Welt Pockets

Many of you know that I have been stalling on finishing my cape because of my fear of welt pockets. You have to SLASH the fabric, on the front on the garment! It would ruin my beautiful cape.

Instead I practiced on my present for my widdle baby brother, who is graduating from college this weekend. Since it is not my precious cape, I was willing to give it a shot, with the step by step instructions of my Singer book.

Witness the magic!!!

I now understand the process, and I might actually finish my cape sometime this century.

And on that note, I will be flying off to Oregon for his graduation, so I'll be gone for a bit. Hopefully, he will consent to a picture of him in it for my blog!!

Have a good weekend everyone, and don't be afraid to try welt pockets!

Pattern Reviews

Let's be real here, peeps, I love comments. Well really more like compliments. My sewing blog theory is if it's ugly or you don't like it you laugh or snark about it, but never TO that person. That would just be mean, and the interwebs are full of enough batshit crazies anyways.

On that note, I joined Pattern Review. Maybe like ten years after everyone else? I originally wanted to enter my awesome blue Mad Men dress in the vintage pattern contest, but after I joined I sadly discovered you have to be a member for 3 months to enter the contests. So in July I can enter contests.

Most importantly, it is just another way to get more comments! Hee hee. It's...a...sick...obsession...

In case anyone can't tell, Robin is my mom. My most favorite comment-leaver, and sometimes my only one! LOL.

*************************60s fabric winner: TRUDY! Trudy always leave nice comments here and on many other sewer's blogs, which is very nice of her. ***************************

Is anyone else unhealthily obsessed with blog comments?

PS- What is with the freaking Chinese spam comments? ugh. I can google translate it to English just as easily as they could, if it was a real person and not a spam bot. I refuse to moderate comments- that takes away the fun!!

And today the dr.s office sucked out three vials of my blood, I bought a watermelon from the back of a truck and I "cooked" us dinner consisting of crescents (the croissants from the tube) and raw veggies with dip. And margaritas.

Here's your picture of the day: (since I hate pictureless posts)

Our one nice, big tomato has been mauled by those evil corbeaux- giant black crows. I'm watching them, they are on notice! One time, at the Tower of London, there was a tiny 2 year old hand-feeding a raven that was as big as the baby. The parents were just laughing and taking pictures. It was terrible, you were just waiting for it to peck the baby in the face. But it didn't. That's when I learned how to say crow in French, because I was studying abroad in Paris.

Random!

White blouse pics- Butterick 5217

Andrew drove me to the fabric store, since it's now 94 degrees and raining and my car has no A/C. It was raining torrentially, and the cd player kept playing songs like "Cloudless" and "Sunny Afternoon." A bit of irony. People were driving like morons because of the rain, of course.

The we took pictures of my white blouse, which you can read about here.

Front. It's a little sheer, so I can just wear a tank top underneath.

Back with the cute buttons.

Side view, to show how the front piece is shorter than the back. It makes it cuter, i think. I have to be careful with baggy clothes because I am so short.

What a nice blouse for the summer! Plus I like these shorts from Forever 21. My next project is a pair of white cuffed shorts, very similar to the ones in these pictures. I've never made shorts before, and it's a McCalls pattern, so we'll see how it goes!!

It's a jungle out there! Butterick 5350

This is my pattern, one of my 1.99 sale patterns:

I made the blue version, minus the contrast waist. I cut out an 8, which fits like a glove. You can also note my pattern storage technique- freezer size ziplock bags, so that I don't have to refold the pieces I ironed out flat. Well for vintage patterns, I iron them. My theory is that I shouldn't zip them all the way closed because it is too humid here, what if they started to mildew in their plastic baggies? Then I would cry and whine, whine and cry.

Forced photo shoot on the way home from sushi in front of a statue on Esplanade. I don't have a tail, that is my sweater.
The back is nice, just a scoop neck. It covers up the bra straps, so I'm happy. I really like the fabric. The print is so random that you can't tell that the skirt is eight little pieces to give it the floaty bell shape.
Oh, the fabric is rayon. I like rayon! Super easy to work with!
Overall, it is very pretty, floaty and summery. I really like it. I had to add some darts coming down from the neckline because of the outrageous gaping at the front. But now the right side look fine, but my left side is going for a nice pointy cone-boob look. Any suggestions on how to fix that? It's tacky. I guess I will just pick out the dart and reposition it until it looks ok?

Overall, I am happy.

Blue dress pictures! Butterick 5455

This is my pattern:

Here's my discussion of the pattern, here. Mainly my only issue is that my hips and butt are not a 6. Operator error.

This one is funny because the dog literally did not notice the duck. My yellow lab growing up would have been in the water swimming after it in seconds.

Side view.
Front.

See, there are pockets, they just aren't super obvious.

I would definitely make this again, probably in black. It's cute dress and it fits well.

Extra bonus:

Yesterday, I decided we are going to have a fondue dinner sometime soon, so we needed to go to goodwill to find a set. Andrew was skeptical that we could just waltz in and find one. However, waltz in we did, and there were THREE to choose from.

For some reason, the line was insanely long and as we were standing there what do I spy? The fraternal twin (not an identical twin, but very twin-like!) ottoman to the one in the living room!

This is the new one:
Rectangular, slightly taller.

Here is the original:
Square, with little tabs on the side (that have dog tooth marks)

It was a sign! According to the tag, it had just been put out that same day! Andrew was mocking me and said I was wasting my money, but who is sitting on it today playing video games? Mmm hmmm.

But let's not make Andrew out to be bad. He is sweet; I love him, my mom loves him, the weenie dog loves him (the most, sadly. My dog prefers him over me) He happily listens to my sewing and blog updates and takes my pictures on increasingly conspicuous city-wide photoshoots. LOL. And he is a ginger. :)

I still have three projects to take pictures of, so stay tuned!

Disco Dress Pictures!

Andrew is back from frolicking in NY, so here are pictures of the dress on. I made the version with darts that won the poll, and it was the best choice. Thanks for your help, everyone who voted! I did an excellent job matching the stripes. It is meant to be a jumper, so it is somewhat loose. I compensated for that by hemming it into a miniskirt.

Outside a masonic cemetery by the house.
Back. It has the magical double effect of making my butt flat and my shoulders look super broad. Gee, how cute.

It is really scratchy fabric. I guess I could wear it in the fall/winter with leggings and a long sleeve black shirt under it. That would be funny.

**GIVEAWAY!!***

So, in conclusion, I am giving away the leftover fabric!! It is still a big piece, 29" by 64" and has one big stripe of hearts and one of the flowers. Probably good for a skirt or top of some kind. Polyester, somewhat stretchy, pretty scratchy. If you want it, send me an email with a suitable sob story on why you deserve it the most to mollysewsblog (at) gmail (dot) com

Vintage Find

Last summer I went to an estate sale in the French Quarter, and they were selling hundreds of smoking jackets and nightgown and peignoir sets. Now, they wanted absurd prices for them. I think it was one of those "these sell for X $ on ebay, so I will make them all 80 bucks" kind of things. Sure, but that's people around the world bidding. How likely is it you'll find some schmuck in New Orleans willing to pay that much?

Anyways, later that day I went to the Goodwill on Jefferson Hwy thinking that I could find a similar nightgown or some cheap fabric. Lo and behold, what did I find but an awesome vintage nightgown?

Plus, it cost $3 and it is really pretty. It did have that thrift store/ old house stink to it, but I soaked it in Oxyclean and it's good as new.
Cute lace shoulder detail.
Here's a website entirely devoted to Van Raalte vintage products. Based on the font of the tag, it's early 60s or newer.

I really like seeing things at estate sales and then finding cheaper, similar things later on. It makes me feel sneaky and smart. :)