{10 October 2011} Weekly Sewing Inspiration

Image sources: 1 & 2:  Casey's Elegant Musings, Fashion in Film stills from the Black Angel (1946). 3: Rita Hayworth in Cover Girl (1944) from Movies 'Til Dawn, 4:Hollywoodland.

Sequined blouse pattern giveaway winner...

The winner of the 1945 sequined blouse pattern is...

Crystal from the blog Vintage Loving Mom!!  YAY Crystal!!

My class with Gertie

While I was in New York City, one of the things I knew I absolutely had to do was take a sewing class with Gertie.  Oona and I plotted and planned about taking a 2-hour class and we were lucky enough to find a day that worked with Gertie's schedule!

Gertie teaches and holds private lessons at the Sewing Studio.  This place is AMAZING!  What is also brilliant is that you can rent space here to sew--it only costs $13.50 a week (only £8.50) to use the space an unlimited amount of times during one week.  They have amazing space, huge cutting tables, pressing stations, loads of sewing machines and overlockers, changing area, etc.

It's perfect if you are just in town for a few days but still want to get some sewing done!  I so wish other cities had this (and at such a good rate!!)  Plus, they are open late--until 11pm!  And I was the only one there on the day that I went!  Very nice!

Oona and I decided that we would each pick one thing to focus on in our lessons.  I choose bound buttonholes.  It was a method I hadn't tried but knew we could easily cover in an hour.  I'm so glad we did! It is amazing to see someone do it in person.  So how did we do?  Well, we watched and listed to Gertie do the buttonhole first and then we gave it a try.  Then we both forgot our patch!!! hahaha...that means that our buttonholes wouldn't have had lips!  Too funny.  Gertie gently asked if we were missing anything...oh yes! The whole second part of the bound buttonhole!!

Another funny moment came when we were marking the length of the buttonhole.  Gertie hands me this large clear ruler with a curvy side and a regular side with all sorts of markings.  I may not have mentioned before but I have very few sewing gadgets and I didn't know how to use the ruler!! hahahaha.  I was quite befuddled being able to SEE through it! lol.

In the end we both made lovely looking buttonholes.  Gertie's buttonhole is on the left and my very first one is on the right!  I am quite proud of it (and it wouldn't gap if I steam ironed it a bit!!)

For the second part of the class we focussed on draping! That was loads of fun and something I wouldn't have thought to do!  Gertie had this amazing 1/2 scale mannequin (named 'tiny') and we learned how to drape and then transfer our design into a pattern. 

I draped a pencil skirt (yawn) and Oona went to town and draped this amazing pleated blouse!  It was so much fun!

Gertie is such a lovely person in real life and it seriously is one of the best sewing days I have ever had!  If you are ever in NYC--even just for a short trip--it's well worth it to take a lesson with Gertie!  I learned so much and had so much fun!

Safe blog

In other news, a super big thank you to Elise for alerting me that she received a malware message when she accessed my blog.  We ran loads of diagnostics and were able to pinpoint it to a blog listed on my blogroll (thanks also to Elise's sending us the exact wording in the message she received!!).  I've removed that blog (and gotten in touch with the owner and sent her some helpful tools/links).  We reran all the tests and my blog is completely safe.  YAY!  Thanks again, I really appreciate it!! 

My 'Around the World in 21 Days' Dress...

I can't believe I finished this dress last week!  Has anyone ever mentioned how hard it is to do sewing while traveling?  It truly is an intercontinental dress.  The fabric was a gift from a former colleague and is all the way from Pakistan.  It's an amazing looseweave silk wool blend that has tiny little flowers on it and is the most amazing teal colour I have ever seen.  I used it for this week's 'Rose in Spanish Harlem' theme over at the Sew Weekly.

The pattern is all the way from Adey in Singapore! Early on in the Sew Weekly challenge year we did a little pattern swap.  I sent her a 1940's sundress and she sent me this fabulous re-issue Butterick sheath dress pattern:

This dress was constructed on four different sewing machines in three cities during the past week!  I started out on my sister's new Singer machine on the west coast.  I managed to cut out the fabric and make and underline the bodice.  The second sewing machine was my friend Kristen's that I borrowed for two hours when I was visiting her in DC.  On her machine I managed to sew the skirt together.  The third sewing machine was at the Sewing Studio in New York City.  I managed to sew the bodice to the skirt and iron the hem and baste in the zipper.  The final sewing machine was Oona's very own Kenny the morning of our fabulous meet-up!  On Kenny I finished sewing in the zipper and sewing the hem and did a slapdash job of tacking down the facings (too slapdash because one of my zipper ends was still poking out the top back...grrrrr...)!

The construction of the bodice is actually very nifty.  You sew the facing onto the bodice front and back in one go leaving about 1.5 inches at the top of each shoulder strap.  Then you sew the shoulder straps together in one continuous seam.  That automatically attaches the facing and all you have to do is slipstitch a very small area at the shoulder! Et Viola--completely finished neckline and armholes! I loved it!!

I made the view with the sash made out of red Kona cotton for that Paso Doble look.  The sash instructions were a bit hard to follow and I'm not sure I got the pleats on the sash right but I just sort of winged it.  My only regret with the dress is that I graded the bodice to be slightly larger than the pre-cut size 12 measurement and I don't think I needed to do that.  So it gapes slightly in the front unless I rest the shoulder straps at the very tippy edge of my shoulders. lol.  I was thinking one fix for that might be to take a tiny tuck at each corner of the bodice front and then cover it with two fancy dress clips!

I wore this dress out in New York City with the lovely Oona, Meg and Mena(photos above by Mena and Oona).  Check out Oona's post for more details on that adventure!

  Here's a sneak peak of the four of us (from left to right: Oona, Meg, Mena and me).

David and I took photos inspired by Lena Hoschek clothes as photographed by Lupi Spuma.  I first found out about Lena's clothes on Q's Daydream Vintage blog.  So we thought we would try out something similar and I really like how the pictures came out!  So much fun!!

 And of course, our kitties were all curious about what we were doing!!! :-) Such cuties!

My 1940's sequined blouse is finished!! (+ pattern giveaway)

I am very excited to have finally finished my 1940's sequined blouse.  You may recall that I started this blouse back in May and I had some time while I was on vacation to add the final sequins and put the blouse together!

I used McCall 1192 as the pattern.  I've always loved the look of 40's bedazzled blouses and was super happy to have picked this pattern up for cheap.  It required 12 metres of sequins! 

 

I made the blouse out of a lightweight and drapey polyester fabric (which was very difficult to cut--it kept wanting to slip around!).  All in all, it took over 20 hours to apply all the sequins and to put the blouse together.  The actual process of sewing up the blouse was super quick as it consists of only two pieces and two facings.

I was a little unsure at first if the iron-on transfer would work.  But it wasn't a problem--in fact, I think these can be used multiple times (especially on lighter fabrics).  The design was pretty easy to follow.  Though as you see not all the curly-q's are connected, meaning I had to start and stop and finish off rows of sequins quite a few times. This made it take a bit longer because it was often tricky to fold the end thread under a row of sequins to finish off a row!

I used strands of sequins on this blouse.  You can use either strands or sew individual sequins on (though that would take a CRAZY amount of time).  It's great that you can buy strands already to go.  It took a little bit of time to get used to making circular shapes (without it looking too wonky).

I am really, really proud of the sequins on the back!  Though in retrospect, I could have left a bit more room between the sequins on the centre back for the neck opening!

Here's what it looks like all sewn up.  These photos were taken at the Sewing Studio in New York City.  You can see it was a tight squeeze getting the opening between the two circles of sequins.  It looks a bit gapey in the photo but I think I can fix this with a good pressing to get the centre back opening to line up better.

I wore this blouse to a night on the town in New York City and I absolutely love it (I'm even wearing it now as I type!).  I added shoulder pads to get more of the 40's shoulder silhouette. 

YAY for sequined blouses!!! I am definitely going to make more of these types of garments in the future--they are so much fun!

Pattern Giveaway

I'm delighted to give away my copy of McCall 1192.  It is a size 18 or 36 bust and includes the directions, the pattern for the blouse and the iron-on transfer for the sequins.  I can't guarantee that the iron-on transfer will work again but it's worth a try.  Either way, the design is there and could be easily traced onto your fashion fabric.

This giveaway is open to everyone. Just leave a comment on this post by Saturday midnight (London time) for one entry. You can also do a blog post on this giveaway, tweet about it or put it on facebook for an additional entry for each method (up to four entries total). Just come back and leave me a comment that you've done all those. I'll randomly pick a winner on Sunday. It would be great if you could leave me some way of contacting you in your comment!

The only restriction of the giveaway is that you do not sell this pattern. Keep it for as long as you want and once you are done--pass it along to someone else!

I love comments--so feel free to leave a comment even if you don't want to be entered in the giveaway!  Just let me know your preference in your comment!

Thank you everyone for your lovely comments while I was on holiday!  I'm enjoying reading all of them and catching up on all your wonderful creations!



The Oregon Coast

Here are some more photos from the Oregon Coast!

'Yum 101' is right! We started out the day at the Tillamook Cheese Factory!  The Tillamook Cheese Factory is a century old, family owned cheese (and ice cream) business in the town of Tillamook on the Oregon Coast.  We've been coming to the Cheese Factory for ice cream on every trip to the beach as far back as I can remember--it is always a highlight.  They've just added this great 'baby loaf' vehicle for photo making fun.  Of course, my sister and I had to jump in and take it for a spin!

I think we got one of the last days of warm sunshine at the coast! It was a very warm 75 degrees (that is practically unheard of on the Oregon Coast). It was perfect weather to wear my hooded 1940's dress. It was also a great day for a stroll with my family and our beloved dog, Nikki.  Awwww...I love you guys! What a great photo!  But wait...there is someone missing.....

Who is that in the bushes??  We were ambushed by my sister! hahahahha.

We were practically the only ones on the beach.  We decided to hang around and watch the sunset and this lovely little baby seagull sat right next to us the whole time!

It was such a lovely sunset! There is something about being near the ocean that I find very calming and rejuvenating.  What about you?  Where are your favourite family holiday spots?

Sailor dress at the beach

Happy Monday everyone!

My 'Going Green' Trousers

Happy second day of Autumn!!! (or Spring for those on the other side of the equator!!) I seriously cannot believe how quickly time has flown by!  I really love Autumn--especially September and October. It always feels like everything is kicking into gear.  One of my staple items for the cooler Autumn months are trousers.  Inspired by Karen I decided I need to make a second pair of trousers from my Tried-n-True (TNT) pattern, Simplicity 3688 (a reproduction pattern for 1941 trousers, blouse and skirt suit). 

You can see my first pair of trousers here and the blouse from this pattern here...

I am wearing my new trousers with my very first me-made garment--a blouse made from a 1943 pattern. 

These trousers will fit perfectly in my 'pink meadow' colour palette!  The trousers were easy to put together.  The high waisted design goes perfectly with 40's styled blouses (those really short ones with pleats on the bottom).  I really enjoy this pattern and I hope to make many more this Autumn/Winter.

I am also super excited to have used Gertie's method (from her bombshell dress online class) for putting in a lapped zipper. I really like it and it's great to be able to watch the video at any time (don't know why but I always forget how to do it!)

I'm super happy with these trousers and I hope to get lots of wear out of them this Autumn.  It's a pretty lightweight fabric so I'll probably have to wear tights or thermals under them--but then I think they'll work lovely for spring as well. 

What do you think?  Do you have any TNT pattterns that you hope to make up this season?

Gatsby Dress Pattern Winner

I'm super happy to announce the winner of McCall 7403 is...

Tasha from By Gum, By Golly!  YAY Tasha! I absolutely adore your creations and can't wait to see what you make with this!! Get in touch with me at: myhappysewingplace{at}googlemail{dot}com.

My Autumn Colour Palettes

 Image sources: 1. Some of my fabrics, 2. Me-made 'Angels Culottes', 3. Ness 'meadow' tartan, 4. pink meadow colour palette--my own creation.

I absolutely love the colour palette challenges that Colette patterns hosts every season!

I used the colourlovers website that Sarai from Colette patterns suggested. It's great because you can actually upload photos and it takes a sample of the colours in the photo! 

I actually have three colour palettes for Autumn.  I just couldn't decide which I liked best--so I'm going to use all these colours and create three different streams for my sewing!  The first one is composed of greens and pinks.  These are often associated with Spring but I think these would look lovely for Autumn as well.

If you've been following my sewing for awhile, you know that cerise or a hotter shade of pink is a bit of a staple. 

Image sources: 1. Teal colour palette--my own creation, 2. me-made 'Mrs Peacock' outfit, 3. Ness Dotty jacket in 'Crush', 4. Gucci 2011 RTW collection, 5. Gucci 2011 RTW collection (I LOVE the colours in this collection), 6. Alexander McQueen 2006 collection, 7. Ness 'Northern Lights' tartan, 8. Chocolate and wine colour palette--my own creation.

My next set of colours incorporates teal--a colour I hope to be sewing a lot of this Autumn.  I want to use my 'Mrs Peacock' teal tweed skirt as a basis for several outfits.  

The third set of colours is inspired by reds, pinks and chocolate browns.  I call this my 'chocolate and wine' colour palette. I love it (almost as I love chocolates and wine)!  It incorporates a lot of red tartan as inspiration.

What about you?  What are your Autumn sewing colours? Are any of these colours in your plans?