Happy Friday! I've got a great guest post for you today. If you follow the lovely Jessica of Chronically Vintage, you know she is a passionate writer and vintage aficionado. Lately, I've been occasionally finding myself drawn to a color outside of my comfort zone: purple. I've had a little bit of an obsession with it lately, I have to admit! A quiet one, though. A little bit of purple fabric and yarn has snuck into my ... Read more »
Follow along as I fit and modernize a 1940s pullover pattern
Thanks for all the lovely comments on my Hedy Tyrolean Cardigan! When I sat down to plan out my next knitting project, I had a brainstorm and I'm rather excited about it! I hope some of you will be, too. I'll be knitting myself a pullover from a 1947 knitting booklet, Fleisher's Campus Classics. And I've decided to document the process here on my blog! As those of you who have been following me a long time know, ... Read more »
Hedy Tyrolean cardigan
I wanted to take a second to thank you for your warm comments on my announcement about my upcoming first pattern release. It's pretty exciting! I really appreciate all the support, it means a lot to me. I was so happy to finally share the news with you! ♥ In other knitting-related news, today I'm sharing my latest finished project. I'm in love with it! The pattern is called Hedy Tyrolean-Pattern Cardigan ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton giveaway winners
Wow, we had so many entries on the Fall for Cotton giveaway prizes for sew-along participants! And between Rochelle's two giveaways and my two giveaways, we have four lucky randomly-selected winners! Winner of Lucky Lucille prize pack #1: Jeanette from Lazy Seamstress Winner of Lucky Lucille prize pack #2: Sophie from Wild Child Sophie Winner of By Gum, By Golly prize #1 (That Clever Clementine ... Read more »
It’s time to come clean
Friends, it's time I come clean about a little secret I've been keeping for a couple of months now. It's been more difficult to keep this a secret as I've gotten further along in the process and more people are getting involved, so I thought it was time to let the cat out of the bag. You knew something was up, but not what. It's just a small little thing. But it's a big deal to me. And it's been ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton prize giveaways: 4 chances to win!
Hello sew-alongers! Fall for Cotton has been a great experience for so many of us. Rochelle and I have been happy to help, wrangle, and hopefully inspire you along the way! It's been an honor and pleasure being one of your co-hosts for this great sew-along challenge, and I couldn't have had a better co-host than Rochelle! ♥ Ready for prizes?? Today's our special giveaway day for Fall for Cotton participants. If you ... Read more »
My finished Fall for Cotton blouse
My Fall for Cotton project is complete! I wasn't able to accomplish as much as I planned, but I do have a nice new blouse. I sewed McCall 4854, a blouse pattern from 1942. As you may recall from my project plans, I used a vintage cotton fabric in my stash, along with red vintage buttons, and I sewed the buttonholes by hand with vintage red buttonhole twist. The buttonholes are probably my favorite ... Read more »
Fall for Cotton wraps up tomorrow!
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 »
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 »
A week with my first permanent wave
Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Instagram may know that last Friday, I got my first perm! Many of you who regularly set your hair for vintage hairstyles have read about getting a permanent wave, or have even gotten one yourself. I think the first time I read about someone getting a perm in order to help vintage sets hold was Fleur de Guerre, a few years ago. Those of you who aren't familiar with vintage ... 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 »
A week in the Northwoods
Hello everyone, we're back from our adventures in northern Wisconsin! For the week, we rented a little vacation cottage in the woods far north in the state, about a 6 - 7 hour drive away. It was the perfect time, just after Labor Day when the masses were leaving and we were just arriving. I mean literally, they were driving home as we were getting there. This was a look at the road as we approached the Northwoods on Labor ... Read more »
Gingham, lace & denim: one foot in summer, one in fall
One thing that I don't think I do enough around these parts is outfit posts. Would you agree? Would you like to see more? A few weeks ago we had a nice cool spell, which actually made it feel like fall was on its way. And so I started ditching my skirts and dresses for jeans again. Of course then after that we sweltered in the heat for awhile, naturally. But even still, I've been finding myself wearing jeans a lot in ... 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 »
By Gum, By Golly relaunch: now with Moxie!
I'm so excited to officially announce the new By Gum, By Golly redesign today! Thanks to Joelle of Moxie Design Studios, this blog now has an amazing new look and great functionality. I seriously couldn't be more pleased. Tickled, flabbergasted... doesn't even begin to cover it! Some astute readers noticed the new site technically went live yesterday, but we've been working behind the scenes to get things ready. I ... 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 »