Why I look like Big Daddy

Last night: carefully traced off my 1930s cape pattern.

This morning: re-sized several pattern.

Later on this morning: made a muslin (toile).

Couldn't get 1970s wresting star Big Daddy out of my head.

Then it hit me. My fabric was left over from Jubilee celebrations last year:

Sigh.

Monthly Sewing? Yes please

I'm in - are you?

Might be just the thing to get me back on my sewing feet.

Check it out here:

http://themonthlystitch.wordpress.com/

Is corduroy a bit teacherish really?

For this jacket or a similar one you need: main fabric, underlining, lining, facing, shoulder pads, seam head rolls (or similar, can't remember what it is called now), a pattern, buttons, thread and patience. You will also need to make a toile (muslin) so some waste fabric - I used a duvet cover. In my case I also needed a sewing teacher to reassure me I could manage a jacket pattern.

I nearly had a nervous breakdown over the welt pockets - you have to CUT into your fabric piece. Yes. Cut it. Did you know?

Worked out OK though.

My sewing teacher is a genius because she suggested rather nice quilting cotton facings, check it out:

That one across the bottom is a sort of pretend faux facing sewn on afterwards like appliqué to balance out the top one, I am rather pleased with it.

Of course it looks best on the hanger but my mini-me took a photo of me in it anyway:

Finally, do you hate sticky-taping together printed pattern sheets? Yes? Me too. But I am such a fan of Colette patterns that I made an exception for Laurel - coming soon.

Dirty Gertie from Number Thirty

On no-make-up-Sunday I have finished a quick and easy make from Gertie's Book for Better Sewing so of course the only photo will be this one. It's two pattern pieces, a piece of lovely cotton lawn and supposedly a zip. I did the Mena Trott Wiggle Zipper Wiggle Test and decided I could do without the zip.

Vintage touch - I am STILL using the sew-in interfacing I was given about 4 years ago by an older de-stashing sewist. It does make me happy to be thrifty and vintage (rather than just tight and old).

I have spent money this week on a rotary cutter (and mat! don't want to gouge holes in the kitchen table) and am completely converted. Who knew how fast and easy they are? I have my trousers cut out for the 1940s sewalong  already. Am I the last one to the rotary cutter party?

I am also trying my hardest to finish something for the Historical Sew Fortnightly organised by the Dreamstress herself but it's not sewing, I am knitting a 1930s top, here's a sneak peek. It's from Susan Crawford's book: A Stitch in Time Vol 2. I love this colour yarn, this isn't a great pic, you will have to wait for the finished thing! The sewalong rules state anything from before 1938 so this just sneaks in, plus the lovely Leimomi does allow knitting (the title would be a bit long if she included everything!).

Finally, a pic of me after all, here's my latest nail colour:

Happy Sunday!

PS The post title is a quote, not my opinion of Gertie! Any idea where from???????

1940s trousers part one

Found this fabric in my stash. No idea how it got there. Do you ever find fabric you had forgotten about ?

chilli jam

Chilli jam made. Also marmalade but no photo of that x

Sew for victory!

Everywhere you look on vintage sewing Blogland you can see versions of Simplicity 3688.

Rochelle is hosting a 1940s themed sewalong, so you can play too!
Rochelle has asked us to be thrifty and resourceful in the spirits of the 1940s so I risked life and limb climbing on a rickety chair to look in my high stash cupboard and see if I had any fabric just hanging about.
I almost couldn't believe it when I found some suitable black fabric. I am slightly worried that I don't remember how it got there......
Have you made trousers? Any tips? Are you sewing anything 1940s just now?

Despite the dodgy brown and shiny flesh coloured styling sewists just love this pattern. I am going to use the trousers (pants) as my first ever trouser (pant) pattern and have a go. (No way am I getting into the whole Brits vs US trousers v pants debate again....) 

Am I a mad fool to try sewing trousers?

Map the sewintists

Another Sewing Scientist had a great idea, you can pin your location on her world map and see where other sewists, sewers, sewintists, seamstresses or anyone sewing and blogging can be found. So far I see one other in Lincolnshire.

Is there anyone near you?

Are you pinned?

"Did your mother make you do this too?" mittens

I have two strong memories of wearing mittens as a child.

1. They were always joined together with string or elastic threaded through the sleeves or your coat to prevent loss. If you weren't wearing them they would hang at your sides and flap about as you ran along.

2. In the winter when I went to church my Mum would give me 10p for the collection which I had to keep in the end of my mitten to stop me from losing it. When I put it on the collection plate it was lovely and warm.

Mia is always one glove away from a pair. This winter it seems every time we go out we are searching high and low for its partner. Finally, after much swearing under my breath I have given in and joined her mittens together. Modern parents don't seem to do this so I was a bit afraid she would be laughed at. I made these mittens using this 70s pattern I got from a Charity Shop for about 10p (exactly the money I would keep in my mittens 35 years ago!) and I attached them together with a crochet hooked cord. The yarn is left over from another project.

They are a bit big.....

Did you wear mittens as a child?....... Were they attached together like mine? Please say yes!

Tank top

Top tip:

Knitting in the round is excellent if you are a bit lazy (like me) and hate sewing up the seams (like me). Knitting for small people is also good because, of course, there is less to do. Ditto choosing a pattern without sleeves. This was the tank top I started during the Olympics. I really enjoyed putting the daisy chain motif around the hearts.

Posts are like buses.....

You wait for ages and then 3 come along at once....

This is a 3-in-one post.

I haven't blogged in months. To be honest, I didn't feel like it. So I didn't. When it's the holidays the pace of life slows down and I feel like I have time again. So here goes.

I have made 3 projects since I last blogged and although I completed two for sewweekly I didn't get around to putting them up and the moment has gone. They were both self drafted patterns, the first one was a copy of a Vivienne Westwood style skirt:

As it was self drafted I messed up the waistband and had to make a fix, in fact it turned out to be my favourite part.

Then I wanted to try out a pattern from Gertie's book but couldn't be faffed to trace the pattern so I just used my own but copied her waistband idea. This was my first attempt at boning:

 

 

The third project was for Mia, she was a shepherd in her Nativity play and although I could have bought a costume very cheaply they were all brown and "too boyish" so I made her one from gold lining fabric in my stash. I used the pattern on the right but left off the collar and made it floor length.

 

 

 

I was going to base the waistcoat on the one in the left but it was too big and in the end I just got some red fleece and winged it.

 

 

Finally I raided the teatowel drawer. Mia is in the middle. I was very proud and cried.

 

 

 

This post goes out with special love to Judy and Diane, who I have neglected abominably. Thanks for thinking of me even when I was not around, it meant a lot to me even if I didn't reply. xxxx





1920s nails

Flo-Jo; what a woman. And what nails! Although I am not quite ready for that level of manicure I do like a little fancy nail varnish. For my latest Gelish  I have opted for a moon manicure (sometimes I have seen this called a reverse French), as was popular with movie stars in 1920s Hollywood.

I know green and blue might not be everyone's cup of tea but I am thrilled with it.

Do you get your nails done? Do you have nail art? Would you have green and blue nails?

Mass cast on

I am casting on at 9pm to celebrate the Olympics - I will try to finish the project during the Games.... I have joined Team Colette on www.ravelry.com - to be honest the team is a bit on the small side just now. OK, so there are 2 of us. Small, but perfectly formed.

I will hopefully make Mia a top:

I like green but Mia LOVES pink in the way only small girls can, so I will be using:

Hope you can join us but if not, enjoy the Olympics wherever you are x

Possible copyright infringement tshirt activity

To customise tshirts in a dodgy semi-illegal but pleasing to a 4 year old way you will need:

Cheap tshirts (Tesco were having a sale today, each of the tops cost £1)

Fabric paint (ours is leftover from Christmas, so gold and red)

Brushes

Wax freezer paper (I got mine from ebay)
Scalpel or craft blade

Pencil and pen

A four year old

You may like to look at the post on  sewweekly that gave me the idea in the first place. StephC's work is so much better than mine.

You need to draw your own design or in my case, for the artistically challenged, trace a picure of something your child really likes. Mia chose Zog.  She loves this book, and others by the same author: Julia Donaldson. The pictures are amazing, they are by Axel Scheffler. I like Zog, the storyline is fab, but my favourite is The Highway Rat. Mia loves the Gruffalo too.

Zog is the orange dragon, of course. I traced the picture with a pencil and then I used a blue pen to colour in the lines I would cut out with the scalpel. Put your wax paper on a piece of cardboard (this is not vital but does stop you cutting your table). Cut out the blue bits. Try not to cut your fingers. Do not allow four year olds to "help" even if they beg. Then put the scalpel way way waaaaaaaaay out of reach.

Take your iron, set it to warm, turn off the steam, put the wax paper (wax side down!) on the tshirt where you want your design to go. Check that is also where the four year old thinks it should go. Let him or her move the design about a centimetre to a "much better" spot. (You can miss out these steps if you like, my four year old is very opinionated.) Iron it. 

Put a piece of board or something inside the tshirt so that your paint does not seep through. Make your child wear an old tshirt.

Paint.

Obviously you only need to paint the cut out parts but your four year old might have other ideas. Mine did.

Peel the wax paper off when the paint is dry or carefully when it is wet if you cannot wait. Leave the design to dry. Iron the design to "fix" the paint (or whatever it says on the pot of paint).

That's it.

If your child is very keen indeed repeat with another design. This is Gaston the ladybird (asleep, he sleeps on his back. I did not make my girl a dead ladybird tshirt.)

Have fun!

Socks

I have finished a knitting project - socks. This is the first time I have used four needles. It is very satisfying.

Skip!

My mother rang me. Her and a friend went out today for a potter around the neighbourhood. Her friend likes to look in skips to see if there is anything worth having. This is a habit my mother finds incomprehensible (and, I suspect, embarrassing). Today they had a quick look in a skip and found about 60 patterns from the 1960s onwards. Just in a skip. Being thrown away.

And the best bit is: she is posting them to me. Hooray!

Have you ever found anything good for free?

Window shopping at the Festival of Vintage

Vintage Hair and Beauty

This weekend I had a great treat. I went to the Festival of Vintage in York. It was amazing; so much to see and do. My main treat was a vintage makeover. There was a Vintage Beauty Parlour run by lovely Bethany so I booked in to have the works. Just for fun.

At the parlour:

And the reveal:

These two charming gents were presenting a display an the Home Guard and agreed to pose with me, very kindly.

Bethany worked a miracle on my hair. She used tongs, pins and about a tone of hairspray. Her colleague did the make-up. She told me for a '50s look you need "red lips, strong blush and liquid-eyeliner winged out." You can follow Bethany on Facebook as well (links on her website).

I will be putting more pics from the Festival very soon x

Tense?

My newest knitting project is a cardigan. Sort of newest, it has been at the front of the queue for months. The yarn was bought ages ago. I think I have had stagefright ever since. You see, the yarn is Rowan and so costs a blimmin fortune. Now I have conquered short rows I have no excuse.

I have knitted the tension square:

I must be serious because I wouldn't usually bother. However as I have only made dolls' clothes, baby clothes and scarves in the last 20 years I though I'd better try to get it right before I spend months knitting the thing.

The tension is right, so I'm off! I don't think it will be ready for MMM '12, somehow. I still haven't signed up.....

Cake