyed reading all your comments! Now that it's over, I wish I could give a prize to ALL of you just for commenting.

I've used a random number generator to pick the winner:

...and the winner is: Miss Patti Darling!

Miss Patti, hop on over to my profile and send me an email with your mailing information. I'll pop your prize in the mail ASAP!

100+ Followers = A Giveaway!!!

2010-06-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well, would you look at that? I have 100+ followers. When I started this blog two years ago, I didn't really expect anyone to want to follow it.

Initially, this space was just a way to keep myself focused on my sewing. My projects were photographed on a dress form and it was a long time before I was ready to put myself in the pictures. When I finally did start photographing myself, I made a concentrated effort not to put too much thought into my photos. Mostly I'd just get up from the sewing table, put on some shoes, pull my hair back and snap a few quick shots. I think I was worried that it would seem self-centered to try to look too put together. That, and I was afraid that I'd be ridiculed for getting things wrong era-wise or not being enough of a super-fabulous pin-up type girl.

Then I discovered so many other vintage and sewing blogs where people do write about their lives, or how sewing and wearing vintage makes them feel, and blogs in which people are brave enough to just do simple daily outfit posts. I have been SO inspired by the vintage and sewing blogging communities. You've helped me to put a little more of myself in the picture, literally, and I've begun to write about other things in my life besides sewing (although I'm still shy). It's been surprising and wonderful to discover that there is so much support out there for this silly little hobby/lifestyle of ours. Seems like we all want each other to succeed. How cool is that?

I want to thank you all for supporting me and for supporting each other. Y'all have been nothing but nice to me and its been great. In the future I vow to do better at responding to your comments and I might even try to post more than once a week.

Now for the giveaway!

I will be giving away everything you see here: a raspberry brooch, a pair of bamboo hoop dangle earrings, and a pretty red garrison cap (all made by me), as well as this lovely pattern.

The giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere, with a proper mailing address, and ends June 23rd at midnight PDT. Simply comment on this post to enter. I'll draw one name at random and post the result on Thursday June 24th. Good luck!

You, Sans Vintage

2010-06-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Mary Deluxe recently asked (dared, actually) all of her followers to post a picture of themselves in non-vintage gear. So here's one of me in the sort of thing I usually wear when I'm running out to do some last minute errands and can't be bothered to spruce up a bit.
I just got back from making an emergency bank run...and hitting the thrift store. Even though I'm NOT supposed to be buying any more patterns, I always check this one thrift store, just in case. They have a large selection of patterns, but its mostly 80s and 90s stuff. Still, every now and then you'll find a gem. Today I found another copy of a pattern that I mentioned in this post BUT this time the instructions are in English! Yay! I tried to be good and just buy the pattern but this awesome hand-pinstriped handbag (by RotHod) was only $6. What's a girl to do?

Win!

Car Parts Road Trip

2010-06-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sadly, it turned out that the engine in my little 4CV was cracked. While looking for a new engine, the Hubs lucky enough to find a guy in Los Angeles who was getting rid of a rusted out 4CV - the WHOLE CAR for $200. Hubs chatted with the seller and he was willing to ship us the engine and whatever else we might want, but since Los Angeles isn't that far away, we hopped in my little Ford hatchback and drove down over Memorial Day weekend.

We drove down on Saturday and back on Sunday so it was pretty quick trip. We tried to cram in as much thrifting and sightseeing as possible, but there wasn't a lot of time. On our way down we stopped in Paso Robles for lunch and we were able hit one or two thrift/antique shops. Here is our haul.
The tropical print fabric is a duvet cover. There is enough fabric to make a dress with a big poofy skirt, but I am kind of leaning towards a narrow sarong skirt with a halter top. I'm not sure yet. The belt is either 40s or "80s does 40s." Either way, its spectacular. The ashtray has a Napco of Japan sticker on the bottom and is made of the most delicate ceramic. At $1 the red beads were irresistible. We had to buy the bar pourer, even though ($18!) it was the most expensive thing we purchased. We have several of these already, but none with the original box and we are suckers for anything with the original box. Liquor will NOT be flowing through this pourer, but it will look nice on our bar.

Picking up the parts was fun. Gene, the seller, was super nice and let us take everything we wanted. We filled the back of my Focus and made a list of things that Hub's brother (who lives in LA) would pick up later. You would not believe how much we were able to cram into my car. We picked that rusty 4CV's bones clean. Here is a photo of the Focus, in our hotel parking lot, packed to the gills with 4CV parts.

That night we had dinner with Hub's brother at the Formosa Cafe in Hollywood. Its a tiny art deco building surrounded by movie lots and the interior walls are covered with signed photos of actors. Its got a definite "old Hollywood" vibe. I wish I hadn't forgotten to grab my camera before dinner, because I'd love to show you how cute it is. You can see some pictures if you go to the restaurant's Yelp page. The Yelp reviews aren't great, but we had a really good dinner...and some very strong drinks.

After dinner we popped over to Silverlake to meet up with my friend Dave Deluxe who works at a bar called Thirsty Crow. There was a huge line of hipsters all the way down the block waiting to get in. Although Dave offered to "sneak us in" we demurred. Instead, we called it an early night and went back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

The next morning, after a quick breakfast at Fred 62, we hopped on the freeway for home. We stopped for Lunch at Pea Soup Andersen's. You can read the history of Pea Soup Andersen's here.

If you've ever driven the 5 (or the 101) between Los Angeles and San Francisco, you will have seen billboards, like the one above, with Hap-Pea and Sweet-Pea: two chefs splitting a pea with a wedge and a sledgehammer. The soup is good and its really the only fun vintagey tourist trap kind of place on Interstate 5 south of Fogville. (Please tell me if you know of any others!) The Hubs was REALLY excited to be there.

He insisted that we buy something kitchy from the gift shop. Unfortunately, most of the gift shop stuff was pretty awful: typical truck stop junk like key chains with your name on them and generic coloring books for the kids. BUT! We were able to find a Hap-pea & Sweet-Pea bank. It now occupies a place of honor on our bookshelf.
A few hours later, we were back home in Fogville. I hope that we'll be able to go back to L.A. sometime soon for a real visit. Its an easy (if long) drive from Fogville and I'd like to spend some more time thrifting and sightseeing.

Oh, in case you are curious, this is everything that we were able to squeeze in to the Focus. Amazing!

A Neutral Skirt

2010-05-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

I used up some more of that Khaki Kona Cotton to make a neutral-colored pencil skirt with this pattern.

Upon un-foldng the tissue, I discovered that this pattern is really no more "instant" than any of my other pencil skirt patterns. (Three seams, zipper up the back.) On the plus side, you only need one yard of 54" wide fabric for view A & B. Also included was a separate front tissue for View C, which is a pretty interesting faux wrap style. I would have made that version but my lining fabric wasn't quite wide enough.

View A is fine, though. I really needed a neutral pencil skirt and I think I'll get quite a lot of wear out of it. It went together snippety-snip with no major issues of any kind.

That strange light/shadow on my hip/bum is a reflection from the bread-box. That'll teach me to take pictures in the evening when there isn't enough light!

My New Old Car

2010-05-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

While I was in Las Vegas last month, my husband bought me a car. He is awesome. I am spoiled.

He is constantly emailing me auction listings or craigslist posts for some lovely, needy, incredibly inexpensive (and crusty, rusty, near total loss) motor vehicle that needs saving. Usually I am the voice of reason and I tell him no: we don't have room, or the time to work on it, or just can't afford another vehicle. Then he sent me pictures of a little 1958 Renault 4CV that needed a home and I lost my mind completely.

There is a history of the 4CV on Wikipedia but basically, this car was the French answer to the Volkswagen. It was intended as a cheap utility vehicle for people, especially those in the countryside, to use after the war. Production began in 1947 and ended in 1961. You don't see a lot of these cars in the US but, as it was once France's most popular vehicle, many of them survive and are still in use in France.

Ours came to us as an empty shell with no trim, a stuck engine, and no back window. Still, she's progressing nicely. The floors and undercarriage have been painted with anti-rust coating. Seats and steering wheel are on order. The engine is full of Marvel Mystery Oil and is un-sticking a little at a time. All the parts to get the engine running have arrived. We should be able to make her somewhat road-worthy in no time! At least I hope so because I'd really love to be able to drive her!

Isn't she adorable?

Thanks Hubs!

2010-05-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Occasionally the Hubs makes a trip to the thrift store without me...and brings me back a little present.

It's my size, complete, with instructions, and he paid twenty-five cents. Win! Win! Win! Thanks Husband!!

Too Close To Call

2010-05-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

The three things in sewing that scare me the most are buttons, multiple gores in the main body, and un-marked patterns. Naturally, this super cute jumper pattern from 1940 has all three. This is the closest I've come to a total wadder in a really long time.

I'm sure I would have done better with a marked pattern...or better instructions. Some of these old patterns assume that you know what you're doing and only give you the bare minimum of instruction and pictures. It makes it tough on self-taught sewists like myself.

There was just barely enough blue linen left from these overalls to make this jumper. The only reason I was able to cut this out at all was because (even though I made the longer view) I had to reduce the length by about four inches. I am shorty short short. Despite the fact that I measured each pattern piece very carefully before shortening it, all of the pieces ended up being different lengths when sewn together.

The pattern calls for seven buttons up the back, but I am far too frightened of making that many button holes. Instead, after sewing in the front, side and back seams, I folded the fabric in and put a zipper in the center where the buttons would have met/overlapped. I ended up with a garment that was a giant sack. Uy.

My next step was to take it in by re-sewing all the seams. Hooray! It mostly fit, except for the boob area, which was still too big. Starting from the waistline I increased the seam allowances in the front bust to make it fit closer to my body. I had to do it a couple of times to get it right. This left me with a giant wad of fabric behind the breast so I trimmed the excess.

The band no longer lined up properly because I'd taken in the dress so much. I trimmed the pattern pieces at the seam allowances, and attached a smaller version of the band. Then I realized that I'd set the zipper in too low and if I attached the band I'd have a two inch gap of unfinished fabric between the band and the zipper.

Ugh! Un-picked the band. Un-picked the zipper. Re-installed the zipper and band. ...and now the dress is TOO SMALL!!!!!!! I've already TRIMMED some of my seams and there is NO MORE FABRIC!!!!!

oh. my.

I still thought I could save it, somehow, so I slept on it. The next day, I inspected my seams closely and discovered I could let out the bust seams without making a complete mess. I unpicked the seams in the band and sewed it back together at the very edge of the cuts. Miraculously, it was now the right size. I re-attached it and was pretty surprised that it looked okay.

I still couldn't figure out how to install the straps properly, so I just bunged them on behind the band. Its ugly and shameful but it works.

Finishing the skirt hem took a LOT of thought. The shortest panel was 24.5 inches long from the waist and I really didn't want to go much shorter than that. It had to be hemmed...but how?

I used part one of Gertie's technique for circle skirt hems to make all the panels the same length. While wearing the dress, I put pins in at the natural waist and sides, trying to make sure they were even. Then I took the dress off, added pins around the back and made adjustments until there was a perfectly straight line of pins marking the waist.

Laying the dress out flat, I used a measuring tape to measure 24.5 inches between the pinned waist line and the hem line on each panel. I marked the line with pins (about 1 pin per inch) and then with chalk so that I had a nice white line to follow all the way around the bottom of the skirt. After removing the pins, I made a line of stitching along the chalk line and then trimmed below the stitching. Then I ran the hem through the machine once more using the rolled hem foot. It totally worked! Its all one length, managed to keep the bottom below my knee, and the rolled hem came out great! Even on the inside!

So. This one was a close call but I pulled it out after all. After many, many hours and more seam ripping and re-sewing than I care to remember, I'm proud to say it actually looks like the dress on the pattern envelope. Its a little snug, but I expect that the linen will grow as I wear it.

Unfortunately, the back band still has major funk. I left it open at the top because I thought it would be a cute detail. It just looks unfinished. Also, the band itself is kind of lumpy because I faced it when I shouldn't have. Uy.

I think at some point I will re-install the zipper so that it goes all the way up, remove and re-install the band without facing, and attach the pockets. Not any time soon however.

I think that it's a wearable jumper so I wouldn't call it a complete failure but it still needs some fiddling. I may go back and mess with it some more...or I may not. I think that if I could work out the issue with the band, it would be just right.

A Bit of a Backslide and Something Cool

2010-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

So...even though I'm unemployed and have no money...I've been buying patterns. There was a seller on the EBay that had awesome 40s patterns for .99 cents and I kind of went crazy. Oh and I also bought a lot of 30+ patterns because they were really cheap, the ones shown were cool and my size, and I obviously have a problem. When the box lot arrived I realized that I'd gone way overboard and I've resolved to STOP. This time for sure.

I thought about not telling you about my little Sewing Diet slip, but we're friends, right? I can tell you about my failures as well as my successes. Besides, I'm sure you can understand the lure of super cheap lovely vintage patterns in your size...? I mean, who could resist? AND I resolve to start my diet fresh. As of today, I will STOP buying patterns until I am employed again.

Anyway, that's not really what this blog entry is about. Its about how I got one of the COOLEST things ever in the box lot: an Anne Adams original cellophane pattern sleeve. I just assumed that Anne Adams patterns came in a regular mailing envelope and that's why you never see the sleeves. At least I've never seen one before.

Isn't that neato?

Another thing I hadn't noticed before is the totally awesome Anne Adams Logo.

I love how the crossed scissors make the AA for Anne Adams. It's way too bitchen cool. If my initials were AA, I'd mos def have that tattooed somewhere on my body. It would make a really cool button or badge, too.

The pattern itself is just an apron, but a very cute one indeed.

It looks like its from the 40's to me, but the seller claimed that there were some 30's patterns in the lot, and this is the only one that's even close. If this is indeed 30's I can let go of my annoyance at the poor item description. (The lot was worth it anyway, but I do think people should strive for accuracy.) Does anyone know when this pattern might have been published?

Wardrobe Re-Fashion: Dress to Separates

2010-04-22T13:53:00.000-07:00

A long, long time ago, I made a dress that I wore once, in Vegas. When I got home it went straight to the dry cleaners and then back in the closet. After several months, I took it out to wear it and discovered that, when it was dry cleaned, the zipper had been broken. Ack! I put it in the UFO pile intending to eventually put in a new zipper. Then I happened to run across some pictures of myself at VLV in the dress, and decided it really wasn't all that flattering. Zo... I split it into two separate pieces.

I added white seam binding around the bottom of the bodice and put in an upside down zipper. Viola! Instant top. Not sure if I have any business wearing a midriff top out in public, but I think it's awful cute!

Once it was removed from the polka-dot bodice the skirt is a perfect 40s-esque a-line. I bound the inside of the waistline with bias tape rather than adding on a waistband. Then I put in a lining and re-did the hem. Easy peasy! I found some scraps of white twill in my stash and made a tie-top to go with it using this pattern.

The tie-top would be really easy to make even without a pattern. Its basically just a triangle with the top flattened out and channels at the top and bottom for straps. I used a few scraps of seam binding to make the straps. The top strap was a bit short so instead of tying it, I added old gold plastic button that I found in the bottom of my sewing box.

I think that this outfit has a very pulp-novel bad-girl kind of look but, since it's all white, it's sort of innocent too.

Here's that gold button detail on the strap.

Could there ever be a flirtier summer outfit? I think not!

Shabam! Shorts!

2010-04-15T08:14:00.000-07:00

I had a teensy bit of fabric left after making the blue 40's trousers and skirt so I made a pair of shorts with Simplicity 2425. This is truly the easiest, best, most wonderful shorts pattern of all time. It only took a couple of hours on a rainy Friday evening.

I'm still looking for an image of the pattern envelope, so if anyone has seen it on the web (or wouldn't mind scanning it for me from their stash) please let me know.

As usual, I ignored the pattern markings for the gathers in the front. I put in (I don't know what these are actually called) reverse-pleat thingies and then sewed decorative buttons on top. Here's a close up so you can see what I mean.

It might be easier to see what I've done from the inside.

I usually don't wear anything that I haven't blogged yet, but I couldn't resist wearing these (and the white triangle top below, more on that later) in Vegas. It would be nice to have a brief heat wave here in Fogville, so I could wear all these lightweight clothes that I'm obsessed with making. Sigh. Stupid Fogville.
Anyway, here's a snap of me wearing them by the pool at Viva...

and the usual kitchen shots...

Cute Little Things...and a Quick Viva Recap

2010-04-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Casey's Cherry Brooch tutorial I made these small gifts for each of the girls in my little gang.

Casey's are much more elegant than mine, to be sure, as I am impatient and relied entirely on hot glue to put them together. Still, I think they are pretty cute. It took me, maybe, half an hour to trim the pieces and slap them together. Aside from running out of velvet ribbon (which is why one of the brooches has leaves instead) this project was a total success.

I gave them to my girls in Vegas and they seemed to like them very much.

Viva was LOTS of fun this year. I think the median age has gone up a bit as everyone seemed much nicer and more mellow than in years past. My girls and I had SO much fun. I found plenty of nice fellas to dance with!

Special shout-out to Barry from London, a great dancer and snappy dresser. Big love to the super nice Aussie in the orange and black shirt who asked "Do you rock and roll?" and then proceeded to dance my butt off for song after song. Mr Oz, I wish I'd found you later in the weekend. You were my favorite!

I spotted some vintage blogging superstars over the course of the event: Lisa Fremont Street, Vintage Starlet, Temperamental Broad. I was only brave enough to say hello to Temperamental Broad. She waiting for the elevator on our floor and was very nice and friendly - and even prettier in person!

The Teenagers were super cute. Marti Brom was the bomb, as usual. Her Loretta Lynn duet with Nettie (of Quarter Mile Combo/Mighty Slim Pickins) rocked!

We saw Chuck Berry at the car show but skipped Wanda Jackson because the ballroom was WAY too crowded. During Wanda's set the DJ in the Big Easy Showroom was just the greatest!!! Its too bad there was no one else to listen to his set. My girlies and I loved it! I wish I'd gotten his name. He played all lowrider classics: Mary Wells, Denice Williams, Prez Prado, to name a few, and even a cumbia number that had me dancing all by myself in the middle of the floor.

I am the worst photographer ever, but here are some snaps of me and my ladies having a wonderful time!

A Question...and VIVA Here I Come

2010-04-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was cleaning up and found this picture in my files. I'm not sure where it came from because I don't own this pattern. If this came from your site, let me know and I'll be happy to credit you.

I think this is one of the BEST pattern envelope illustrations I've seen. The "instant" skirt is pretty cute too. If I could find a copy in my size, I'd definitely snap it up!

Just what exactly is going on here? What are these women holding? Is it a sewing implement of some kind? Any ideas?

* * * *
I am on my way to Viva Las Vegas.

I hope the weather is nice and the hangovers are few. The hubby will be staying home and holding down the fort so I get a whole weekend to play with my best girl pals. Yay! If you see me in Vegas, please feel free to say hello! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, whatever your plans are!

I Won An Award!

2010-03-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Karen at Bobbins And Bombshells gave me this lovely award!

I've been asked to pass this on to 10 bloggers that inspire me. I always have a hard time with this. Really, everyone in my blog roll, and everyone in my followers, and every new sewing/vintage/fashion/art blog I run across inspires me! Here are a few of my long-time daily reads and some new-found treasures.

Bitch Cakes
What I Found
Destination 1940
Enamorada De La Moda Vintage
husmodern
The Blue Gardenia Learns to Sew Her Blossoms
Gatsby and Me
Pink Champagne for Dancing
Maria's Arts
Tuppence Ha'penny

Love to all y'all!

Khaki A-Line Skirt

2010-03-25T12:32:00.000-07:00

A neutral a-line skirt is something I really need in my wardrobe so I decided to give repro Simplicity 4044 a try. This skirt pattern intimidates me a little bit because of the interesting waistband detail. But then again, that's exactly what makes it such a neat design. I could make the SAME OLD skirt again, but this way I'll get to try a new technique.

I have found that when I make one of these repro patterns, it almost always comes out gigantically huge in the end and I have to re-do the whole thing. This time I measured all of the pattern peices while flat and after a bunch of (dubious) math, I decided to make a size 12 instead of my usual 14. The tissue fit for the size 12 seemed to be just about right.

The khaki kona cotton I got from fabric.com is a lovely weight, just slightly stiff, although it may relax a bit after its washed. Unfortunately, It's a little lighter than I expected, color-wise, and it wrinkles like mad so it will have to be lined. Lining is really not my best thing. I kind of suck at it and I usually mess it up somehow.

This time I looked online and found a great tutorial for lining a-line skirts. I think I may have this in a book somewhere too, but for some reason, once a book page has been scanned into pixels, it makes much more sense to me. I blame you, blogosphere.

Essentially, you make the lining the same as the skirt except you don't put in the darts. Once you've completed the main skirt body and are pinning in the lining, you just put in little gathers in the lining along the waistline. That way it ends up the same width as the skirt, but you don't have to match the darts. The lining instructions worked a treat and I will be using this technique from now on. (I'm sure that makes no sense, but follow the link and you'll see what I mean.)

After the lining was in, I attached the waistline facing and was really surprised at how easy it was to get the front detail right. The center point was a bit fiddly as I'd stitched it a little off center, but I took out a few stitches and top stitched the V and it seems all right now. The facing wants to flip out a little in the back so I may topstitch the entire edge in order to make it more secure.

Hemming is always a problem for me because I absolutely hate doing it. Frenquently I just run things through the rolled hem foot, but they never seem quite finished to me. This time I used Gertie's teensy hem technique and I like it so much! The topstitching is neat and even and looks quite professional. Its as nice as a picked hem without all the pain and suffering of easing in the rounded edges or bending over a skirt bottom for ages making those tiny little picks.

It fits well and the length is good but I'm wondering if I did something wrong. It hangs rather strangely and the sides stick out like wings. I'm not sure what happened. I double checked the cutting guidelines and I definitely cut it out properly...but looks weird to me.

Still, it looks no worse than some RTW skirts I have bought in the past. Although I suppose that defeats the purpose of sewing ones own clothes...

Thank You Aunt Maria!

2010-03-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

A while back, my Aunt Mary (a wonderful fine artist who blogs at Maria Bales Art Blog) sent me some wonderful fabric from her stash! I was so pleased and flattered that she'd think of sending all this gorgeous fabric to me!

This amazing 70s Art Deco Print will be a blouse, I think.

***

I might just have enough of this similar print to make a dress. It's hot pink, yellow and green. I don't know why the scanner insists on making the hot pink into purple.

***

This rayon flower print is my favorite color combination. I think it would be a cute 40s dress.

***

This polyester flower print rules. I'm thinking ... 60s style bikini swimsuit and a matching cover up...? There is a ton of it but I don't think I have to use it up in one go.

***

This dusty rose print is pretty stiff; almost like denim. I think it might be upholstry fabric. Still, I think it would be a nice dirndl skirt and matching bolero jacket. I think the stiffness of the fabric would make the skirt nice and poofy.

***

It's impossible to see unless you biggify the picture, but there are stripes and geometric flowers in this white fabric. I think there is enough here to make a blouse or two. It's a mid-weight poly blend, so not exactly shirting, but I think it will be okay for a structured blouse.

Thanks Aunt Mary!

Home Decor IV - Cat Box Cozy

2010-03-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

When we moved in to our rented house a couple of years ago, there was no storage in the bathroom. There was a cabinet surround for the sink with a few drawers, but it just wasn't enough storage for all my hair junk, makeup and other various beauty products. Also, the sink surround didn't really have enough counter space.

There was a giant space next to the sink that was empty so the Hubs built me some custom shelving with a counter top. The bathroom is so much better now. I can store all my stuff and I have plenty of space to spread out when I'm doing hair and makeup. Hubs left an extra tall space at the bottom where we could put the cat box. At the time we had an igloo-style one with a tall lid and a flap door in the front so the bottom space is very large.

It worked really well until the cat decided that he would prefer not to use a litter box with a lid on it. I took the lid off but, let's face it, an uncovered cat box can get the surrounding area pretty dusty which is beyond gross. I was none too keen on accidentally dropping things into it. (I am super clumsy, it could totally happen.) When we have guests over, I don't really want them to have to look at the icky cat box. And, even though he hates the igloo, kitty likes his privacy.

The solution: a privacy curtain!

I cut a wide length of fabric from my stash and used the rolled hem foot to finish the edges. Then I cut two slices up the front to make doors. I used the rolled hem foot to finish the edges of those too. Once the curtain was finished I added some sticky back Velcro to the top of the curtain and the edge of the cabinet. The nice thing about Velcro is that when the curtain gets all covered in cat hair, its super easy to peel off and toss in the washing machine.

To make sure the Velcro won't come off in the wash, I stitched it onto the curtain at the top. I learned a very important lesson about sewing anything with a sticky back: it sucks. My needle kept getting covered with glue and the thread kept fraying and breaking. I'm sure there's a secret to this, but I don't know what is is.

I think it turned out extra cute and the cat doesn't seem to mind it at all. I pull it off and wash it every week or so and then iron it with heavy starch. Its frayed a bit here and there after multiple washings, but I think it still looks good.

Re-Fashioned Knits

2010-03-04T13:35:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it seems like I will never find sweaters that fit me properly. I am short and small boned and curvy and I guess there just aren't sweaters for this body type. Misses or Women's sweaters in size S are always huge on me and juniors sizes never seem to work right either. Sometimes a little girl's XL works, but they tend to pull across the chest, especially if there are buttons.

I found this tutorial for altering cardigans over at Casey's Elegant Musings. If you have a problem finding sweaters that fit, and have been too afraid to try and alter them yourself, go look at her page. It has changed my life! (These links are also to the right under Retro Goodness and Useful Linklandia)

I have few shell sweaters in neutral colors (beige, white, black, brown) that I bought at Dress Barn a couple of years ago. Despite being size S they are sort of baggy and don't fit quite right. I washed them a zillion times in hot water trying to shrink them, but it didn't really work all that well. Below is a picture of the beige one before altering. This is what they all looked like when I started.

You can see that the sweater body hangs straight from the under-bust to the hem without giving any real waist definition. I'm standing up really straight in this picture but when I relax, there are multiple rolls of fabric at the waist. The sleeve ends at the worst possible place, (right at the apex of my breast) and makes me look much wider and heavier than I am.

Casey's advice made it really easy to figure out where to mark and cut them, as you can see in the picture below. Please ignore the horizontal chalk lines on the shirt body. They are there to convince myself that everything is laid out flat and straight.

To narrow the body, I stitched along the curved line under the arm. To shorten the sleeve I marked just above the sleeve trim and again at the place where the new sleeve end would be. The section between the two lines was cut out and the trim re-attached at the new sleeve end.

Casey recommends a straight/zig-zag/straight stitching technique to re-attach the pieces. It works perfectly! You have to be careful, though, and pay attention or you might do something stupid like, oh I don't know, sew on the sleeve inside out and have to pick out all your stitching. Not that I would ever do that...

It's reeeeeeeely hard to pick out the stitching. It took forever and I had to pick out every single stitch, one at a time. It was frustrating, but it made me feel pretty confident that the finished sleeve isn't going to unravel any time soon.

Another thing to remember is to use way more pins than you might think are necessary. I played with a couple different sleeve lengths and tried to give them all a slightly puffy look by gathering rather than easing them in. How much puff I got seemed to depend on how much I did or didn't pin the gathers. I think its because of the amount of stretch in a knit fabric, it just naturally eases the new cuff on to the sleeve. Use LOTS of pins to get exactly the look you want.

Here are the sweaters after being altered. They have been narrowed at the waist by an average of three inches, which I think makes them so much more flattering. Small shoulder pads were added too, to give them a more vintage look.

I think I could have made the sleeves on the black sweater a great deal shorter, but over all I'm really pleased with the results.

* * *

I also used Casey's technique to refashion a knit top I got from Target. I liked the beaded yoke around the neck, but the shirt was ridiculously long. I suppose I could have simply worn it tucked in, but tucking in all that fabric just adds bulk around my hips. I really don't need any more hip bulk!

It was pretty simple to cut off the band and re-attached it higher up. I think I did pretty well. There's one droopy spot in the front that I think should have been gathered a little better, (must use more pins!) but I can live with it. (Yes, I know the tag is still on.)

Now that the shirt is shorter its actually pretty cute when its tucked in. It no longer climbs up my hips and bunches up around my waist!

I am so happy that I am not afraid of altering knits any more. I am going to try shortening a few of my cardigans next. Hopefully it will be just as fun and easy as altering these tops has been.

Navy Skirt

2010-02-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

This pattern again, with the same navy blue sueded twill that I used for the trousers.

The skirt has more wearing ease than the trousers did and it came out a little big. Even so, it's comfortable and great for dancing in. I think it will make good work-wear too. If I ever find a job!!

I liked this pattern a lot. I was afraid of all the gores at first but it was very easy. I wasn't as careful as usual in making sure that my seams were absolutely straight so its a little more "home-made" looking than I would like.

Please forgive the rumpled-ness of the pictures. I probably should have re-ironed before I snapped these.

Cheap Pantyhose Fix

2010-02-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

It's really hard to find beige-on-beige back-seam pantyhose. Beige-on-beige back seam stockings are easier to find, but the good ones are expensive and I am cheap. I tend to be pretty rough on hose so I hate to spend too much on them. Besides I really like pantyhose, especially when its cold out, and it's cold quite frequently here in Fogville.

A few months ago, I bought five pair of beige-on-beige back seam pantyhose from Amazon because they were really cheap. Unfortunately, they were the crappy Leg Avenue ones. I've worn Leg Avenue hose before so I should have known better but I got over-excited by the price. I regretted it as soon as I tried them on.

They fit pretty well (which is rare with Leg Avenue hose) but the yarn is horribly fuzzy. They have no sheen and look sort of...I don't know...chalky? Plus, it's like wearing Velcro on your legs. They cling to your skirts and make them climb up, even if you are wearing a slippery fabric, because they generate static like crazy. Also they rub together and pull when you walk and your seams end up all crooked. Ugh.

Last week I bought a pair of plain old Hanes pantyhose from Target. They were supposed to be top-to-toe extra support so I expected them to be a little squeezey. Instead, they fit perfectly. I think the only difference is they are made with a stronger yarn than usual. They are a slightly darker shade of beige and they have a light sheen so they are very vintage-looking hose, except for the lack of back seam.

This gave me a crazy idea.

When we went out dancing the other night, I put the new pair on over the crappy back seam tights. It was really easy to pull the good pair over the crappy ones and together they were still very sheer. I didn't feel like I was being over-squeezed and the two pairs of hose didn't make it difficult to visit the ladies room. You can't even tell I'm wearing two pairs and the seams stayed in place all night.

Another plus is that two pairs together will provide camouflage if you happen to run your hose. I somehow managed to shove a thumbnail through the Leg Avenue ones during a bathroom break...and you couldn't see the run at all through the top pair. Hahahahaha! I feel like an evil genius. I don't have to throw out all those Leg Avenue hose after all and neither do YOU! :) I don't know how much this will help, but here are pictures.

Before (Just Leg Ave)

After (With Hanes over the top.)

I think this would work with any brand of pantyhose over the Leg Avenue ones, as long as the top pair are made with a better quality slippery yarn. Has anyone else out there tried this?

Maple Play Suit

2010-02-11T10:51:00.000-08:00

Remember this pair of overalls? After I was done, I had quite a bit of fabric left over. Because of the nap, I wasn't able to cut out anything with too many big pieces. I definitely wanted to try and make another garment, because I love the maple-syrup color. I decided to try making a two-piece (30s?) 40s-style swim/play suit using pieces from a few different patterns.

I used Simplicity 2425 to make the shorts and they came out exactly right. I made pleats in the front again, instead of gathers, and used the waistband from this skirt pattern. I think the shorts are just perfect.

I really really love Simplicity 2425! I found it in the envelope for Simplicity 1975 when I made this shorts jumper. I'm still on the hunt for a complete copy, although I'd settle for an image of the pattern envelope. I’ve searched in Pattern Rescue, the Vintage Pattern Wiki, and Google, but nothing comes up. If you happen to run across it out there somewhere, please let me know!

I only wish I liked the top better. For the top I used the bodice from this pattern, View C. I should have known that it would be a pain.

I didn’t care for this top when I made it the first time (as a dress bodice) and it wasn't any easier or flattering this time around, either. I had to do SO much fiddling to get it to work. The lower half of the bodice is just incredibly baggy.

I don’t understand if the front piece is simply too flat for a big-chested girl or if I’m doing something wrong. I think I need to stop using this bodice and find a halter top pattern that works on my body type.

I tried so many different things to get it to fit properly that I won't bore you with all the details. I will say that the only thing that really made any difference was making the front darts REALLY wide at the bottom. I think that the bottom end of each dart ended up being about 4 inches wide.

Deciding how to fasten the top was interesting. I originally intended to put in a side zipper but then I decided I wanted buttons up the back. Since the top was originally designed for a dress with a back zipper, I didn't have quite enough length to put in proper button holes. I put in some fabric loops but they didn't look right so I ripped them out and put in a placket for button holes instead.

My local fabric store didn't have any brown buttons that I liked so I got some cute art deco looking red ones instead. They came in packs of two so there are three on the top and one on the shorts. Win! They are true red, although its hard to tell from this picture. (Don't look to closely at the buttonholes. They are all different sizes and very scary!!)

The top is STILL a bit big under my boobs and it STILL droops in the back. I have un-stitched it and taken it in a zillion times and it just keeps drooping. I have heard that linen tends to "grow" as you wear it, unless it is lined with a tightly woven fabric. I am assuming that this is the problem, but it could also be that I am just a crap seamstress. Sigh.

Despite a less than perfect fit, the top and shorts look pretty good as a set. I think it will be just fine for an afternoon pool-side at Viva Las Vegas.

My Friends Continue to Be Awesome

2010-02-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

I am again the beneficiary of my wonderful friends' generosity! Miss Kate Dana (who blogs at Kukaru) sent me a box full of vintage recipe pamphlets and ephemera from the 40's thru the 60's.

They are all wonderful! I've scanned a few of my favorites to share with you.

Ready to lose some of those holiday pounds? How's about the Knox eat and reduce plan? "No drug...No hunger." Just fill up before meals with a low calorie gel beverage!

On a gelatin-free vegetarian diet? No problem! How about a little Choplet-Burger in a can?

If that doesn't appeal to you, you can always Keep Slim and Trim with Domino Sugar menus. This illustration is just amazing. I love that swimsuit!

Here are some more vintage 50's swimsuits from the Scenic South - Florida travel guides. Those of us in colder climes could use a little sunshine right about now, don't you agree?

Thank you Kate Dana for sharing these with me!

Navy Trousers

2010-01-28T14:57:00.000-08:00

How can I stop wearing jeans every single day? Hmmm... Maybe if I had a pair of neutral trousers? The ones pictured on Simplicity 3688 seem cute and relatively simple. Question is, will I actually wear them?

I chose a sueded navy twill from the stash. It is a really effective cat hair magnet and once it gets the hair, it doesn't want to let it go. I could use up an entire roll of lint tape, I think, without getting all the hair off. Its probably safe to say that a dark colored sueded twill is not an appropriate fabric for someone with a light grey cat.

The trousers were really easy to put together. However, I essentially ended up making them twice because I didn't bother to check the fit before I started stitching. I was surprised to discover that there is no wearing ease at all in this pattern. I found this odd considering how most modern or modern-repro patterns have way too much ease.

I cut out the 14, as usual, and just plunged ahead using my ordinary crappy technique for making a modern patterns fit: I made 1 inch giant seam allowances all around to make up for the extra ease. When I tried them on I discovered that they were binding in the thighs, the zipper slit would barely close and they were riding up something fierce.

I had to take them apart and start all over again this time narrowing my allowances to 1/2 an inch or so.

The crotch rise is simply way too short, so I made that allowance less than 1/4 inch. I finished the seam with a tight zig-zag against the straight stitch so hopefully that will add some stability.

I'm pretty happy with them. Photographing them was difficult because they are so dark. The darts don't quite look right in the back, but I can live with it

I'm thinking about putting big decorative buttons on the front, to give them a nautical feel. What do you think?

I WIN!

2010-01-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I really did win the In-Law Lottery. They are smart, sweet, wonderful people and they are CRAFTY! Yay!

For Xmas, the Hub's mom made me this gorgeous hostess apron. It is really beautifully done. It's hard to see, but the waistline gathers are gorgeous! I love all the cheerful and glittery rick-rack.

Not only is it super pretty, but it is long enough that the ends easily meet in the back. I have half a mind to put in a zipper and wear it as a skirt (with a square dance crinoline underneath, of course)!

Look at how wonderfully twirly it is!

I am a very lucky daughter-in-law. Thanks Ma D!

Mmmmm Yellow

2010-01-14T12:10:00.000-08:00

I bought four yards of this fabric, intending to make a shirtwaist out of it. I forgot about it in the stash for a long time. It's much sunnier yellow than it appears here.

I made the bolero from Simplicity 1657 way back in May and never got around to putting it away. While cleaning up the sewing room I found it again decided that it was the right pattern for this yellow fabric.

This dress was super easy to put together. I was worried that the instructions for the pleating would be difficult to understand, but it wasn't hard at all. I transferred all the pattern markings to the fabric (I don't always) and it really helped a lot.

I got a little confused while putting together the bodice. The front part of the bodice isn't faced (the fabric is just folded over and ironed flat) and I was sure that it would look strange or flip up. It doesn't. Turns out that not facing the front neckline allows the fabric to drape. Who knew?!

The only thing that gave me real trouble was the width of the neck. It was really wide and the sleeves kept slipping off my shoulders. I had already sewn in (and top stitched) the sleeve facings when I realized that it was going to be a problem. I had to invent a quick fix in order to avoid having to unpick the sleeve. I put my crappy alteration techniques to work and sewed a steep triangle along the shoulder line towards the neck.

It worked perfectly, even if the shoulder is a little thick. It's like there is a tiny shoulder pad on the inside, but I don't plan to trim the excess. It doesn't slide off my shoulders now at all, and I think the slight padding looks good.

It doesn't pull or twist in the back, I swear! It's just my weird pose that is making the fabric twist. Its hard to get a good back view shot. I never know what to do with my arms.

C'mon spring! I'm looking forward to a warm day when I can wear this dress.

Oh, one more thing: I have an interview tomorrow morning so wish me luck!!

Home Decor III (Part Two)

2010-01-07T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here’s what I did with the breakfast nook!

I already had green chairs and a blonde convertible table with a blue sheer to cover the window: plain, basic and serviceable. Very plain. I wanted to find a way to spice up the area and make the green chairs and blue sheer work together.

I selected three possible oilcloths for the table cover, each with a blue and green design. The Hub was asked to make the final decision. He chose a blue gingham background with yellow and green sunflowers.

To coordinate I bought some yellow gingham in a sunny flower print and some green gingham ribbon for the tie-backs. As usual, everything came from fabric.com.

Unfortunately, the person who cut my fabric did so at a super sharp angle. I had to trim about three inches from each end to get it straight all the way across. This made my curtains about six inches shorter than I’d intended. Oh well. I just had the Husband install the curtain rod a little lower. No big deal.

Making the curtains was easy as pie. I simply cut the fabric down the center so that I had two long strips. I made a rolled hem on three of the sides and left the fourth one alone as I liked the fuzzy look of the selvage edge.

I made a casing for the curtain rod and slipped the curtains on with the selvage sides facing each other. Then I bunched the fabric together and tied on the gingham ribbons.

The Husband says it looks weird with the sheer over the top. I don’t think he’s wrong, exactly, but the sheer is here to stay. Fogville is always kind of grey and that tends to make me feel a bit droopy, so the curtains must be open at all times. I neeeed as much light as possible! The sheer is the only thing between the sun and my vintage cookbooks which live on the counter across from the window. Even though the sunlight is weak it does tend to fade things rather quickly. I like to think the sheer helps slow it down.

So it’s still a little funky but a ZILLION times more interesting than before. It's bright and cheery and I rather like it.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

I want to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

The hubs and I will be celebrating in our usual laid back style this year, hitting up our local pub. We toyed with the idea of doing something more spectacular since its 2010, but all ideas were vetoed due to the expense or the impossibility of finding parking/cabs in this town.

Unless bad weather or lethargy intervene, I'll be rocking the bunny suit as usual.

I hope that you all have a very safe and sane New Year's Eve and that the New Year brings you lots of joy.

I've got a ton of finished projects completed and photographed. They just need to be written up and posted. We'll go back to our regularly scheduled programming (sewing!) next week.

- - -

So that this isn't a totally picture-less post, here are some snaps of me and the Hubs all dressed up to go to our friend Fred's birthday party. (Not tonight. This was a week or so ago.) The theme of the evening was Kilts. Husband doesn't have a kilt, but he does have a sarong. Here he is looking like an ambassador from some made-up country.

Except for the socks (outlet mall) and the sarong (ebay) his entire outfit is thrifted.

Everything I'm wearing is thrifted except for the nylons (Target), the charm bracelet (ebay), and the eyeglasses, which are vintage 50s from Allyn Scura eyewear.

My Friends Are Awesome, Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T13:50:00.000-08:00

I have super duper extra wonderful friends. When my friends Angela and Katie were visiting over the Thanksgiving holiday, Angela noticed my aluminum canister set sitting on the kitchen counter.

She said that she had the matching bread box and had been trying to sell it on Craigslist, but there hadn't been much interest. She said it was kind of beat up, but she wondered if I would want it. (Um...HELLS YES!) I told her that I'd love to have it and it magically arrived in the mail a few days after she returned home.

It's completely gorgeous (not really beat up at all) and it holds a ton of bread, cookies and crackers.

It looks great on my counter top and makes a nice book-end for my cookbooks.

Win! My friends are the best!

- - -

I hope that, whatever holiday you celebrate, this year's has been (or will be) the best!

We are heading up north this weekend to see the hub's family and maybe drop in on my family too. The hub's family celebrates Christmas with great gusto, while my family celebrates Bah Humbug. In fact, my dad has managed to split town just before Xmas two years running. At any rate, I enjoy seeing MD's family and they love to see us, so I'm sure it will be lots of fun.

Here's the test run of my "visiting the family" outfit.

I made the skirt, the shoes are Newport News, and the red v-neck sweater came from the flea market. MD's mom got me the grey embroidered sweater for Xmas last year. Isn't it fun? I think it's somewhere in-between the cliche (but much loved) tacky Christmas Sweater and one of those super cute Mexican souviner felt jackets. It's kinda goofy and I just love it!

Wishing you and yours the very best! xoxoxo!

The Blouse With The Butterfly Sleeves

2009-12-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

I bought this fabric to make curtains for the kitchen.

I intended to buy a little extra so that I could get free shipping from fabric.com. Lucky for me, I measured the windows totally wrong and ended up with a LOT extra. I decided to make this blouse.

This pattern is really only three pieces if you include the collar. That made it pretty darned easy. I mostly followed the instructions but there were a few very basic things I changed.

I used the rolled hem foot on the sleeve edge and everywhere else it asked for a quarter inch seam.

The instructions didn’t mention lining the ties and there was no pattern piece for this. When it was tied it looked pretty funky, with the wrong side of the fabric showing, so I cut out matching pieces for the tie ends. I made a rolled hem on the parts of the ties that would be un-lined. Then I matched the ends and the ties, right sides together and made a quarter inch seam allowance all the way around. Turning the ties right side out to finish, I flipped in the last raw edge and tacked it down.

I cut out and finished the collar piece, but ultimately decided that I’d like the blouse better without the giant 70s collar. For some reason the lining for the v-front was extremely long so I used it for the collar interfacing. I put in a “patch” between the ends and it worked perfectly.

I think the finished blouse is so super cute! I can’t wait for nice weather so I can wear it!!

Not Quite Instant Skirt

2009-12-10T11:19:00.000-08:00

I decided to whip this one up with some black cotton faille from the stash.

Faille was an interesting fabric to work with. Its thick, heavy and stiff. It looks a little like taffeta minus the shine. It didn't really want to be ironed and, as usual, my iron was too hot, so there are a few iron marks here and there. Also, I created a lot of shine across the darts by over-pressing. I really liked working with it, though, and the finished garment is far sturdier than a pencil skirt made with a lighter cotton.

The pattern itself should have been easy to use and it was, sort of. It's very close to my actual measurements (I'm a little bigger) and there were only a few darts and a back-seam/pleat to deal with. Unfortunately, it seems like the simplest things are always the ones that give me the most trouble.

There was way too much wearing ease. It would have been several inches to big if I had put in the back seam where the pattern suggested. The instructions for the kick-pleat in the back didn't make sense to me so I ended up simply trimming the excess off the back until it fit.

The darts were a wreck too; they made giant puffs of fabric on either side of my hips. I extended the darts and that took care of most of the puffiness. I made a very narrow waistband instead of using the one that came with the pattern. When I stitched the waist band on, I accidentally messed up the direction of the pressed darts. It's not too obvious, but it bugs me.

Luckily, black hides a lot of sins.

I will probably have to add a slit up the back, as the skirt bottom is a bit narrow for walking in.

Crafty Green Baby Shower

2009-12-07T09:52:00.001-08:00

Our friends Andy and Kellie are having twins, and this weekend we went to their baby shower. They are hip rock-and-roll types so, naturally, they had the shower at a most awesome location: Speakeasy Brewery. It was a nice afternoon. The catering was super, the beer was stellar, of course, but the best part was the gift assignment!

A & K are very green earth conscious types so they requested that, if one felt compelled to give them a gift at all, all gifts should be recycled or handmade. MD and I had lots of fun trying to come up with a homemade gift. We wanted it to be something twin themed, but not corny, and something we could work on together. We thought and thought and finally came up with the idea of personalized rock-and-roll onesies.

It was tough thinking of two sets of twin and rock-and-roll themes. We wanted pairs of words or images that could work together as a set but could also stand alone. I came up with these:

These were MD's idea. (That's a Fender Twin amp.)

The onsies came from the thrift store and we had iron-on transfer paper left over from another project. We wrapped our gift in a shoe box with wrapping paper I'd saved from my birthday gifts. Total expenditure: $4. Total brand-new "stuff" purchased for this gift: Not one thing. Win!

Blue "Rosie" Overalls

2009-12-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

When I bought the fabric for the brown overalls, JoAnnne was having a big sale on Linen. I got four yards of denim-blue linen too. I had originally intended to make another pair of overalls out of this pattern.

But when it came right down to it, I wasn’t sure that I was skillful enough to alter them to look the way I wanted. I wanted to flatten out the back panel and omit the pockets. It seemed like it would be easy, but I fiddled with the pattern paper for a bit and then decided I’d rather make something simple that I didn’t have to futz with much at all. So I chose this pattern instead.

It was super duper easy. I’m really starting to like making overalls and jumpers!

Because it is a teen size, I was concerned that the bib wouldn’t cover my chest enough. I widened it by making the bib seam allowances half an inch all around instead of a full inch as was suggested by the pattern. I thought the back section might come out too low so I made it taller in the same way: I just reduced the seam allowance at the top edge. I am a terrible cheat!

I skipped the overall hook thingies and used white buttons instead. I decided to have the straps on the outside of the bib and sewed the ends into little points.* I feel like I saw this on lots of the 1940s overalls on the Life Photo Archive but I can't seem to duplicate my search now to show you. Anyway, I think it’s a cute touch.

Here they are finished and dressed up! I really like the way they came out!

Front

...and back.

*Edited to add: I ended up having to shorten the straps and had to cut off the point detail. Boo. :(

Comments, Outfit Post, Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T10:53:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking so you get three posts in one!

- - -

For some reason I've been getting lots of spam in my comments so I've changed all comments to "moderated." You will still be able to comment, but I'll have to approve them before they post. I plan to approve everything unless it's obviously spam.

If anyone has suggestions on how to keep the comments open but keep the spammers out, I'm all ears.

- - -

Friday night before last we went to our usual local swing dance hangout for a little dancing, drinking, and socializing. After bumming around the house like a schlub all day, I thought it would be nice to fluff up a little to go out.

I've been watching Perry Mason while I eat lunch every day and this outfit was inspired by Perry's femme-fatal/libeled-lady clients. They are always so glamorous!

I tried to give myself an early 60s bouffant hairdo. I think I got a pretty good "loaf of bread" going on in the back, but it only stayed up long enough for me to snap the photos. Even curled and back-combed, my hair is slippery! I ended up brushing it into a ponytail to go out.

1960s patent pumps: Thrifted
Nude dancer-weight fishnets: Leg Avenue
Pencil skirt: Newport News
Cap sleeve sweater: Thrifted
Copper-colored brooch: Thrifted
Double-strand faux pearls: Thrifted
Faux pearl drop earrings: Nordstrom

- - -

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

This is a picture of our thanksgiving table for two. MD and I usually have Thanksgiving dinner with just us, and then go see family on Friday. It makes for a very relaxing holiday.

I'm still learning how to cook meat after being a vegetarian for years. After four hours in the oven, my brisket came out chewy. I ended up putting it back in for two hours and it was much nicer. It took way longer than it should have but I'm still proud that I've added a new dish to my repertoire. Maybe someday soon I'll be ready to have the family over for turkey day!

I just want you all to know how thankful I am for your comments, even though I suck at responding. Knowing that you're out there brightens every single day. Especially now that I'm stuck at home job hunting and cleaning.