Etsy Store Sale

I hope everyone is gearing up for the holiday season better than I have managed to do.  But, if you haven’t, don’t fear, I am running a sale in my Etsy shop for the Friday after Thanksgiving (Black Friday for those of us in the US).

If you are buying anything premade, take 10% off the price by mentioning my blog in the notes section.  If you are purchasing a custom order, take 15% off the price by mentioning my blog in the notes section (or if you Alchemy/Custom order through me, just mention my blog in a message and you’ll get the discount).

This is a great time to buy your loved ones something handmade and remember, this is a one day sale, so make sure to purchase or convo me (for custom orders) on Friday, November 27!

Happy Shopping!

Repro sewing patterns

With the wealth of actual vintage sewing patterns available out there, I had been steadfastly ignoring reproduction patterns in my pattern-buying/browsing, but recently I’ve been swayed by two repro patterns out there.

 

Image Copyright Wearing History

The first, is one by Lauren over at Wearing History (if you haven’t looked at her website, you really must, it is a treasure trove of vintage sewing and costuming) is a pajama pattern but could also be adapted for a beach costume or lounge-wear.  Isn’t it gorgeous?  Too bad it isn’t the correct size for me (Pssst, Lauren, are you making more?) but if any of you out there would fit into it, please buy it and let me know how glorious it is to swan about your house in such a garment (find the etsy listing by clicking on the image).

 

The second pattern that has caught my eye is this one by Jennie at Sense and

Image copyright Sense and Sensibility patterns

Sensibility patterns.  This is the 1940’s Swing Dress pattern and while I am certain that there are a multitude of actual vintage dress patterns like this, I really do love the details at the shoulder and the waist and am very drawn to buying this one instead of poring over thousands of vintage dress patterns to find those same details in a vintage pattern.

 

Have any of you made up either of these patterns?  Are you a fan of repro patterns or do you prefer to stick to the “real thing” so to speak?  Any opinions are welcome!

Hooded Dress Love

I was reading Anja’s Clever Nettle blog today where she mentioned that after longing after a vintage photo album she finally bought it.  This particular photo album includes wardrobe photos of a girl from the 1930s and I was struck by one particular photo:

Photo copyright Anja Louise Verdugo at www.clevernettle.com

how amazing is that dress?  It reminds me of the vintage Simplicity 3276 dress here, except the dress in the photo has so many more luscious details and looks more structured and put together than the Simplicity pattern.  I would love to find a pattern (I’m too chicken to attempt to make my own simply basing it off a photo) and make up this dress, and rock it with the same attitude and confidence this girl shows!

A Gentlelady’s Agreement–Bartering

I am looking to barter with someone–one of you lovely readers or someone you know perhaps!  I am in need of a custom image for my Etsy shop for custom orders or reserved listings and I would love to trade someone handy with the sketching for something knitted (your choice of anything listed in my shop (dog sweater, clapotis shawl, tea cozy), a scarf, fingerless gloves, a hat,  baby blanket, or if you have another idea or desire, let me know and we’ll chat about it) of your choice.  My idea for the image would be a TRex knitting up a sweater with needles and yarn trailing but I’m open to any and all ideas and I hope someone out there can help me!  Let the bartering begin!

Shoe Love–Fluevogs

I have recently been introduced to Fluevogs by Sally’s blog and now I have found a pair that I am absolutely swooning over.

Aren’t they gorgeous?  Well if you don’t have a thing for spats, I guess you would say they were ugly, but I love to toe the line (no pun intended) of cute/ugly in shoes.  Too bad they are WAY out of my budget right now since we are remodeling our house but maybe after the dust settles I can save up for them (hopefully before Spring!).

Also drawing my attention, but not in the same NEED WANT way as the Libby Smith’s above, are these beauties.  They are very funky and cute and I love the shiny.  In fact the only thing I don’t like about either of these shoes is the 2.5 inch heel–I know it will be comfortable, but I like my boot heels to be 3 inches otherwise I feel that they are in that weird not high heels/not flats area.

What are you all drooling over for the Autumn/Winter season?

Question about Coats

So Gertie’s post today about sewing winter coats got me thinking: when you sew a coat, and you are looking at sizing, do you sew your size the way you sew your size in a dress or shirt or trousers or do you go up a size because you are wearing this coat over a sweater and scarf or other bundly clothing?

I’m nowhere near ready to make a coat (I don’t think) but in my musing, I happened upon this pattern, Vogue 8626.  Looking at it, it seems to have a lot of give.  I am normally a size 12 or 14 in Vogue, but would I go up to a 16 for a coat that I want to wear a sweater under or do the patterns account for that?  Any advice please leave it in the comments!

Edited to add–the Vogue website doesn’t have finished measurements for this garment, so while I know what they say my size is, I have no idea the amount of ease in the pattern because finished measurements are not online (or I don’t see them).

Fallen off the face of the Earth

Oh hello there!  What happened to me, you may ask–well I bought a house, a money pit, really, and it has been sucking up every single free minute of my time.  I managed to complete the puppy sweater (for Gibson, I will have pictures soon I hope of him in it) in between a massive plumbing problem at said money pit but since every moment of free time is spent over there fixing, painting, and doing all manner of home renovation I haven’t had much time for sewing.

I am working on neep heid though (in the beet heid colorway) and it is coming along smoothly after a bit of a struggle being impatient with the I-cord cast on.  It’s my first go at colorwork and while I’m pretty sure I’m not doing it “right,” I’m doing it and so far, it looks like the picture, so hooray!

I may be a bit absent for the next few weeks as we try mightily to get the money pit ready for inhabitants, but if anyone has any opinions on what to do about a kitchen floor that has a layer of plywood glued AND nailed to the hardwoods, leave a comment!

Dress Forms–advice please

I have decided to splurge out and buy a dress form, but having scoured the reviews for a few hours, I’ve realized that the modern Singer and Dritz ones have very bad reviews indeed (most saying that they are cheaply made and break easily).

I have heard a lot about the foam Uniquely You dress forms but there are mixed reviews about the performance of the foam and the most critical review was of the “uni-boob” with which the makers endowed this form.    Said offending anatomy can be seen at the right.

Then there is the PGM dress form, which looks suitable but isn’t overly adjustable so I’d have to work on padding it out in places that need padding.  The PGM one I’m looking at is the #603 and is seen at left.

Then of course there is ebay–there are various vintage Wolf dress forms from the 80s on ebay, which might be nice, but the measurements seem a bit odd and I would once again need to pad.

Other vintage forms on ebay are enticing, particularly these three:

This is a Wolf brand dress form from the 50s.

This one is an Acme adjustable dress form–I just love the thought of owning something Acme..not sure why I have nostalgia for the company name.

Another push button adjustable dress form that looks promising.

So, I turn it over to you, dear readers…any recomendations on dress forms?  I like the idea of having an adjustable one, so that I could change it if I gain or lose weight.

Knitting Extravaganza

Well since my major sewing fail I’ve been sucked into looking at more and more knitting patterns and have planned even more knitting for the upcoming months.  I’ve still got my plans I mentioned in this post (and will post pictures of the adorable dog sweater soon), but I’ve added mercilessly to the list, starting with this beauty…isn’t it gorgeous?  It is a knickers and vest combo or a long dress/nightgown/slip depending on which version you work up, knit on tiny needles with (I’m guessing because I haven’t seen the pattern yet) 2-ply yarn.  This small guage will be good though because I want this to be soft and smooth against the skin.

I’ve also added onto the list Kate Davies neep heid in the beet heid colorway.  Full confession time–I’ve never thought fair isle was anything to get involved with as it usually entailed geeky Christmas scenes that reminded me too much of the 80s, but this hat is great and nothing like any of the fair isle you remember from your embarrassing childhood.  It will be my first real foray into fair isle so that will be exciting.

Also on the list from Kate Davies is the o w l sweater.  I don’t usually like the way chunky knit sweaters look on me in the finished product but I have high hopes for this one as it looks nicely tailored around the waist at the back.

There are more photos here of peoples’ owl creations: http://needled.wordpress.com/parliament/

Sewing Fail

So I have this dear little pattern from Folkwear (#219) and I’ve been trying to make up the camisole and tap pants.  Well, unfortunately I started with what I thought would be easiest–the tap pants–and boy was I wrong.   I don’t know if it is me or the pattern, but I cannot for the life of me sew the crotch correctly.  I’m following the pattern instructions and somehow it comes out wrong every time (I’ve ripped this thing 3 times now!).  I’m thinking of just ripping it one last time and sewing it the way my intuition is telling me and not the way the instructions indicate.

To explain, the instructions seem to tell me to sew the front to back at the crotch seam, then sew the U-shaped seam, then the straight side seams, but when you do that, it seems the crotch is backward and you can’t sew it nice and flat.  Anyone have tips or can commiserate with me?

It really is a cute pattern and the camisole will be adorable with the notions I bought from PollyDanger.  The camisole calls for a bias strip to house the ribbon drawstring and I chose this adorable one with some fabric covered buttons to match.

Adorable, right?  Too bad this very simple pattern is driving me batty!  I even had my sister look at the pattern because she is more experienced in clothes-making and she said I was doing it as per the pattern instructions.