Sewing in my underwear

I had a “oh shit, it’s already late June” moment this week. My dad always announced on July 4th that summer was half over and didn’t we feel sad about that? Although we’d argue that there was still plenty left, I somehow grew up to internalize his means of measuring a summer.

So this weekend I decided to ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING. Yes.

I started with all that warm-weather sewing I meant to do with the fabric from Los Angeles. The first step was kicking someone out of the sewing nook.

Okay fine. You can stay. But only because you’re cute.

It’s so hot in our apartment that I turned on a fan, lowered the shades, and sewed in my underwear. I don’t have a dressmaker’s form so I’m always having to try the garment on. Might as well skip a step in the undress/dress/undress game.

I was in the zone. Twelve hours went by like nothin’…one project turned into another. It was a complete time warp where the only sign that hours were passing was the number of times  the radio played “Girlfriend” by Justin Bieber (I have been banned from singing it around the house anymore). I made myself go to bed at 1am, then got up today and sewed a long while longer.

Okay…so here’s what I have to show for my sewing bonanza…are you ready?? 

For a warm-up I re-assembled the blue vintage dress that I’d previously disassembled to turn into a pattern. Easy peasy.

It needed some buttons. I’ve had these old Parisian rhinestone buttons forever – it’s time they were put to use. Some stones are missing but they’re still cute.

Then I cut into the nice white stretch cotton with watercolored flowers to make a summer day dress.

This turned into an epic misadventure. I tried mixing and matching patterns (the bodice from this with the skirt from this) and I inadvertently created a Laura Ashley dress from the 1990s and not in a cool ironic way. I had to re-cut the bodice, re-sew the skirt, re-do the zipper a million times. Justin Bieber could not lighten the mood. In the end I just used the 1940s Butterick pattern from last summer with the same edits as last time.

It’s very good for flowery twirling!

Then I took a gamble and sewed with jersey knit for the first time. It wasn’t bad! This tips roundup from Luvinthemommyhood was helpful. What I took away from it was to: use a ballpoint sewing needle, use the “lightning stitch”, and pull the fabric just a teensy bit as it feeds through the machine.

I followed this tutorial from Elle Apparel and made a maxi skirt with a folded yoga pant waist. It was so easy and the skirt is super comfy!

There was a half yard of jersey left, so for my encore project I made a dolman-sleeved jersey top. I traced a knit shirt I got from Forever 21:

It was just a front piece, a back piece, double-sided cuffs, and a rolled neckline. This tutorial from ikat on how to do a rolled jersey knit binding was incredibly helpful. I left the bottom hem unfinished. It’s not perfect, but for sewing jersey knit without a serger I was pleased.

That concludes my sewing binge. After cleaning up this mess….

….I’m enjoying a glass of wine and some decompression on the couch. Read and I are watching Cheers on Neflix from the beginning this summer. I like that it’ll last us a while! After this, there’s always Mash. 

SoWa Vintage Market

This week I got some helpful tips on vintage shopping in Boston from blog friend smunch (thank you Lauren!). The SoWa Vintage Market sounded particularly enticing. It’s open every Sunday until mid-December and includes not only vintage stalls, but a farmer’s market, craft vendors, AND a collection of swanky food trucks.

A neighbor and I drove over this morning. Parking was a painless $5 and admission was free. As my mother would say, “everyone and their brother was there” – I saw two co-workers, which seemed funny in such a large city. Everything is outdoors except the vintage stalls. It was crowded both indoors and out, but it didn’t feel claustrophobic.

The food trucks are fun. Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese (“we don’t make your grandma’s grilled cheese”) and Bon Me (“Boston’s Gourmet Banh Mi”) had large followings. I ate a fabulous caprese on focaccia from The Dining Car, sneaked some of my friend’s french fries, and then washed everything down with some wildflower iced tea.

There are some fabulous wares among the craft vendors. I can see some late autumn Christmas shopping happening here, especially in jewelry and woven scarves.

The vintage stalls were a blast to peruse, but I didn’t buy anything. The prices were in line with what you see in big city vintage stores – just a tad more than I wanted to spend. I was mostly looking at headscarves ($8-16), vintage fabric ($6-10/yd), and nightstands (>$150). My hesitancy to spend that much, especially on furniture, has likely come from all the free stuff my neighbors leave on their curbs. But there was this adorable blue cabinet…

What a cutie.

My mom has promised that we’ll go antiquing when I’m home in Ohio for Christmas. I’m still on a quest for this ceramic Samson pitcher that I spotted in Ohio in 2008, photographed, but stupidly DID NOT BUY. What was I thinking?! It was only $18. I’ve tried all kinds of internet searches but each one ends in failure. Will I ever find Samson immortalized in a pitcher again??

Modern updates for a vintage 1940s dress pattern

Butterick 4838 - 1940s

The camera arrived! I haven’t figured out all the bells and whistles, but managed to shoot some photos of the dress I finished on Monday. I started with Butterick 4838 from the 1940s and made some modern edits: shorter hem, lower neckline, and no collar. Plus, because I dislike sewing buttonholes, a back zipper instead of front buttons.

Like a lot of midwesterners I belonged to a 4-H club as a tween. My first 4-H project was called “Joyful Jumper”. It was the early 90′s okay? I promise jumpers were sorta cool. Anyway, I don’t recall it being an entirely joy-filled experience (temperamental sewing machine, stuffy upstairs bedroom, confusing pattern directions) but the one good thing I took away from it was learning how to sew a blind hem. That jumper had crooked seams and wonky armholes, but the hem was beauuuutiful.

I busted out my old 4-H skills and blind hemmed this dress while watching a movie.

If my hemming is reliable, my zipper installation is not. Sometimes they’re great and sometimes they’re awful. Pardon my boasting, but this was one of my Top 3 Zipper Installations EVer. Here’s my new and improved set of steps:

1. Using the largest machine stitch size, sew garment together as if there’s no zipper. Press seam open.

2. With a seam ripper to (carefully!) open the seam where the zipper will go.

3. Place the zipper behind the seam. Don’t spread the seam open- keep it lying flat. Using a contrasting color of thread, hand-baste both sides in place (this worked better than pinning it, so it’s worth the extra time).

4. Using a zipper foot on your machine, stitch the zipper in place.

My new shoes came too! They’re keepers.