The Singing Costumer

For unknown reasons, I have been lacking in motivation to sit down and work on this dress for the better part of a week. But no more! Time to get to work. For my first attempt at plaid pattern matching, I think it worked fairly well. The top front is pretty good.  But sadly, the front seam on the skirt didn't match nearly as well as back seam of the skirt matches . It is a work of art... on the side that I will be sitting on. Oh well. And I did sew the front left as the right front, and vice versa. Grr. That required ripping 3 seams. It only took 1 episode of Monk and 2 of Doctor Who (David Tennant all the way :-)  ) And I was also knitting, so it didn't really take that long. My goal is to finish by next week. All that really left are the buttons/buttonholes, hemming, and a little handsewing on the inside and the sleeves.

Sometimes, fabric and patterns seem to be made for each other. At least, in my mind. Maybe I'm just crazy! Anyway, this fabric (found at Hancock Fabrics) told me it wanted to be made into this dress (on the left) So I decided to oblige it. This is my first project of 2013. It is missing the waist band, hence the midriff-baring look. That's my progress so far, come back next week for more!

I thought some organization might be in order, so I made a little plan. I bought an 8x8 scrapbook at Hobby Lobby. Next came the hard part; I copied my patterns (I have way too many patterns) front and back. Next, I trimmed them to fit in the scrapbook. Also, any samples of the intended fabric for that project were included. Finally, I organized the copies in the order I want to sew them. Now, I have everything in one place for easy reference. When I'm shopping for fabric or notions, I'll have a list of all supplies needed from the back of the pattern envelope. I have two projects planned per month, but my New Years Resolution is to sew one project a month. I plan to post updates on Mondays, as the weekends are a prime time to sew.

I just love this book! Borrowed it from the library this time, but I know that it will make it's way to me someday. There are probably 8 purses I wanted to make in this book. Better get started, yes? Image from Google I started with this purse named "Nancy". Pictured above with it's matching make-up bag. It's a '40s style purse, made of corduroy, with a rattan handle and felt flower appliques. I LOVE the lining fabric. It's this perfect little blue floral pattern and it matches the two shades of blue in the corduroy and felt perfectly. The instructions in the book were very easy to understand and had clear photographs to illustrate the construction of the purse. I highly reccomend this book for vintage fashion lovers! A dress in dark blue that would look great with this is on the list of projects to complete, so expect a photoshoot of that outfit.  

I want to keep a record of all vintage/vintage style accessories I have, so I can refer to this blog when the accessories are put away in the closet. Hopefully, this will reduce any forgetfulness of the "out of sight, out of mind" effect. I will also write want I plan to do with it, if any ideas exist. I found this cute hat at a antique mall in Wichita, KS. This vaguely vintage style dress was found at Ross. I love that place :-) I think it wants to be part of a Mary-Poppins-in-1950's costume. Now the movie was made in the 1964 and set in 1910, but I don't care. This could be SUPER cute. They had all kinds of cute suits in the '50s. Not really a suit, but something like the red dress?

    Anyone who has spent more than 3 minutes with me knows I'm obsessed with Disney. My three favorite movies are Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin. So for Halloween 2011, I made a version of Ariel's blue dress. She wears during "Kiss the Girl" scene and when they are riding in the carriage around Eric's kingdom. . It was fairly easy to make. I used McCall's 4090 (View A), a simple skirt with a waistband. For the bodice/over corset, I used another McCall's, 4861 (view A). I didn't want side lacing, so I just traced each of the four pieces separately, then taped them together at the sides, overlapping the seam allowance. This left me with the back lacing only. When it was assembled, I roughly "eye-balled" the sweetheart-shaped neckline and cut it out. The shirt was made with Simplicity 3677. I just added cuffs to the sleeves instead of elastic. A couple things I lea...

The mock-up is finished. IT'S SO DARLING!!! I'm excited. Here is the front and the back, with (half) the flowers on the bustle I'll be making the final dress in July (probably) and will have plenty of pictures later!