...and Summer is Back!

Even though I was wearing my coat again last Saturday, it was in the 80s today ...but since I finished this nice, cool summer dress just in time, I didn't mind one bit! Again, the pictures are not good; my sister is in Florida for the week (lucky!), so I convinced my husband to take a few photos. I also loaned her my camera for her trip, so these are some more camera phone shots...sorry about that!
I made this one out of some sheer red and white polka-dot fabric accented with some sheer cream. I sort of flew blind on this one, using pieces of different patterns and just sort of draping and adding things until I got what I wanted. I can definitely tell the difference in fit as opposed to dresses that I've made with actual patterns; I'm probably not quite skilled enough to do this yet...but I think that it turned out all right!



I gave it an asymmetrical ruffled collar to accentuate the asymmetrical closing, although looking at it now I wonder if I shouldn't have reversed the long and short sides of the collar. It's sort of visually heavy all on that one side, but I wanted to be sure that the collar didn't cover up any of those great buttons! The hat is the same one that I made to match this skirt, I just took out the brown feather and added a red one. I love this hat pattern; being able to switch out the accent pieces makes it so versatile, and I just love the way it looks. This one and the navy one made from the same pattern get almost constant wear.



The buttons and buckle are a vintage set; hopefully you can see how beautifully designed they are in this picture:



I really need to start doing bound buttonholes; they add so much, but I just can't seem to make myself take the time do do them! By the time I get to that point in a project, I am already eyeing the next one on the list, and have probably even started cutting out some pattern pieces. Terrible!

It's Winter Again!

Well, after over a month of 70-80 degree weather, the past two days have inexplicably been in the 40s and 50s! I'm not too upset about it, though; it means that I can wear the coat that I have just finished!


Sorry about the blurry photos; my husband was taking them as we were both attempting to keep our toddler corralled on the porch! The coat was another huge piece of clothing that I found at the Salvation Army. It was monstrous, but it is a beautiful color of green, and you can't buy wool fabric as cheaply as you can buy a discarded wool coat! Of course, I didn't take a picture of it before I started cutting it up; I'm just too impatient! It was so large that it required extensive alterations: I moved the shoulders up three inches on each side, and ended up taking seven inches out of the body of the coat. I made the belt out of some of that extra fabric, and found the perfect vintage green and tan buckle in my stash to go with it. I also put three parallel tucks down the length of each sleeve; hopefully you can see them in the pictures. I found the tan faux fur at a local fabric shop and made the collar and cuffs.



I used some more extra fabric to embellish the hat, which is not quite finished; I started working on it this winter, but I put it away because the weather turned warm. I still need to put a wire in the brim and finish the edges, but I made it to match the coat, so I wanted to wear it while I had the chance!




I made the covered buttons from some green satin that was left over from a dress that I made a few months ago. It just happened to be the exact same color of green, and I am actually wearing it under the coat in these pictures, but it was just too cold and rainy to get any pictures of it. They're coming, though!



I have been wanting a coat like this for as long as I can remember; I'm just sad that I won't get to really wear it until next year!


More fun with editing!!

Another Outfit Post!

Thanks so much, everyone, for your wonderful comments on my last post! I was so disappointed in the quality of the photos when I was posting them, because they looked so good small on the phone display! Unfortunately, the next few posts will be the same; my sister was here for a while, so I did a couple of costume changes! Here is the next one (the quality in these is even worse; I had to lighten them up quite a bit so that the pleats would be visible):




It is made from a thick navy material that has a subtle herringbone pattern. It is actually a dark navy; hence the lightening-up. The shirt is a bright yellow pointelle shirt that I bought a long time ago; I love the scalloped collar and sleeves. Here is a shot of the side, and also of my awesome vintage navy oxfords!







The material is so thick that I stitched the fronts and the backs of the pleats so that they would lie flat. It looked like a mermaid skirt for a while! I was inspired by this pattern, which broke my heart when it got away from me:



I made it by altering this '80s pattern (view B), in order to make the side-skirt come to a point instead of being strait across above the pleats:



I made the hat using this pattern again. Since I can't knit, I made it using a navy sweater. I just cut the pattern pieces out of the sweater and sewed it up. It really worked wonderfully; I have basically been wearing it nonstop, and since the bow is interchangeable, I can wear it with many different things.



I actually made that particular bow to match another dress that we also photographed that day, so you'll see it again in my next post! You'll also see the skirt paired with some tops that I have recently finished, and hopefully we will get some better-quality pictures of it next time, when we will use a real camera!


Finally, I would like to welcome my newest followers: Andrea, Gabriella, Fran, Iz bakinog ormara, The Ziegfeld Boudoir, Nuranar, and Sewn_Seabee ( I hope that I haven't missed anyone)! Wow, I never thought that 30 people would actually be interested in seeing my small corner of the world!

New Skirt and New Look!

I decided that I needed to do something about the (poor) quality of my pictures. After studying many vintage advertisements and pattern envelopes, I came to the conclusion that the main issue with my photos is that they look too pose-y. In most, if not all, of the images I saw, the models were not looking at the camera, and almost never were they smiling. They were usually holding books or golf clubs or looking at something in the distance; in other words, the photos had the look of stylized candid shots. Or more accurately, candid shots in which the models seemed to be saying, "Oh, you just captured a perfect image of my outfit, but I was so busy looking at this tennis racket that I didn't even notice." Ha ha! My favorites featured interesting camera angles and stark contrast of shadows and light. Here are some examples:



When I started this blog, my main goal with the pictures was to simply get an image of my outfits. But as I have looked at more and more vintage pictures, and also at other bloggers' lovely images, I have wanted to not only show the clothes, but also to show them in a visually pleasing way . To that end, I decided that I needed a different photographer. My husband has the ability to take good-quality pictures, but he doesn't have the patience to do so while watching a 22 month-old at the same time. He also doesn't see the need for anything other than a good, plain, serviceable, picture...he's an engineer; what else can I say? :) So, I asked my sister to come over and take some pictures. She was a drama major...perfect! Unfortunately, the battery in the camera was dead when she arrived, so we used my camera phone. Poor planning on my part, with the result that the quality of the pictures may not have improved much (that's why the tweed looks funny and the lighting is bad)! Still, I think that it's an improvement, at least. Let me know what you think; about the outfit and the photos!

Here are our attempts to capture my latest project: a green flannel and tweed skirt:



I didn't make the blouse, but I altered it. I cut a strip off the bottom to make some covered buttons, and I added three buttonholes at the top. Three! Everything is so low-cut nowadays...

I made the skirt using this pattern:


The pattern is very interesting; the back and sides are made in one piece, so that there is no side seam below the hip. It is supposed to close with snaps, but I hate sewing snaps, so I added buttons (fabric-covered, of course!) instead.



It looks great with the cape that I made for this outfit, too:



I even have enough tweed left to make a blazer, but I'm too excited about summer clothes right now, so that will have to be first on the list for fall! I also played around with editing the pictures for the first time, and I think that this one is my favorite:



In this one, the model seems to be saying, "Oh, you just captured a perfect image of my outfit, but I was so busy looking at this baby that I didn't even notice." Hee hee

EvaDress Contest Entry!

Well, of course it came down to the wire, but I finally finished my outfit for the EvaDress Sewing Contest. At least, I hope that I submitted it in time; after having problems with my email and having to find out how to compress pictures by reading about it on the internet, I'm pretty sure that I got the email in with 30 minutes to spare (and that's if I converted the time zones correctly)! I've been working on it since I found out about the contest. Here are the pictures (note to self: take Christmas wreath down!):


Of course, I made a lot of extra work for myself by making some changes to the pattern.On the shirt, I didn't want the opening to be visible in the front below the scarf, so I put the closure in the back instead of in the side, put a row of stitching down the front to match, and eliminated the opening in the front. In the pattern, there are buttonholes in the scarf, which is attached to the shirt in the back, and in the cape. I wanted to make the cape reversible and I also wanted to be able to wear it with other outfits, so I made the scarf detachable, put buttons on both sides of the cape (instead of the buttonholes called for in the pattern) as well as on the shirt. That way, I can wear the scarf and cape with anything and on either side. On the skirt, I reversed the direction of the pleats, only because they looked backwards to me on my muslin. I found the perfect buckle and button set on Etsy, but the buttons turned out to be too small, so I'm thinking about turning them into earrings.
I see that some of my favorite bloggers, like Debi from My Happy Sewing Place and Lauren from Wearing History, have also entered the contest; check out their beautiful creations! Also, welcome to my newest followers: Kir, Nicole Needles, Brittany_Va-VoomVintage, Lauren Hairston, Miss Rosie Beau, Raymondedn, and Curvy Kitty; so happy to have you here! And Jennie, I'm so sorry that I spelled your name wrong when I welcomed you in my last post; some kind of welcome, eh?!

Little Inconveniences

I love old houses. I love everything about them; the woodwork, the wavy glass, the craftsmanship, the history. We live in a Craftsman-style house that was built in 1918, and in my opinion, there is really nothing that can match the beauty and history of an old house. Of course, there are also other characteristics of old houses that some people may consider to be drawbacks; the creaky floorboards, the drafty windows, the knocking radiators, the uneven floors, the cracking plaster, etc...with what some would call my "rose-colored glasses", I find these things charming! I grew up in a 1920s house and I suppose that I am simply used to these things. I have fond memories of my mother sitting on top of a radiator drinking her hot tea on winter mornings, and of sleeping on the floor of my parents' room in the summers because it had a window unit. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in a '70s ranch house and considered himself to be an old-house lover until we actually moved into ours. Here is an example of a recent exchange:



Him: "Is that ice on the inside of the window?!"
Me: "Ice? I don't see any ice...just look at that beautiful woodwork!"

So proud!

Well, one post per week; that's an improvement, at least! Although, I'm sorry to say, the quality of my pictures has not improved...still working on it! Here is a skirt that I have just finished, and I am so proud of myself because I made it completely without using a pattern. I have altered patterns and cobbled different patterns together before, but I've never made anything just by draping and cutting until now. Here it is:

The shirt is vintage, and the only thing that I did to the sweater was to take it in a little and add vintage buttons. The fabric is the most beautiful cream knit, and was maybe the most challenging fabric that I have ever worked with. It's really heavy, but stretchy, and really ravel-y. So of course, I had to make it extra difficult by doing it without a pattern! Really, the reason that I did it was because I loved the fabric so much, but I only had bits and pieces of it. I used it to make a dress years ago, and since I no longer wanted to wear the dress (alright, I could no longer fit into the dress after having a baby!), I decided to cut it up and make something else. It was so frustrating, and I almost gave up many times, but I'm so glad that I persevered!

It really hangs nicely (better than in the pictures; I think that I must have been popping my right knee out or something!), and when I wear it with a cream sweater, it almost looks like one of those '30s knit suits that I covet so much. I also had enough fabric to make a hat:

I made it using this pattern (view 4):


I love this pattern so much that I have made it twice more; pictures of those to come!
Also, I want to say hello to my four new followers: Jenny, Jan (fabriquefantastique; what a great screen name!), Kate, and Kate! Welcome!