Squeeeeeeee. I love being the “crafter” in the family!

I love, love, love when people give me things because “I’m crafty” or because “I sew.” I’ve acquired two machines this way and lots of fabric and trimmings. My Necchi is my go-to machine and the Pfaff is a close second. Well, imagine my excitement when I get a Facebook message from a friend’s mom (truthfully, she’s been a mom to me too) asking if I want a bunch of old patterns. Um, yea. Look what showed up on my door step last week. Three boxes of patterns and the best part is that they are my size! There are a ton of kid patterns too but the women’s patterns are a size 8 or 10 which is what I typically make in McKwikVogueRick.

 

I randomly pulled some out so you can see a few of them. They are all from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s.

 

Most of them are Buttericks, Simplicity, McCalls, Vogues, etc but there are a few of these pre-KwikSew pattern. This one isn’t even opened.

 

Pretty!

 

 

Most of the patterns are size 8 or 10 but there are a few 12s sprinkled in there.

 

I like the warning on this one. Upper right: Coat cannot be worn over jacket. Oh, dammit! That was my plan!

 

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

 

 

I love this hairstyle from the 60s. I could never do this with my hair. It’s too fine and too wavy.

 

Two out of three boxes are little kid patterns. I’ll be putting these on Etsy probably. I have no use for them because they are too small and there are so many of them. It would be fun to have a wall of pattern covers though.

 

Okay, this might be my favorite one. I have to say I love the butterfly collar and the ascot. Hee Hee, I said ascot.

 

This one is really cute and I would make it for my kids if it was a larger size.

 

Ra ra! I didn’t look but I wonder if these are for knit fabrics. If not, they would be pretty restrictive. Well, for a cheerleader.

 

Aaaaaaauuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

 

I think it’s funny that the kid pants are so high up on their little torsos.

 

I’ll let you guys know if I post any of these to Etsy. I know there is a market for adult vintage patterns. Is there any market for kid vintage patterns?

The new Pfaff

So I had her serviced and she purrs like a dream. I have it in the original 1954 cabinet. The one disappointing thing is that there were once four drawers. There were four drawers when it left California and in the moving around and shuffling of things, two of the drawers were lost. :( We’ve made some phone calls to the folks they stayed with along the way but, so far, no dice. I’m really hoping they can find the other drawers.

 

It has a decorative stitching function that I can’t seem to get to work. I need to write more on that OldPfaffForum and see if they can help me out. It zigzags and does straight stitches beautifully. I just wish I could figure out how to make it do the decorative stitches.

 

The two drawers that did make it to Alaska, contained a lot of cool, old stuff. I’m not sure what to do with it all. There are a ton of these sail needles. She used to make wedding dresses so it seems like delicate needles would be more of what she would use. These are really hefty triangular needles.

 

Here are three of them. See how big they are?? What did she use them for?

 

What do I do with all this other stuff? And look, only 15 cents!

 

This one’s only 8 cents.

 

And look at these cute little packages.

 

Is there any market for this kind of thing? Should I just toss it? The family took a few things out of the drawers (one of my fiance’s brother’s baby teeth, ewwwwwwwwwwwwww) and they said to throw away the rest. I have a really hard time throwing things like this away. What should I do with it?

Did I need these?

My local fabric boutique is having a big sale. They are getting rid of all their Vogue patterns and are selling them off at a whopping $1 a piece. I couldn't resist these fantastic vintage ones. Did I need them? No, probably not. Do I love them? Yes.

This might be my halloween costume for next year.

I probably would never make this. My chest is not my best feature.

This coat I love, love, love.

This is cute.

This would be a cute dress but can a flat-chested girl pull it off? Maybe, but maybe not.

I love this jacket.

I love the diamond details.

I love this whole set. Love the dress. Love the coat. Love the wrap blouse.

I really love this dress. I'm confused though. The back says to use jersey, linen, or crepe. I can easily see this in a knit but they recommend a knit and a woven?

This is very cute. I can see this at knee length.

My mailbox

See the writing? This 8.5" by 11" color photo was in my mailbox this morning at work. I know it's hard to see. It says, "Hi Dawn, If you're interested in this it's for free." Well, hot damn, sign me up. I am the proud owner of a Necchi BU Mira. I know nothing about it and I'm getting it tomorrow. I don't know if it has any feet or attachments but he says it works great. I did join the Necchi Yahoo group so I've been looking through it a bit. I think it's a straight stitch machine that can be set up to do zigzag stitches too. There is a Wonderbar and I have no idea what that does. But anything with that name has gotta be good right? I'm hoping I can set it up as a topstitching machine so I don't have to thread, re-thread when do something with a lot of topstitching and seams.

It has a lot of levers, knobs, and things that can be adjusted.

Tomorrow I'll find out what things it has that go with it. I read on the Yahoo group about cams and the Wonderbar but didn't really know what they were talking about. I'll fill you in on the details tomorrow. The Yahoo group information I read said it was made in Italy from 1952-1956.

2008 in Graphs

I love graphing so when Lindsey T showed her progress in graphs I just had to copy borrow her idea and do it too. I found some interesting results especially after I filtered out my earlier attempts at sewing. I started garment sewing shortly after I signed up for PatternReview on 4/8/07. So, it's been 20 months since I started garment sewing. In that time, I think I've come far with my skills. I have sewn 77 garments thus far this year and feel like most of them are wearable and look mostly RTW. I have also figured out which pattern companies work with my body type. Here is a graph showing all the patterns I used for 2008. There are 12 different companies with BWOF, Jalie, and KwikSew being my favorites.



If I just graph the time since I tried BWOF , you see much different results. Once I tried BWOF, I didn't buy or try any more of the Big 4. The Vogue pattern was one that I sewed earlier but then finished much later because I hated it. The Green Pepper patterns are the ones I use for my kids outerwear. When you factor those in, I use basically five companies.



This shows all the different types of garments. Surprisingly, I made as many dresses as I did coats and casual tops. I did quite a bit if kid sewing which surprised me. I always feel guiltly because I'm not sewing for my kids. It's very interesting to view things this way.


I'll have another entry for my goals and reflections on specific garments later on. Dinner calls.

I may actually wear this.

Readers of my blog may remember this hideous beast. It has been hanging in my closet for six months now waiting for me to do something with it. Here is the original post about it where I tried to love it. I didn't love it. The fabric is one of my favorites; wool crepe. It is a vintage vogue pattern from the 1960's. Love the shape; hate the dress.


Here it is and the other 3 yards of wool crepe that was the same color. Ew. Yuck, it's the same color as my carpet.


Here is the fabric dye I bought from Dharma Trading company. I love the picture on the front of the dye packet too. So simple and so beautiful.


Wow, check it. I might actually wear it now. It shrank in the wash because you have to use hot water. The length may have to come down an inch or two if I want to wear it to work. I'm not really a belt kind of person but I think the waist needs something. The remaining fabric is the same color. I feel kinda like a go-go girl with the boots. But, in some way, I think it's fitting to wear it with the boots.



Soooo, much better, don'tcha think? Some day I'm going to get sick of purple but it's not happening any time soon.

How Old is This Quilt Top?

As the "crafter" in the family, I seem to inherit a lot of old things. This is from my husband's grandmother's things. I have no idea how old it is. This is just the top and it has some damage. You can see on the full picture some brown areas and a few holes. (Click to enlarge any of these).


Many of the orange and blue squares are handsewn. Some of the printed fabric is machine-sewn.


Here are close-ups of the print fabrics. What is funny is that I recognize some of this fabric from the reproductions fabric where they re-release vintage prints.

1. How old is this fabric?
2. What do I do with it? It is too fragile to actually turn into a quilt.
3. How do I store it until I figure out what to do with it?