Favourite Blogs: My happy sewing place...

One of my daily haunts is Sew Retro, a home for like-minded vintage sewing fans.  Yesterday I followed a link across to the blog, My happy sewing place, to read this post.  I found Debi's blog really quite inspiring and found myself thinking again about it today so I thought its got to worth blogging about.  In fact I think I'm going to make a regular blog feature out of talking about other people's great blogs!  Here is what I like about Debi and her blog.


1. Debi's perseverence with her dress.  Made from a vintage pattern, it was ill-fitting and there were many details she did not like about it.  I would have considered alterations, then decided too many were needed so would have thought about breaking down the dress and reusing the fabric.  Then I would have decided I am too disillusioned with the project and disowned the dress, make an anonymous charity donation or hide it somewhere out of mind to haunt me again one day.   Debi sought advice and constructive feedback of sewing friends,  worked through several adjustments to result in a wonderful rags-to-riches transformation into a very pretty, wearable dress.

From this:  To this:  And she used a vintage jiffy buckle too, how cool is that?! 

Its also worth noting that Debi was happy to jump straight in with alterations and redrafting.  I've been sewing 18 years and only now am I bold enough to draft, grade and do major pattern alterations or actually do anything really creative at all (I used to blame work stealing all my creativity and time or some rubbish like that.  Working in theatre costume makes me very lazy as I can wing most alterations as long as they look fine from 10 feet plus away!).

2. She has a great vintage pattern collection and what's more she actually makes them up! I have a moderate sized collection (I think!) of around 300 patterns, I have made up no more than half a dozen in several years, in less than that Debi has a very enviable vintage wardrobe.  These are just two of my favourites:

Blouse & High-waisted pants.  1930s lounge suit.

And I just loved drooling over the frocks in this post.


3. She does her hair! In 1940s styes and it it looks great.  My hair is so unstylable I just don't try.  A couple of years ago I was in a play for charity in a role as a WRVN.  The hair girl gave up on my hair because it just wouldn't old any style.  The year before (60s) I'd had a wig instead of attempting anything!  This post is linked to another great site, Beauty is a thing of the past, that I wish I had known about earlier and is going to be so useful to my work in future.


4. She introduces her blog: "I am in love with vintage fashion. My goal is to create and wear fashions from the 1920s to the 1970s--but I especially love the 1940s."

I could have written that!  So many time I have told myself to clear out of my wardrobe anything that is not vintage, vintage look or made by me but have yet to do it.  Every time I browse through my patterns I get an urge to rush to my wardrobe, empty it out then fill it with items made from my collection.  Maybe that can be next year's resolution?!

Thanks Debi for a truly interesting, inspiring blog, I look forward to following your creative journey.

I'm so excited!

I have been wondering, changing my mind and umming and ahhing over the adjustments I've been making to the vintage Butterick pattern... Should I be bothering? Will it work? Am I doing it right? Is there a better/easier way? Should I make further changes...  Anyway, despite changing my mind many times over, I have continued down my chosen path... I have graded the bodice up by an inch and done an FBA without bust darts (will explain why when I start the project page). This evening I tentatively stitched the bodice toile together, put it on, stood in front of the mirror and was delighted to see the alterations had all worked really well, it was just as I wanted.  I have two minor adjustments to make and possibly a third once it is made up but it means I can now get on with making my prototype tomorrow *huge grin*.

Coming Soon...

I'm going to start posting photos soon of the vintage pattern I'm working on, Butterick 9265 from (I think) 1960ish.

Its to wear to a friend's wedding coming soon, but I'm messing around with the pattern quite a bit to suit my choice of fabrics so there's a whole lengthy process to go through before I get to make up the finished article!  I told myself to get the bodice made up on the toile by tonight, instead I've found every excuse and chore I can to not do it. Why?  Because my brain hurts and I've changed the bodice quite a bit so I really need to think about what I'm doing or there will be a lot of d'ohhhhh moments with this one!

New Projects added!

Visit my project page to see my:

Butterick 4790 1952 Retro Wrap Dress
"Cute as a Button" Hat

Plenty more to add and some tutorials to come too!

My first ever blog post :-)

Woot, I have finally joined the blogging community!  It is going to take me a while to find my way round, learn the tricks and beautify my blog but I'm looking forward to this venture!
So I am inspired by all the wonderful craft blogs in the world which share enthusiasm, visions, musings, projects, support, tutorials, patterns and so much much more and I want to offer to this community my own slim pickings.

Having recently been introduced to the delights of parenthood and childhood, I am also taking my daily lessons and lightbulbs to create a line of children's clothing and textile items which has all been inspired by my own Dear Daughter, Mango (her nickname, I'm not quite that new age!).  This blog will track the development and fruition of the Molly & Mango ranges to come...

And, of course, I am looking forward to making lots of new friends along the way!