Pillows, Nay. New top, Yea.

You know how it is when you have one thing in mind and you end up doing something completely different?
Tonight's project was going to be fall pillows.
I had a some great remnant pieces, leftover leopard print piping,
and some cable knit sweaters.

But somehow, in my mind, I wasn't seeing them all come together to work in two different rooms. So maybe another day.


Instead, I went in a Completely Different Direction, because I am a girl, and I have a million ideas in my head, and I'm allowed to change my mind.

I cut out  Vogue 1275  a few days ago from a rayon spandex knit that I found last year at a crazy low price...I think the piece cost $5.00. I didn't have quite enough yardage, so I worked on the layout, pinning and re-pinning for about 45 minutes until I finally cut. The short yardage resulted in me not doing the ruching on the sleeves, which is okay by me.

Let me tell you something. This is the first Sandra Betzina pattern that I have made, and she sure knows how to make a girl feel good. There was SO much wearing ease, I ended up going down two sizes from my bust measurement and even then, I had to take in some seams. I know I haven't lost that much weight!

I'm on the fence about this one. Is it flattering? I don't know. I wonder if I should have turned the pattern the other way on my fabric to make the print  more vertically oriented.

JR thinks it looks good.

After trying it on again and again, I ended up taking up some of the gathers through the bodice by running two rows of elastic thread smack down the middle of the center piece. It breaks up the horizontal-ness of the print, across my bust-line, I think. It also made the neckline more sweetheart-ish.

The concept is a good one, but I'm not sure this one works for me. More than likely, I will probably wear it layered under a jacket or cardi. But for today, it's my work outfit and I'll see how I feel about it by the end of the day.

Maybe in a solid color? And maybe I'll make pillows tomorrow. Because tomorrow is another day.

The Best Things in Life are Free

They say the best things in life are free, and because we know it to be true that "you can't take it with you,"

I am a firm believer in re-using, re-making, upscaling, re-doing.

While one man's junk is another man's treasure, the things most worth having are sunny November afternoons, and a hard day's work,

Big smiles and morning conversations.

Afternoon naps, the smell of babies.

The grace of God ,

And stolen kisses.

All free, worth more than every treasure found on the roadside.

(From the Roadside, top to bottom: Bright yellow wooden shelf, repainted and snuggled into my sewing room.  Vintage hammered aluminum tray for the camper. Sturdy old drying rack. Vintage Bright's wine jug. White painted bench for the garden.)

 "For we have brought nothing into the world, and so we cannot take anything out of it. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content."

The Perfect Fit for a Perfectly Imperfect Body

How to make a pair of ankle pants:
If you have a flat butt, narrow hips, wide waist, thin legs and a tummy.
Being totally smitten with the trend toward those early 60's ankle pants, I've been craving a pair. I must confess, one of the reasons I don't like wearing pants is because I have the aforementioned body type that does not lend itself to a nicely fitted pair of ready to wear OR an easily self-made pair.  I used to make my own pants...when I was younger and had a different body than I have at this age.

Yes, this is me at age 15, with my Dad. I'm wearing a pair of high-waisted, wide-legged cuffed trousers that I made straight out of the pattern package. No alterations.

These days, I'm reading the parts of the pattern that say things like: "NOTE: If you are over thirty, your derriere is probably lower than when you were twenty, so tape below the lowest back crotch stitching line," and having to chuckle at the fact that I'm about to embark on a pant's making adventure that will produce no less than 3 muslins before I can fit my flat ( and low) derriere, thick waist and scrawny legs. normal woman's bodies by doing some adjustments .

So, what is normal? Flatt butt, full butt. wide hips, narrow hips. Athletic thighs, chicken legs. hourglass or post-baby waist and tummy.  It's all normal. And it's all good.  And we can make it work with a few adjustments and some patience.

And then, you may just be surprised at how happy you are with your wonderful, individual, 

and perfectly unique shape when you have something that is custom fit.  

Armed with two patterns ( McCalls 6440 and Vogue 1264  AND the excellent pants fitting tutorial from the Clover sew-along, I decided to just dig in and do this thing.

Muslin #1:

 So this is the real me. You can see that while I cut a straight 12 from the pattern, the waist is snug, the legs are baggy, the crotch is too deep and there is too much room across the tummy. But you can see that even though there is much room across the tummy, I will have to make adjustments for a tummy.

 My flat butt. And baggy legs.

So, I pinned where I needed to, and came up with this :

I'm beginning to see a little tush shape.
After making the correct  adjustments on the pattern, I have Muslin #2:
                                                                   


I am getting a better shape through the hips and tummy area, but they are still bagging in the legs and still a bit wide through the hips.

Muslin # 3:

Much Better.

So, I sort of fused the two patterns I mentioned, and ended up with a pretty decent fitting pair of pants. There are a few things I tweaked on the pattern after I had my final pair made, but I think that by making all the muslins, I have overcome my fear of pants and now have a pretty solid fitting pattern that I could adapt to any pants pattern.

So, here they are, finally made and all dolled up to wear to a costume party last night:

I think I look like my mother must have  in 1961.

I'm so happy! Now, I'd really like to get the Clover pattern....especially after seeing the many versions on the Clover Sew-along, especially Susan's many versions of her own!   I think I might like pants now!

Interpreting the Trends: A Bow Tie Blouse

Mary Richards [accepting her Teddy Award after a particular bad day] :  " I usually look so much better than this."
Who is NOT a fan of the Mary Tyler Moore Show?


From the website, Vintage Fashion Guild    "Evan-Picone was formed in 1949 as a partnership between Charles Evans and Joseph Picone. Their first product was a fly-front skirt designed by Evans and produced at Picone’s shop. Their skirts were a success and they added ladies pants as well. By the 1960s they were a major manufacturer of sportswear. In 1962 the company was sold to Revlon, but Picone bought the business back four years later. The wardrobe for Mary Tyler Moore in her 1970s television program was provided by Evan-Picone. In the 1980s Evan-Picone’s focus changed from sportswear to clothing for the career woman, and the company was acquired by the Jones Apparel Group."

According to the tag, I think my blouse is from the seventies, so indeed, it is very Mary Tyler Moore-ish!  While this is a typical better department store blouse ( certainly not high end, but certainly well made...something Mary could afford and would wear! )  How cool is that?  Tie front blouses are so trendy right now, and when I saw this one, I also loved the color, the polka-dots, the almost metallic sheen, and the fact that it was roomy enough for me to play with it. When I was reading Girls with Curves , I feel head over toes for this gorgeous blue tie blouse, which has a peplum waist. I wanted to create the same effect from my vintage blouse.

So, here's what I did:
I took in the sleeve head to make it fit better on my shoulder.
I altered the neckline to create a V neck, which is a more flattering neckline for me. This was SO easy to do.
First, I marked my changed neckline with pins. Next, I removed the collar/tie back to the shoulder seam.

 And cut away the excess to re-shape it.

 After opening up the tie seam, I repositioned it along the new neckline. Sewed the tie to the new neckline, and there you have it...a v-neck bow tie blouse! Does that make sense?

For the waist shirring, I had fun with elastic thread. Oh, elastic thread...I love you so! You make a boxy, blah blouse have shape and interest, and you are a blast to work with!
It was so easy, using a tutorial I found on line.
After marking the area I where I wanted shirring, I simply stitched along the lines and like magic, I have this wonderfully shirred waistline!

How cool is that????

If you were (are) a fan of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, you must read this great article on styling the cast wardrobe. The Mary and Rhoda Magazine. It also includes more interesting facts about the Evan-Picone company.

The Halloween that Wasn't

I was  off my game this Halloween….no dress-up, no black and orange striped tights for work, no party. I didn’t make one costume for my grandchildren. I almost bought Dum-Dum suckers to give away…versus not giving away anything.

Of course that means all day long, I’m trying to think of places I can go to in a hurry to find some sort of get-up so that at least I can scare the kids that come to our door for trick or treat. Meghan suggested that we could be scary enough by just declaring things like:

“Go away! There’s no candy here!”

Or

“Quiet Down!”

Or

“These lights are only for decoration…get off our porch!”

We really could be the meanest, scariest people in the neighborhood.

I expressed my disappointment to JR as I left for work yesterday morning…that we weren’t even going to be dressing up this year.

“Who says?”

“Seriously? Were you thinking of something?” ( I was getting excited!)

"Yes…you can dress up as a nurse tonight.”

“Very funny, dear. I’ll pick up a set of scrubs later today.”

“That’s not what I had in mind.”

Even at work, I was a little disappointed to see that no one really got into the Halloween spirit..other than the typically inappropriately dressed assistant, who of COURSE came in costume today. At least she was just dressed as a regular black house cat and saved us all from potential worse embarrassment. Several ladies wore their Quaker Factory Halloween sweatshirts…which was even more embarrassing than any misguided, unbefitting attempt at being a slinky, provocative  feline.

But, there’s hope. 

Later this week, we have an Employee Celebration Event to attend, where we are encouraged to dress representing our favorite decade. Well, that’s a no brainer for me…straight out of the Mad Men era for us. My only decision was what to wear! Will I dress Joan Holloway or Peggy Olsen or at-home-casual Betty Draper? There are so many possibilities with all of the current “vintage” patterns available.

Ultmately, I chose a casual look, which interestingly enough, is right on trend these days! I’ll share with you later in the week

Vogue 1205. The Red Dress

After much frustration, and re-making, and modifiying and well, much frustration, my red dress is DONE! 

Vogue 1205

Let me tell you about this dress. First of all, I love it. It's made from red ponte de roma knit. And it's red. It's versatile, it's updated, and well, it's red. I love red.



I made some modifications, of course. I cut a size 18. and did my usual full bust adjustment. and narrowed to a 16 from the hips down. I eliminated the back vent. I enlarged the armholes ( they were very high cut)...and still probably could have cut them away even more.

I also eliminated the zipper. I am terrible at putting in invisible zippers, so my way to get around it was lining the bodice with a black tricot knit ( yes, I actually cut the lining from a thrifted black slip!). This gave it enough stretch to be able to get it over my head comfortably. The rest of the dress is lined in red Bemberg Rayon.

This dress can be worn is so many ways, through every season. Which is another reason I like it so much.

With tights or without, with boots or heels, a sweater, jacket or no topper at all... I can see so many wardrobe possiblities with this dress. I give it two thumbs up!

Darker Side of Decorating

I'm slowly decorating my office…making it feel more like me.

JR made this narrow shelf/rack for me from a piece of molding I found on the roadside. He added some vintage glass knobs, and it makes a perfect display shelf for family photos..every day, I get to look up and see those precious faces of grandbabies. It makes me smile. It makes me happy.

Halloween décor is okay for the workplace, right? How could I resist? More than a few people creeped out  by the shadow of the giant spiders that hang in the window of my office as they enter the building.... I LOVE it!

This weekend was all about playing with creativity...

These eerie, crawly transfers are from the Martha Stewart craft collection. They sit in a vignette on my front porch, waiting for a reaction from the mailman. Oh, and the paper pennant garland hanging from  my office shelf? That's Martha, too.


I’ve  also been working on a few other pieces  for my office.
I am in love with anything vintage ephemera: old letters, ledger paper, library cards, photographs, greeting cards, recipes. ..you name it.  I have a small collection that I’ve put together over the years…things that have been tucked away in auction lots,  bundles of old letters and photographs that were discarded by families, scrapbooks  that were long ago intended to hold special memories forever, that now are only a wee glimpse of someone’s past.  I make copies of these treasures and use them in special ways when the mood hits…I can’t bear to  get rid of something that shares a smidgen of a detail of lives long ago forgotten.

 

 After being inspired by  mothology.com  artwork ( seen in  a recent issue of Country Living  magazine),  I created my own versions that will hang in my office.

So, here's what I did:  Started with  frames from the thrift store, $1.49 each, and sprayed them black. Then I found some stock paper with vintage handwriting on it, and cut it to a narrower size to feed through my printer.  I printed a Rorschac inkblot that found online directly onto the scripted paper. I aged the paper, roughened the edges, and I got a couple of real conversation starters!

My second inspiration came from some work by  Janny Fraser http://www.jordanartgallery.com/gallery/index.php?gallery=./Fraser%2C%20Janny) I saw when Elizabeth and I visited a JordonVillage, Ontario art gallery.

Hmmm...I just wonder what Dr. Rorschach would say about me?