Sewjo.

I saw that mojo-coined term on the Pincushion Treats blog. She's so cute. I'm practically salivating over her recent Ava blouse too.

Anywho, I'm feeling a bit of return on my own sew-jo I think.  Especially with fall looming closer and closer.  Of course most of the things I'm going to share with you today are all summery.  Such is my life, right?

In the same vein as Pincushion Treats' Ava blouse, I'm in love with lacy insets and details right now.  IN LOVE.  Like this gorge Zara blouse with lace bow inset:

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I think I could use my Sorbetto pattern to knock this off.  It would require a cami of some sort, but Lord, it's pretty. 

It reminds me of this Sencha by Colette Patterns: 

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 Have I ever mentioned how much I love red and blue together?  Speaking of Sencha's, this is another beautiful example of yoke detailing from the Colette blog:

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I'm never sure how practical all of that openwork is, since I would have bra straps and cami straps showing, but it sure is pretty. 

I'm in total and complete love with this top too, although I've had the devil of a time trying to track down the original source image.  The source link below is as close as it gets I think. Gorgeous Edwardian-inspired white lawn and lace:

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I'll take two, please. On the same blog I found this lovely creation too:

I think you could use the Colette Jasmine and knock this one off fairly easily (and have sleeves!)  The little jabot and applique are such sweet details. Love.

And then there's this amazing top of tucks and lace. Those are angels singing, btw.

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The lacework would take a bit of finagling, but note that it's all essentially straight seams.  Totally knockoff-able.

So that's my weekend in a nutshell...finally breaking out the warm fuzzy socks and dreaming about lawn and linen and lace.  

It's a quandary.  

But a good one.

in progress: Vtg Simplicity 1672

Hiya. I'm actually making progress (sort of) on something. Today I started on an adorable 1940s war-time dress, in the scalloped version:


For fabric, I chose this creamy white and purple vintage find:


There's a slight slub in the weave, making it a little bit crisper and dressier than plain old cotton. It's only 36 inches wide and I have a little more than 4 yards, so I'm hopeful I have enough! I may have to do the facings out of a solid white.

You know I've been exhausted and slow-going for a couple of weeks now. I thought it was just the busy school year, but turns out I also have a kidney infection. I am taking it easy this weekend, partly because I only have small bursts of energy. Honestly, folding laundry this morning wore me out. This easy little dress may take me more than a week to finish!

I've got the bodice altered and now I'm taking a break to write this post. This afternoon I plan to cut out the bodice and alter the skirt pieces.

In fun mail day news...this beautiful vintage slip came this week:


I am seriously in love with it. It was a "cutter"; in other words...it has a couple of worn places and there are a few lace tears, so the ebay seller was putting it up cheap to be CUT UP by a crafter!! WHAT?? (haha). No no no no no. This is a gorgeous example of lace work and fine pintucks and no way was I going to let it be cut up if I could help it!

Here's a close up of the tucks, 5 folded tucks followed by 5 tiny pintucks.


The laces are amazing, alternating with a tiny strip of batiste fabric between sections.


Oh, if only I had a 23" waist, I'd repair the few bits and wear this! Anthropologie had a similar slip/skirt last year. Maybe I should use this one and knock off my own version!

edwardian lover.

(And no, that's not someone who is Team Edward.)

It's ME! I love Edwardian...it may be my favorite clothing era (after the late 30's/early 40's obviously.)

I love beautiful things like this (which is actually a peachy-pink, and technically probably dates to the 30s anyway. Thus the mucho lovefest in my heart.) These photos are from vintagetextile.com, and I think both of these garments are currently available for purchase.


Yup, it's a nightgown. Look at the up-close details!


Wouldn't that be a great summery top?? All light and floaty and ethereal (because you KNOW I'm angelic. It's even part of my NAME. hee hee.)

This is gorgeous too, and probably dates closer to the correct period. You could do closures, or just a CF on the fold instead of an opening:


The next one is from this etsy seller, and image credit goes to that shop. Same beautiful lace detailing, same floaty and light feeling. Excellent (and easy to recreate!) summer top:

Can't picture this for current day clothing? White lacy, delicate tops have made an appearance in fashion the past few years, often paired with scruffy denim. Check out this anthropologie top from last summer (which I vow to recreate in the aqua colorway):




I even have robin's egg batiste and ecru laces in stash. But I really, really love the white too.

I'm out of school now. Finally!! So after my brain recovers from the endless packing/grading/planning/cleaning...I'll be refreshed and ready to roll on some summer sewing!

Pink Lacy Baby Dress

This dress was an exciting project for me! It is a reproduction of an early 20th century baby dress, in pink cotton batiste and a variety of cotton laces (both tea-dyed).


After I fell in love with Sew Beautiful Magazine, I had ordered all the back issues I could find. The instructions for this sweet baby dress are in the Easter 1996 issue (now out of print). The article is called "Grandmother's Teddies". The original baby dress was created from an Edwardian slip, part of a mother's trousseau.


The instructions were for a size 2 and I had absolutely NO experience resizing patterns/instructions, so I just had to wait until Lu was old enough I could make this for her!! The bodice is entirely made of lace. Strips of varying widths are zigzagged together to form the majority of the bodice, with a mitered section forming the square neckline.


Vertical strips are then zigzagged onto the right and left edges to form the little cap sleeves. The neckline also has a slightly gathered piece of lace edging adding a sweet ruffle. For those of you unfamiliar with sewing with "French" laces, the lace that does not have a scalloped edge, but is straight on each side is called "insertion". The lace with a scalloped edge is called "edging". (**Note: my laces are actually domestic, not French. I couldn't afford French laces! I found a great mail order catalog that had a cheaper alternative cotton lace in pretty patterns.)


The skirt portion is just 2 rectangles of fabric. The pink batiste was off the bargain table at my local Wal-Mart (which used to carry fabrics!) It was so sheer and pretty. The skirt has 3 folded tucks above a lace "fancy band". A fancy band is really just strips of lace, sometimes bordered by a lace or fabric ruffle, and sometimes just a strip of edging to finish it off.


My tucks aren't exactly evenlly spaced, which probably drove me crazy back then since I was so particular. But now, I love those uneven tucks. I think they are so sweet! And its a testament to my growing skill set.

Underneath the little lace dress is a matching pink slip. I drafted the slip using the neckline and armholes of another dress pattern, and then just a-lining the skirt piece out (measuring the length of the finished lace dress first.) The hem is just a single piece of lace edging. This is just a quick easy way to hem things! I still like to hem with lace, because its so fast and pretty. Maybe I'll do a French sewing with lace tutorial if there's interest!


The neck and armholes are finished with a machine shell-hem. I had a basic machine back then, no bells and whistles, so I used the "blind hem" stitch to cheat this. Looks so dainty! Of course, as tiny as this dress is, it wouldn't have taken long to do by hand. But I was learning how to do all of these techniques and I was always excited to see something actually work out!


I know I am repeating myself, but this is one of my very favorites. I love, love, love this little dress. The original dress in the article was passed down from generation to generation, each baby girl being photographed in the lace dress. I hope that some day I will have future babies in the family to pass on this adorable dress.

vintage inspired: lace dress

Continuing the story of my sewing journey, we skip ahead a year. My first year of sewing has been grand, learning new techniques, trying out commercial patterns...and I get a little bit bolder when I see a dress I just have to have for spring.

It's a lace dress, a 1930s reproduction, but I can't find a pattern that quite matches (mind you, this was before I even knew what eBay was!) Instead, I chose a sleeve from here, a neckline & bodice from there, a skirt from another...and added some of my newly acquired French sewing skills to add the lacy detailing. Here is my 1930s Lace Dress:


The dress itself is an all-over embroidered rayon netting. I believe I got it in the bridal section of my local Hancocks. I probably had to save up for it! The lace is cotton lace, also from Hancocks. I remember being so excited that I found real cotton lace there. It was OLD. And I bought a bunch of it at a 50% off sale! I still have a bit left, too. I tea-dyed the entire lot (netting & lace) in a tea & vinegar bath to "age" it some more.

The bodice was empire, but I added a strip of puffing all around, edged with more lace:


Here's a closeup of my puffing. I was so proud of it, although no one in my near circle of family & friends had the slightest idea of what puffing was:

In the back, the puffing gets tighter at the center back, where the bodice also gathers:


The hem has a netting ruffle, also edged with lace:


Here's the dress without the underslip. It's so dainty and sweet.


For underneath I made a cream slipdress, using a New Look pattern long thrown out.


I knew nothing about FBAs or fitting, the only sewing book I possessed was a 1970s edition of the Reader's Digest Guide to Sewing that my mom & dad picked up for me at an auction for $2. (I still have & use this too! It's my favorite how-to book for the basics!)


Consequently, the slipdress fit through the bustline, but was too big through the neck & shoulder area. Not having anymore fabric to cut another (and no $$ to buy more) I cut away the binding from the neckline and made little darts in front, and a box pleat in back, fiddling with it until it fit. I actually liked it better after my "fix".


I wore this dress to church a few times, but I wished that I had some grand tea or summer wedding to wear it to! I'm not in my 20s anymore, and the dress is too snug now. Sniff. I wish I could still wear it. I would! Everywhere!

Maybe with my cream silk vintage hat.


I'll be posting a lacy baby dress next. It went hand and hand with this one, a reproduction of a vintage 1920s baby dress.

Flipped

Easter skirt is finished! Just take a lookie!


I used one of the Durham Quilts rose prints for the skirt, with the coordinating stripe (as shown in my little Easter plan last week.) I don't know if you can tell in the pictures, but the pink Nelona is an exact match for the light peachy-pink roses, and the darker coral pink in the bullions also match the darker pink in the print.

The top is so pretty and rather elaborate, I didn't want an over-the-top skirt. The skirt pattern is the simple flippy skirt from Simplicity 4104. (I used straight ruffles instead of the circular ruffle in the pattern since my fabric was a stripe.) The ruffle is edged in lace rather than hemmed.


Of course the focal point of this really adorable skirt is the flip-flop lace shaped bow on the front! I really love heirloom techniques and I've been wanting to include them on more types of fabrics (not just fancy dresses.)


I removed the fabric from behind the lace bow and replaced it with pintucked fabric. I pintucked 2 squares of fabric using the smallest twin needle I had and a 1.0 stitch length. I just used the edge of my presser foot as my stitching guide (I don't have a pintuck foot for the Bernina!) I also used a wing needle and pinstitched around the entire lace bow. The only time holes in my fabric make me happy!


And here is the completed Easter outfit! (Sorry for the shadows! It's so windy, I had a hard time finding a place to photograph!)

Happy Easter everyone!!