Vintage Pattern Giveaway and Stashaholism Confessional

So a while back I posted about a big bag of vintage patterns from my friend Courtney's grandmother. The bag contained several darling children's patterns. Although I love sewing for Marvel, I don't see myself getting all elaborate.

So here's your chance to score some vintage girls' patterns!

The bottom three are size 10, the top two are a 14 and a 12, respectively. Here are the measurements for the sizes:

Girls' 10: 28" chest, 24" waist, 30" hip (71 cm/61 cm/76 cm)
Girls' 12: 30/25/32.5 (76 cm/63.5 cm/82.5 cm)
Girls' 14: 32/26/35 (81 cm/66 cm/90 cm)

I just love the little Chanel style jacket on the lower right. And how cute is that double-breasted cropped 3/4 sleeve jacket. And so on trend right now!

Rules:
-Leave a comment Wednesday or Thursday
-You must have commented sometime within the past 6 months
-I will mail anywhere in the world
-Provide a way for me to contact you. If your profile links to your blog, I can contact you through that. Otherwise, please send your email address to trena_b at h o t m a i l dot com (indicating the name you use to leave comments so I can match email addresses to names). That is my spam email address--not a good way to contact me on a regular basis as I never check it--but I don't want my real email address to fall victim to spambots.

I need to go to the Post Office on Friday to mail my mom's birthday gift, so I'll try to do the quickest giveaway ever! On Friday morning I will randomly choose a name, email the person, and hopefully get their address in time to head to the PO with gift and patterns in hand.

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It was Fashion Sewing Club last Saturday (changed from the usual second Saturday because of Mother's Day, which worked out well for me as I had been in Texas on the Second Saturday). I restrained myself to one piece, an off white poly lace. It is freezing cold in my office so I have to wear sweaters in the summer. Right now that means a ratty, oversized, black, ready to wear cardigan. I plan to make something a littler cuter and more summery out of this. I'm thinking a very simple "Chanel" style sweater. I use quotation marks because it will have no structure or embellishment; the only thing Chanel will be the round neckline and straight/square center front opening (as opposed to the traditional cardigan V).

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I desperately need to take photographs! I have several projects finished--including the fixed white high waisted BWOF 03-2009-104 skirt--but I've been all broken out and also busy. I have a nice long 4 day weekend (!!!!!) ahead of me, about which I could not possibly be more excited, so I will work on taking pictures. Even though I will likely still be broken out. I'll have to learn how to use the touchup tool.

New Look 6639, Girl's Tee

So I was cleaning out my closet recently and came across the green polka dot skirt at left, which I made for the One Pattern, Many Looks contest in 2007 from Out of Print McCall 7526. Obviously my taste has changed since then because all three versions just got the boot.

I generally give my gently used but still serviceable clothing items to the Goodwill (I'm very careful to make sure it is still a nice item; worn out, stained, etc. become rags or go in the trash). However, I am always ambivalent about donating sewn items because I fear they just throw them straight in the garbage, no matter how well made, because they are "homemade" and who wants that? And, legitimately, there is no tag with sizing information, which creates more work for them.

However when I dropped off my most recent load I walked through the store (everyone is always talking about finding patterns and fabric at their Goodwill, but I have never found such a thing). My eye was caught by a pair of RTW pants that had suffered a very slapdash swayback adjustment, with raw edges everywhere, on the rack. My sewing is better than that. So maybe there is hope for my sewn, donated garments yet.

Anyway, when it comes to things I've sewn, I'm even more selective about donating than ready-to-wear and this skirt did not make the cut. The style is not in any way "in" right now and it takes very specific tastes to wear it. Tastes that strongly coincide with being under five years of age. Hmmmm.... I think there's still life in the old girl yet. My niece, Marvel, agrees:



Do you know how hard it is to find a plain t shirt pattern for kids? It's so odd. You'd think that all the pattern companies would have a t shirt and elastic waist shorts pattern, but they don't. I finally spotted one in New Look 6639, which also has a jumper and leggings.

This project was way more complicated than it should have been. The first time I did it, I realized after it was entirely finished that I had cut the fabric--stash about two years old from the G Street $2.97/yd table leftover from a no-pattern ruffle back skirt--on the crossgrain. It's not a 4 way stretch. She wouldn't have been able to get it over her head, the sleeves would have cut off the circulation in her arms, and it would have grown toward the floor the second she put it on. So I cut off the skirt (I had serged it to the tee). The second time I made it, I had cut the fabric on grain but I had cut the tee full length and the "waistline" would have been almost to her knees and the skirt dragging on the floor. Cut the skirt off again. Cut the t-shirt off at the waist. Sew the skirt back on. Finally, success, and luckily it was the perfect length.

The pattern is perfectly serviceable. I love that it comes in a huge range of sizes, from 3-8. So you can use it for five years! It has a neckband, which is fine but the draft isn't great. It's a rectangle piece of fabric and it is drafted to be as long as the neck opening. It should, in fact, be a little shorter so that it sits flat. You can (sort of) see that it sort of pooches out at center front in this side view.

Marvel was very pleased with the dress and immediately put it on in the McDonald's playland and began dancing around. I would call it a success! She totally loves dresses. When my dad ended up in the hospital my brother and his family came to visit and when I saw Marvel she immediately started pointing out the features of her dress, such as the floral print and the bow at the waist. She is an avid follower of my sewing via my flickr account, so she knew I would understand. I can't wait until she's old enough to come do a sewing internship with me!

All photos are here and the review is here.




And for more adorable kid pictures, here I am with Fox! I finally got to meet Cash and Fox, which was very exciting. Cash got a little fussy when I held him, but Fox was my buddy. I can't remember if this was taken before or after he spit up into my cleavage. Jet was too busy running around and playing to have his picture taken, but there are always new pictures of Cash and Jet (and more of Marvel and Fox) on my sister in law's flickr, like this really sweet one of all four kids.

And just for good measure, here I am with my sister's boys. We are heavy on nephews in my family. It's a good thing my one niece loves dresses!

Sewing for Other People: Baby Steps (literally)

When asked, I always flatly state, "I don't sew for other people." The end.

However, when contemplating holiday gifts for my family I was sort of at a loss. I usually make at least some token item for most people (though male personages are nearly impossible to make anything for unless you have Karen's shirt tailoring skills)--one year I made everyone fleece hats--but mostly buy gifts according to what everyone wants.

I am very blessed to be an aunt many times over. My sister has three boys (3, 8, and 10) and my brother has a son (3) and my only niece (2)...and will have two more little boys any day now!!!!! My sister's boys are old enough that homemade=bad in their minds; for them I have to wait a couple of decades and then homemade will be good again. At least that's the way it worked for me. I used to think we were SO PUT UPON that my mom made all our bread and we didn't get pre-sliced loaves from the store, and of course nowadays I make all my own bread.

Anyway, my brother's kids are still young enough to appreciate whatever gift you give them. My niece absolutely loves girly dresses. When they first watched Cinderella they almost had to turn off the movie because she got hysterically sad when the ugly stepsister's ruin Cinderalla's dress. They had to tell her that she gets a new one. For my niece's gift they made her a little dance stage with mirror and ballet barre in the playroom. My nephew is into kings and castles and so for his gift they turned the closet under the stairs into a castle.

Both of these are perfect for sewn gifts! I asked my sister-in-law (trivia: when I moved from Texas to DC my sil rode with me because she wanted to see some of the country; we had so much fun on our road trip!) for their measurements and then started brainstorming.

For Marvel (my niece), I decided on a girly peasant top and matching skirt, a tutu, and a scarf/boa out of a funky faux fur. She's too small for BWOF's kid's patterns. I don't want to hurry her up, but I'll be excited when she gets into their size range!

Since I didn't have any patterns for her I drafted a simple peasant top with cut-on sleeves based on her measurements. I added a neck binding/elastic casing and elastic casing bands around the sleeves about three inches from the hem in the skirt fabric. I loved being able to use these crazy fabrics from my stash. The skirt fabric is leftover from one of my perennial favorite skirts that I made years and years ago while I was still in law school (I graduated in '01, if we're counting). I used the sequined butterfly fabric for my Carnaval costume several years ago. I think they look so cute together. You can see that I put a little rick rack bow on the front of the blouse so it would be easy to tell which side is front and which is back (I cut the neckline slightly lower in the front for wearing comfort). I don't have any photos of the tutu--it was just a couple layers of tulle sewn around an elastic waistband.

For my nephew I wanted to make a dress up item and a clothes item. For dress up, he had to have a king robe to wear in his castle! This was the only fabric I had to buy; everything else for both of them was from deep stash (at least two years old). I used a purple moleskin from Joann and trimmed it with leftover faux fur from my Down With Love project. I based it on Simplicity 2738, a pajama pattern. I cut it a couple sizes too large, and cut the front on the fold, adding some ease. It has slits on the sides for walking ease and a big "J" for "Jet." Plane tickets were so expensive when I was buying for the holidays that I ended up with a long layover; I sewed all the trims onto Jet's king robe by hand during the layover. I also made the crown out of tissue lame, with plastic needlepoint canvas for the headband (I passed my plastic needlepoint canvas tip on to Cidell for her Weekender bag; I've been using it for purse bottoms for years).

For his regular clothes, I was inspired by the other thing besides kings and castles that he loves: Spiderman. I bought some netting spiderweb on Joann's clearance after Halloween several years ago with the idea of maybe making some simple Halloween costumes to sell on eBay, but never got around to doing so. I realized that I could combine it with a red silky poly remnant wrapped around my exchange gift at PR Weekend 2006 for a really awesome Spiderman shirt. I used the same Simplicity 2738 pajama pattern; instead of using a facing I used self-bias tape at the neck. You can't see all the details in the action shot (taken in Marvel's "dance studio"); here's a photo of the shirt flat.

All of my photos are here. My sister-in-law's set of photos has more shots.

Making kids' clothes turns out to be pretty easy and fun. They're little so they take less time, and they don't need all the details adult clothes need. Plus, I could just finish all the hems with the serger!

So I have added a caveat to "I don't sew for other people."

I will sew for other people (1) whom I love dearly and (2) who will wear whatever is put in front of them. That pretty much limits it to young children who are related to me and my mom. More on the latter later this week!