It's the little things: Hook and Eyes

I've always loved vintage notions. They have details you can't find with modern ones. Sometimes it's the actual materials, or the wicked deco packaging. Other times it's the items themselves before the advent of zippers.

Perhaps that's why I find these hook & eyes so amazing. The range of styles and sizes and uses. The large ones I'm sure were used for fur, or looped over with thread and used for coats. The small ones delicate enough for sheer silk numbers of infant clothes.

Here is a small sample of my hook & eye collection. What? Surprised I have one? Oh, then you all don't know me by now :)

These are the coat hooks. They are HUGE!

Working on what I'm wearing to the Air Raid

It's Hank Williams tonight.

Hi all. I haven't abandoned the blog, I've been working on other things.

First off, my friend and I are finally putting some initiative in learning to dance. We've taken a few free classes and I've found more people who can helm me learn. I have to keep on them though. I'm a good nag. We also are looking for classes and might have some leads on rather inexpensive ones.

But for the last few weeks, we have been going to a local dive bar but they have swing lessons every Tuesday AND a live band! Real good live bands. It's been fun.

I haven't been getting dressed up a lot lately, but I did manage to snap some photos of my outfit from last night.

As far as my Air Raid outfits. I'm still making progress.

This past weekend I met two of my other vintage friends and we took a trek to one of the only millinery stores in the country, probably the world. We got there on time, but apparently on a Saturday, the store opens at an 'ish' time. There were about three people waiting, so we just decided to look in the sewing shop across the street.

Dozens of used industrial machines. All in different stages of repair/life. Some I wondered what they did.

We went back later and the millinery store was finally open! These were the doors.

I do so love the tidbits of vintage detailing that you stumble upon in downtown. It's wondrous!

Shelves and shelves of old hat veils, millinery fruit and trims. Beautiful stuff from buyouts of old stores from the 60s and 70s. The bad thing was the store was a crap hole. Disorganized and dusty beyond belief. But apparently all the studios come down there to get findings for costumes, so it's the place to go.

I did like it, but didn't buy anything but some buckram, which they had for a good price.

The store was also a few blocks from the fabric district so we stopped by. While I was there I went on and grabbed some fabric dye for my other sweater.

Finally go around to dyeing it.

When I was thinking of the color I wanted I was envisioning a more muted deeper brown. This one is a warmer brighter one than I was thinking, but I can live with it.

The knit of the cotton was so tight that on the dye missed some yarn. But it does not really show and it's livable and I managed to dye this one the same way as the other one with no incidents. Now I have to choose buttons.

It's also time to work on my helmet.

I got this beauty online for less that $20 a few weeks ago.

A friend of mine sent me some Air Raid decals but I don't know if I want to use them.

I think I'll scan them and do a print out. I also need to work on my armband. That I'll do later today.

One last thing...

I finally got around to doing a new draft for a garter belt.

I'm still working on my girdle, but I wanted something for the Air Raid and these take about a day to whip up. I'm lowering the back because I have shelf butt and I get sick of the belt ridding up.

The cross out in the back is where the elastic is gonna go.

It's customization all the way baby!

*whew*

That's a lot of stuff in a few days. And my legs are wobbly from dancin'. Still this Saturday should be a blast. I won't allow my brain to be hindered by the fact it might rain...

Happy Thoughts........!

Catalog Sunday

This Sunday I'm getting out more early 30s images.

These are from two of my embroidery catalogs by Frederick Herrschner.

Last rayon blouse for a while, I promise.

I know, I know. For some reason I just can't get enough of this 40s blouse pattern. It's just so perfect with the vintage rayon I've managed to acquire.

When you have a pattern sized just right, you tend to want to make as many of that item as you can. No fuss about fit and all is so nice. You can just crank it out?

Any of you all have a pattern like that?

With this version of the blouse I wanted to try the tie bow neckline.

I decided to use my gray flower print because I only had enough for the front bodice. Because of the neckline change, I decided to switch this one up a bit. I omitted the back pleat, added piping down the front center and across the back yoke. I did line the yokes with that feed sack cotton I've been using on all the others.

Because the vintage fabric was so sheer, I decided to apply the cotton interfacing to the fabric instead of the facing pieces.

One reason to do this is so the seam allowance does not protrude beneath the fabric with it's bulk and disturb the line. I didn't need to do that with the other blouses because of the notched collar, but because this one goes all the way up to the neckline, I felt it was best to put in that bit of extra effort.

The piping with the vintage fabric I had to piece because I was seriously running on scraps. I measured out exactly how much was needed and overlocked the SA (seam allowance). Then I just lined everything up and sewed the back yoke to the back bodice.

There is a lot of fabric at that seam: the back bodice, the folded over fabric round the piping cord, the rayon for the yoke and the cotton its faced with. Turned out to be quite a bit of bulk, so I ended up tacking the SA up to the yoke to keep it secure.

With the front of the blouse, I had just as much bulk, but it was the notch near the top that was tricky. I didn't want to extend the piping too far, because then when I tied the bow it would create a gap. Too short and I would not be able to tie the bow and have it lay flat.

I thank Onda for helping me out with all of that.

Once I applied the piping to the front I LOVED the clean look of it. So much so that I didn't want to mire it with button holes. I know! Me not use buttons!? I just couldn't so I added 11 snap fasteners for the closure and one hook and eye for the top of the neckline. Man, I'm never doing that again. Hand sewing that many snap fasteners wore a hole in my finger. I don't use a thimble. I've tried and always feel like I'm loosing control of my grip.

From there I finished the cuffs with fasteners and added the tie collar. I love the look so much. I think its one of the best versions of this blouse I've ever done.

I do have some more blouses to make form the vintage fabric I have, but I think I'll make a blouse with front pleats. I have more than enough patterns in my stash to choose from. I only hope I can get the fit as well as I did on this one.

Finished pictures of the blouse can be seen on NVL.

Can I make a tailored jacket in a week? The follow-up.

Ever have a project you really like and worked hard on but after it's complete you see something you want to change but just don't want to deal with it?

Meet my jacket.

I'd like to thank everyone who commented on the process of my tailored jacket a few months ago. It was a crazy undertaking, but I'm glad I did it.

The thing is living in Los Angeles: A desert, even in winter, or should I say, 'winter', I wore it not even a handful of times. That was disappointing. It's not a dressy jacket, so putting it on at night when I go out isn't a real option, and it so warm, it bakes me in the day, so no jacket then either. It was even too warm out when I wore it to the tweed pub crawl I made it for. *sigh*

For the most part since that evening the jacket has been hanging on my wardrobe in plain view for me to look at. I spent a lot of hard time on that garment and I'll be dammed if I'm just going to stick it in a closet.

But now the Air Raid is coming up, and because that is an outdoor event I'll have a chance to wear it. I'm super excited.

After wearing it the handful of times I did, I realized that I needed to alter some things. All small things mind you but just enough to make a big difference in the look and drape of the jacket.

This is what I changed.

1) Larger shoulder pads.
2) Notch out the bulk in some of the corners of the lapels.
3) Take in the front darts more.
4) Tack down the drape of the lapel.
5) Add trim to the inside where the lining meets the facing.

1) The shoulder pads.

I had some shoulder pads that I made for one of my dresses. I just stuck those into this jacket and from the start I felt they were too small. I decided to take them out and make some new ones.

I traced off some from one of my patterns, and actually made real legitimate shoulder pads. That is something I NEVER do. I really like the pattern of the shoulder pads, and the curve it gives. I filled them with polly batting and tacked them to keep the batting in place.

Then I placed, pinned and stitched.

2) Notch out the bulk in some of the corners of the lapels.
While I was in there I decided to trim down the bulk of the corners a bit more. I always felt they were a tad too rounded and with some corners having 6 layers of fabric, a closer cut wouldn't hurt.

3) Take in the front darts more.
Next to the shoulder pads this was the real reason I wanted to open up the jacket. Since I made it I've always felt I didn't take in those darts enough. There was a bit more draping than what I was comfortable with. When I decided to change the darts, I had to take off the binding tape I tacked on and completely take out that dart stitch from the center chest to about 1" to the shoulder seam. I'm not stupid after all.

Taking out the shoulder seam was NOT an option a sane seamstress would do. I eased in the new stitch to meet with the old one and tacked everything back into place.

4) Tack down the drape of the lapel.
There is a lot of bulk at that fold in the lapel. It's not solely my fault, that tweed is thick. I decided that if I did a small tack on the inside it would nudge the lapel to one side more and I wouldn't have to worry about it sitting too straight. That's exactly what I did.

5) Add trim to the inside where the lining meets the facing.
This part was another major fix I wanted to make to the jacket. Okay, not fix. It's a finish. I had this red lace that I thought would be great to cover the unsightly overlocked edge of the inside facing that just screams homemade.

I didn't do it last time because I was just so tired of the thing I didn't care anymore. Because I was in there anyway and because I had washed and ironed the lace weeks ago, I thought it was time.

A simple fold, pin and whip stitch and two hours later I have a lovely finish.

*whew*

All these alterations took about 5-6 hours. A drop in the bucket for how long the whole thing took. And really, isn't a few more hours invested in a potential life long piece worth it? I'm very pleased with it now. It feels finished. It's going to look great with my Air Raid outfit(s).

Have a great day everyone!