A mini update-let

So remember those jeans I started last week?

Well I was hit by a sudden and urgent case of sewing ADD, and decided to start and nearly finish a completely different sewing project. It happens.

I was really inspired by this great printed cotton I picked up at a garage sale last week, and It was screaming out to me to be a cute resort-style laid-back halter dress.

  

Better pictures coming soon (I keep promising that, but I mean it!) 

The dress was drafted by myself. The midriff section is quite heavily interfaced and has a few spiral steel bones, so it can be worn with or without a bra, which is quite exciting for me. In the picture I'm wearing it over my vintage longline bra, but you can see a little of it peaking out, which isn't very 1950s. I think this style really needs a strapless bra.

Quick post - rick rack and hem confession

So this summer I decided to make myself a cute little easy sundress out of this adorable cotton print I found at King's Textiles on Spadina.

It's drafted by myself, and the skirt is just two straight panels, slightly narrower than the width of the fabric. 

Now, here's the confession part. I originally made this dress to be a little on the shorter side. What I forgot is that shorter skirt + less fullness = impossible to bend over even slightly in without the world finding out the colour of my undies. I wore the dress out a few times but yeah... it had a tendency to flip up at the slightest provocation.

I'd given myself a two inch hem, but I felt like replacing it with a narrow hem would ruin the nice fullness at the bottom of the skirt. Since the skirt was straight panels, and I had leftover elephant fabric, I knew I could cheat and add a new three inches around the hem of the skirt, and cover the join with a strip of trim. I picked up some rick rack at work and voila - my little mistake is only mine to know about. (and also whoever may be reading this. Oops?)

At some point soon I will actually get pictures of myself in some of these! And yes, this one really needs an iron.

The exposed zipper in the back. How cute are the tiny elephants!

 And my little 'whoops' on the hem. The purple rick rack is covering the seam where I added the extra fabric, and the pink just above that.

Brief shoe makeover update!

Remember those cute shoes I got at a rummage sale last week?

Well now I made them FABULOUS!

They're coated in about three layers of Lumiere paint in Halo Blue Gold.  I bought the starter pack of paints in California last summer. I have to say, I was a little skeptical about that little bottle covering a whole pair of shoes but I got three layers in, plus touch ups, and more left in the bottle. My roommate has some high-gloss podge, so I'm going to seal them off after work. 

Thank you again to the ladies at Sassy Feet for their fabulous seminar which gave me the bug in the first place. Check out their website if you're interested in shoe painting, it has lots of great tips! 

Some retro-cool blue jeans

So here's the thing - I hate shopping for pants.

I am not shape that is particularly marketed for in the shops. I'm 5'1", I've got big hips and a small waist, and I'm incredibly high waisted. Those perfect set of high-waisted pants have always eluded me. I've known for a while this is something Imma have to take on myself.

I went to a great pant fitting workshop this past fall, and left with a custom pant block for myself. And my first project with it just has to be that great pair of high waisted jeans I've wanted.

I'm going fairly simple with these, since I've never made a pair of jeans before. Rather than your typical 5-pocket styling, I'm doing basic darted trousers with patch pockets.

Here's how I drafted the pockets -

 I started by taping my pants pattern to the table. Normally I'd be using a pattern block cut out in hard paper, but I haven't had a chance yet. This method can also work for commercial tissue patterns.

I then taped a new piece of tissue on top of the pant block, and traced out a few basic lines.

A good way to work out the size of your pocket is just to use your own hand as a guide. I picked a size I liked and drew the pocket shape out. I transferred a few of the balance lines from my pattern block onto the pocket pattern so that the lines of the pocket could be perfectly straight. The far edge of the pocket is parallel to the grainline of the pants, and the bottom is parallel to the crotch line.

As you can see I also traced out the dart. I don't want a dart on my pocket pattern, so I'm going to be moving that fullness into the pocket opening.

 I cut out the pocket pattern piece, and draw a line from the bottom of the dart to the pocket opening. I cut along this line, and also cut out the centre of the dart. Then I just need to tape the dart closed, and transfer that fullness to the pocket opening. As youc an see at this point I also taped the pocket pattern onto the table.

 That's because my next step is to trace out the pocket again, and blending out the curve on the pocket opening. I then I add seam allowance, and bingo! New pocket pattern.

Adding this fullness to the pocket opening can sometimes cause the pocket to gape, so I'm going to run an ease stitch along the opening and make sure to reenforce it with interfacing.

The other little fancy touch I'm adding is to bind my side seams in this cherry-print ribbon. I'm aiming for a pair of full-length trousers that I can cuff to make into pedal pushers, and I think the ribbon will be very cute peaking out the bottom.

Alas the siren call of dishes that needed doing pulled me away. Next time - adding a side seam zipper and attaching the pockets.

Longline bra

I have always lusted after a longline bra (Okay, maybe not a totally normal thing for a 24 year old to lust after). But that boob shape! That fabulous smoothing out of the jiggly bits! I was lucky to find this unopened 1960s longline bra on eBay, and it just arrived!

 

How cute is the packaging? I love the card it came with, too. 

The fit around the waist is great, but I do think the cups are just ONE size too small. Dammit, I thought I lucked out finding an actual E-cup in a vintage bra. It's perfectly comfortable, but I get a little armpit cleavage which is less than attractive. My bosoms have a tendency to want to disappear out under my armpits. But I think it will still do well with looser tops and sweaters. And look at that lift!

I could take an eye out!



I definitely want to keep an eye out and try to find a longline that actually fits perfectly. The concept of them is so great. They spread the weight of your breasts out over your torso instead of putting all the weight on one thin little band, as well as smoothing out all the jiggly bits. It's just hard to find them in a 32 band!

My favourite two little words in the world... Garage Sale

Today I schlepped up to Dundas and Jane to a garage sale I saw advertised on Kijiji. And well worth the bus trip - I got several bundles of fabric and great pair of vintage shoes.

The blue cotton velvet up top is screaming to me to be a cut little cropped jacket. The watered blue next to it is a lovely lining-weight silk, and I think these two need to get together. 

My other favourite is that blue and white cotton print near the bottom. I'm sensing a highly adorable summer dress outta that one.


And the shoes!

One of the great things about being hella tiny (I'm 5'1") is that I am blessed with similarly tiny feet, perfect for vintage shoes. The owner said she got these from an estate sale of a man selling his aunt's belongings. They're in great condition and a perfect fit.

I attended a workshop on leather painting this past summer so I'm excited to try painting these. I'm feeling purple, I think.

I have a new crush...

And their names are Alie and Georgia

I stumbled upon their YouTube show 'Classy Ladies with Alie and Georgia' and hot damn, I am in love. These ladies deck out in gorgeous vintage cocktail dresses and teach you how to make fabulous cocktails, with a great dose of humour along the way.

Funny ladies, in vintage clothing, and alcohol all in one? Be still my beating heart.



I highly recommend checking out all their videos, and drool at their amazing outfits.

McCalls patterns and kicking ass in a ball gown

Can I just talk about how hella fierce some of photographs on McCalls website are?

Look at these badass motherlovers. Whoever the photographer/stylist for these shoots was, bravo. I especially love the woman in the pink ballgown fixing a bike. There's something about the image of beautifully done up ladies in dresses and heels getting down and dirty that's always appealed to me.

I also enjoy the departure from all neatly done up women, standing around smiling and not doing anything. They've let the models really show some personality in these shoots which I think shows the clothes off in a better light.

It reminds me of when I went to Toronto Fashion Week a few years ago. After HOURS of watching cross-looking models clump down the runway in four inch heels that were a size too big for them, the show closed with the fabulous Denise Gagnon.



Look! His models are smiling! And dancing! And blowing kisses! And have shoes they can walk in! And check out the adorable little kiss at the end between the 'married couple' closing the runway.

I'll never understand the need to have models look bored and uninterested. How much prettier do the clothes look when you've got some personality going?

A purple cotton nightie

I have a confession to make:

I LOVE GIRLY LACEY NIGHT GOWNS

There, glad I got that off my chest. 

Maybe it's that I grew up wearing them (I don't think I owned pajama pants until I was nine), maybe it's that my grandmother always made the most beautiful nightwear and I have always endeavoured to match them. Maybe I just like feeling like a pretty pretty princess when I'm sleeping. Probably all of them!

I picked up Simplicity 8457 at a rummage sale, and hallelujah it's in my size. It was published in 1969, but really this style of yoked nightgown is one you see all over the 20th century.

I made it from a simple printed cotton, with crocheted lace trim on the collar. Everything was outta the stash, down to the buttons. I felt very smug.

The only alteration I made was making the sleeves shorter. The mid-bicep length was just got flattering on me. 

All the side seams were flat-felled (my grandmother would be so proud - she flat felled positively everything), and the yoke seam I decided to bind in a little silk ribbon I've had sitting around for ages. I adore silk ribbon - it's so flexible it's great for binding along curves, and it's less bulky than bias trim. The centre front is finished with a placket opening and machine-sewn button holes.

What I like: This nightgown fits PERFECTLY. It's comfy, and cute as all hell. I feel like it's such a come down to put on boring old pajama bottoms, now.  

What I'd change: I didn't interface the collar, and I really should have. The collar gets all bunched up and wrinkly VERY quickly. The fabric over-all is prone to wrinkling, but the collar is where it bothers me most.

A little action shot for the road. Looking good!

A quilted desk pad

 You know what're great? Fabric sample sets. Especially when they're all cute as hell and pre-coordinated for you.  I picked up a very cute sample pack from work of these adorable flowered prints in pink and green. It was crying out for a quilting project.

I have a very cute vintage desk of my mothers I use as my computer table. It's in great condition, except for a few unseemly cracks on the work surface. Until now I'd been using a table cloth, but that tends to make the drawers hard to access.

So I had the brilliant idea for making a quilted desk topper (is this a thing people do? I have no idea. Who cares, I had an idea and I was rolling with it). I picked six of my favourite prints in the sample pack, three pink and three green. I used a particularly fetching bright pink to make some bias.

I had every intention of doing a diamond shaped quilting pattern but after doing the first diagonal lines... I thought it looked fine (yes, I was being lazy shhhh)

I used polyester quilting batting in the middle, and finished the edges with bias trim.

Also note my adorable vintage chocolates tin I use to prop my mac up a little higher.  I love juxtaposing new and old like this. And the tin is from Toronto!

What I liked: The effect is VERY cute, and I like having the padding under my keyboard. I added some non-slip vinyl back (the kind you get for inside drawers) between the pad and the desk and it keeps it gripped nice and tight.

What I'd change: This was my first attempt at quilting ANYTHING and yeah... my quilting lines are a little wobbly. I tried using the quilting arm, but it's not overly stable. Next time I'd trace all the lines out first in fabric marker.

A little introduction...

I know what you're thinking. ANOTHER sewing blog? 

I know, there are a million and a half of us in the universe and it doesn't really need contributing to. Especially with so many amazing blogs out there dedicated to sewing vintage fashion. But you know what?

Screw it. I'm doing it anyway. 

My name is Marion, and I'll be your host here in both our journeys. I'm 24 years old. I live in a tiny apartment in Toronto with a fabulous roommate who doesn't mind that my sewing machine has taken over the dining room. I have two jobs, working as a seamtress/sales person at a children's costume store and as a sewing instructor. I don't have much time off or much spare cash, but when I do both of it's going towards what I love  - sewing. 

I've been sewing since I was about nine when I inherited a bag of fabric scraps from my grandmother. At eleven I got my first sewing machine and it's been full steam ahead. I'm the only seventeen year old I know of who showed up at university with her own sewing machine. 

Two years ago I decided to go back to school and take a two year community college program on fashion design. I came out horribly sleep deprived and never wanting to look at a sample size again, but a phenomenally better sewer. 

I've always been obsessed with the past, finding a great fascination in costume history. I made my first vintage re-issue Butterick pattern in high school and I fell in love. (It was Butterick 4513, by the way)

By this point I can see you all yawning, so I'll just wrap up. I'm glad you made it here, and hope I can be of some help to other people in their pursuit of this fabulous hobby. 

xoxo,

Marion