Mrs. Teapot and an OOOPS… #FallForCotton

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challenge, clothing, fabrics, Fall for Cotton, fashion, patterns, sew exhausted, Vintage, vintage dress, vintage patterns

I live on the West Coast, and it is 8:32 PM PDT. I figure I am good to go and will make the Fall For Cotton deadline. Right? I never thought about time differences and just knew I needed to be up by midnight- But midnight my time is good I hope!

I finished Holly’s vintage Fall For Cotton dress last week and you can read all about it here. Mine was next (although I squeezed in an Anna dress in between for my class reunion). My Fall For Cotton Vintage pattern came from Vintage Martini and I thought it was a great dress and would be suitable for me. It is Butterick 9499, and when I googled it, I got varying dates so am not certain. It is either late 1950’s or early 1960’s. Thoughts?

I went with a green cotton broadcloth, keeping in with the Fall For Cotton Challenge. I bought this a while back, and paid $1.99 a yard for it- which means this dress cost me about $10 bucks to make. 🙂

Cotton… I gotta say it needs same spray starch and a better pressing than I was able to give it. The dress was ready yesterday, but I had noone to take pics! Hence the barely made deadline!

When I came out in all my glory yesterday my youngest told me I looked like Mrs. Teapot. My eldest told me I looked like the lady who had a bunch of stuff in her suitcase. Ahhh, children! I let them BOTH know I felt like Beavers mother. (And I received blank stares) 🙂

I like the dress for the most part. The cuffs are fantastic… I covered my own buttons for both cuffs. The 2 buttons on the bodice came from my button jar. The belt is dreadful. I am going to make my own belt and make a few changes to the dress. I love the dress but I am not sure the pleated skirt is flattering to my shape. I am thinking about removing the skirt and making it an a-line skirt. I love the bodice and the collar though. And I really like the shade of green. 😀

I do have to confess to an “ooops.” I did not notice it until I was buttoning up the cuffs for picture time! I put one of the cuffs on backwards! Not sure where my head was at that moment but I guess I will have to remove it and see if I can fix it. I may have to make a whole new cuff though!

And this is my Fall For Cotton/ Mrs. Teapot/ Vintage dress. Should I change the skirt out to an a-line? And do you use spray starch to iron your 100% cotton dresses?

OH! By the way, this dress also takes care of one of my Sewlutions from Jan 1, 2013. I wanted to make 2 vintage dresses for myself in 2013… WHEW!

~Laurie

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#FallForCotton – A Vintage Dress and a Classic Car Show…

Tags

100% cotton, daughters, Fall for Cotton, patterns, sew exhausted, sewing, Simplicity 4432, Vintage, vintage dress, vintage pattern, vintage patterns, vintage sewing

When the Fall For Cotton Vintage pattern challenge was announced a while back I hopped on board for 3 reasons.

#1- I love vintage patterns and have a ton! (And if you have a ton you should use them if you can!)

#2- I love cotton. It is simple, feels nice, and comes in all kinds of prints, colors and designs.

#3- I LOVE sewing with the sewing community! It’s like an international sewing bee where we get to support and be supported!

And I also decided 2 things. I was going to make a dress for Holly out of a vintage pattern that has been at the top of the stack for ages now… And I was going to make myself one too… Because “The Mistress Demands” that I do. Wellll, actually I made a sewlution (New Years Sewing Resolution) back in January and it involved TWO vintage dresses and a coat. To my chagrin I am not even close to completing that and this year SPED by so fast I am still trying to catch up! I must say though that the “Keeper of the Jar” is a hard taskmaster when you have not started what should have been started. We were chastised just this past week. But I will persevere regardless of the fact I only have 100 days left. (Hey, that actually isn’t too bad!)

But for now, here is a really LOVELY dress if I do say so myself for my middle daughter Holly. I couldn’t resist turning this picture in to a vintage pic!

Holly is 18 years old and just graduated from high school. She is attending the Junior college in our area and is majoring in Theater Arts. She is also taking sign language. She would like to be a high school teacher down the road and teach drama and sign and maybe have a community theater on the side. (Unless she makes it BIG in the acting world and in that case she will buy me the BEST sewing machine there is to buy!)

For this dress I used a vintage pattern in keeping with the Fall for Cotton Challenge. We were able to choose a pattern or look from the 20’s to 70’s. From what I could glean on the internet (and correct me if I am wrong) this pattern is from the early 60’s. It is Simplicity pattern #4432.

I used 100% cotton of course! It was a piece of fabric I fell in love with on my recent trip to Oregon. It was on the clearance table and another 50% off so I paid a total of $9 for the whole piece! As soon as I saw it I KNEW it was going to be this dress and it was going to be for Holly. 🙂

The inside is fully lined with a white cotton. It actually started out as a light weight car cover my grandma gave to my mom, and my mom was going to get rid of. It was so soft I said NO! I can use that cotton fabric for lining! And I did!

To take the pictures I took Holly to “Cruisin’ Grand.” In our town, every Friday night from April through September the old classic cars gather up and down the street, musicians come out, and people come to look at the cars, eat, and have a fun friday night. I knew it would make a perfect backdrop for Holly’s classic dress!

Isn’t Holly a doll? Haha… She totally got in to the fun of it. While we were taking pictures a woman came up to me and said Holly looks so girly and feminine and pretty! She said it was so nice to see a young person dressed like that and she thanked us for for bringing back great memories of when she used to have dresses just like that! 🙂

As you can see we had tons of fun modeling with all of the cool cars from all different eras. (ha! 20’s to 70’s are allowed! Just like our challenge!)

The dress was very simple. It did not call for lining but I wanted to fully line it so she didn’t have to go looking for a slip every time she wanted to wear it. The skirt is very full and spins! Always a good thing in a skirt! 🙂

This car is from 1963-  probably around the same year as the dress I made!

I will be starting on a Fall For Cotton dress for myself on Monday. I have a pretty dark solid green cotton. Fingers crossed I get it finished in time! This Friday night will be the last Cruisin’ Grand for the summer. Maybe I will take my pics amongst the classic cars as well! In the meantime I will leave you with some more pics of Holly and Grand Avenue on a summer night!

~Laurie

Sewing in Oregon…

Recently I left the sunny town of San Diego in my Toyota and drove up the entire state of California to Medford, Oregon. A little town about 45 minutes over the border. I LOVE to go to Oregon. My grandma lives there. My mom lives there. My Auntie Candy and Uncle Bill and more! I get to relax, visit, take walks in the country, eat lunch by the river, wine taste, drink martinis at the Eagles lodge with Candy and Mom, brewery hop, and just have an all around good time!

On this last trip I also brought my machine and sewed. My mother wanted me to make her a pair of pants. And of course when we went fabric shopping that pair of pants turned in to 2 pairs of pants and 2 mock turtle neck tops. And she liked the pants so much we went off to the fabric store again and bought more fabric. 🙂

Honestly, 4 fabric store trips in ONE week. (Didn’t want to miss anything you know!) and I ended making her 4 pairs of pants and 2 tops. And I changed the length of the 2 skirts I made for her last time! Alas, my mom does not like to model for me. Maybe some day… but for now, here are some so so pics of what I made… Followed by some wonderful pics of my vacation!

The pants are basic and comfy. I used an old New Look pattern I had laying around that I had not used. New Look 6499. She liked the look of that pant but wanted them to hit at her waist. I made a muslin out of an old nightgown and added 2 inches to the top. They fit great so off I went making a black cropped pair and the burgundy pair.

The top is Burda pattern 6990. It is a wonderful top, fit well, and has several variations. Overall some simple sewing for my mom that left her with some great clothes!

I don’t mind sewing for my mom. She buys me fabric and pays me too! Plus she puts me up, cooks me meals, takes me to lunch on the river and lets me eat dinner on the veranda every evening. 🙂 We also drink wine together, went craft beer tasting, and drank some Cherry Moonshine. (Yikes!)

I will leave you with some pictures of my trip- because I would like to relive it again!

Road to Grandmas House

Deer at Grandmas

Just a portion of my moms gardens that she “built” herself in the middle of nowhere!

The neighbor has donkeys!

Beer tasting at The Walkabout Brewery!

Wild Turkeys crossing the road

The horses we fed apples to on our walks!

Lunch on the Rogue River at the Rogue River Lodge

Gold Hill Museum- 2 of my fave things- Sewing machines and beer 🙂

Antioch Cemetery- Stopped to visit Grandpa on his bday!

Couldn’t resist climbing on the tractor at the winery in my Anna dress!

Bye Bye Mom… Hope I will see you soon!

And that was just a sampling of my trip!

I have my machine up again and am getting started on one of my Fall For Cotton Challenge dresses. I am making one for Holly and one for me. See ya soon with an update on Fall sewing and some new dresses!

Laurie xox