Fabric Choice

Hi all! I thought that since Penguin would not let me sleep in like I had planned on doing today I would pop in with a little sewing advice before I jump into the more meaty topics I have planned for the week. So here is a little continuation on my "Teaching Blythe to Sew Via the Internet" project I started. I know... it's been slow going... anyway...

Now that you have chosen your pattern in your correct size, head on over to that other part of the fabric store, you know, that fun part. That part with all the fabric! Now before you go completely wild looking, and undoubtedly feeling, all those wonderfully awesome materials, take a deep breath and pause to take one more look at the back of you pattern. Right there where it says "fabric choice" or "suggested fabrics."


As you may have guessed, these are the fabrics you should choose from. Not because these pattern makers are fabric Nazis, but because they drafted the darn thing, they think they know what fabric it should be made out of! Gasp! And as much as I hate being told what to do, they are generally right.

There also happens to be a post on this very topic at another of my very favorite bloggers Gertie at her blog for better sewing! She can offer you a more concise explanation of pattern type and why it warrants a certain fabric type (this is relevant for all patterns, not just vintage ones, which is what she is discussing). She is my all time sewing hero... Take heed!

Weekends Pt. 2

The weekend before last I started a new method of sewing… Assembly line! I did all the things I would normally do one pattern at a time, for all the patterns I have been planning on making. I wrote down all the notions I needed, picked fabric, cut out the tissue, etc. for all these…



I then started all the ones that needed to be sewn with black thread. Penguin was a huge help…



It has proved very successful as I now have two new shirts and a dress made in just one weekend… Outfit posts to come.

p.s. I have another tutorial I made while finishing up my dress...

Weekends

I had quite the weekend this weekend (and last). I've been busy, and regrettably I have neglected my blog for the pursuit of other things, that have been most enjoyable.

So to catch you up dear readers, I will share a few photos of this weekend!

This weekend started off when I went to a birthday party of a friend who will be leaving the country soon. She gave me her entire fabric stash in the cleaning out of her apartment. She is a most generous friend and she threw us a wonderful pajama game night.Sorry no pictures...Saturday I had a lovely date with my wonderful husband. We went to his favorite restaurant in town, Mimo's. It’s a family owned Italian restaurant. Our food looked so good I had to snap a few photos before we dug in. I had the Shrimp Scampi

and he had the Rigatoni Cardinal.


We then had a stroll around the mall, where we tried on silly hats at Mr. Hat (lol!)

And I got a ring stuck on my finger at F21 and had to buy it (wink wink)




Then we snuggled down and watched the new Star Trek movie( which was riveting!)


This Sunday was spent being lazy and trying out our new coffee bar in the corner of our kitchen (i.e. drinking lots of coffee) and I watched Julie and Julia with my roommate. Which I swooned over, not only because it was about blogging and cooking (two loves of mine), but also about the period fashion. Lovely!


I finished a shirt I started last weekend and had yummy scrumbos left overs and snugs with the hubby. It has been a good year so far if I do say so myself!

Dear readers...

It's me Sarah... Haha I feel like I'm writing to god or something... anyway, I've amassed a few readers as of late (much to my surpise!) and I've just noticed that I've been getting a few comments which is quite the ego stroke. Because what is a blog if not shameless self promotion? So to those of you who read my rantings, Thank you. It makes me feel loved in a strange distant way... And to those of you who comment, Thank you for taking the time. And for those that don't do either... I don't have anything to say, since you aren't reading...

Dress Exchange!

I know I have talked a lot about how I am broke, but I know that there are people out there that are even less fortunate than me. So I want to reach out to them.

I have long thought about helping young girls that don't have money to go out and buy a new prom dress to find an inexpensive alternative. My idea was that I would go out with a girl or two to thrift a dress and refashion it into a one of a kind dress made especially for that one girl for just the cost of materials. This has its limitations because of course it was just me, myself and I. Also, I have so much on my plate most days that this has never come near happening.

[prommafia.com]

Until... my friend in another town has come up with a similar idea where girls can "borrow" a dress from our Dress Exchange! For a 20$ deposit a girl can take a dress from a collection of donated dresses and wear it to Prom. When they return the dress dry cleaned with a receipt, they will get part of their deposit back.

Her original idea was that we could take the dresses in or let them out so as to fit each girl, but if you have ever altered a dress you know... that poses its own difficulties, especially when it would have to be done more than once (cringe) So I suggested that dresses that girls were set on wearing that needed to be altered could be bought outright and alterations be made so as not to damage the structural integrity of the dress by taking in and out the seams to fit each girl.

I'm so excited that an idea I had could be altered (haha) and be enacted and made into something bigger and better than I ever imagined. I'm looking forward to seeing how this unfolds... I'll keep you posted![promgowndress.com]

P.s. when I find them I will post some of my own Prom pictures, just for a laugh...

The Shady Lady

A long time ago my Granny T. started a quilt with appliquéd pieces of a girl wearing a bonnet and holding a parasol. She got sick with cancer and died before she was able to finish the quilt. She had only made six squares. This was enough to make one quilt out of, but since it was handed down to my sister, as well as myself, it was split between us. Since three squares was not enough to make any size quilt with, and my grandmother had also left us some fabric as well as the pattern she made, we set out to make our own quilt blocks to finish our quilts. My sister has long since finished her quilt (being older than I am, she became much more domestic sooner than I did). Mine sat in a box in a closet while I was away at college, being very un-domestic...

Over Christmas this year my mother was cleaning out my stuff she had been storing and found these…





These are my handiwork, as I can not find the original three made by my Granny. :(







Hopefully my mother will find where I put my original three... (I am quite the pack rat) Here is to my first foray into quilting.

Pillow Talk

Hi all! Broke Girl here, with a blog that is not about sewing! Although it is mildly related to fashion and definitely related to vintage.

Since my mother-in-law no longer has a VCR, she gave us a box of VHS movies she had taking up space in her closet. Yay! For free entertainment! So as we were going through them I noticed that most of them were cheesy rom/coms from the 80s and 90s, but there were a select few that were from the 50s (the movies, not the tapes, obviously) and I have been watching and rewinding one every weekend since. That wonderful movie my friends is Pillow Talk with Dorris Day and Rock Hudson ::swoon::



In the delightful romantic comedy "Day is an uptight interior decorator forced to share a party line with an amorous playboy who ties up the line with his exploits while she is trying to conduct business."



I can't even imagine having to share a phone line with a neighbor! I don't even share one with my husband!



Anyway, they accidentally meet and he is taken with her beauty, but has to pretend to be someone else, other than the other half of her intolerable party line. And let the hilarity and romance ensue!



There is something about classic movies that just makes me feel like I don't want to live in this day and age. The humor of these movies is the best example of why that is. These movies are clever and they are humorous with out having to be crass or rude. While others may feel that they are cheesy and out dated, I feel they are just wonderful. Not to mention, they are just amazing to watch if only for the fashions of the day.









Pillow Talk "features Miss Day in twenty-four ultra-chic ensembles from Jean Louis and over $500,000 in jewelry borrowed from Laykin et Cie." Which makes this movies one of my new all time favorites! I mean, who couldn't love pretty clothes, clever humor, and six foot six of one of the most handsome men ever to grace the silver screen. My hubby's grandmother refused to believe he was gay until the day she died. And I think I too shall live with this delusion! He's dead so it's not like I even have a chance anyway… If only more men and fashion were like they were in 1950's movies...

Vintage Kitchen

I have always wanted a vintage kitchen ever since I went to an open house with my mother. The house was built in the 50s and the kitchen had never been remodeled. There was an old stove and oven and those wonderful cabinets. There was also a closet that opened up into an amazing work station complete with all these wonderful chrome gadgets. I fell in love! So when my hubby's sister gave me these little gems I was so happy I could have squealed.

This is the sweetest thing! It holds plastic wrap, aluminum foil, wax paper and paper towel. Each little section is labeled and the edges are serrated for easy tearing! I love it!

This little bread box was another gift from hubby's sis another perfect piece to send me on my merry way to the perfect vintage kitchen. I guess these pieces have been in their family for years, but they just weren't her taste. Glad they are mine now!

Good Bye and Good Riddance 2009!

I've taken quit the sabbatical this holiday season and it feels good to be sitting back at my own little kitchen table with my new tea pot (thanks Gram!) writing away and looking back over the last year. Some really great things happened. The invention of the cat mustache being one of those really great things, but I digress...

This blog was started out of a new year's resolution and while I haven't been the most faithful poster, I am so pleased with what has come of the year. Yeah, I'm still broke, but I've kind of made peace with that and it hurts less. I've got a family and friends who love me, so what more could a girl ask for? And that leads me into... Christmas!

I had two weeks of Christmas with my darling hubby's family and then again with mine. This year I think I gave a total of about ten gifts, (mostly hand made or free, more on that later) most of them went to my sister's adorable kids, but what I enjoyed most was spending time with the people I feel closest to, but rarely see.

But, honestly! What holiday could be better for a broke girl? Lol! I don't mean to sound materialistic, but I got some really great gifts. And it's not because they were flashy and expensive, its because they meant a lot to me and the people who gave them. I can't wait to share all my holiday goodies with you (I haven't just been lazing around! I actually took some photos and stuff!) and you will see what I mean when I say I'm easy to please. So stay tuned faithful bat-readers! There will be more bat-posts at this same bat-place at… well… um… varying... bat-times!

Happy 2010! May a new decade hold great riches for us all.