'T' is for Thursday & the Third Day of Vintage Fun

I won't lie, this is my favorite:

The adorable details factor is just too much!  From the rope belt with braided balls to the quilled fabric design at the tiny pocket on the bodice to the box pleats to the lovely teal color of the cotton, there isn't really anything not to love!  even the armholes feature piping.  This dress was made for the Boston Store of Erie, PA in the 1960's.  I imagine it wasn't a cheap dress.  That, or the quality of commercial clothing has went completely down hill.  Or maybe a combo of both.

I won the pink pearl drop earrings in an auction to benefit Sam Sartin.  Ello Poppet designed, made & donated the pretty pair.

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Day 2: Lacy's Vintage Closet Goes to Work!

This number is 100% breathable cotton with matching belt in a black & white leaf sillouette pattern.  Late 50's, the front of the skirt is box pleated, while the back of the skirt's box pleats are less crisp and more gathered.

I thought I looked pretty sharp!

Pearls by my very sweet husband

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What I Raided Out of Lacy's Vintage Closet, Day One

I'm working 4 days this week, while my fellow seamstress is off visiting her grandbabies.  Four days in a row of work equals four days of fabulousness, courtesy of Lacy!

Today's treat is a fun yellow & orange number from the early 1960's

Scrumptious!

(Not bad for a 9 year old photographer, huh?)

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What I Wore to Work Today

My twin sister in a previous life, Lacy, has a vintage clothes fetish.  Sort of like my vintage sewing machine fetish.  But wearable.

Back in March, I didn't have the money for an Easter dress.  I had also lost quite of chunk of stubborn weight.  Enter Lacy and her collection.

"Can you fit this?"

It fit.  It better than fit, it hugged.

In fact, it made me feel beautiful, something I needed desperately at that moment in my life and I begged her to let me have it.

We came to an agreement.

1960's pink linen sheath dress with a tatted lace collar & mock snakeskin peep toe pumps in pale pink

I love the shaping details in liu of darts.  It really seems to give the dress a little something more than what you would expect.  I get complimented like crazy everytime I wear it.

A beautiful dress.  I pink puffy heart it.

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When Life Gives You Lemons

Find a few pounds of sweetness & make lemonade.

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My life is far from sweet right now.  Some days taste better than others.  And some days are so sour they are best forgotton and left in the past.

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Live for the now.  Leave the past in the past.  Hope for the best & plan for the worst.

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My mottos.

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My life as a stay-at-home-mom/homemaker/professional wife is fading into the past.  Over the past 6 weeks, I've shrunk 2 clothing sizes.  Today, I was hired on as the assistant seamstress for a local bridal boutique.  By the end of this month, I'll have a college picked out and start the enrolling process of working towards a degree in fashion design (pattern making, seamstress, designer).  Come June, I'll start school, full time, mostly online.

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Full time student, part time commercial seamstress, full time mom.

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Crazy thing those life changes, huh?

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My Oliver +s Sewing Addiction

You know, Oliver +s patterns are like chips.  You can't make just one.  And I am obsessive, so instead of the handfull others would swipe from the bag, I take the entire bag and down it.  Or, in this case, I take all the patterns I can get, load up on them, stock up on fabric, and go into insane sewing mode.

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Bless the hubs and his sighing over the thread & fabric scrap covered floor.  Bless him.

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It's not like I keep this to my nook (that magical place all my fiber working is *supposed* happen in).  Oh no.  I take over the dining room table for pattern tracing, pinning, and fabric cutting.  I take over the butcher block kitchen island for the ironing.  And, because I am completely insane, I run multiple sewing machines at the same time.  You know, one for seams and the other for top-stitching in red.  Of course, the 2nd sewing machine is in the livingroom at the opposite corner of the first floor from my nook.  Toss in one dog and one 2 year old, and let's just say, it gets messy.

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But it's all totally worth it.  I promise.

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Because my kids' faces when they see the finished product are priceless.

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Sailboat pants for Maria, using a vintage hankie that belonged to her great-grandmother

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Size 8 Sketchbook shirt for the Brain.  Made with cotton twill

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Size 5 Music Class skirt & blouse for the Blonde.  Skirt is black wool suiting, the blouse was made with vintage feedsack that belonged to my late grandmother

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Size 5 School Photo dress for the Blonde.  Quilting cotton lined inside and out

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Size 4 Puppet Show dress for the Blonde.  Reproduction feedsack with daisy buttons

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Sailboat pants for the Brawn, made during the sewalong I hosted last month.  Wide grey cordaroy

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LOVE this pattern line.  LOVE.  It's so nice to have clothes for my kids that don't resemble street walker wear or be covered in skulls or flames.  You know, classic, conservative, timeless, sweet, child-like clothing?  This is it.  Right here.  You NEED the Oliver +s patterns.  NEED.  Even you don't think you sew that well or have never used a pattern, Oliver +s is the place to start.

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Do it.  You won't regret it.

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If You Wish on a Fish...

The Hubs and I went south over the weekend to escape the cold and attend a Model Railroad Show in Baltimore.  We took the Brawn, because he's too cute to leave behind.  On Friday we went to the National Aquarium on the Inner Harbor of Chesapeake Bay in downtown Baltimore, found parking in Little Italy at the Dodge Garage (say that 3 times fast!), loaded up Brawn & the diaper bag in the stroller, paid for our tickets, went inside, and discovered that we had to check our stroller like a coat.

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If you've ever met the Brawn, you know how fast and silent he is.  I was pretty nervous, considering that the Dad injured his shoulder and probably wouldn't be able to carry Brawn thru the entire museum.  I didn't want to carry captain wiggles, either.  We decided to hold our noses and jump in feet first.

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You know something?  He did GREAT!  There were a few times he wanted to look longer at a tank than we did, and other times he wanted to go and we weren't ready, but all in all, he was a champion museum attendant.  Of course, after more than 4 hours of walking and looking, he crashed and burned as soon as we started the truck.  Perfection.

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The jellyfish were amazing.  So graceful

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The mushroom shaped ones seemed like bumper cars, bumping and turning with ease

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Others tend to float and billow

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Some reminded me of deflated baloons, drifting in the wind

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They tangle and untangle themselves from each other at random

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But my very favorite jellyfish were the Upside Down Jellies.  They reminded me of flowers, and while you can't tell from the photo, they are full of sheer colors

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The Hubs wasn't so impressed with the jellyfish.  He refered to them as "creepy" and "wierd".  His faves were the Amazon rain forest frogs, but I couldn't get any good pictures of those.

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Finishing Up!

Tuesday, February 1-  Button holes!  Sewing on buttons, too and finishing

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Actually, it's Wednesday.  And I am over this massive snow-ice-rain-winter storm.  Over it.  I woke up to chunks of ice beating my house, my salted sidewalk iced over, thunder, lightening, and thinking we were the only school district in this part of the state not with a 2 hour delay or closed.  Sent my kids to school with the Dad and 10 minutes later he brought them back. "No school" he says.

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WHAT?!

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We didn't get the notification phonecall.  It wasn't on the radio.  The janitor told them.

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Glad to see my tax dollars working like they should.

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*Grumps*

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I'm hoping I can finish this before the power starts doing that flashy-blinky thing like it did yesterday.  Bear with me.

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On the up side, Phil didn't see his shadow this morning!  WOOT!

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Before you sew the button holes, you need to transfer the markings for the button hole placement from your pattern.  OR, you can decide where you want the button holes to be and just draw them on (especially helpful if you're using bigger buttons).

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There are several ways to make button holes.  Many modern machines have the buttonhole stitch built right in.  I sew on vintage machines, and therefor, use the vintage button hole attatchments designed for them.

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Once the button holes are sewn, you need to cut them open.  Be careful not to cut thru the buttonhole threads!  A friend of mine places a straight pin at each end of her button holes, so that her seam ripper or scissors doesn't cut too far (the pin stops them blade).  I cut, using sharp pointed darning scissors, from the outside towads the middle of the button hole.  It's just a matter of preference.

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I loike to try my buttons to see if they fit before cut more than one hole open.

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I use a fabric marker with disappearing ink to mark t.he center of the button holes for button placement.  Make sure you line your side panels and front panel up to your satisfaction before marking.  Then, just make a dot in the center of each button hole, onto the side panels.

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Sew your buttons on!  SewMamaSew has an excellent tutorial for sewing on buttons by hand, if you need some help.

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The directions go on to say that you should stitch a few inches of the front facing & the side panels together to prevent gapping.  I have no gaps, so I'm skipping this step.  It's up to you  :)
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All done!

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*Notes: the Brawn is in cloth diapers, so I made the size 4 pattern with the correct pattern length (since these are supposed to be cropped), and they fit over one of his fluffiest diapers with ease and fit like a full length pair of pants.  If you cloth diaper, I suggest definately going off the measurements of the hips at the widest point for choosing your pattern size.  The Brawn usually wears a size 2t pants at the moment.*
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Hopefully, the Brawn will cooperate and allow me to get some photographs of him in his new pants today, so I can show them off!

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Also, if you haven't already, enter the giveaway, I'm extending it thru midnight PST tonight, because of the winter storm.

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Be sure to e-mail me a finished picture of your pants to thejenni dot girl at gmail dot com, so that I can show everyone's pants off when I get back from Baltimore on February 7th!

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Hemming the Legs and Vents, Giveaway too!

Monday, January 31-  Hem the pants and finish the side vents

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Before we actually start sewing today, I have a surprise!

The Hubs (aka: the Dad) & I are going away to Baltimore this comming weekend like we do every February (a certain freak snowstorm threatening the country had better miss us and not repeat last year's snowpocolipse, or *somebody* is going to pay).  I needed a haircut and some mid-winter pampering before we left town, and I needed to do it without the Brawn and his desire to not be in his stroller when it's not moving.  That either meant A.) the Dad would have to miss some sleep and watch him so I could go & I would feel rushed  B.) I do it over the weekend when the Brains could watch his baby brother while his Dad napped in the other room.  I chose B.
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I am waxed, polished, washed, cut, and curled.  It looks great!  Still long, but with lots of face framing layers in the front and long sexy layers in the back.  The Blonde thinks I'm nuts for the eyebrow waxing (She's ripping the hairs out of your skin, Mom!)  I feel human!  In fact, while sitting in the chair, having my eyebrows hairs ripped from my flesh, I thought to myself, "I should do a giveaway as part of the Sew-Along!"
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I asked the Blonde what I should do for the giveaway.  She thought for a few, and said, "Buttons!"
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That girl is definately my daughter.
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We bought some pretty awsome buttons at JoAnn's, brought them home, and now I'm fighting the desire to keep them.  I will part with them, but it won't be easy.  It would probably be easiest on me if someone gave me a really good reason to stuff them in a padded envelope and send them away to a new home.
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the Blonde and I thought these buttons were perfect because they don't scream boy or girl, the trees are green and that means it is summer and WARM on the buttons (we miss being warm), and they are vintage recreations.  LaMode says that these are replicas of what one would have found between 1860 and 1900.  They are 1" accross, are supposed to be handwashed (I'm assuming one could use the delicate cycle on their washer if they wished unless thair washer beats their close clean), they are NOT plastic, nor were they made in China (Italy produced).  I *think* they are mother of pearl, but I'm not sure.
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Here's the rules:
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1.) Be a follower.  I want to know who's stalking me.  It fluffs my ego.
2.) Leave a comment telling me what you would do with these marvelous buttons if they were your's
3.) Winner will be chosen at random using a random number choosing website
4.) Comments will be closed for entry February 1st, 2011 at 11:59pm EST
5.) You do NOT have to be participating in the Sew-Along to enter 
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The Sailboat Pants were designed to be cropped pants, but work well as full length trousers as well.  Because they were designed to be cropped, they were designed with slits.   I think slits are cute on both clam diggers and trousers, but they are just as cute when full length and ventless.  It's really just a matter of taste, or, in my case, mood.  I'm moody and like a variety.

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Hemming is pretty easy.  First, we are going to fold the hem 1/2 an inch towards the wrong side of the fabric/project and iron.

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Then we fold another 3/4 inch more to the wrong side, and again, press with your iron.

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I like to sew my pants' hems with the legs right side out.  It allows me to see my allowance, so that I don't sew all the way around the leg and find out I completly missed the folded hem.  I use the guides on my machine to insure that my stitches are all the same measurement from the bottom of the hem.  Not that I have ever, ever, ever had a crooked folded hem allowance.  Ever.  (If you're buying that tall tale, I have a beach house in Arizona for sale) 

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The vents are easier than you would think.  Turn the pants inside out, if they aren't already, and fold the vent edges to the wrong side.  In other words, fold them away from you, so that they are tucked in on themselves and press.

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Top stitch, 3/8 inch from the edge of the split, pivoting at the top of the vent to stitch straight accross, then pivot again, 3/8 inch from the split edge, backstitching at the ends to lock your stitches.

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Repeat on the second leg.

LOOK!  PANTS!  All that is left, is the buttons and button holes!

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Tell me about your buttons!  Are they big?  What color?  Vintage?  New?  Plastic?  Wood?  Handmade?  Do you love them?  Did you enter the giveaway so you can have more fabulous buttons in your life?

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Budding Artist

The Brawn is a tough, rough, bash 'em, smash 'em, take no prisoners type of guy.  He crashes, thumps, bellows, roars and head butts the unsuspecting.

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My baby is all boy.

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With a soft side.

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The Brawn has a secret. 

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He's an artist. 

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Finger painting is a multimedia experiement that includes using various toys and objects to create prints and designs.  He also enjoys painting his hair, skin, clothes, and on more than one occassion, the dog.

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There is passion in his art.

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Markers and crayons have become his mural creating tools.  He's colored the stairs, the walls, the glass in my windows, the floor, and himself.

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His art is life.

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I decided it was time to expand his portfolio.

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Watercolor!

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He could barely wait for my instruction for using a brush and how water makes the colors come to life.  His eager hands snatched the paintbrush and away he went!

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He concentrated so hard on holding his paintbrush just so.  For well over an hour he swirled, blended, smeared and spilled paint accross his paper.

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"Go Away, Mom!" he would yell when he thought I came too near.

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With his pudgy little hands, he held his paints in place while he dipped his brush in each color and in the water in the lid.  He needed no extra help from me.
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So big, so creative, so thoughtful, so confident.

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His baby and toddler-hood days are so over.

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Hold me while I cry
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