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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