Vintage sewing lust

Shift dresses without good waist definition just aren't my thing and mr man doesn't wear suits. But Caroline's sweet little piped dress is banging. It wouldn't be a difficult look to recreate either. A basic yoke pattern with a couple deep pleats in the bodice, a peter pan collar, and a good strong piping and you're all set.

Look at little Jack jr's delicious wittle baby legs. Don't you just want to pinch them a little? I recently picked up a similar pattern for pudding in anticipation of Christmas. Looks like it will be put to good use if I keep coming across nifty ideas to use it.

I really adore Michie's patterns. They come on nice heavy white paper and all the pieces are straight forward and easy to trace. They also come in a wide size range in one envelope so you can take one classic look and with easy adjustments, stretch it from infancy to toddlerhood in a variety of ways. It never made it to the blog but pudding's Easter outfit last year was a Creations by Michie pattern, #105, the sailor bubble. You couldn't ask for an easier pattern to put together. It's totally not Michie's fault I ran over my finger with the sewing machine needle. It's what I get for procrastinating to the point where I was putting together that bad boy at 3 am Easter morning.

I also relied upon Michie for pudding's St Patrick's day outfit which if I recall correctly did not debut on the holiday itself but the weekend after. I used #120 Sunsuit/Dress. The main fabric is a soft seersucker from Hancock's because Joann's seersucker feels like upholstery fabric. The round yoke was cut from a muslin sateen and embroidered with a Celtic knotwork J in green perle cotton which is apparently girly and impossible to read judging by the comments I got.

As usually happens here, I've strayed from my topic but I had to take a moment to share some Michie love. A quick search on google will show all the ways people use this pattern. I especially love her because the heirloom sewing world is awash in all types of pretty for little girls. Michie makes it a point to design for boys. If it wasn't for her patterns, I don't know that I'd sew much for baby pudding.

Promises, promises

That's what I get, right? Yeah, let's just pretend that whole bit never happened, mmkay?

Moving on.

So the whole damned world is obsessed with knit blazers and because I'm about as original as cream of crap recipes on pinterest, so am I. The simple fact is, trends aside, a knit blazer is a nice, yet casual piece that can keep a hot mess like myself from living in full time frumpville with incredible ease. Since I have neither the time nor the inclination to sort around racks with a growling baby while trying to find something that fits in a price range I'm willing to pay, I'm going to make one. Shut up about all the crap I say I'm going to make and don't finish, okay? I ain't trying to hear that!

From Macy's but no longer available

Please tell me you appreciate all that cute. I could wear it with jeans, with skirts, over summer dresses to carry them into what we call Fall here in hot ass Georgia, etc. Tell me you aren't obsessed too. I've been mulling this little project over in my head for some time now but since I'm more terrified of knits than pinky is of the tripods in War of the Worlds (It's been five years now since she saw that movie and she's still uncertain around cracks in the pavement) I've just been sort of sitting on the idea, not thinking much of it.

Well as it often happens when you're playing on the internet instead of sewing a black brocade sheath dress, I fell upon a lovely blog (wo)manned by a housewife after my own heart, the lovely Lisa G at Notes from a Mad Housewife. I wonder if she likes Queen. And look, LOOK I SAY at what she's made.

I could die, I really could. This is more exciting than the time I finally found a brand of baby wipes that didn't smell like old people or teen spirit. Huggies One and Done with Cucumber if you're curious.

What's even more exciting are two whole posts detailing how she got it done, here and here.

And what's super duper coffeeheathbaricecreaminmyfreezer exciting is that there was a sew along with detailed instructions on how to accomplish this splendiferous it is so a word, google feat by another new to me blogger, the very adorable Sherry at Pattern Scissors Cloth and she runs, something I only do when something is chasing me.

So it will be just like having two people hold my fear stricken little hands. If only I could find someone to poke me in the rear end with a cattle prod and cure me of a raging case lazyheiferitis.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound or so they say because, as hinted above, I've already purchased fabric, a beautiful Italian Double Knit from Fabric Mart. To perhaps mitigate the damage to my previous "solemn oath," if indeed that's possible, I will be using a pattern I already own, Burda 7576.

The reviews seem positive enough and between the sew along directions and Lisa G's inspired piece, I think it will look cute. Don't you?

Anyone else itching for a knit blazer? Have you sewn one?

How netflix costs me extra money

I watch a lot of netflix instant. I won't say how much but let's just put it out there that I could probably recite you the first five picks in half the categories by heart. Mr man works nights so I either watch while he's asleep during the day or I watch after he's gone to work and the kids have gone to bed.

Sometimes I come across delicious goodness, like the Forsyte Saga.

Well, hello there,
Captain Douchecanoe  Mr. Soames Forsyte

Sometimes I come across absolute crap that not even pretty little Orlando Bloom can save. (I'd provide a link but I don't want to be responsible for your sudden case of depression.)

I thought about jumping too,
until I remembered I had the remote.

And then sometimes I come across a movie that should be immediately forgettable were it not for one amazing garment that makes my life.

Uma totally looks like a Stepford wife here, amiright?

Okay, perhaps that's an exaggeration. After all, this dress is not the most clever of designs, nor does it use any sort of new color scheme, nor are the fabric choices very inspired. Nonetheless, I was striken with a case of acute Gottamakethisnowitis that would not be cured until I did a little click click over at Fabric Mart and ensured a couple yards of grape charmeuse and black lace netting were speeding their way to my home.

That belt is terrible. Perhaps a sash?
And the length is a bit too long for my tastes.

While I wait for Mr Postman to bring me my goods, I have to figure out how to put it together. I've got the sleeves and the skirt down pat and even the neckline but the whole bodice is still a mystery.

No matter. I cannot wear it until I no longer have to share the sisters with my five month old. That gives me seven months to come up with something.

Btw, if you're curious, the movie is called The Accidental Husband. Unless you simply want to see the dress in action, do yourself a favor and skip this massive, nearly plotless, anticlimatic turd of a movie. It's an insult to my intelligence, to women in general, to Jeffrey Dean Morgan's opportunity to headline a movie, and most of all, to the awesomeness that is Colin Firth.

Look, I think Mr Firth is the bee's knees and apparently, a nice dude in real life to boot. But unless you have a raving addiction to the former Mr. Darcy/Uncle Jamie/King George VI, do yourself a favor and watch this instead.

That's right, you walk  home,
you dirty, dirty boy
and in leather too.

Not enough Colin? Skip right over to the Best Week Ever archives and take a handful of napkins along to deal with that drool problem you've suddenly developed. I see you. 

Speaking of Mr. Firth, if you haven't seen A Single Man, please get on it. It's beautifully shot, so very pretty, and quite lovely. In fact, it's the prettiest movie I've seen since Girl With a Pearl Earring, also a Colin Firth flick. Except the former is a fantastic movie while the latter forces you to endure a particularly glassy eyed, opened mouth Scarlett Johansson while waiting for Colin sightings.

I heart this so

Via Pinterest from
http://vintagevandalizm.com/

Hmmmm, I think I have just the right thing in my floordrobe to repurpose accordingly.

Oh what, you've never heard of a floordrobe? HA!

Okay, fine. I'll tell you. It's what you call that clean pile of laundry that somehow never gets put away. Bonus points if it's on the floor of your closet or the floor in front of your dresser. Extra extra points if you don't even have a dresser but just throw crap willynilly wherever it may land.

In case you haven't figured it out, I'm all kinds of domestic when it comes to food, gardening, and sewing but cleaning is not my strong suit. That's what I had children for, which is counter productive given how much mess they make in their own right but let me have my delusions.

Just a little taste and I fell in love

Sometimes a line drawing just doesn't do a pattern justice. Take this unassuming little number from Burda Style.

The dress looks shapeless despite the thin little tie and the neckline looks like it might choke you out if you sat down too quickly. I'm not even sure why I clicked through the search listings to see more. But when I did, I was brought to my knees by a wave of desire I haven't experienced since I woke up this morning and remembered there was German chocolate cake on my counter top.



It's called Gail and it has something of an Art Deco feel to it or is that just the vaguely Egyptian looking thing on her head giving me that impression? I don't know, I don't care. I just know that I must have and make this dress.

I may or may not be furiously ordering up some cranberry silk georgette as you read this.