Happy Saturday everyone! The weekend is well under way, and we had a lovely afternoon. Brilliant, in fact. If you recall, I posted about a brilliant day back in October, too. Well, it wasn’t meant to be so cryptic and I definitely didn’t mean to leave you hanging there. I had spent a few hours in Lowell, MA, at the American Textile History Museum. It was the final day of an exhibit called “Grace and Glamour: 1930s Fashions” and the garments and ephemera were jaw-dropping. As were the permanent exhibits. But right after that post, I upgraded my OS and lost Photoshop capabilities. Now that I’m using another software, I’ll get photos up for you soon :)

Back to today, the museum was holding the first of four free admission Super Saturdays. And lucky me, I volunteered for a few hours! I spent my time helping out in the learning rooms, taking photos of kiddos for the website & marketing materials. So much fun! If you are in the New England area, you absolutely have to go to this museum. AND you can find me there every other Friday from here on. Yup! I’ll be volunteering a few hours each month. I was ready to sign up back in October, so am glad it’s finally happening!!! In fact, when we first moved back to the northeast, I discovered the museum and so wanted to land a job with them. Alas, it was closed for renovations, and I lost track as I got busy with the day-to-day. How about a condo right above the museum? Almost makes me want to move to Lowell.

In other news, I’ve reopened my Etsy shop. It’s taken a different path for the moment. You can currently find a baker’s dozen of vintage sewing patterns, with more to come. Most are from the 70s, but you 40s lovers out there could use the trousers as a blueprint :) I’ll be adding more patterns soon. Along with some mid-century clothing.

Hope everyone is sewing up a storm!

Hop on over to the Sew Weekly to find out how I turned this

into this

Swayback issues are sometimes overlooked for the sake of upcycling & thrifting.

And yes, I did insist on posing outside for way too long in 23° F. After all, we’d just come from a gorgeous Russian film. And after a point, you don’t really feel the cold. Until you begin to thaw.

Every time I’m at the ironing board, you’ll find me humming this song. “Somebody remembers the dress, how it was handsome, beautifully pressed” really takes the tedium out of ironing and pressing. If you find it tedious. I tend to like it.

Whiskeytown (here acoustic Ryan Adams) / Somebody Remembers the Rose

And who doesn’t start humming The White Stripes’ The Hardest Button to Button when it comes time to add those final notions to a garment? Can we all agree Michel Gondry is beyond?

And then there’s this line from a make-believe song, wherein I change the lyric from “she sets the scene” to “she sets the seam.” A quick google search proved the song does exist, but I’ve never heard of Thee Strawberry Mynde, and in my head it’s a 13th Floor Elevators number. Weird.

I need some good prep & cutting songs. Negroni muslin is done, and now I’m finally cutting out the fabric.

Oh yeah… The Pretty Things blouse is up on the Sew Weekly. And I’m pretty happy with it. Here’s a Hipstamatic shot of the hand worked buttonholes before I remade them. I suppose in the photo they don’t look that bad, and y’all will think I’m crazy for ripping them out and starting over. But one of them wasn’t pretty. And I’m much more pleased with the look of the crochet cotton versions. Doily making isn’t in my near future, so I’m glad to have found a use for those spools.

*UPDATE* Here are the new buttonholes. They don’t look much different in these photos. And the originals might even look a bit more delicate. Just trust me that in person, the reworked version is more pleasing. K? K. Oh, and excuse the different lighting conditions :)

If you like beer and it’s available in your area, run out and try some Pretty Things. This blouse was celebrated with Jack D’Or and Hedgerow Bitter, in our new Pretty Things goblets. You can find them at the pop-up shop Process (by Fringe studios) in Union Square, Somerville.

Sarah and Miss Crayola Creepy (whose blog name I love, but real name I don’t know :( ) are co-hosting what no doubt is going to be a very popular series. A sew-along which will go through all five of the garments in the Colette Sewing Handbook. Cool! I’ll definitely be joining in on a few of these, and these gals are great!!! Taffy is next on my list, but I’ve started making plans for the Pastille dress.

As you know, I just finished up my Meringue skirt, and there was a minor issue I didn’t mention in that post. I wanted to pose it to the collective sewing hive anyway, and thought this might be as good a time as any. The Meringue is a sweet little skirt, and I can’t wait to see all of the finished versions that will be popping up soon.

I’ve discussed size a smidge here. While I do think size (the number) is totally arbitrary, and am much more interested in perfecting fit, we do use pattern size as a starting point. That said, men’s sizing is great. The waist is measured, that’s the pant size (in theory). Doesn’t matter if the rise is low or high, the size is based on the inches in the waist. Both pairs of “fancy” jeans I have are the same. The rise is pretty low, hitting at a body circumference inches larger than my natural waist. But the size? The size on each is my natural waist measurement, as opposed to 6, 8, 10, whatever. Now, I’m pretty much Mom/self-taught at sewing. I learned that patterns are the same. For instance, even if a skirt is designed to fall a few inches below the natural waist, you determine size based on waist circumference. Example – your waist is 30″ and the pattern reads that the skirt is meant to fall 3″ below the waist. Still, your starting point would be whatever size corresponds to your natural waist, even though the top circumference of the finished garment would be larger because it is meant to fall 3″ below.

The Meringue was different. I measured the flat pattern, and the finished circumference for each size corresponded to the WAIST measurements designated on the size chart. But the skirt is designed to fall below the waist. Therefore, if you have a 30″ waist, you should not sew the size marked for a 30″ waist, but instead the size that matches your circumference at a given point below the waist.

Have I been under the wrong impression all along? Or do any of you find this odd? I ask not out of criticism, but curiosity and knowledge-seeking. It took me ages before I knew that high bust was the best measurement to go by for blouses, rather than full bust. Enlighten me, dear readers.

Have you ever heard that? Or is it just another one of my mom’s folksy, cryptic sayings? Anyway, this week’s challenge over at the Sew Weekly was a technique: the buttonhole. One would think I’d use this opportunity to play with my newly acquired Dritz bound buttonhole tool. I planned on it, but fabric has a way of speaking for itself. The 10¢ spool of crochet cotton above saved my butt this week. I’d randomly purchased it at a yard sale, without real purpose. Here’s a sneak peek of my submission.

You say it’s Friday the thirteenth. I say “Happy Stariy Noviy God!” (rhymes with bode). Pop that cork, pour that vodka, and celebrate New Year’s all over again. I know I will be. Along with some sewing of course. Have to get the Sew Weekly buttonhole challenge wrapped up.

Hey hey! Guess whose post made it to the Sew Weekly yesterday? I didn’t even realize it until now. Hop on over and read about the saga of the photo shoot.

See that lamp precariously perched on my sewing table? This shot was right before it crashed to the floor. You’d think I’d have a pro set up by now. My landlady was a dream for taking the rest of the shots. And you know what? The post wasn’t even due until Monday night. The entire time I was thinking the deadline was Sunday. Derf.

Broken glass aside, I’m pretty pleased with the way this turned out. I went down to a size 4, and it fit like a dream except for the arm bands. I’ve since replaced them with a size 6 and left out the organza interfacing. Much nicer. I can move my arms without restriction, and the sleeves fall back into place when my arms rest at my sides again. The eagle-eyed among you will recognize the fabric. Yeah, yeah, it’s polyester. But there’s some serious stash-bustin’ going on here, and I love the print. It won’t be the last you see of this. I’ll still wear the muslin, though it is a bit baggy for my liking. Sarcasm in the muslin post aside, I do have a fondness for the idea of wearing it at R’s grandparents’ house. An homage of sorts, as that’s where the sheet came from.

Those same eagle-eyed folks will also notice an un-blogged Meringue skirt. I finished this up last weekend, but the only photos I had of it were going to be used for the Sew Weekly post. I made mine in a size 8, with a smidge taken off the side seams. Not keen on faced skirts, I used the tutorial for a waistband version instead. I like my skirts to feel like they’re going to stay in place, and the faced variety always seem to slide around. Well, the waistband is so narrow, and the skirt still sits below the natural waist, so that ended up being a bit of a time suck. The fact that I installed the zipper THEN remembered I was using a waistband didn’t help, either. Thus, the band doesn’t match up perfectly at the zip. For once, I can live with that.

I’ve become so accustomed to skirts (re: pencil) sitting on my natural waist, that at first I was on the fence about this. It doesn’t slip & slide around, so have since decided it’s fine. I used a black cotton twill in my stash. Boy, talk about being off-grain! No amount of thread pulling and diagonal tugging would remedy that. So, I ended up cutting less economically than usual. Better to have scrap than a scrapped skirt. Without a dark lining in sight, I found a bottle of black Rit dye in the closet for the silk habotai. I stitched the lining together, hemmed it and pinked the zipper placket prior to dyeing. Of course, I simply used the white thread in my machine, forgetting the polyester wouldn’t take the dye. Whoopsy!

The silk didn’t turn out a true black, but much better than lining a black skirt in white silk. The scallop facings are quilting cotton from my fall palette challenge. And hells no… I didn’t bother with the whole make a template thing for the stitch line. I just measured & marked, trimmed & turned. And now I have a basic black skirt, something I’ve needed for a while.

Fabric: cotton twill, $5?; silk habotai, $3; cotton facing, $1 (guesses, as all from stash)

Pattern: Meringue by Colette, $5.6 if the book price is divided by the 5 patterns enclosed

Notions: thread, fusible woven interfacing, invisible zip, Rit dye; all from stash

Time to complete: I should really start keeping track

Stash bustin’ pros:

• reducing waste
• saving money
• reducing negative environmental impact
• finding creative ways to use yardage
• learning to want less by not simply buying yardage at whim

Stash bustin’ cons:

• dealing with lower-quality fabrics bought before I knew better, knew where to find fine fabric, and could afford to buy it occasionally
• desire to make quality garments that I could never afford in RTW

Boo hoo ;) Looks like the pros still outweigh the cons. I’ve been so inspired to make a couple of new items, but can’t justify the required fabric purchase. Maybe I should cut a deal with myself – for every x number of stash-bustin’ items, I can make 1 out of something new. But that also seems to defeat the purpose of wanting to do more with less. I don’t want to make things that won’t be worn just to get the new shiny something. Then again, some fabric in the stash isn’t the best for wearing. If purchased in the correct amount, with a specific purpose in mind, I can sort of justify new fabric. The whole Sew With A Purpose, which is a goal for this year. However, I do still feel a twinge of guilt. How do you navigate this, if at all? These are issues that are always on my mind.

On a lighter note… A bit of a tease, here’s a sample a newly finished garment (stash-busted, to boot!). There is an accompanying piece, and I’ll show the final photos the coming week. This was used for the Accessories challenge over on the Sew Weekly, so it’s against the rules for me to post here first.

Happy Downton Abbey night!!!

Fabric: bed sheet from The Ridge House, $0

Pattern: Jasmine by Colette, $16

Notions: thread, fusible interfacing; both from stash

Time to complete: Who knows? Didn’t keep track, and yes, I actually used French seams on a muslin. Because I’m that nutty.

First worn: A few days ago, around the house

Wear again: Um, yeah… maybe at The Ridge House, picking berries, baking a pie, hanging out laundry to dry on a sun-kissed July day in northern Maine, kiddos and Mushie running back from the swimming hole. (conjure up scenes from The Tree of Life) In real life, in public… prolly not. Though it’s not too bad tucked into a skirt.

Total price: $16, though if considered here, then does that mean I no longer have to consider the pattern price a cost?

I’m kind of cheating here, posting the Jasmine blouse in two parts just to fluff out the numbers. Gotta make sure I get in those three posts per week, y’all. This is my muslin, version 2 in a straight up size 6.  This is the third Colette pattern I’ve sewn, and let me preface by saying that they are a dream to work from. Seriously, every. single. step. is clearly spelled out. Yeah, this is a beginner pattern, but even the Rooibos was the same. I’m used to filling in lots of blanks. Stuff you’re just “supposed to know”, and had Colette been around 15 years ago, learning to sew would have been a breeze. However, still working out the fit with this line. In fact, fit is a huge goal that I aim to work on this year, and yet managed to leave it off my last post. I definitely think Sarai & co. are generous with the sizing. They give finished dimensions, so you can see how much ease is built in. But for me, this is three for three in having to size down. No way am I a 4 in anything, but that’s what I’ll be starting from with this pattern company from here on out. So let’s leave those numbers out of it… size is so arbitrary. If you have my dimensions (34 high bust, 36 bust, 28 waist [a high one at that]), you might want to consider a size 4, and if not you might want to size down anyway. Another note to self – if I make this version again with the notched cuff, I’ll make the band a bit narrower. The proportions as-is aren’t quite to my liking but very cute on many of the versions I’ve seen out there.

Mushie was very concerned. About the prospect of me wearing this out of the house? The fact that my camera was teetering on a gorilla pod on top of books on top of the ironing board? About not getting into the picture?