Hey everyone! Just a quick little reminder that the Fall for Cotton sew-along is wrapping up tomorrow! Um, can you believe it's already the end of September? How did that happen? I'll be sharing my final blouse tomorrow. I put the finishing touches on it last week, including the buttonholes you saw in my tutorial post, as well as finally hemming it. A funny aside: I actually had a momentary panic that I'd ... Read more »
Sew-alongs
Making buttonholes by hand
We're in the home stretch of the Fall for Cotton sew-along (can you believe it?), and you might be thinking about little final touches. So let's talk about making buttonholes by hand, shall we? When you use older vintage sewing patterns, you may find that you just skip over the part about how to make buttonholes, since nowadays we're all so used to doing them on our sewing machines most of the time. Many of the ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton: thoughts on setting in sleeves
Hello, Fall for Cotton sew-alongers! How is everyone's project coming along? I just got going on mine. Unfortunately my thoughts of doing a smart outfit consisting of trousers and blouse flew out the window when I started facing the reality of the amount of work I need to put in for a special project I'm working on right now. I've had to scale back my goal, so now I'm only going to sew the blouse. It was a difficult ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton: My project plans
Thanks for all the wonderful comments about the new blog design! I'm just bursting with excitement about it. :) Well sew-alongers, it's taken me awhile to decide what I want to sew for Fall for Cotton! There are so many inspiring patterns being posted in the Flickr group. And today is September 1st so you know what that means—it's our official sewing start date. Yay! Well, it turns out Rochelle and I are going ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton: 50s pattern and fabric inspiration
Do you need a little bit of inspiration for Fall for Cotton? I know many of our sew-alongers have 1950s styles on their mind, so I wanted to share a few combinations of patterns and fabric to give you a fun 50s look for your project! I adore McCall 4987 from 1959 (38" bust), with the contrast inset panel and cut-on sleeves. This would be great in a mid-weight cotton with some structure. You could easily sew it up all ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton: vintage fabric shopping, part 2
When last we met, I talked about hunting down vintage cotton fabric for Fall for Cotton, and discussed fiber content, condition and my thoughts on getting a good deal. Today, let's talk about the actual shopping part! That's the fun part! Well, sometimes it's the fun part... sometimes it's just annoying. Ha! Where can I find vintage fabric shopping in person? Flea markets, antique malls and thrift stores come to mind! ... Read more »