What Do Your Patterns Say About You?

I don't mean your styles or anything like that, but what do your cut out patterns look like when you're done with them.  I remember my mother mumbling over a pattern someone lent her once and telling me, quite crossly, not to wad my patterns up when I put them back in the envelope.  Something I really didn't need to be told!

The top photo shows a wadded up, flattened pattern piece I found in a used pattern I was checking to see if it had all the pieces.  I had to carefully pull it apart to open it.  If I had been using it I would have had to iron it.

I normally fold my patterns as neat as I can get them.  Sometimes I even go so far as to fold the pattern so the number is on top (I got the idea from someone else -- I can't remember who to give the credit to though).  That tells you what kind of person I am.

Oh, and the wadded up piece at the top...notice the pattern by it has black ink and it has blue?  Yeah, that piece didn't even belong in the envelope it was in!

Thieves, Creeps, Nasties, and Such Ilk

Gratuitous Sewing Machine Shot

I was catching up on some of my blog reading yesterday and read with interest two posts:  the first from The Slapdash Sewist about the dangers of Flickr and the second from Sewaholic which links to the previous post.  Both discuss the nasty people using photos from Flickr for their strange fetishes and personal weirdness.  I wasn't exactly surprised about this kind of behavior.  I know how terrible people can be...I did work in a public library afterall.  (I was surprised that there are turtleneck fetishes). 

This just made me think about what we put out there for people to see on our blogs.  I know some people never show their heads in photos at Sew Retro and other spots.  They also don't show their kid's heads -- I agree with that -- I would never show my kids.  Sometimes I wonder about it when I put my own photos up.

Last year I was informed by a commenter that one of my posts had been stolen (one of hers too) and gave me the link (which I can't find).  A "sewing" blog had put up my post.  I checked out the site and it consisted of numerous people's blog posts --probably all taken without permission-- grouped together on a site full of advertisements and such.  Whoever has the site is apparently getting paid for other people's stuff.

I generally take some care of what I post.  I once posted a photo that I didn't realize had an envelope with my address on it in the background.  A few hours after the post was up I spotted it and reposted without it.  I was quite perturbed with myself.

These sorts of things get me to wondering about some of the stuff I've posted.  What about you, does it make you rethink some of your posts with photos?

Vintage Butterick Dress Pattern

Butterick 8128 -- a classic dress with either the tie collar or the "Italian collar" as it says on the back of the envelope.  The front is one piece with kimono sleeves.  The back isn't one piece but two with another piece sewn in to create that fancy pleat.  The plaid  dress in View C looks like it would be such a casual dress...but not with those white gloves.

Spring Flowers!



Taxco silver brooch

 Do you change your jewelry around for the seasons?  Just as when Fall came around and I switched my main jewelry box around for autumn leaves, I'm now switching things around for Spring.  Part of the fun of this is looking through the jewelry box!

There must have been millions of circle pins made.  I still see them for cheap in the Goodwill.


Coro Flower Brooch

 

Har brooch

The above brooch is so top heavy it has to put on a coat to hold it up without flopping.

Hawaiian jewelry

 I had a great aunt who lived in Hawaii in the 60's and 70's so I inherited some of the jewelry she had given my mother.  I think a lot of it is outlawed these days -- we don't need to strip the coral reefs to adorn ourselves with it.

Despite showing all these brooches, I don't wear them a great deal.  What I really wear in the spring and summer is bracelets. 



Miscellaneous Bracelets of rhinestone, bead, mosaic, and chain



Scarab Bracelets

The one bracelet I wear the most is my scarab one.  I have two but I wear the left one more.  Any time I'm going out and grab a piece of jewelry (because going out without something would be like going naked, wouldn't it?) I grab the scarab bracelet.  It's lost some of its gold but I still like it -- it goes with everything.  I believe these are from the time of Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor -- Egyptian style jewelry became quite fashionable...again.

I've mentioned before how I used to pick all this stuff up cheap in thrift stores back in the 80's.  The rest of it I inherited.  I spent a few minutes one day looking at vintage jewelry on Etsy that was selling at a reasonable price.  No, I didn't buy any!

Crafty Sewing This Week

The kids are on break so I'm not doing much sewing this week.  I was sorting through son #2's dresser to get out all the outgrown clothes when I remembered a recent post by Miss Sews-it-all showing a t-shirt tote bag.  A quick search of "free pattern t shirt tote" got me a simple tutorial.  (I think it was the one at sewing.about but the tutorials are all similar.)  Cut off the sleeves, cut the neck bigger, and serge the bottom closed.  In less than ten minutes I turned an outgrown t-shirt into a tote bag.  The nice thing about it is that it's a kids size so the bag isn't too big -- perfect for fitting in the side pocket of my purse and carrying small purchases.  I always seem to forget my bags when I run in to buy thread and stuff.

I mentioned serging it.  I've been so busy lately I never mentioned my new serger did I?  Time and again my husband quizzed me why my seams look nothing like RTW.  I explained the serger (more than once), and for Valentine's day he insisted on buying one.  According to him it was a shame for my clothes to look so tailored from the outside and homely on the inside.  (I think he had those two linen dresses I made last summer in mind...they were a mess, but I didn't try very hard on them).  I picked out the somewhat inexpensive Brother 1034.  I've heard good things about it.  It works fine!  I've enjoyed using it on some things lately.  In fact, when I was trimming the shoulder seam on my husband's shirt to flat fell them I accidentally cut into both seam edges at one point.  They got sent through the serger after that.  It's a nice addition to the sewing area -- which is also getting some tidying up this week.

Vogue Special Design Suit Pattern

This lovely pattern has been in my collection since the beginning.  I always thought it was beautiful and elegant, but last week I sat with a couple of my pattern boxes and pulled this one out.  I knew that I would never make this outfit. So, despite it missing the facing pieces, I listed it on Etsy (with a mention of the missing pieces).  It sold by the next day.  I'm sort of sad to see it go, but now it can go into someone else's collection -- someone who might actually make it.  And, of course, I'll pocket the money I got from it and perhaps come across a pattern I will make.

Notes to Myself

Do you leave notes to yourself on your sewing stuff?  Just little things to help you remember.  I do.  Yesterday I opened the above skirt pattern thinking I might make it again.  I always make my skirts a size 12, but out of the pattern fell my note that this skirt fit in the size 10.  I have to admit I was a little pleased with myself for having the foresight to leave myself this note -- I'm organized but not usually this organized.  It certainly saved me from some trouble.

I also occasionally leave myself post-it notes on my sewing machines.  Because I normally have two machines set up, if I leave one different from my usual set up for more than a couple of days I have to remind myself.  The scrap above I left sitting on a machine to tell me it had a fine thread and size 65/9 needle in it.

I find it kind of sad that I have to leave myself notes since I used to have such a sharp memory.  But it's nice not to waste time trying to remember this stuff -- I just have to remember to leave the notes.

The Danger of Vintage Sweat

If you've read my blog for awhile you might remember this vintage 1920's dress I've shown before.  I even wore it for some photos.  But in the photos I kept my arms down to keep this dress' dirty little secret hidden.  Our poor flapper who wore it originally was a bit sweaty.  And old sweat can do some terrible things to clothes.  You've probably seen clothes with old stains, but this dress is worse.  The underarm fabric is not only stained -- it's falling apart:

The dress was this way when I originally got it at a garage sale -- it was only $5 for it and another dress, and I thought it was worth it for the belts buckles on both or copying them.

One of the things to do before storing textiles is to wash them (but not iron them).  This is a good example of why.  It's amazing in a way that this dress is even still around today -- perspiration damage or not.  Perhaps our flapper had a great time dancing in this dress.  And she, like most people, didn't think about washing it before putting it away.  There is one good thing -- the dress doesn't smell bad.

One Of The Nibbled On Patterns

Back when I bought the bulk of my vintage patterns at an estate sale in the mid 80's, there were about half a dozen Butterick patterns from the same time period that had little holes where something had wandered over the patterns nibbling away at them.  None of the other patterns were eaten, and there was no sign of the little varments that did it -- none ever showed signs of being eaten after I got them either.  The above Butterick 7848 is one of them.  You can see some of the nibbling on the pattern description leading down to the ck in Butterick and the t at the end of Bust at the top is gone.  The big holes at the bottom have been eaten at the top of each.  There's a lot of general wear too.  This is probably the worst of the nibbled patterns --there's more on the top flap and back.  I'm not sure, but I'm going to guess a silverfish did it.  They're pretty common around here.  Apparently the envelope was the tastiest part since the rest seems ok.

Sewing Machine with Magic

I spotted this sewing machine in the Goodwill a few weeks ago.  I love the name: Wizard.  I was very tempted to buy it just because of the name (and it was only $6.99), but I didn't.  As much as I like playing with sewing machines I knew it would just end up being a big bookend.

The Wizard wasn't there a few days ago when I stopped in the Goodwill.  Hopefully, someone bought it, cleaned it up, and is doing some fantastically magical sewing on it.

Simple Skirt Pattern

This is just a basic vintage skirt pattern.  You can find similar modern skirt patterns.  A classic design.  Nothing special.  But one of the neat things about vintage patterns is finding things the previous owner left behind in the envelope.  Melba Martin bought this pattern for 40 cents on November 1 and left the receipt in it.  Judging from the pattern Melba didn't make the skirt either.  This happens to me sometimes too.  I buy a pattern intending to make it but sometimes don't.

Another Shirt Almost Finished

It's a dreary day here and I can't get a good photo of this shirt at all.  After making my husband's shirt I picked out some patterns and fabric to make myself some.  I used Vogue 8598 and a 100% linen in a green/dark chartreuse to make view E which is just a basic shirt. It doesn't have buttons and buttonholes yet.

The shirt sew along has helped me more than I expected.  Some of the details that I used to have trouble with I no longer do.  Also the instructions in this pattern seemed more complicated than they needed to be compared to the man's shirt, so I didn't follow them exactly but substituted the others.  One instance was with the cuffs --the instructions have you slip stitch them down inside.  I didn't; I topstitched them down and it worked fine.

It's a princess seam shirt and the fit is perfect aside from the sleeves being about an inch too long. I cut the size 10 with a little extra at the hip.  I love the linen.  It's wrinkly stuff but I don't mind --that makes it nice and casual.  Since my ironing board sits out most of the time anyway running the iron over it quickly isn't a problem.

I seem to be addicted to shirt sewing all of a sudden.  I've laid a pattern and fabric out on my table to cut this weekend and have two more planned --I might make a whole cutting out weekend and cut them all.