Win a $50.00 Gift Card from The Best Vintage Clothing!

Do you like giveaways? Yeah, me too. I enter them every time I see one for anything I find worthwhile, but I must confess, I have yet to win one. I figure one day perhaps it will be my turn to win something, but until then I will keep entering and being content that someone will win something.

Need an amazing 1940s suit with peplum? Find it here.

This is a giveaway hosted by Jessica of Chronically Vintage, and not only does she have impeccable taste and have an inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable blog to read, but she has the best giveaways!

1940s hat can be found here.

Someone will win a $50.00 dollar gift card from The Best Vintage Clothing shop to spend!

Find this 1950s fur collar sweater here.

They have an amazing selection, from very affordable basic vintage items to works of art, and they have shoes, handbags, hats, and accessories to complete your outfit.

They even sell vintage eyeglasses. Find this 1950s pair here. 

Not sold yet? They sell womens, mens, and chilldrens vintage! So theoretically, you could outfit your whole family in vintage. Hmmm....a future family portrait perhaps? I can wish can't I?

If only this Edwardian gown were my size! Grab it here. 

Hurry! Click here to enter, because the giveaway ends Tuesday, November 19, 2013 at 11:59 PST!

These 1920 boots are my size and my birthday is in a couple weeks. Hey, I'm just saying. Find them here. 

Oh, and did I mention they have free shipping throughout the U.S.?

You knew I had to include a brooch, and this 1930s one is so stinking cute! Add it to your collection here.

A New Baby!

 Ok,  before you jump to conclusions, no, it's not a new baby at our house. My husband's first cousin, whom he practically grew up with, because they both were at their grandparents every day, just welcomed a new little girl. She is the first baby for he and his wife, and the first grandchild for both of their parents. Yup, she's definitely going to be spoiled.
While I don't have any pictures of the newest babe in the family, because we haven't gotten to meet her yet, I did sew up a quilt for her.

Here is the pieced together top before quilting. I love the vintagey prints and the bright colors.

I have this weird thing about me that makes me feel guilty if I don't make a baby blanket for every new baby around me. You see, I sit around thinking, "What if I'm the only person who would or could make a baby blanket for this baby?" and "Every baby should have a handmade baby blanket from someone who loved them enough to take the time to make one." Sure, some are inevitably more intricate than others, and having my own three has definitely affected the rate at which I make them and just how intricate they are, but I so enjoy making them.

I made this entire quilt with scraps, except for the back, which was a yard of a novelty cotton I had originally bought to back another baby blanket, but changed my mind about it later (It was for a boy, and there were the tiniest flowers on it, and you never know how some people would take that. At least that's what my husband said, lol.). So, including the batting I already had, it was basically a free gift at this point. Can't beat that with a stick!

This is the back of the quilt after quilting. It has tiny bouquets of red, yellow, and blue flowers with a cowboy/cowgirl on a bucking bronco. The mom grew up on a farm riding horses and had a cowgirl themed wedding, so I thought it was perfect for her baby to have a western theme baby quilt, too. 

I cut 8 inch squares, and then cut those in half and sewed the triangles together to make a pinwheel effect. This is probably a block that has a name already, but I didn't look it up, I was just looking for fast and easy.

Finished quilt with pinwheel design.

The best part, and the fastest shortcut I know for making a quilt, is how I sewed the three layers of back, batting, and top together. My mom taught me this, and I've used it on much larger projects, too, but for baby blankets, it's easy peasy.
You lay the back piece of your quilt down right side up.

Then lay the pieced top over the back with right sides together. I promise this works.

Now put your cut out batting on top of the back and top. Make sure you've cut your bating slightly smaller than the back and top. It's easier to sew on the machine that way.

Now, you can either use basting stitches or I use safety pins to keep it all together. Don't worry about using the pins, you can't do the next step without taking all the pins out anyway.

The next step is to sew the entire thing up around the edges except for one hole (large enough for your hand to easily fit through) at one of the corners. Reach through the hole and turn the quilt inside out.

I don't sew up the hole until I've finished all the handquilting (you could machine quilt now, as well).

Quilt layers are sewed up and turned right side out and it's ready to quilt without basting stitches or safety pins holding it together. You can see at the bottom top left corner of this picture where I haven't sewn up the hole and I had just tucked in the ends. 

Now quilt, and you're done! How easy is that? If you're new to quilting a baby quilt is a great place to start. They usually feature larger, simpler designed blocks, and simpler quilting patterns, plus it's much smaller and easy to hold in your lap. (I use a small, plastic, square-shaped, quilting frame that can easily be taken apart and fits on my lap.).

I decided to quilt it in a diamond pattern that actually broke up the pinwheel pattern, and I thought, would be an unexpected surprise from the back. I like it when quilts are just as pretty from the back as from the front, don't you?

For a more puckery (I'm sure that's not a word) look to your quilt, you have to first wash it. I don't know if I will wash it before giving it to them, just because some people are really picky, especially with first babies, about how their baby's things are washed. Ok, that's probably just me, but having sensitive skin all my life, I'm in the habit of washing everything that comes in our house and will be touching our skin. Yes, I'm a germaphobe and a freak, but with a science degree and having worked in hospitals, can you blame me?

I have always been fascinated with doing things the old fashioned way, and quilting is such a great stress reliever, and yet beautiful and practical at the same time. I also feel a connection to all the women throughout history who hand-sewed baby things and gifts for family and loved ones, and hope that when I make things for others it will bless them as much as I've been blessed to receive such gifts.

I hope I find time to do more quilting in the coming year, and I can't wait to meet the new baby girl, and I really hope her parents love the new baby quilt.

Do you make gifts? Do you like receiving handmade gifts? 

Here I am!

Add caption

Hello!

Well, although I didn't actually fall off the face of the earth, I guess it must look like it if you're reading this. I actually have gotten a lot done, and I guess that's partially why I haven't been writing as many posts lately. I did finish the Wendy dress, and I will be posting pictures as soon as I get around to taking some.

We had my daughter's birthday party over the weekend, and between trying to get everything ready for costumes and then a birthday, I haven't even felt like blogging. I'm currently reorganizing my sewing area, so I can finish some projects that I've started and really dig into a couple Christmas projects.

Sewing is actually a stress reliever for me.

There will be Christmas programs, Thanksgiving and family get togethers, decorating, special holiday stuff, and the regular homeschooling all going on at our house until Christmas, then we can sit down for a short spell, lol. So, I don't know how much blogging will get done between now and Christmas, but I promise lots of sewing will have to get done, and I will take pictures and post afterwards if not before, and I have some posts in the works.

I have no idea where this image comes from, so sorry for not crediting it.
I'm hoping for the next couple months this is true, lol.

Has the holiday season busyness come upon you yet?

We're Off To Neverland!

So, this week has seen the sewing up of a Peter Pan shirt and hat, a stomach virus interlude sweeping through myself and the children, and I finally got the Girl's Regency dress pattern from Sense and Sensibility traced and the fabric cut out. Hopefully everyone will feel better tomorrow and I can sew something!

Peter Pan shirt for Sir J the Brave.

This shirt was a relatively quick sew, but I didn't realize I was supposed to have grommets to lace the leather through on the front. Since people were sick, I was definitely not going to go out to try and buy some. So, I hand sewed some eyelets, which made this a much longer project. Thankfully there were only four. Considering the hat was entirely hand sewn as well, I think this turned out to be a surprisingly fun project. I think I kind of like handsewing.

So, my little princess has decided to succumb to her mother's intense begging and let me sew her not one, but two Regency gowns! The first will be the short-sleeved "Wendy" dress and the second will be a long-sleeved version in this cute print featuring children in Regency era clothing playing. Hey, she needed some more wintery dresses anyway. Plus, I've wanted to sew Regency dresses for a long time, but do not want to sew one for myself just yet as they remind me too much of maternity wear, and I'm not pregnant....right now, lol.

I bought this when my Cowgirl Princess was a baby with the intention of making her a Regency gown out of it one day. I didn't have a pattern at the time, but knew this had to be a Regency gown. 

By the way, Sir J the Brave has hardly taken his hat off since I finished it the other day. His taking the hat off today was a good indication that he didn't feel well. He's always liked wearing hats, and pretty much refuses to leave the house without one. I love that about him.

And with his felt hat.  

I have to say that I'm blessed with children who enjoy playing dress up and still want mommy to make them clothes. I hope that never changes unless it means they're making their own. Which reminds me that I need to finish another long-sleeved dress I had started for my daughter a couple months ago in the fabric below. This was originally going to be a dress for me, but I ended up trying to size it down for her, because it never quite looked right on me.

It's kind of a deep purple with hot pink flowers, but for some reason didn't show up that way in pictures. 

Ahh..doesn't a nicely folded stack of cut pieces of fabric just make you happy? 

Hard to believe this is enough for two Regency gowns, and one that is fully lined. 

The Almost But Not Quite Shirt, Now Is!

Super posing. 

Yup, it's finished, and I actually wore it all day. It's really comfy, but I will have to tweak it a little. I'm for sure moving the pocket towards the button placket. I followed the placement on the pattern piece, but seriously it's weird. I also need to put little vents at the bottom of the side seams. It won't matter if I tuck in the shirt, but I want to have options, plus I'm normally untucked when I wear jeans, and right now, 'cause I'm shaped like a pear, the bottom can get this little gap in the front under the bottom most button.

Yes, it needs ironing, but the point of this picture is, How weird is that pocket placement? I'm tempted to take it off and leave it off. What do you think?

This is the pattern I used for the main parts of the blouse.

Like always if I make another, which I hope I will, there will be some changes. I will change the shoulders. The pattern doesn't call for shoulder pads, but apparently my shoulders are narrower than the pattern's normal shoulder width. So next time I will shorten that. However, I am not unpicking the sleeves and changing this one. Besides it being a lot of trouble, I don't think they are that bad, and well, I didn't mean for this to be a fancy shirt, but just something basic for wearing at home or to look a little nicer when I run errands. It fulfills that already.

Ugh! I hate that little gap at the bottom. 

I only wore it to the grocery store and around the house, but my husband complimented me on it, and said he like it and that I should make more. I like it when he likes what I make <3

Check out these mad plaid matching skills across the button placket. Oh yeah.

It would've looked nicer if I had ironed it, but I have a chronic allergy to ironing, and only do it when absolutely necessary; i.e. for church, date nights, weddings, and funerals. Although I reserve the right to get away without doing it for these occasions whenever and wherever possible. I was also super excited to go ahead and wear it already.

I had to use the sleeve pattern from this Simplicity dress pattern, but thank God it worked. 

If you'd like to read the *ahem* missteps I took while making it to begin with, go here. Overall, I'm pretty happy with my new shirt, and as soon as crazy sewing for kids is over, I want to make more blouses and shirts, because that's an area I've not done as much sewing in, oh, and I want to sew some wide leg pants, too. Oh, oh, or maybe even some vintagey overalls! There's just too much awesome sewing to do, and way too little time to do it in.

Meanwhile, what basics are you adding to your wardrobe this fall? 

Another Circle Skirt!!! And I'm wearing a hat!?!

 Okay, I could just stop typing now. The title says it all, lol.

Trying to look all vintagey cool.

I had to take my kids to get their flu shots, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to wear my new circle skirt. And since I didn't get any pictures of it on Sunday, and the kids were all good and tired after shots and a special Chik-fil-a lunch, I decided to take a few minutes to take pictures of my outfit for you. You see, I don't normally wear hats. I own several vintage hats in the hope that I could/would wear them, but never wear them. However, being recently inspired by Jessica of Chronically Vintage, and her ability to effortlessly wear the most scrumptious hats on a regular basis, I decided to bite the bullet so to speak, and wear one of mine. It was also a rainy day, and the high was supposed to be 70 (farenheit) and seeing as how I get hot in hats this seemed the perfect occasion to wear one. What? Don't you dress like this to go to get a flu shot? ;)

I got this hat on eBay a couple years ago, but this is the first time I've ever worn it outside of my house, but it definitely won't be the last time. It's 100% navy wool with a little bow on the left side.
I really enjoyed wearing a hat, and felt like my outfit was more complete with it on. 

I did get some looks, but I think our pediatrician and the nurses there are used to me looking unusual, lol. I was surprised how comfortable I felt in the hat. I think I need to find hairstyles that work with the hats I have and let the hat do the talking instead of my hair. I also like this style of hat on me. Pillbox hats I can't figure out on me, but I think this style is rather flattering, whether anyone else does or not, lol.

No, my hem is not that uneven, just realized my skirt was on the chair, lol. 

This is the second circle skirt I've made from this pattern, and I'm considering starting a third. This time around it was way easier. I was able to make the waistband the perfect size the first time and just cut out the skirt about six inches shorter than the pattern called for. The length is just below the knees, which I think is perfect, because I don't much care for the look of knees, mine or others. The only thing with circle skirts is to beware of sudden wind or breezes, lol, but that's what slips are for, right?

I still like twirling in a circle skirt. I also wore a vintage slip with a slight crinoline at the bottom that I think did help the silhouette. Does this mean I may have to try a full on crinoline now? Hmmm.

I wore this skirt with a plain navy tee I bought at old navy about five years ago and a soft, almost fuzzy, blue sweater that I've had for literally about fifteen years. I even wore this sweater the first time I went to the movies with my husband. We were both seventeen. <3 It has little shiny round blue buttons and embroidered flowers on the bottom front corners.

My husband still likes to see me wear this sweater as he says it reminds him of when we first were dating.
He's such a romantic to even remember what I wore. <3

I also wore a favorite new brooch of mine. I call it my homeschool mom pin, because it has the three little baby birds being taught by their mamma. I ordered this on eBay, and it was one of those things I just "had" to have. The first time I saw it, I couldn't afford it, so had to let it go, but no one else bid on it and the seller relisted it. Fortunately I could afford it by then, but unfortunately I did have to bid against someone else and pay more than I would have originally. This picture was photobombed by Sir J the Brave. Ain't he cute?

I didn't realize until I took these pictures that the little flowers would look like polka dots from a distance, but I think that just makes it look that much more vintage.

I carried a black and white leather purse that I've had for almost ten years. I think purses are like shoes. If you buy a good one in a classic shape and color they can be used for years. A fairly expensive purse at the time, but considering I've used it so long and it's still in near new condition, I think it was worth it.

I'm not sure what kind of a pose this is supposed to be, but you get
a really good view of our handy vac and the apples on our kitchen counter.

Once again I didn't get any pictures of my shoes, but I wore my black Frog Prince mary jane ballet shoes mentioned before, but still not pictured, sorry. You see, I'm a bit of a germ-a-phobe. I have a degree in Cardio-pulmonary Science and worked in hospitals before having kids, so we don't wear our shoes upstairs, but take them off in the basement. This also helps keep little babes from chewing or sucking on shoes or touching germy bottoms of shoes onto their toys and placing said toys in their mouths. I know, but we've all got our quirks, right?

Oh, and a quick shot of the adorable black and white check pants my mom made my son. Since he wanted to photobomb anyway, I thought I could share the cuteness a little more. <3

I was actually surprised how much I like this outfit.

I hate the idea that because I'm a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom, that means I should look sloppy, and have found that when I actually dress for the day, I get more done and am in a better mood. It's not that I never wear sweats at home or pajamas for that matter, but I do try to wear something nicer if we're going somewhere, even if it's just the grocery store.

Sir J the Brave and I, we're buddies. 

Do you "dress up" to run errands? Have you found that how you dress changes the way you act?

Birthday Sewing!

 Ok, so my daughter has a birthday coming up in about a month, and I have tried to make her a special dress/outfit every year. I do a lot of sewing for her everyday clothes, but this is an opportunity for her to have something fancy or for dressing up. This year she wanted a dress like Wendy wears in the Disney version of Peter Pan, and I was overjoyed, because I've had this pattern from Sense & Sensibility for a long time. I've wanted to make it, but had been held back probably a little out of fear, and a little because I didn't want to take so much time to make it and then she not wear it. However, now that she's totally into it, I'm fairly sure she will want to wear it.

This blue chiffon(?) is exactly the right color in person, though not in this picture....hmmm. I'm planning on lining it with the same shade of blue from a cotton sheet set someone gave me a while ago. (Do people give you sheets, cutains, and clothes, etc, once they find out you sew a lot?) I know it's completely impractical for her birthday as it's in November, but it's a birthday gift, so impractical is okay. Plus, my mom made her a deep purple colored fleece, full length, fully lined cloak last year that would go perfectly with it. I'm getting excited just thinking about my little princess in it!

She's also a big fan of Pride & Prejudice (the BBC 1995 version, as if there were another real version), and we've both daydreamed about wearing those dresses. Now I have the perfect excuse to make myself a Regency gown! Should we both have blue chiffon?

Of course my two year old was overhearing all this and promptly put in his order for a Peter Pan costume. Fortunately my mom had a pattern for one in his size. She buys tons of costume patterns anytime they are on sale at our local Hancock Fabric. They are often $15 or more regularly, and on sale can be $1.99 or $0.99! Costumes are a great way to make dress up clothes for kids, and my mother-in-law buys Halloween costumes when they're marked down afterwards for dress up clothes. Yes, we have quite the collection for playing dress up.

So, I'll be making him a green tunic and matching hat out of green felt.

Maybe this would be a good time to make myself an Edwardian gown like their mother wears and a faded red footy pajamas for the baby? Oh, and do you think I could convince my husband to dress in tails and a top hat like the father?