hey, so I actually can give sewing lessons

...Or, PJs are the perfect starting project.  Sure, everyone says "plain straight skirt!" is the plain starting project, but really what beginner can put in a zipper?  I mean seriously.  But flannel PJs!  Flannel is the perfect starting fabric, and PJs are gratifying because they're quick and since you only wear them when nobody sees you, you won't have to worry about anyone seeing what could be an awful seaming job.  Which I'm proud to say my 'student' didn't display any of.  =) And yes, I absolutely HAD to get kitty-print flannel.  It goes good with my rubber-ducky PJs and my piggy-print (!) PJs.Clean shoelaces make the BEST drawstrings for PJs, trust me on this one.This is my machine.  With pink thread, of course.  =)  I go through a lot of thread...Clippings from seam allowances.Unlike me, the girl I was teaching chose flannel in a print that was not pink-with-kitties-print.  Probably a good idea... plus, she chose something with a two-way pattern.  Which is great everyone, but especially a beginner.  Mine was one-way, and obviously I was piecing.

This is my student.  In a manner of speaking.  Okay, okay, it's Jenna Heap from the Septimus Heap series, but that's besides the point... She caught on right away.  She had a bit of sewing intuition, it seemed, while I poked around in 'how-to-thread-the-machine-manuals.' I think I need sewer's intuition.She's got a ridiculously adorable little singer.  I was amused to find it's rather similar to my ancient vintage singer, you know, the One Which Broke Down Tragically.  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  My lil buttonholer.  This thing is amazing.  This was the ending result.  Yes, very different from the pattern---we lengthened it and widened it---typical teenage silliness.  It amuses me that the first time the girl learns to use a pattern she also learns how to do casey-style changes to the thing.  She'll never look at patterns the proper way.  But hey, that's what sewing with me is gonna do to a person!  

my friend Florence

Vintage patterns are interesting things.  For example, I got this 1954ish pattern at a thift store in washington state.  When I opened it, it was partly cut out for the second-design skirt, with "Florence Eagleson, 3 period" written in careful cursive on each piece.  It appears that this pattern belonged to a girl back in 1954ish who decided it would be pretty keen to make a skirt in her home economics class, period 3.She was pretty fond of doing math on her pattern.  This is not the only instance of math!I find this humrous, because this is how much I would have had to take in had I made this skirt for myself.  Okay, fine, five inches here.  But still! She even left a scrap of very-old fabric in it---I wonder if she used this purple stuff for her skirt?  It would have looked quite nice, though it is awful thin!  But maybe it's deteriorated with age/being kept in a musty thrift store.  She made this simple but adorable style.Her name was on every piece.  And more math!  I believe she was better at math than I.  Perhaps she was calculating fabric and notion costs?

I did end up making this skirt, with the fabric you see in the background here, for my mother.   

The question is---where is Florence now?

In which my own sewing continues to eat away my closet space...

I've made another skirt this morning.  Horray for weekends from school, or, as we learned in spanish friday, "Fin de semana."  Anyway.  It's made out of a lovely silk I had a yard of.... I know, silk for modern, but it was a VERY modern silk!  What in the 18th century has raised stitching lines???  Sorry for the bad quality of pictures; I took them with the webcam on my computer. 

What I learned from making this skirt is that someone who's five-feet-eight-inches like me really needs more than 50 inches of fabric in her skirt.  Ah, well. 

I've also learned recently, just after making my 1940's pants, which I have yet to post pictures of, is that while I have a size five waist, I have size zero hips for junior sizing.  That's a big difference =)  Well, it's hereditary!  My mum is exactly the same way!  We're shaped like logs, lol!  Except for fitting patterns, I really quite don't mind. 

But in the last two days I've made most of a blouse (didn't work...!), a pair of wide-legged 1940's style pants (well, a wearable mockup kinda thing... If I find the whim to wear them, I can) and then this skirt.  Not too shabby I don't think!

Also, I'm thinking about going out for cross-country next school year.  Except for the school doesn't have a girls' cross-country team.  So I suppose I'll just run with the boys....

yes, I am still here...

I'm still around, of course, and I HAVE been sewing.

I've made most of a little blue dress, and most of a little yellow dress.  Neither can be finished until I scrounge up some invisible zippers to use for them, so no pictures. 

The circle skirt on the monkey dress is very annoying; I don't quite know what to do with it yet.  Except for not wear it, of course...

All of my old vintage patterns are suiting me very well; I plan to make a pair of wide-legged pants and a sailor-style blouse soon, (everyone loves the 1940's, right?) but I don't everything I need for either!  I need to pick up blue cotton for the blouse, and as for the pants.... I need two large white decorative buttons, and whatever fabric I'm going to use.  =D  I do have the patterns for both the pants (a new-ish remake of a simplicity pattern) and the blouse (oldish mcCall's pattern that had never been cut.  Well it's cut now.)

Of course, any sorts of projects could happen between now and whenever I get around to making this outfit.... (whatever happened to the robe a la fracaise, right?)

Well, finally, pics of them skirts

Warning: Pictures out of order!

Anyhoo, this is the skirt I made over the past few days: cut out last night, and then sewn today. You can't see it, but it's a calico in a red-brown, with white lace trim and two tucks near the edge of the skirt.

I made more SKIRTS! Or, in other words, my own sewing and refashions are slowly eating away my closet space. At least it's cheap....

See! The multi-colored plaid skirt! Yes, hanging on one of the lamps. Yes, clashing horribly with my pink walls! Note dragon(s). See if you can find them!!! Also note three small pink pigs.

The green plaid skirt... no, not new. Just it had to be with the rest of its group, see.... One dragon this picture.

This one is new though!!! I made it out of this absoutely lovely fabric I had; it is very crisp and nearly shiny! It's my picnic skirt, I think.... To be worn this spring and summer, hopefully. Yes, made this afternoon.... And yes, it had to be pieced from the limited about of fabric I had but STILL! I plan to wear it with a little white cami. Maybe. =P

Fabric close up. The bias-cut is the waistband.

All four skirts were made without a pattern, only my measurements. The summer skirts hit the top of the knee in length, while the winter ones are longer. No, not exactly fashionable, but sixty or seventy years ago these were the perfect lengths, and we all know my current obsession with vintage....

um, wow, I'm actually alive

So I haven't posted in like, nearly months, but here's what I've been up to:

No pics, sad, because

1. I'm too lazy to upload them

2. I'm on my little laptop (the one my dad dug out of a drawer and got ready for me, yay) and that has like NO STUFF on it to upload.

Anyhow.

I've made most of my stays by now, I just have to try them on so I can position the eyelets for the shoulder straps. And then sew the eyelets for the shoulder straps. Though I don't expect any of that to happen soon...

I've also made a new skirt--- just like my favorite green one (which I've gotten to wear three times, yay for school-for-next-year interviews)--- it's a lovely plaid of a bunch of different dark-ish colors. I didn't have a lot of fabric, because I got it during the fabric adventure, which means it was a weird-shaped little piece (triangle) but it managed to work... I had to make the skirt an inch or two shorter than my last one, and make the waistband much thinner than my last one, and piece the back... but it ended up working. And it's nice and full enough, unlike...

...my other new skirt, which is NOT full enough for my taste! And the waistband is too small, which I suppose is what I get for trying to get a knee-length skirt out of less than a yard! I suppose I could make it into something else evetually...

And the book! I've gotten a few new fabulous ideas, and although I haven't worked out all the quirks (and probably never get them ALL) it's still going quite nicely! That is, when I actually get around to working on it! I'm an INKLING students (yay to those who know what that is) so the pre-christmas-break work is driving me crazy!

Oh dear, this is quite a long post. Horray for typing away while watching a Christmass-y movie with some of my siblings.

Ah well.

Another quick post...

It seems as though I'm doing a lot of these, aren't I? Very unfortunate! I'd rather do ones with pictures, but as I'm exausted and slightly stressed, I'll just give a few costume updates...

18th century stays: I chickened out and decided that I absolutely could not use a polyester fabric for my stays... even if the embroidery on it was amazing. Of course, I'm using polyester thread.... anyway. It would have been more work to use the embroidered fabric anyhow... because the cut, if you'll recall. And it would show through a chemise a la reine if I ever felt so inclined to make one... so I've cut out and put together a front layer for the stays out of this lovely, slightly changable light blue/gold silk. It's really un-slubby silk (makes me wonder if it is part linen?) and quite nice. It's so fine and beautiful! I still have a couple yards left (stash fabric yay) and while I was debating white silk for the stays I sort of thought, HEY! Maybe I should make a caroco/petticoat outfit out of the white silk and the light blue silk! ...maybe with an amazing floofy hat.... anyway. The stays need to have all their layers assembled (blue silk, main stays, light brown lining) and then the lovely (not) hand-sewn eyelets, and then binding...

...in other costuming thoughts, I'm suddenly into the 1950's. Augh. I want a pair of wide-legged, waist-high pants. Like beach pjs. But with more modern material. ...And I am good at epically failing at making pants. Like the shorts I *tried* to make last summer... actually those are partially canibalized for materials. But I want a pair of pants! I'd put a pic on, but I couldn't find one I wanted to post here...

And I want a 50's ballgown...

I know, I'm crazy.

~c

Why the stays must be finished

Get ready for A Series of Complicated Steps (yes, play-on-words of A Series of Unfortunate Events, which is one of my favorite movies, along with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Penelope) but anyway:

I need to finish the stays

So I can finish the Robe a la Francaise

So I can see if there is any fabric left over from it

So I can make a modern (okay 50s) ballgown with whatever fabric is left

So I will have something to wear to the wedding (and other things, but whether I will need it for other things is to be determined)

...Do you think I'll be able to do this before the 14th? No? You don't think so?

You are all so pessimistic. (Yes, the fiend Chesterton in Othodoxy has been talking about pessimism. I read 33 pages yesterday. Drudgery.)

~c, who wishes she had some pics to upload with this, but this is a quick post so I can go work on the stays when I should be doing homework

This is somewhat a random post...

I've worked quite a bit on my new 18th century stays, but I'm short one piece (okay, two; I have one I did wrong and I need to take out and replace) of boning. But my mom says she will drive me to go get more after school tomorrow, so all is good. I have pics; I'll post them probably after I get all of the boning in.

Even though I wanted to do stays with the style of the pic here (NOT MY STAYS! EXTANT ONES!) I realized that that'd show through the chemise a la reine I'm planning (don't expect updates on it; I only have four yards of fabric... would that be enough? I'm 5'8) so I'm thinking about using this lovely white silk I have. But although pretty, that is SO boring! Practical. But boring. And stays usually had some color to them. Or at least for upper-class women.

I'm also *thinking* (that means dreaming) about making a little silk dress (I want red!) to wear to my cousin's wedding later this month... it'll be really cold though (obviously this isn't near my house) so I don't know if that would work. I was thinking about boning it... augh but I wouldn't need to do that if I didn't eat all the halloween candy! *giggles* my brother is going to be a groomsman.... the color scheme for the groomsmen is absolutely lovely! Dark red and black.

a tad bit of modern sewing

I do a teeny bit of modern sewing as well. This is a skirt I bought at the store, but it was much too big (though adorable, and it fit the dress code for my school thing!) so I took a giant tuck in the waist. Note very old toys in closet and binder on bed. (obviously, I took the pictures with my mirror. I am no photographer.)
Side view, complete with extremely un-matchy tiger tee! Which I love. But not with the skirt. Note bow. I'm crazy about bows, generally...

Here's my only picture of me wearing my full-length sundress... Okay, so it's mostly of my foot... and even more of my brother's feet....

And here it is on my bed, with my huge sunglasses, which match perfectly! Like with my floral skirt, I bought this dress, but since I'm 5'8 it was obviously too short, as well as that the zipper was broken. However, loved the fabric, and since I had suddenly wanted a full-length modern dress.... home it came. For length, I added the fluffy blue ruffle out of some almost perfectly-matching cotton I had in my fabric stash, and I replaced the zipper with a new invisible one.

The ruffle. It's not as periwinkle as the flowers of the dress, but it's close, and know I've seen stuff that doesn't even match this well on commercial clothes.

Full-length. I pair it with the perfect orangey-salmon cami when I wear the dress!

Here's my green plaid skirt for this winter. It's over-knee length, which is very strange for me; suddenly I have two skirts/dress over the knee, when I haven't worn any like that for years and years! hehe. This skirt is made out of this fabulous fabric I had hanging around since summer started. Unknown content, but the skirt is modern! It's waist-high, as that is the fashion for girls right now...




And of course I needed a giant matching hairbow. I do love bows... When I say giant, it's giant. I like matching things such as this.... I now just need a pair of little black pumps to wear with it....

ta-ta