La robe de la petite maison du prairie or The Little House on the Prairie dress aka EPIC FAIL

This is my pattern. It is a 14, which is a little big for me. I liked the scalloped waist.

Now, due to the ridiculously busy, medium-size floral print I used, that detailing is nearly invisible. Can you even see the 20 pleats? no! Now I understand why people say quilter's cotton = looks homemade. I have learned my lesson.

Between the print, the high neck, and the long sleeves, I look like I jumped off a covered wagon in 1855. Boo! (I am pinching in about 2 inches in the back in this picture)

Faux happiness

Sad and frumpy? Oui!

If I ever wear it, I will make it into short sleeves and wear a sweater over it to break up the print. Not this stretched out sweater, but you get the idea.

Pattern: cute, but would need to be scaled down a few inches if I ever make it again.

Fabric: -15 out of 100

Little House on the Prairie role in my future? Possibly, I can bring my own costume!

In Progress

This is halfway done on my dress. I think I did a nice job on the sleeves and finally found a gathering technique for set-in sleeves that might work for me.

I bought this book at a garage sale a long time ago, and it is full of good explanations. It is from 1967.

It has lots of funny illustrations.

Then I decided to dig through my drawer of attachments for my machine. My machine is a 15 series from 1952, and although I got it for free from a nice woman on freecycle.org, it came with lots of the original equipment. Manual, oil, feet for different things. I started looking for a zipper foot, and I have 2. Then I started looking at the menacing buttonholer.

It has all of the gear, including manual, 2 sets of guides for sizes- everything you need except....

the feed plate cover that stops the machine from moving the fabric.

Wahhhh.

So, I wasted a great deal of time online. In the end, it looks like I would have to buy the whole buttonholer set on ebay for 15-20 bucks, just to get that one stupid part.

I don't know what I will do yet. I do think that if I am going to say that I "sew," if only for fun, I need to learn how to make a buttonhole at some point....

Saint-sational Superbowl Champion Capes

We live in New Orleans and love the Saints, and the city went crazy for the SuperBowl! So Sunday morning. my boyfriend and I slapped together matching capes for the parades (it's also almost Mardi Gras) and then the game. I ended up making the out of felt, because Jo-Ann's was sold out of practically every yellow and black fabric there.

This is mine. With my matching fleur-de-lis on my face!

This is my boyfriend's. They both have the trim at the bottom. He refuses to be on the blog, so I blurred out his face. lol.

He drew and cut out the fleur-de-lis for both, while i sewed it all together. I pinked all the edges so it looks interesting and the tie is gold cord (his) and ribbon (mine). And yes, that is a box of Vella. We are nothing but classy here!

This is a terrible, self-portrait of the other day. I wasted part of a Saturday morning tring to do something like victory rolls. I even watched youtube tutorials. My hair is long, and fine, and slippery and I suck at trying to do things with it. This is just one example of the monstrosities I created. I am not meant to be a hair stylist, I guess!

Next Project

This is my sewing room, aka the dining room that no one ever dines in.
This a gratuitous shot of the wiener dog howl-barking at me.
This is my next project. My car is currently broken, so I am fabric-less, sitting at home, not sewing. I want to make the full-skirted version. The skirt has eight big pleats, and I haven't done any pleats for awhile. I also really like the scalloped dropped waist. I think it could be a cute, unique dress that hopefully isn't too "cute." Minus the dickie and the cuffs, which are supposedly detachable.

One reason I like vintage patterns, beyond the fit and the detail and the look, is seeing which version the last woman chose. Obviously she and I have good taste, because the pinked pieces are the ones for A, minus the dickie and cuffs. What a smart lady!

Now I have three other patterns in the running too, I just depends on the fabric I find...

2009 Frankenstein Dress

I went to Jo-Ann looking for some cute cotton to make this awesome pattern up for the first time. It's from Eva dress, there is a link to the site on the left of the blog. It's a new pattern for a 57 Claire McCardell dress- it looks so elegant and cute with the giant bow.

However, since I moved, I haven't been getting my coupons for 50% off, and this dress needs 4 and 7/8th yards. Yikes.

I saw this fabric....

and I really liked it, but there were only 2 yards left. So I decided I would Frankenstein together 2 patterns I already knew needed less than 2 yards and would fit perfectly. It came together super quickly and easily. The top is from this(black and white dress), and the bottom is from this(zebra print dress).

Look Mom, I even attempted a real hem! (Since at Christmas she told me my idea of "hemming" by hand is really every one else's idea of "basting." LOL) The stitches are still over 1/4 of an inch, but Rome was not built in a day, people!

Finished dress! Soon I will add some on-a-person photos. The only oopsie was the woman at Jo-Ann didn't give me a cut fabric ticket, she just rushed me to the register, so I had to run and get a zipper and thread. I grabbed a 14 inch zipper, which worked last time, but I changed the side zipper to a back zipper. So the waist is still pretty tight and I have to squirm and tug it over my head instead of stepping into it. Meh. Not a big prob.

Time to go make French onion soup!! YUM!

Pants Update

I finished my muslin of the pants pattern. It is absolutely atrocious. I am glad I just used bleached muslin and not real fabric. They almost look like old-fashioned jodhpurs. The waist is so high, the hips and legs are poofy, they are tight around the ankles....

I have a pair of black pants that I love, I really should just trace off a pattern and make them fit perfectly.

Fun fact: Jodhpur pants were originally made so the rulers of Jodhpur (in India) could ride comfortably while hunting or playing polo.

Pants Muslin

I am trying to make up this pattern that I found inside the envelope of another pattern.

I would love to have a generic pants pattern to make up more work pants, rather than buying them. Plus, I have to hem everything anyways....

Man, all I can say is they LOVED high-waisted pants in the 50s! Granted, I am short, but they go about two inches above my natural waistline- natural!! Not where I would prefer my pants to stop. Like four ribs worth of pants!! Ha!

Then, since I have no instructions, I sewed the back together like a giant penguin flipper!