vintage may guest: nest full of eggs

May 14, 2012May 14, 201222 Comments

before i blogged, i posted photos of my projects on flickr. one name i noticed popping up over and over in the groups i visited, consistently sewing classically lovely projects, was “saganaga,” aka rachel of nest full of eggs. i adore her creations, from this tutu to this abbey jacket to this dress with crochet trim and so much in between.

rachel’s style is peaceful, beautifully simple, always classic, and i’m so happy to have her kick off vintage may today with a sweet little holly hobbie outfit! she took these photos on the actual prairie! so cool.

Thanks so much Kristin for inviting me, I was thrilled to be asked to contribute to the Vintage May series.

Playing dress-up is one of my 4 year old daughter’s favorite things to do and the Vintage May series inspired me to sew her a Holly Hobbie outfit. Do you know who Holly Hobbie is? If not, she is a patchwork pinafore-wearing little girl in a giant bonnet, a nostalgic sweetheart who was symbolic of simpler times.

sitting on the prairie

She wears a late 1800s period dress like Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie (you know, the TV show which ran from 1974-1982) which takes place in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, which is just a few hours drive away from where I live.

sewing on the prairie

I was out shopping at vintage shops in my area and saw this child’s Holly Hobbie sewing pattern, it was so super sweet, I immediately grabbed it right away (of course!)… it was size 4 ~ perfect for my 4 year old daughter! I was thrilled because vintage sewing patterns come in only one size. The pattern is Simplicity 5996 from 1973. That’s a photo of it by my vintage 1970 Singer Touch & Sew sewing machine with the original instructions manual.

my 1970 Singer w_instructions manual

I sewed my daughter the long dress, bonnet and long pinafore using fabrics that are available today. It was fun looking and shopping for cute calico cotton floral prints. I tired to stay true to the classic Holly Hobbie by sticking with the same colors/types of fabrics.

today's fabrics w_1973 pattern

I am sure you have already seen this blue floral fabric floating around sewing blogs or maybe you’ve already sewn something with it ~ it’s from the DS Quilts collection from JoAnn’s. It’s blue with little red and white flowers ~ absolutely perfect for the bonnet. The patchwork fabric is already pre-sewn that way (saved me a ton of time!), that’s available at JoAnn’s as well, you should expect to pay about double the price for that type of fabric, but it so worth it. And the white floral fabric I got at a warehouse fabric store.

lining_velcro on pinafore _ Holly Hobbie book

Just for fun, for the lining of the pinafore, I used a white cotton with light blue polka dots (from my stash). I wanted to follow the 1973 pattern as close as I could, but I did make one modern change and that was instead of adding 3 buttons to the back of the pinafore I added 3 strips of velcro because it’s being used for dress-up and velcro makes it easier to take off & put on.

By the way, the Holly Hobbie book in the photo is in French, it came from Grand-Maman & Grand-Papa (my daughter’s grandparents) who live in France.

My daughter enjoyed discovering flowers, running, hand sewing, etc. on a Minnesota prairie in her new Holly Hobbie outfit.

Happy Vintage May!

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thanks so much, rachel! what a great dress-up outfit, and your little gal is so sweet. please head on over to craftiness is not optional to check out a beautiful vintage-inspired dress by jess’ first vintage may guest, lindsay of the cottage home!

vintage may inspiration: flickr roundup

May 11, 2012May 11, 201212 Comments

well friends, we’ve reached the end of lead up week to vintage may! our wonderful guests start on monday right here and over at CINO – a guest a day on each blog for two weeks! this is gonna be good.

hope you’ve enjoyed the little inspiration posts jess and i had for you this week. i talked about modern patterns with a vintage feel, vintage sheets, did mini-tutorials for little skirts with vintage flair, and a strong boy. jess talked about her vintage sheet projects, sewed a vintage pattern with new fabric, did a tutorial for a beautiful dress, and talked about vintage notions!

meanwhile, you’ve been adding some really fantastic stuff to the vintage may flickr group! i’ve loved peeking in there often to see if anything new has popped in, and it sure has! behold!

1. reversible serena baby dress (1), 2. School Photo Dress, 3. UPcycled dress – vintage doily, 4. round neck dress, 5. Winter Romper (Junebug Remix) by you & mie, 6. Skirt With Vintage Linen Apron, 7. Vintage Oliver + S Sunday Brunch Jacket, 8. Girls of Summer, 9. Earthday Title 1, 10. Linen Puppet Show Shorts, 11. Dress made using the Sweet Tartan dress tutorial, 12. bubble skirt (1), 13. Kimono PJ’s, 14. Sewing Through the Decades: Mod 60s A-line Dress, 15. Vintage style Easter coat, 16. Class Picnic Shorts with Ruffles

beautiful work, you guys! love it all. check out the entire vintage may flickr group right here.

i also started a group pinterest board and invited as many of our guests as i could find to contribute to it. if you’d like to see our vintage inspiration, come take a look here!

see you on monday with our first guests and the official kickoff of vintage may! have a lovely weekend.

vintage may inspiration: strong boy

May 10, 2012October 16, 201319 Comments

i had decided that for my “inspiration leading up to vintage may” projects this week, i wanted to make something for my daughter and something for my son. but the idea that i had for him, which nestled itself in my brain and would not budge, was an old timey striped swimsuit/strongman type outfit (like this). it seemed so impractical, but was so funny to me that i just couldn’t shake the thought! so i made it.

originally i thought it should be one piece with sleeves, which is completely out of the box of what i’d have him wear, but after consulting various sewing blog confidants (especially this jess), i decided to make it a two-piecer, remixing rae’s flashback skinny tee into a tank top and making my own shorts pattern. the band at the bottom creates the illusion that it’s a one-piece romper, but it’s not!

the outfit is totally ridiculous, and it cracks me up with his little belly. i think he’ll get a lot of use out of the tank this summer, and i’m sure he can wear the shorts as pajamas at very least. and by the way – 17 month olds are terrible models! he wanted the “boos” off of the glitter wand i had taped them to and would do no “lift the barbell above the head” type poses under any circumstances. he started running off almost as soon as i could set him in place. it was one of those situations where i took a bunch of photos and prayed a few turned out. ha!

anyway, here’s a quickie tutorial.

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STRONG BOY TANK TOP

to turn the flashback skinny tee into a tank, narrow the shoulder seams 3/4″ (on the 12-18 month size). if you’re adding a contrast band as a hem, shorten the length 1 1/2″. i should have scooped out the armhole a little more, it cuts into him a bit. next time.

sew the pattern per rae’s instructions, attaching the neck binding as directed (the fold-in-half-and-sew-to-the-right-side method). use that same method to attach a hem band (total width of your tee minus 1″, 4″ height, and then fold it in half to make a 2″ band), and arm hole bindings (cut 2″ wide, and about 1″ less than the armhole width).

i used a serger for the whole thing and it went super fast. done. i’ll probably tweak the armholes a bit and make more of these for summertime. oh and the binding is actually bright red, but i couldn’t help but do some vintage photo processing on these. when else but during vintage may, eh?

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STRONG BOY SHORTS

make a pattern using pajama or knit pants that fit your kid well. i wanted mine slim fitting but a little wider than the PJs he has. add plenty of room at the top waistband to cover the kid’s diaper if he/she wears one – the shorts look silly if you just hold them up, but it’s necessary.

create a front and a back. cut two of each.

sew the side seams of each leg, front to its corresponding back, right sides together. then sew the crotch seam. turn one leg right side out, place it inside the other leg, and sew around the inseam. serge the top, fold down to create your elastic casing, and sew (leaving an opening for the elastic). insert elastic to fit. hem the shorts (highly recommend using a walking foot and a stretch/zigzag stitch if you’re using jersey knit).

just a few more silly photos…

he read his book and now he’s tired.

if you make a strong boy (kid) outfit using this mini-tutorial, please add it to the vintage may flickr group! i’ve got a round up coming soon, so chop chop! 🙂

today jess over at CINO is talking about vintage notions! check out her post here.

vintage may inspiration: little skirts with vintage flair

May 9, 2012March 2, 201416 Comments

i’ve long been intrigued by vintage trims like lace, doilies, and rickrack. what would i use them for? are they too granny? i’ve kept my eyes open to see how people use these sweet little trims in modern design, and i finally i know – you use them to make little skirts even cuter!

while i love vintage style and drink it in online, my own home, clothing choices, and what i sew for my kids tends to be more vintage-inspired. i love to follow purely vintage blogs for the eye candy and thrifty inspiration (smile and wave, cakies, bleubird, and a beautiful mess are some of my faves). months ago, i spotted an adorable doily skirt on cakies, a rickrack pocket skirt on bluebird, and i finally got the chance to try making them both! i’m super in love with the results and i thought i’d share a couple mini tutorials today.

*** RICKRACK POCKET SKIRT

make a simple selvedge-to-selvedge skirt (follow the oliver + s free lazy days skirt pattern, eliminating the ribbon hem and adding an extra .5″ to the length allow yourself to make a double fold 1/4″ hem).

my skirt fabric is kona mustard and the pocket is a vintage sheet.

make your pocket. cut two 5″ or 6″ squares out of your pocket material. fold in half and round all four bottom corners. sew right sides together, leaving a space to turn on the side. turn right side out, press. find the center of your skirt by folding it in half with the back seam, and also find the side the same way. center the pocket between the front and side.

slide rickrack under the pocket, and pin well. ease it around curves and try to keep the part poking out even. topstitch close to the edge of the sides and bottom of the pocket, which will close the opening in the pocket and secure the rickrack. add elastic to the waistband, hem the skirt, and you’re done!

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DOILY SKIRT

rubyellen’s doily skirt is hand-stitched, but i wanted to try machine-stitching it because it’s quicker and more secure. first make a skirt with a contrasting waistband (follow dana’s market skirt tutorial for directions but you won’t add the bottom band, so be sure to give your skirt enough length to work without it). wait to add the waistband elastic. i used a lightweight chambray and the waistband is a fat quarter from my stash. my chambray is two pieces, each 12.5″ long by 35″ wide for my petite four year old. i wanted it FULL. for best results, be sure your skirt material has some drape if you want to make it as full as this.

the doily looks like it’s from an estate sale, but it’s really from joann (probably would’ve been cheaper to thrift it, but i liked the look of this one, it’s cotton and sturdy). wash, dry, and iron it flat. i used basting spray for quilting to adhere the doily to the skirt centered between the front and side seam, and pinned around the edges as well.

take a close look at your doily and try to identify the “rings” that seem thicker and continuous so you can easily follow them around the doily.

starting in the very center, sew around a few “rings” using coordinating thread, backstitching at the beginning and end. then slowly sew around the perimeter of the doily, trying not to stretch it as you sew – just hold it down flat to the skirt. i sewed it on with a normal foot and my machine had no trouble – my stitches completely disappeared into the doily. can’t even see them from the front.

add elastic and you’re done! now your little gal can pick some flowers and relax in the shade with her best friend!

if you make a rickrack pocket or doily skirt using this tutorial, please add them to the vintage may flickr group!

today jess over at CINO has posted a tutorial for a beeeeeautiful eyelet overlay dress! you’ve gotta go check it out.

vintage may inspiration: vintage sheet projects

May 8, 2012May 8, 20128 Comments

i love sewing with vintage sheets, and i’ve had great luck finding lovely, nostalgic patterns at a normal thrift store. you get a lot of yardage for little money – most of mine are full size sheets that cost about $4 or $5 each! a full sheet is 81 x 96″ (2 1/4 yds x 2 2/3 yds), so it really is a great amount of fabric and you can often get multiple projects out of the same sheet. want to know more?

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WHERE TO BUY THEM:

i found almost all of mine at goodwill. there are usually a few lovely vintage sheets buried among the ’80s grids and scratchy cheap modern ones when i go (and i actually don’t get out thrifting very often). if i find a print i like, i buy it because i never know if i’ll see it again. if you can’t find any where you live, a quick search for “vintage sheets” in the vintage category of etsy yields 250 pages of results!

i tend to gravitate toward florals.

hey, how’d that get in there? a stripey outlier!

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WHAT TO MAKE WITH THEM:

clothes! i’ve been sewing almost 3 years now and am only recently starting to have any success at sewing clothes for myself. i’m so nervous trying something new, i tend to prefer using inexpensive fabric so i don’t stress out if it’s a flop. for my bow collar top, i was drafting adult-sized sleeves for the first time and adding a bow, and i was pretty terrified it wouldn’t work out at all. i used a vintage sheet just in case, and it actually turned into a nice top!

they’re good for kid’s clothes because they resist wrinkling and are very soft. many i’ve found seem to have some polyester in them, but are mostly cotton (details of the skirts below here and here).

i really like using vintage sheets for quilts and picnic blankets. plenty of yardage means you can easily make a baby-sized whole cloth quilt (the funnest and quickest quilts to make, if you ask me. that’s right…funnest) with plenty to spare. check to make sure they’re not too threadbare first. this quilt is backed with new quilting cotton.

or you can mix them with new fabrics to make a sweet garland. two vintage sheets are featured in this one. can you spot them from my stash above?

here, the popover sundress is a vintage sheet, and again, it blends nicely with skirts made with newer fabric (details here).

be sure to wash them once (or twice) first and avoid holes and stains when placing your pattern pieces. try a floral with a modern pattern, use them to build your sewing confidence, and wear your vintage sheet with pride! for even MORE vintage sheet inspiration, visit the vintage sheet blog!

have you sewn anything from vintage sheets, especially garments? please add them to the vintage may flickr group!

today my co-host jess has sewn a sweet little dress with a vintage pattern and modern fabric. you can find it here. more about vintage may here.