pink elephants on parade party

May 30, 2012September 14, 201239 Comments

way back before vintage may started, Em turned four! since her favorite thing is still the color pink (she’s obsessed with it, seriously), her party much resembles last year’s but with the added flair of elephants (her very favorite animal!). it’s a pink elephants on parade party!

the living room got the full elephant treatment, with even her favorite stuffed elephants in attendance…

the art was painted by my talented friend Erin in Em’s nursery colors before she was born, inspired by one we saw at a local store. she moved bedrooms so it normally hangs in O’s room now, though she has requested it be moved to hers soon. the elephant statue is from west elm a while back. i made the elephant garland out of felt using the same method as the elsie marley eye patch tutorial, which worked great though it was pretty much the most tedious sew ever. i wanted to do it right rather than glue it or something so it could hang in her room later (which it now does).

dining room decorations were a bit more subtle – just a little pink garland and a couple elephant drawings by our resident elephant artist…

our house is pretty small but has a great floor plan – the living and dining room are open to each other and separated by an archway, so we can fit a lot more people in than we should based on the square footage. and for parties, all i need to decorate are two rooms! kind of nice. we had the party in the morning again, which i love doing. the kids got a pancake bar and the adults got biscuits and gravy from pine state – yummmm…

Em helped me color her cake to be…which colors? oh yeah, pink and purple! i don’t care if this is all over blogland, pretty much no one at the party had seen it. Em helped me with the sprinkles (i cut a 4 out of cardboard and she sprinkled…er…dumped them into the stencil).

it was well-received.

the birthday girl wore a new oliver + s ice cream dress, a pattern i first made for her second birthday. this one’s View B in a 3T and because she has a big head i cut the neck hole in a 4T, though i should have just followed this tutorial to lengthen the opening because it slips down off her shoulder a bit. i omitted the v to copy gail. Em didn’t like the morning dew on her feet.

it’s in four colors of shot cotton from bolt, and i let her pick either a sparkly pink button or an elephant button…guess which one she chose?

i had originally planned to make the dress ombre but couldn’t find four pink shot cottons that worked, so i moved the colors around and added the purple. then i saw this lovely ice cream dress and realized i should’ve just done the top in the light pink too! gah!

her favorite gift was the sarah jane necklace we got her (you’ll never guess what’s on it).

it’s pretty crazy to me that she’s four already! she suddenly seems so grown up…

vintage may roundup

May 28, 2012May 29, 201219 Comments

vintage may has come to an end! i had fun, did you have fun? i hope you had fun. this was the first blog series i’ve hosted, and i had no idea what to expect. i was so excited about every guest post that rolled in, every comment, pin, and linkup. i found lots of new blogs, and i was inspired! thanks to everyone (visitors and sewalongers and guest bloggers and especially my co-host jess) who made it happen.

here’s a side-by-side roundup of each day’s guest posts, in case you missed any. craftiness is not optional guests are on the left, skirt as top guests are on the right. click on the project name to take you to the post, and click on the guest’s name to take you to their blog. we did try to schedule our guests to kind of “go together” stylistically, but as i was putting these photos together i was surprised to see just how perfectly each pair lined up! see for yourself…

WEEK ONE GUESTS

vintage inspired dress by the cottage home // holly hobbie by nest full of eggs

’60s tent dress by see kate sew // scalloped yoke tutorial by hart & sew

sewing with vintage patterns by simple simon & co. // vintage inspired dress by girl.inspired.

vintage tea dress tutorial by shwin & shwin // bubblegum dress and vintage pattern tips by made by rae

lace overlay dress tutorial by i’m thinking… // boy outfit with bloomer tutorial by cirque du bebe

WEEK TWO GUESTS

mod shift dress tutorial by aesthetic nest // modern lederhosen tutorial by running with scissors

fascinator tutorial by no big dill // oliver + s remix with mini tutorial by probably actually

vintage romper by crafterhours // vintage sheet shirt by elsie marley

colorblock leggings tutorial by me sew crazy // suspender skirt tutorial by you & mie

pleated tunic by noodlehead // violet femme dress by my sparkle

pretty great, eh? such talented ladies, thank you ALL. i love the variety of outfits and how everyone has a slightly different take on “vintage.” to me it’s one of those words that invokes more of a nostalgic feeling rather than a certain specific decade or style, so it was great reading the meaning behind your choices. i also really enjoyed reflecting on how i met each of my guests and what draws me to them. you may have noticed that my intro paragraphs got longer as the days went on, and i think that’s because i both missed writing my own posts and i just got more comfortable talking up their awesomeness!

the week before our guest posts started, jess and i did “inspiration posts” and a few of our own projects, and i did a flickr group round up – you can find that recap here.

and now, a final vintage may flickr group roundup! i can’t even believe how wonderful you guys are, and how many people actually sewed along for vintage may. i am so inspired by you – thank you SO much! here are some of my favorites…

finally, i wanted to send a HUGE thanks to jess for asking me to co-host this series with her. it was a truly collaborative effort and i’m so lucky to call her a bloggy friend! jess, you’re great. i’m so excited to find out whether your newest little bun is a boy or a girl! i’m rooting for a boy purely for all the new and exciting sewing projects he would lead to. 🙂

i hope everyone had a great weekend, and if you discovered my blog through vintage may, welcome! i’ve been sewing a bit during the past couple weeks and i’m excited to share my projects. just know i don’t normally post every day – three weeks of daily posting is a bit exhausting for this working mama! it was totally worth it for such a fun series, though.

thanks again, and i’ll see you soon.

vintage may guest: my sparkle

May 25, 2012May 25, 20129 Comments

my final vintage may guest is danielle from my sparkle. i found danielle’s blog when she made a beautiful secret garden romper for no big dill during katy’s once upon a thread series. i clicked through to check out her blog and freaked out a little, because she and i had so many things in common it was almost creepy (like down to our children’s birth stories, ages, and parts of their names). i emailed her feeling like a weirdo, but she wrote back declaring us kindred spirits! we’ve been friends since. she encouraged me to start a blog and was actually the “final straw” that got me to take the leap!

danielle is super creative with great taste. she shares cute tutorials like this matryoshka ornament, and she won season 3 of project run & play! remember her every color in the box dress? her great boy look? how about the gorgeous crewel work on her finale outfit? after she won, she wrote the perfect recap post (those little faces!). she is a great, honest writer, making her blog a pleasure to read…now if she’d only sew more often! YA HEAR ME, DANIELLE?!

today she’s sewn a beautiful vintage-inspired dress for her little gal that MY little gal has already requested a copy of. here’s danielle!

Hello! So happy to be here! I think my favorite thing about vintage fashion is the simple classic silhouettes. I tend to gravitate towards simplicity when it comes to clothing, and this baby-doll style is about as classic and simple as it gets. I actually created the pattern for this dress using a basic bodice, but I know you can find an almost identical pattern for this style.

My daughter has kind of unusual proportions so I often just use a bodice I know fits her well and alter it to make exactly what I want. In this case, I simply slashed the bodice pattern midway down the armhole, then spread the lower part to the fullness I wanted (I just made it as wide as my width of fabric…that’s generally how those decisions work for me), and added length.

The back was slightly more complicated as I curved the yoke a bit, but its the same process. Once your pattern pieces are done, don’t forget to add back seam allowances.

I used cotton voile, (actually the exact same one that Rae used for her dress) but I gave it a quick dip in a purple dye bath to change it from pink to violet. I love sewing with voile. It’s got such a crisp light feeling to it.

To add a bit of a modern touch, I added suede patches at the shoulders. “What? Suede you say? Are you crazy?” I know it’s bonkers, but it’s totally kid friendly. I don’t know much about leather care, but I threw it in the washer and dryer before sewing it and it came out soft and lovely. So there you go! Then I just used my yoke pattern to sketch out some patches that would fit and sewed them right on with my sewing machine. Is that allowed? I don’t know. It worked so I went with it. (FYI I got the suede at Hobby Lobby…it comes in rectangles roughly 8×10″.)

My only regret is that I didn’t just cover the entire back yoke with suede, but I was being a little cautious. The back closes with one big button and an elastic loop. I feel like this button in way cuter in real life… kind of mother of pearl with a flower carved into it. I think I’d prefer the look of the white button against the suede, instead of the violet fabric, but overall I’m pleased with how it came out.

I gave this little dress sleeves because I like how they look and I think they balance the short hemline. Plus, my babies burn in the sun so some coverage is nice in the summer.

I really wanted to keep the actual dress very simple but the outfit needed a little something, so I made this little bow using embroidered cotton ribbon that I got at Bolt last summer while visiting my sister. I LOVE it. I bought four yards and have been hoarding it away.

I gave this dress a nice fat hem. That is actually one of my favorite things about sewing with vintage patterns…they all have fat hems. It gives the dress a luxurious feel, and it actually serves a very practical purpose too. The weight of the hem helps the garment hang correctly, especially when using something as light as voile. Plus it gives you room to let out the them hem when your darling child grows an inch or two.

And that’s it! Thanks for having me, Kristin! Vintage May was such a great idea! So glad to be a part of it!

***

thank YOU, Danielle! so so cute and the color is beautiful on Avery. i hope our little ones can play together the next time you’re in town!

don’t miss Jess’ final guest, the lovely Anna from Noodlehead. check out the bunny cuteness here!

Jess and I will be posting series wrap ups and another flickr group roundup early next week, so if you have any last vintage may projects go ahead and add them. i love seeing what you’ve been sewing! have a great memorial day weekend!

vintage may guest: you & mie

May 24, 2012May 21, 201316 Comments

i first discovered you & mie via the project run & play flickr group during week 2 of my season. cherie sewed this awesome boy outfit, won the sewalong that week, and i was an immediate fan. week after week, she just kept making really cool stuff (like this mini hippie outfit and this color blocked coat) and i was so surprised to see she had only been blogging for a few months! she’s already guest posting all over town (including here!) and her totoro costume is quite popular on pinterest (she just sewed mei-chan for this season’s PR&P sewalong!). this girl is going places, i tell ya. you may recall i actually MET cherie when i visited san francisco last month, and she’s a super fun gal in person too. she just has a knack for sewing – almost never uses a pattern and already shares tutorials like a champ! she’s got crazy talent.

cherie has sewn a wonderful historically-inspired jumper for her little gal today with a tutorial for you!

Hello vintage lovers! It’s amazing what Kristin and Jess have put together here and I’m so honored to be a part of it! I must have run through 50 ideas for what vintage-inspired creation I wanted to share with you before deciding on something – the possibilities are endless! I decided to go through some old family photos to see if I could find some inspiration there and I saw a particular style pop up a few times in my mom’s childhood photos from Japan in the 1950s.

(LEFT: My mom, standing in front, with her two brothers and mother RIGHT: My mom, center, my grandmother, upper left and their neighbors)

(My mom, lower right, with her brothers and uncle)

I loved the simple and classic style of the jumpers my mom and her neighbor are wearing in these pictures. So I created a suspender skirt for my daughter and I’ve got a tutorial so you can make one too!

It’s got a bit of a school uniform vibe, but it’s still cute enough to be worn anywhere. It’s a simple high waisted pleated skirt with a flat front and elastic in the back. The buttons in the front are just for fun and completely optional. The suspender straps are sewn in the front and adjustable in the back for longer wear. You could easily use this technique to attach straps to any style skirt, pair of shorts or pants. If you want to make the straps completely removable, you can follow the directions for the back of the skirt in the front, and then the skirt can be worn alone or with the suspenders. So many options!

I played around with two different lengths in these pictures. High waisted and HIGHER waisted.

Maybe too high?

:: CLICK OVER TO YOU & MIE FOR THE SUSPENDER SKIRT TUTORIAL ::

Thanks for having me, Kristin! I’ve got vintage fever now!

***

isn’t her little yuki just so squeezable? i’m not sure i can handle it! thanks so much, cherie!

you’re not gonna wanna miss the awesome sauce leggings tutorial that jessica from me sew crazy has for you today over at CINO!

vintage may guest: elsie marley

May 23, 2012May 23, 201210 Comments

my guest today is meg from elsie marley. meg is one of the first sewing bloggers i ever followed, and she’s still one of my favorites. she’s just a super creative person. i’ve recently noticed that i’ll be into something and then i’ll realize that meg did it quite awhile ago (dip dyed wiksten tank or gingham for instance). her designs are clever and she has really great ideas. her creations are never fussy, but are always cool. meg is a former professional cook and chocolatier and her recipes make me drool. she’s also great at creating a sense of community – over 600 bloggers dropped everything and sewed along during her most recent kid’s clothes week challenge this spring, and it was awesome! she was one of the first to feature something i made, which totally blew my mind (it’s the birthday party dress!).

meg is a huge inspiration to me, and i’m damn excited to have her here today! she’s my first guest to sew with a vintage sheet – yay!

Hello skirt as top readers! I’ve been having so much fun following along with all vintage-y clothes making this month. So much fun actually, I almost forgot I was supposed to make something! I knew I wanted to make a button up shirt for one of my boys, and I knew I wanted to make it out of the perfect vintage floral sheet, but as soon as you start looking for something specific at a thrift store, it’s nowhere to be found.

I went all over town, but couldn’t find the kind of floral print I had in my head: not too boy-y, not too girly, not too mod. Time was running out, so I grabbed the three floral sheets I had in my fabric stash and enie, meenie, moe, picked this one.

I love how it turned out and he does too! It will be the perfect shirt for summertime, I’m sure. He’s already dubbed it, “my soft shirt.” Vintage sheets vary greatly. Some are on the super polyester side of things, some have a more natural, cottony feel, some–like this one–have been washed to within an inch of their life.

This sheet was so thin, the needle that was in my machine was tearing it up and I had to switch to a needle for finer fabrics. I think they are called sharp needles, which is weird and totally confusing, because aren’t all needles sharp? Ridiculous name aside, if the vintage fabric you are using is delicate you might try switching to sharps.

This pattern (edit: Happy Homemade Vol. 2 pattern t) came together surprisingly well. Surprising because I’ve only ever made one collared shirt before and it didn’t end well. And surprising because the pattern was completely in Japanese. I’ve sewn many garments from Japanese patterns before, but they have all been simple pants and tops. A button up, collared shirt qualifies as an actual garment–one grown ups even wear–I really didn’t think a few drawings could help me make it.

But they did. Well, there are plenty of not so perfect parts. Then again, the print wasn’t perfect either. Perfect, shmerfect, I made a shirt and my son loves it so much he gave it a nickname. Nothing better than that.