Another birthday, another birthday dress! I'm off on vacation so you get a scheduled post, but it's my birthday today! Hip hip! As I've done every year for 6 years now, I made myself a dress for my birthday. It's possible I'm not actually wearing this dress right now since I'm likely in the mountains hunting down a waterfall as you read this. But this year's birthday dress is one I really love and I'll be wearing it ... Read more »
Sewing
Overalls of my dreams
While I was making my latest pair of jeans, I hatched another idea that I started working on slowly: a pair of overalls. And boooooy am I ever happy with them! It started like this. I really wanted to try a scooped out front pocket on a pair of 1950s style jeans. I mentioned that dilemma in my last jeans post of doing the slash pockets and some gaping. So while I was in a jeans mood, I wanted to try scooped pockets ... Read more »
I just needed a sweatshirt
Do you ever just drop everything you're working on to sew a quickie project? I almost never do. But I did recently, and can understand why people do it sometimes! In the middle of my latest jeans project I suddenly had the urge to try out a pattern I've been thinking about non-stop since finishing my Carbeth pullover. The cropped shirt in Butterick 7557, from around 1956. Meant to be more of a sweater, or a ... Read more »
1950s-style cuffed jeans (and informal video extravaganza!)
I made more jeans! And then I have some good news, and some bad news relating to that. The bad news is I've been saying since last summer that I was going to do a vintage jeans sew-along. And I... can never get to it. Friends, if you've followed me awhile, and if you've ever read any of my tutorials, they are intense. They can take me weeks to put together just one tutorial. I rarely even do them these days because ... Read more »
Tale of two blouses + a different way to construct a short cut-on sleeve
The latest two items I sewed over at the Mood Sewing Network are these blouses. Two blouses, entirely different fabrics, same pattern. Love/hate results. Okay not quite so strong as love/hate... maybe love/feel-vaguely-underwhelmed-about would be closer. ;) Both of theses blouses are versions of Butterick 6223, one of my tried-and-true 1950s blouse patterns. I've made it a few times at least, but a different view. My ... Read more »
A dress and a fitting tip that transformed my dressmaking (and the dress)
If you sew a lot of garments, you possibly have one or two fitting tweaks that you're used to doing regularly. It can take some time to get there to know what you need to do, and it may involve some false starts, too. For me, the biggest thing that transformed my sewing—specifically the fit of my dress bodices and blouses—was when I realized I nearly always needed to shorten bodices, especially for vintage patterns. Up ... Read more »