happy festivus!

Since you have all been really good I decided to share a little knitting tutorial that I whipped up, with you. It is very easy, all you need to know how to do is knit, purl, cast on and cast off. 


Enjoy!!

Warm Up In Grey

Materials needed - 

• Size 13 needle
• 1 skein Bernat Roving Yarn in Putty (or yarn of same weight in any color you want)
• A cute button
• Tapestry needle

Pattern is multiples of 3 +1 
RS - right side 
WS - wrong side 
K - knit 
P - purl 
YO - yarn over


CO 25 stitches (or desired width in multiples of 3+1)

(RS)Row 1 * K1, P2 * repeat ** 7 more times or until desired width, K1 
(WS)Row 2 * P1, K2 * repeat ** 7 more times or until desired width, P1

Repeat rows 1 and 2 for 2 inches. On next row add a button hole. For mine I cast off two sitches starting on the fourth stitch in the row and then continued the row as normal. On the following row, I cast on two when I came to the button hole. You can also make a button hole by using a YO. It depends on what button you want. (my button hole was a little big, so you may just want to do a YO)

Continue repeating rows 1 and 2 until desired length. The one pictured is 31 inches long.

Cast off in pattern on RS.

Add button. For placement I suggest wrapping the scarf around your neck and finding where is most comfortable. On the one shown it is 21 inches from the cast on edge and place on the opposite edge of the scarf on the RS.

Weave in ends.

Block if you want. Since the yarn I used is mainly acrylic I am just letting it do it’s curly thing!

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simplicity 5315

When I see people in caftans, I get kinda jealous. They always seem so confident and easy in their manner. So I was pretty excited when I found this pattern. I even had the perfect fabric. I made it with out too much difficulty despite the copious amounts slippery, stretchy fabric used. And then I put it on. My daughter goes "Oh Mommy, no!" and my husband said "well...it's a thing." Yeah. It was that bad. 

So no pictures on me. Yes I know I will show of my mom bod in a bathing suit, but this was a new level of fug. I know now why people seem so confident in them. You must either be smokin' hot to pull one off or have serious delusions of grandeur, like enough that it warps the perceptions of the people around you into thinking you do, in fact, look amazing....in a mumu.

The pattern  - 

The dress -

 See regal right?!?

a little crooked stitching but other wise pretty right?!

WRONG!

Okay so the last shot is the back view obviously, but what you can't see is that this is how sloppy it looks from the front when it is on a person. Or at least on me.

Maybe a different fabric.....

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just for fun

Not vintage, but just wanted to do a little showing off of my cute kiddo and her Halloween costume. I made up the pattern, so even though it isn't perfect I am pretty darn happy with it.

I found a turtle neck and hoodie (complete with sequins) at Target and she already had the pants. That way she didn't look like a little tramp or freeze her tail off.

 She was most excited about the make-up!

Now it has turned into a dress-up favorite!!

I totally have a project in the works that is for real vintage and suuuuuper tacky! Stay posted.

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from past to futurama

This year I decided to go as someone from the future. If you haven't seen with the show Futurama, you may not recognize that I am member of the crew aboard the Nimbus. Yeah, you know, even if you have seen the show, that might be a bit to ask. Nerd Alert!

What was so fun about this is I took this amazing vintage velour dress and made it into my costume from the future.

It wasn't quite as straight forward as just shortening the dress. They had significantly different necklines so that wasn't an option. Instead I cut off the sleeves, cut off the top of dress, and then remade the neckline and armholes. I added little yellow wings to the shoulders. Which was quite a pain and I should have used stiffer interfacing. The gloves were going to be tricky. A) I have never sewn gloves before and B) these were a tricky design as they are supposed to not touch your arms and they are at an angle.

So here is Zapp Brannigan - He is the Captain (notice the patch on his arm and the stripes on his shoulders)

Here is Francine.

So I went with no stripes or patches and came up with a pretty good idea for my gloves.

Before - I actually felt kinda bad cutting up a floor length dress like this.

Cutting off the sleeves.

For the gloves I took these beautiful vintage gloves and wore them under some flannel "sleeves" I created.

The finish product!

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what's the hold up, yo?

Okay so it has been a really, really long time between posts, but I swear there are a couple of good reasons.

One - It is summer break and sewing with a kid around is nigh impossible.

Two - I have been working on a month long project re-purposing vintage clothes for a good friend. I am an idiot and forgot to take "before" pictures, but she has promised to take pictures of the clothes in action. (At fun things like Burning Man and the Oregon Country Fair)

Teaser...A tube top into leggings, a maxi dress into a strapless micro-mini and another maxi into a two piece pantsuit. Yep, phenom.


Here is some random vintage fun in the mean time -

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butterick b4513 - part 2

So you know that dress that was so easy to make? Well you can see it here if you missed it. I loved the pattern so much I made myself another one!!

So now I have one for St Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo.

Happy Cinco De Mayo, Mexico!

Love,
Your Hat

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1850's shawl....okay not really

Have you seen the new Jane Eyre? See it. You won't be disappointed. I loved it and I couldn't keep my eyes off the knitted items in it. 

Apparently I wasn't the only one. There is now a 200+ person discussion on ravelry.com about the shawls in it. So I decided to participate in a KAL (knit along). We could pick from a list of patterns that looked like the shawl in the movie. I pick one that wasn't an exact replica but was pretty and gave it to my Grammy for her birthday.

Take a peek! 

So it isn't really a 1850's pattern, but it is similar to a pattern, used in a movie, based on a book written in the 1850's.

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butterick b4513

St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays - second only to Halloween. I always wear one of two green vintage dresses that I own. This year I thought I would change it up and make one instead!

This is a reproduction pattern and even though it makes me feel like a traitor, it is by far one of my favorites! It was so easy and it came out so well. I have spent the week since thinking about how I can modify it. Get ready to see a lot of variations on a theme this year.

Normally I start with a pic of the pattern but I wanted to show you why you won't see me modeling the dress first. Well it is because my St. Patrick's Day went something like this -

For some reason, we didn't get a good picture that night...

So here is a better showing of the dress.

Pattern -

Dress - 

Details - 

Love a good circle skirt.

This is the perfect dress for spring and summer and it seriously looks good on everyone. I can't wait to make a million of them!

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mccall's 4613

I am back from Amsterdam. It was perfect!! I didn't drag Kris into any vintage shops, so I have nothing to report on that front but there are plenty and if you go I would love to hear about the ones you liked best.

As it tends to be with trips in Europe, we spent a ton of money, so I decided that my next project needed to be something that I do from my stashed fabrics. Sadly, I have very little in the way of major yardage. So dresses, coats, etc are right out.

Luckily I had a 1975 pattern of accessories. I think over the next few weeks this is going to be my focus.

Here is bag number one, using left over fabric from this project!

I made this in less than 2 hours, so I am pretty sure it is going to be a new birthday gift standard.

The Pattern -

The bag - It called for some top stitching that next time I am going to skip.

The inside  -

The tie top - 

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off to amsterdam

We are off to Amsterdam. I will be there for 2 weeks! On my voyage I will try to locate excellent vintage shops to take some fun pictures.

Be back soon! (Maybe sooner if I have something I have to share immediately.)

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felting fail

Passé....yeah not even the right sentiment for what happened. While if the hat would have worked out it would have been perfectly passé - 

Cute, right? I mean 'Hits in Hats'. I love it!!! And every hat is hilarious. I love the mid-sixties!!

 but.....

Yeah, it was made for a giantess. 

So, I thought okay, it is made out of 100% wool, I can just felt it. Meaning, wash it in hot and agitate it which causes it to shrink up.

Well it shrank....

But only in one direction!!! So now I have a hat that is for, well, no one! I was cracking up. Maybe I can  make some sort of bowl out of it. You know a bowl with a bill. Laugh!!

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butterick 5203

Happy New Year!!

It has been a long time between posts. I am pretty sure that is par for the course during the holidays. So I wanted to make sure my next project was worth the wait.

This pattern is actually supposed to be a dress. I decided though that it would be too cute as a coat not to make it that. So I bought this killer home dec fabric and got started.

It started out great and I could feel my self getting back into the swing of sewing. It had been a while since I sat at my machine and I was a little nervous about how it would go.

But once the bodice and collar were assembled, everything went to hell. The neck was so big. The collar is supposed to fit closely to your neck and mine was somewhere middle of my shoulder. It had an interesting Star Trekky look but I just couldn't (and believe me I really wanted to) make it work. I wanted to make it work so bad that I actually finished the coat, buttons and all, just hoping that it would just magically come together. It didn't. My husband couldn't even hide the fact that it looked weird and he tries really hard.

So that is when I got up to sewing machine and started to have the mother of all pity parties. I berrated myself for not having any real talent, only being able to make copies of someone else's hard work, hell, I even trace it!! I was pissed that everything takes me 4 million times longer than any one else. - It was a pretty pathetic display. My husband and daughter even left for the afternoon, I think I was bringing them down.

I sucked it up, I sat down and I started ripping and sewing. I wasn't about to redo the whole thing but I was going to do what I had heard Tim Gunn say a million times - Make it work.

And that is what I did.

So now I want to say I learned some sort of amazing sewing lesson. I didn't. My shoulder seams were too narrow. Nothing epic there. But what I did take from this was the real meaning of "Make it work". I love you, Tim Gunn.

So here is the coat. And although it isn't lined (a pretty big no no in the world of outerwear) I am actually pretty happy with it. Far from perfect but I would still say far from ugly.

I chose the long sleeve pattern. I and also chose to do 3 off center buttons instead of four buttons, double breasted style. Really happy I did that. I think it adds a little funk to it, in a good way.


The pattern -

The front -

The back -

So, a long post for the new year but it is good to be back!

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