 Click!  Click!  Lately I’ve been trolling vintage pattern web sites, mostly because it’s just so much fun and there is serious style out there that still looks good today. This weekend on Patterns From The Past I found Simplicity 6284 that I actually wore! (you need to scroll down the page to find it, this is not a robust web site) My mother made me the jacket and vest and I wore it for my senior class photo. The fabric may actually be silk taffeta; I did a burn test today and got that characteristic smell and soft black ash that silk makes. I think the collar fabric is a cotton or rayon matte shantung. Both fabrics are vintage and came from my grandmother’s stash, and the buttons are mother of pearl. Mom (who posts comments here as PVE) matched up the plaid pretty well I’d say so she gets a big hug fromm me! I <3 YOU MOM! The inside is not lined except for the sleeves, and she clean finished the seams with an overlock stitch. This is not a serged stitch however, this jacket made was more than a decade before before sergers were available to home sewers. At the time straight stitch machines did a approximation of a true overlock stitch. The facings are bound with black lace and the sleeves are lined with silver polyester satin. The rest of my outfit was a pair of RTW black satin jeans and black platform shoes with a 3 inch heel. I think the jeans had a rhinestone applique on the back too. It was a killer 70′s look lemme tell you!
So if you know a young sewer who loves that Steampunk look trust me this is the pattern for her.
The weather this weekend has been glorious and yesterday I took a long-overdue trip into B0ston for a stroll down Newbury St. In the 80′s I had great apartment on the corner of Newbury and Dartmouth so I was feeling nostalgic for the old neighborhood. Shopping was on the agenda and now I’m the happy owner of two pairs of John Fluevog shoes! Fluevog is on the funky end of the style spectrum, certainly not to everyone’s taste that’s for sure, but I love his work. He is actually a rea l person and according the sweet 20-something in the store he has a foundation that gives arts grants to his employees, she’s in a band and was the recipient of such a grant. These are Mollie Johnson Bellevues, and I know some of you are thinking…they look like granny shoes. Well, I think there is more to shoe life than stilettos and pumps in my opinion  and since yesterday I’ve been having fun doing fall wardrobe planning around these beauties. Velvet ribbon, silk satin ribbon and maybe even polka dots and striped ribbon is in the plan.
 The Original Shoe Laces  Petersham Ribbon From My Stash  2 Inch Black Lace Also From My Stash Most Vog’s come in several colors and he makes both men’s and women’s styles. And if you think every Vog style is merely funky-crazy, check out these over-the-knee boots called “Gaga” 
 If you have a fashionable friend who is going through medical treatment, these pretty band-aids from Cynthia Rowley offer some supportive bling. According to the NY Times:
Cynthia Rowley has been busy jazzing up one unseemly necessity after another. Now comes something everyone could use: 14 fashion-friendly Band-Aid designs, created in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson. Among them, strips of sequins, gold chains and lace, as well as square-cut bandages that look like jewels. Packaged in two different arty tins, the Band-Aids are a limited edition, and $1 from each sale at Cynthia Rowley stores will be donated to Design Ignites Change, which mentors high school students. As we see it, no pain, no gain.
 Click!  Click! Miss Cranky Pants is banished, this skirt managed to exorcise her! Recent projects by Gigi and Bunny inspired me to dig through my stash of heirloom trims and use them up. I did a lot of heirloom sewing when my daughters were young, but they outgrew those styles long ago and these pretty trims have been languishing for years. Sewing heirloom its easy and predictable like quilting, but wearing heirloom styles can be dicey in a modern context. It’s actually rather tricky to come up with heirloom garments that don’t look like reenactment clothing or Sunday best; I wanted something I can wear to work in the summer. Plus for me personally, as much as I love the look, a full-on Luxe Boho/Shabby Chic style looks silly on me .
For heirloom to work for me I need the trims need to be discrete and the pattern itself has to be more sporty/tailored than frilly. McCall’s 5591 has those qualities and its a summer skirt: flattering, easy to wear and a good base for embellishment. I made View A and eliminated the pockets. The yellow band at the hem on the pattern envelope is a piece of fabric folded in half with the fold forming the hem. That’s a separate pattern piece, so I just added that same amount of length onto the skirt pieces. The dotted Swiss is semi-sheetr so I added a n underskirt made from vintage eyelet that belonged to my grandmother. The embroidered dotted Swiss is from Gorgeous Fabrics (natch) and its cut in single layer layout so I could match up the embroidery at the side seams.
 Click!  Click! The trims are white tatting and French Val lace, and I made the lining a bit longer than the skirt to let the underskirt/lining peek out. The lining hangs free and the contoured waistband holds both the underskirt and the dotted Swiss. This was a little tricky because the center back seam of the underskirt was the last to be closed so I could finish the inside of the back zipper with hand fell stitching. The hems are done with a 1/8 inch narrow hemmer, and I have to say my vintage Wilcox & Gibbs hemmer foot works much better than any hammer foot on my domestic machines. I have no idea why this is but I love using it! After the skirt and underskirts were narrow hemmed the tatting and lace was attached with a narrow zig-zag. The tatting is butted up against the hemmed edge and in the zig zag the needle sweeps over the edge of the tatting to bind it to the hem.
And the cameo? I wanted to to see if I could style the skirt to show off the pretty underskirt. It’s a vintage piece my mother gave me and I really can’t wear it on the skirt without it being damaged but maybe I can find fabric flower or a nice vintage costume pin instead.
The next question is: what to wear with it? Maybe New Look 6755.
 Click! Yesterday at Lord & Taylor I found the perfect belt. This is actually a stretch belt, which I really like because I like a wider belt with dresses and I’m very shortwaisted. Stretch belts are really comfortable because they don’t dig into my ribs. Love the hardware, the macrame look and the color is perfect. Would you believe this is from Betsey Johnson? No? Here’s the proof!
 Click!  Click! New England is sweating away in the heatwave and this dress is kind of timely. One thing I remember from childhood are seasonal fabrics that have virtually disappeared from summer, old favorites such as madras, seersucker and dotted swiss come to mind. Gigi made a wonderful top from dotted Swiss and Ann rocked a skirt out of madras. When was the last time you saw a man in a seersucker summer suit? For me it was the 80’s I think. Modern knits are amazing, but they are ubiquitous year round and sometimes I really want to wear a summer fabric that’s not linen, so when I was at Jo-Ann’s a few weeks ago the store actually had several bolts of very nice seersucker and I could not resist!
Buuny did a cool version of 6116 that lowers the temperature just by looking at it, and I wanted a similar breezy shirtwaist to wear to Orlando next week. I found this great pair of retro Chie Mihara shoes to coordinate with an Alfani bag I’ve had for a few years so this homage to summers past is complete. Do you like the muslin strip that mocks up a belt? I do need to find one and I think a woven jute or woven metallic leather would look great. The buttons are Dritz, also from Jo-Ann’s and the piping and ribbon trim breaks up the green. I love this color, its kind of that Jadeite green so popular in the 1930’s.
 Click! This is a Palmer Pletsch pattern, and as Gigi noted the drafting is much better than a run-of-the-mill Big 4. The pattern tissue has a complete set of full bust adjustment lines and very detailed instructions for FBA changes. I’d say that if you’re ready to tackle an FBA just picked up this PP pattern and the whole process will be completely de-mystified.
 "Moonlight Clowns" Believe it or not, I have been sewing, but nothing has been in the “interesting to blog about” category. Made a few pairs of HP Marrakesh pants to wear around the house and also made up Vogue 8936 but my serger won’t do a coverhem so that project is on hiatus until I get it up to New Hampshire to be serviced. In the meantime, Bunny has inspired me to make up McCall’s 6116 shirtdress in seersucker to wear in Florida next week for ADA. American Dance Awards Nationals is kind of like a big convention; between the dancers, parents and teachers it’s about 3,500 people. ADA happens at big resorts; this year it’s at the Caribe Royale in Orlando. The people watching is pretty good and I need to takes notes for a dance competition version of fashion tribes. People come from all over the US and Canada; this year I want to look more polished. Not businesslike, but definitely not flip flop casual. Of course the indoor temps will be air-conditioned Arctic and outside it will be in the 90′s and meltingly humid. And then there is all the dance stuff we need to schlep…
 A national dance competition requires much much more than just vacation clothes. Between Abby and Emma we have 18 costumes and a raft of accessories: stage makeup, eyelashes, hair clips, earrings, hairspray and gels (for that slicked back dancer hair, no wisp
 "Positive Affirmations" ies allowed), wigs, hairpins, hairnets (to wear under wigs and for making a ballet bun) dance tights and dance shoes. Plus a couple leotards for the dance classes they take when they’re not competing. Add to this is regular clothes, bathing suits and evening clothes/shoes for two awards banquets. We’re lucky this year in that they need only their tap shoes and ballet slippers.
Oh – and only their costumes, dance shoes and accessories can go into our three carry-on bags because we can’t risk lost baggage…ALL of our regular clothes need to go into our checked bags, and of
course the airlines now charge checked bag fees. There are also weight limits; ballet slippers weigh nothing, but tap shoes are heavy – that’s 4 lbs right there for two pairs of tap shoes.
So my challenge will be to look good for 8 days with as few of my own clothes and shoes as possible. Stay tuned!
 Simplcity Patterns Magazine 1972
 Click! I have to give credit to Pattern Junkie (my current must-read daily blog!) for this tip; she found a vintage pattern that had a note on the tissue. Basically, when cutting a pattern piece that lays out on a fold, leave a margin on the fold line for easier pinning.
 Click!  Click! This is Abby’s (the purple paisley version belong to her sister Emma.) They just got back from and end of school year pool party and the wraps worked out well. This is a silk from Gorgeous Fabrics. As a skirt is also looks nice tied to the side.
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Phyllis - one of the original "Sewing Divas". Please visit my other sites.
This is where I write about organic gardening, raising backyard chickens, cooking and eating and green ideas for a more sustainable lifestyle.
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Lately I’ve been trolling vintage pattern web sites, mostly because it’s just so much fun and there is serious style out there that still looks good today. This weekend on Patterns From The Past I found Simplicity 6284 that I actually wore! (you need to scroll down the page to find it, this is not a robust web site) My mother made me the jacket and vest and I wore it for my senior class photo. The fabric may actually be silk taffeta; I did a burn test today and got that characteristic smell and soft black ash that silk makes. I think the collar fabric is a cotton or rayon matte shantung. Both fabrics are vintage and came from my grandmother’s stash, and the buttons are mother of pearl. Mom (who posts comments here as PVE) matched up the plaid pretty well I’d say so she gets a big hug fromm me! I <3 YOU MOM! The inside is not lined except for the sleeves, and she clean finished the seams with an overlock stitch. This is not a serged stitch however, this jacket made was more than a decade before before sergers were available to home sewers. At the time straight stitch machines did a approximation of a true overlock stitch. The facings are bound with black lace and the sleeves are lined with silver polyester satin. The rest of my outfit was a pair of RTW black satin jeans and black platform shoes with a 3 inch heel. I think the jeans had a rhinestone applique on the back too. It was a killer 70′s look lemme tell you!
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