Cutest. Summer. Dress. EVER.

Is version B, if you were wondering. But how cute are all of these? The scalloped hems on the dresses, the romperness of the romper... The pattern also has A, B, C and D cup pieces included, a huge plus for me. Glad I scooped this one up during the quarterly massive sale at Butterick, McCall's and Vogue (it's on until the end of today!). Not that I needed more sewing patterns or plans.

Or fabric to turn into said patterns.

Okay, I am officially cut off until at least six garments are made. Also because I am out of clothes, and full of supplies.

The lovely rayon challis above brings me to another thought. I mentioned to a professional designer/seamstress friend of mine that I love rayon fabrics. A lot. She's not so much into them.

I wash my rayon garments like any other delicate fabric, on gentle in the machine, hang or lay flat to dry. I know this supposedly is terrible for the fibres, but I've never really had any trouble with it except for one dress disintegrating at the armpits after the 100th wear or so. I'm not convinced that had anything to do with washing, and not the 100+ hard wearings (I am tough on clothes).

What do you think, dear readers? Do you wear or sew with rayon? Why or why not?

Wait, haven't I read this already?

Apparently I bought the last two issues of Interweave twice? If that's not a sign I should just subscribe, I don't know what is. I'm choosing to blame stress induced selective memory loss. But my strange purchasing habits could be your gain with another giveaway!

Just leave a comment on this post by Friday, April 8th at noon and you're entered to win both magazines.

In other news, I've decided I am going to tackle the bathing suit project starting in early May. I have no idea how I'm going to do this, so I guess it's research time! I like research time far more than is actually healthy. I have some construction details more or less worked out. I'll get a sketch of what I have in mind posted in the next couple of days. What I need to look into are different kinds of sport materials, and getting my serger back in good order.

Under two weeks left of my undergrad, then it's Sewing Bonanza 2011.

My New Favourite Thing EVER

Thanks to Karyn from Make Something, I discovered the V&A Museum's Patchwork Pattern Maker. It may be the coolest thing ever and allowed me to turn this:

Into this:

And it came with an instruction sheet including how many pieces of each colour you need to make up whatever quilt you decide on. It's all kinds of addictive, so be forewarned.

It was maybe not the best thing to stumble across this close to the end of school.

Do I like a challenge?

Maybe? I don't own a bathing suit. There are a few reasons for this, one being that I am extremely top heavy so finding anything that comes near fitting is kind of impossible. So I'm considering sewing my own, and maybe using the BurdaStyle pattern Allison as a start. I really like the vintage vibe and the double bust support straps. I'd have to play around with it a lot though. I'm thinking of adding a band under the bust and connecting it to the back tie for more support and using some kind of extra sport stretch fabric to line the cups. I really don't want to put bra cups the suit. Not so good when wet. Also adding some ruching down the sides for less super-revealingness.

I feel like this is one of those projects that would really make owning a serger worth it.

Any other bigger ladies tried sewing a bathing suit before? I would love some tips on this one.

And the Winner is...

#2! Thanks, random.org and everyone who entered.

Amber, can you e-mail me your mailing address and I will ship off your magazine (and some other niftyness).

If you didn't win, don't worry. There will be lots of other giveaways coming up!

Note to Self:

Quilt goes together this-away.

-Maddy

Spring Colours

Spring Colours by hooksvsneedles featuring woven shoes

Sparkle open back short dress, $48 Cowl dress, $110 Chloé silk charmeuse dress, 1,410 GBP Sleeveless dress, $45 Pins and Needles knit top, $15 Vest top, $30 Old Navy crop top, $20 Skirt, $295 Current Elliott 50s style pencil skirt, 165 GBP Dorothy Perkins woven shoes, 27 GBP Plastic jewelry, $10 Selima Optique glass shade, $300 Marc by Marc Jacobs couture hair accessory, $22 http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/thing.outbound?.mid=embed-textlist&id=30159168, $9.75 Scrapbook.com: Supplies and Scrapbooking Ideas#, $0.71 This is my second ever polyvore set. It's kind of addictive, and since I sew and thrift all my clothes, hard to be accurate. It's a lot like the big cut and paste book I keep for sewing inspiration. There's a bit of a snowstorm in Toronto right now, so I thought it was a good time to (procrastinate and) think of spring. These are some colours and shapes I'm planning to work with once the three weeks of doom are up. It seriously can't be over fast enough. Three weeks to freedom!

A super quick post

I'm down to 3 weeks of my undergrad! EEEEKKK!!!! Needless to say, there is freaking out. So, just a quick reminder that there is only a couple more days to enter my first ever giveaway. There will totally be more in the future, so don't worry too much if you miss this one. And to avoid a totally photo-less post, a sneak peak of my wistful future sewing plans: (Yep. I am one of those people who sew clothes with quilting cotton. And sew the same dress three times. But hey, I figure I will deserve whatever sewing indulgence I feel like by April 12th.)

Giveaway!

So a little while ago I had a bit of an ordering mishap from Interweave. It was sorted out promptly on their end, but left me with an extra copy of the Fall 2010 Knitscene magazine.

It's a pretty neat issue and you can see all the patterns here.

I thought I'd share the love by passing on my extra copy to you, dear readers. If you want to win, just leave a comment on this post before Friday, March 25th and I will choose randomly. I'll ship to wherever you are! :)

Invite me to your next fancy party?

I need somewhere to wear my new fascinator!


Yesterday was a sick day, and I just can't have nothing to work on, so I whipped this baby up from some feathers I got on Queen Street, a teardrop base from SquirlGirl on etsy, a doodad from my mom, and a piece of wool felt. Also a clip and some thread. I started by sewing on a hair clip to the underside, then lining the top of the base with matching red wool felt. I then individually sewed on the feathers in rows, adding some shorter ones pointing down at the end to hide the last stitching line. Then I stuck on this neat 60s rhinestone stud made with Czech crystals. It is endlessly awesome having a mom who sells vintage jewellery. Mostly because she didn't think I was insane when I ran upstairs looking for something to finish this off with.


Here it is on the scary pink head, so you can see the feathers a bit better. I kind of love this thing. Maybe a little too much. I'm not sure I needed to be wearing it while making chicken soup this afternoon... You know me, making cooking fancy.

Rainy Day Knitting

I have a bit of a problem when it comes to vintage patterns. Just ask my poor Brian and cat who have to live with them all! It's a gross, rainy, grey day in Toronto, so I thought I'd share a favourite from my collection with you knitters out there. May as well get some knitting done while we're snuggled up inside.

I picked up this copy of Minerva Style Book (volume 28) at the fantastic 69 Collective. I did some digging, and as far as I can tell the copyright has lapsed on this 1935 pattern booklet. I love the open shoulders on the top of this pattern. The hat pattern is also included, which is all kinds of nifty.



Click on images for larger sized versions. Enjoy!

Somebody's Been Time Traveling...

It wasn't me, but it feels like it could have been with my recent vintage scores. Of course, if I could time travel, I'd be a lot less worried about the paper I have due tomorrow and am currently not working on. Oops. I also wouldn't have been so mired in midterms that I haven't managed to do any crafting other than a bit of long term knitting in the last month. Painful to say the least. So here's some neat pictures to tide you over until the craft and art start flowing again.

This first beauty is something I've been searching for a while for: a 1920s sewing guide! This edition is actually from 1930, but the book was first printed in 1927. I think that counts.

And get a look at these ladies! Great clothes, yes? The book itself is black and white with sparse illustrations, but there's a little Singer add section in the middle in two colours. I plan to scan more of it as I go through.

I bought this circa 1938 booklet for the cover before I had a chance to flip through it. I was a little sad to find it mostly full of ads for all-bran and ways to stay regular. Was this a major problem in the past? All my vintage magazines seem to be full of similar ads. Still a great cover though; thinking of framing it.

This knitting booklet is part of a lot of four I just scored on eBay (which I was in no way shopping on instead of writing other papers... nope). The other three are women's pattern books, and I have a seperate post planned for them.

There's no date in the booklet, but don't you just love the vintage manly style? And boyish style. Hey, that kid looks awful familiar...