A page from the actual sewing book (which is a pretty good sewing book) 'Sewing made Easy' by Sally Stitch.
New Pattern Day Yay!
I'd like to introduce my newest reproduction.
I'm adding another day dress to the collection. This one has a great button yoke closure with a cute rever collar. There are optional cuffs for the short sleeves, and two pleats on the front of the skirt.
The pattern is in a 44 bust! I'm going to make this up for swing dancing!
I've also added more patterns to my etsy store, and I've created a new section called Extra Love Patterns. These patterns (ELP) are discounted because they might be missing pieces or not in the greatest condition, but they still have lots of life in them.
I think I'm going to make this new repro soon, it's too cute!!
Have a great day everyone!
Finished Dresses
Finished shots of the 'wearable mock up' of my knot dress. I am very pleased with the outcome of it.
Chambray alteration pt 1
Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all are still plugging away on your Make and Mend projects. I've been blog hopping and I'm seeing tons of people taking advantage of the Make and Mend mentality. It's inspiring! Keep it up!
I guess you could call this an alteration, though, with all the summer refashions going on in the sewing blogosphere, it seems to be an epidemic!
Day Project: Boudoir 'Make-Up' Cape
Knot Dress progress.
Just Because...
These are some of the most awesomest theme songs of cartoons from my childhood. These are not all the toons I watched as a kid, not even close, but these are the ones with the best theme songs.
Pole Position probably being one of my all time favorites, but most of these cartoons I have on DVD.
A sailboat broadcloth shirt? It's as awesome as it sounds!
Hey! Check out this write up of me on Blue Gardenia!
Although I feel the awesomeness of this broadcloth was expressed in my previous dress, I do feel that it's causal form is just as eye catching.
Although I feel the awesomeness of this broadcloth was expressed in my previous dress, I do feel that it's causal form is just as eye catching.
Darn it!
Per the request from the flicker forum, I thought an entire post on darning would be a good thing to have.
It was strange, I looked through about 6 of my vintage sewing books and most of them had at least a paragraph dedicated to the art of patching and darning. None, however covered the territory like The Complete Book of Sewing. I will post the entire section later in this post.
Darning and patching can be some of the best tools to shape up a worn wardrobe. I'm surprised that more people don't do it. This make n mender did a great tutorial on darning jeans.
I do think there are some misconceptions that we need to get over when we talk about darning/patching.
- 1) You will always see the mend.
- 2) The process does not take as long as you think. For the practice ones I'm going to show, they took no more than an hour. Not too bad to get regular wear back from your garment. And these were both done by hand.
I prefer to do a mend by hand, especially if the repair is on the bias. Why? I find hand sewing is a bit looser than machine sewing, and if its concentrated in a worn area, the mend has the tendency to work with the fabric, instead of being like a 'brick wall' against the fabric. Hope that made sense.
Tutorial one: Mending a hole.
Some finished dresses.
Both dresses are from my repro collection. The one on the left is the 40s yoke skirt dress and the right one I FINALLY have finished pictures of the Balboa dress.
Have a great Monday.
And the winner is....
Porcelina
Congratulations! Just send me an email and I'll send your pattern right out to you.
Thanks for all those who entered! I'll have another giveaway soon!
Yay sewing!
Last day of the giveaway!
Don't forget today is the last day to enter the Make and mend Giveaway.
I'll announce the winner on Monday.
Have a great day!
Stout Woman Revolution: This pattern isn't my size!
Truth be told, one reason I gave up on a lot of modern patterns was the way they were sized. Not only did they have monstrous ease built in to often accommodate lazy grading, but modern proportions can be a headache to a stout figure.
A lot of what determines a good fit for us is where you carry your extra weight. Do you have it in your front, in the back, even all over? Are you pear shape, hourglass, top heavy" Is it in your arms, chest, or thighs? Sheesh!
Random Make & Mend project of the day.
I have this G.H. Bass heavy canvas duffle laundry bag that I think I got from Restoration Hardware a looooog time ago on clearance. It's got a circular bottom, about 2 1/2 feet tall, with a grommet drawstring top. It's very classic in it's design like an old sailor or army laundry pack. I guess that's why I got it.
The Make & Mend 2011 giveaway!!
Happy Monday all!
Another week has begun (technically yesterday, but you know) and there is opportunity ahead of us. I hope everyone is doing great with their Make and Mend projects. I'm starting up a couple and I hope to do about 8 this week. Nothing too spectacular just some sleeves and skirts and such.
As motivation to you all you lovely people, I'm having a giveaway!
Its a button front 40s day dress in its factory fold! Best thing is it's a 40 bust. This lovely princess seamed frock even has it's original mailing envelope. W00T!
The ick of procrastination.
First off, I've put up more photos of the flapper dress on NVL. The finished balboa dress is coming shortly.
We have all been there. You need to do something, how ever minor, but you keep putting it on the back burner of life even though doing said tasks will make something easier. It could be writing a letter, or mailing in a rebate before it expires. Calling some person, or putting all those patterns away. Those tiny things always add up, and for me, they are always so hard to get done.
I can do the big stuff, I can always do the maintenance that is seemingly routine, but those tiny things that I mentioned seem to stump me. I don't know why, really. It's not like these tasks won't take more than a few minutes each. Perhaps its the idea of complexity changing the task of the brain for a different project. Even for 5 minutes. Brain lazy. Man, have I come to that?
I'm taking this to task with Make & Mend. I actually wrote some letters that needed to be written, sent out some stuff, took out tons of boxes for recycling and just did some minor odds and ends. I feel cleaner, you know?
Also I started on my repro dress.
First project announcements.
Is everyone ready to get started!!?? I am.
I've narrowed down my first projects for Make & Mend and I'm excited to get started on them.
First off I was excited a recent supply purchase came in. When I was at the Queen Mary a couple of weeks ago, one of the gals had this delightful burlap sack purse. It was modern, but I thought it was so cute. I recently came across a modern burlap potato sack, and I thought what better time than to make one.
I have this amazing 4 page WWII booklet on how to make grocery bags, but for the life of me I can't find it! I know I'll find it one day, when I'm not looking.
The bamboo purse handles I got from this website. They were a great price but shipping was a lot because they came from Australia. Still, they were just what I was looking for.
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