A Night in Old Hollywood

Just thought I would share some pictures of what I've been doing this week (not sewing related, ha!)

I'm one of 2 Junior class sponsors this year, and our main responsibility is to create "Prom".  We hold the prom in our school cafeteria and believe me it is no small feat to transform that space into another world.  We did it though! 

The kids voted on the theme last fall and I could not have been more happy that they wanted a "vintage Hollywood" prom.  Squee!!! Seriously, could there be a better match??  Here are some snapshots taken before I left last night (as in dragging my tired, aching body home and collapsing into bed at 9!)

In the last photo you can see about a dozen vintage movie star posters (we printed all of those in my classroom and "tiled" the prints so we could make large photos!  GENIUS!) and they are surrounded by movie quotes.  Honestly, me and one of the hard little workers got a little teary when it was all finished because it was soooo good.

Would you believe we did all of this for $2000?  We rock!

And now I'm off to finish my dress for tonight.  It's prom night!

lovely blog inspiration

Brief intermission to bring you flash fashion news...

I ran across a really gorgeous fashion pictorial a couple of days ago and wanted to share some images here.  The blog is From Me to You.

I had high hopes upon stumbling across it that it was a vintage fashion blog, but no, it appears to be a photography blog.  (All images are credited to the blogger/photographer, I just had to share, they're so lovely!)

These are from Fashion Week, and feature a variety of glamorous, vintage celebrity inspirations. 

Such beautiful outfits, and all so easily worn today too.  I hope you'll go visit the frommetoyou blog and see all of the daily outfit photos.  There are several featured with each outfit, and well worth the visit.

Carry on.

Vtg Butterick 7762 - in progress

Sorry for the MIA-ness this week.  I had a school trip last weekend, and Saturday school, and new classes, and general running around trying to catch my tail.  Very little sewing going on, but I did do some handstitching on a nautical knit top from this vintage Butterick 7762:

I have had this pattern for YEARS (like, more than 10!)  It was one of the first vintage patterns I ever bought.   I don't know why I waited so long to try it. I was prompted into it by the super cute Sarah over at Rhinestones and Telephones, who has been using this pattern the past year for all sorts of cute things.

I made the top in a navy/white stripe poly-something knit:

 

Love the print, hate the fabric.  It's HOT.  

It's not hemmed yet, and if you look close you can see the serged edge of the sleeves.  I still need to finish tacking down the boatneck facing too.  I typically hate boatnecks ON, but I love the look of them.  Why is that?

Here's a much less flattering shot, hehe.

Gah.  I could have sucked it in, right?  I will comfort myself that it's just a bad angle.  Ahem. You can see the hem rolling up too. I never noticed, but it was that way in every single shot.  You can sort of see the cool chevroning that happens when you stitch this top in a stripe.

Those red pants are about to fall off my butt too.  They're actually the ankle-length pants from this pattern!  I haven't put in the waist stay or facing yet.  I was trying to decide if they needed a bit taken up at the waist (and now I 've decided YES, or I'll have saggy crotch.  Ew.)

That's it.  I was gonna show you the pants too, in progress, since they fit pretty darn well.  But, saggy crotch prevents me. Let me get the waist taken up a tad, and a stay in place, and then I'll show you!

Green plaid dress is still waiting for a zipper.  Why do I procrastinate on these??  It's so cute too, and the weather is PERFECT for wearing it right now.  Maybe this week. 

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I Really AM All That Meme...

Awarded to moi by the cleverish Kristine...

Here's the rules girlie-o's:


The recipients of this award are asked to answer the following questions, link to whoever awarded them and then pass it on to five, no six people (who they think will actually be willing to answer these totally intrusive and possibly inappropriate questions).  Feel free to snag the badge too!

The questions & my answers:

1) What size shoe do you wear?   If you wear a size 8.5*, can I borrow your shoes?

8-1/2.  (@Kristine: Neener neener. Pwned by the shoe ho.)
* replace this with your shoe size!

2) 30's or 60's?

30's, pip!

3)  Have you ever kissed someone you shouldn't have?

Ha.  Yes.

4) Have you ever been poisoned?  Was it by the girlfriend of the person you kissed??  That is awesomely "Knot's Landing".

Nope.  Well, wait.  Does food poisoning count?  If so, then it coulda been the girlfriend. 

5) Who's on your "Celebrity Free Pass" list (top 5)?

Only 5?  Ahem:
1.  Lee Pace (call me!)
2.  Keanu Reeves 
3.  Henry Cavill (clearly the party who told the clueless second party about the Dunhill black helicopter commercial should have first dibs. Just sayin.) 
4.  Nathan Fillion
5.  Colin Firth

And the lucky six nominees for my IAAT award are...

Shannon of Frogs in a Bucket
Barbara of Moxie Tonic
Shannon of Hungry Zombie Couture
Sarah of Rhinestones & Telephones
Katie of Kadiddlehopper
Michelle of Cheap & Picky

Vintage Simplicity 4657 - skirt!

I finished my skirt, the sun came out, I had cute shoes...time for photos!

 

Here the illustration for Simplicity 4675, a vintage pattern from the 50s:

I really just used the skirt pattern piece for length measurements (plus, I had to shorten due to limited fabric!)

This cute dotty fruit print has been in my stash just over a year, but I bought it on ebay and I can't find another piece of it anywhere!  It's by Darlene Zimmerman (? I may be butchering that) and was part of the "Clothesline Club" in 2007 per the selvedge. 

It's just your basic dirndl skirt, but I love it.  It's swishy and poufy.  Maybe shows a bit too much knee, especially on a windy day, but I have a vintage crinoline/petticoat on the sewing table right now being "altered" to fit me.  It's RED polkadot lace and will be perfect peeking out at the knee. 

I stitched the hem in red:

No pockets yet, but as someone pointed out to me, I can always add them later!  I did cut them out, so I'll just stash the pockets away.  They may look cute on a different skirt at some point in the future too!

My red bow ballerina flats are from Target:

I have them in black too!

That about sums up the sewing for the week  (I sewed on one hook/eye and a button).  We had Saturday school to make up for snow. Blech.  But now we're on the downhill slide to summer...can you feel it??  I can!

One more swishy vintage skirt picture...

 

Enjoy this beautiful, sunny Sunday!