Frankly my Dear...

Since I've been feeling better I've been playing catch up on so many things. Fall cleaning for one. Does anybody do a fall and spring cleaning anymore? Room by room I've been purging away, leaving my most dreaded craft room till last. It's actually my favourite room but it really needs a few days( ok truthfully make that a week) of my full out attention.

We've also welcomed a Brazilian student who will be staying with us till January. We've had some major laugh out loud moments as we try and understand each other. She's is improving in English but we are failing miserably at Portuguese. Ha

Most of my projects have been left on the back burner ( as usual it seems) but this past weekend being Canadian thanksgiving and autumn being in full swing I thought I'd channel my inner Scarlett O'hara. Finding some awesome fall looking drapes at the thrift store they seemed perfect for another easy circle skirt.

I've lost my picture taker to work right now so although I wore this just the other day it went on my dress form for pictures. A tri-pod and remote would be nice right about now!! and some not so rainy cloudy weather. 

Hello little leaf pin.

Do you think it's alright to wear  this outfit two weekends in a row? :)

Sweater- handmade by me

Blouse-handmade by me from a thrifted set of sheers that I've worn many times.

Skirt-handmade from thrifted drapes which I paid $3 for. 

What's my Style?

Over the summer I began thinking more about what type of clothing I really want to add to my wardrobe, what actually is my favourite era then I realized I don't have one. I end up going by what show or movie I'm watching at the time and it becomes my new favourite. Which is making for a fun wardrobe!!
So this past spring/ summer I watched
Land Girls / Agent Carter  for my 40's look.

Granite Flats  geared me to a 60's casual summer style.

Then I headed over to Miss Fisher and made myself a 20's inspired outfit.

( All the fabric for this was once again thrifted so it was an under $10 outfit. The hat was made from a pattern I got from Etsy)

Now I'm onto Doctor Who which has styles all over the place and worlds, hehe and I must say I am more partial when he travels to the past then the future. For the past couple of years my mind has been in and out of Steampunk. Mostly because it's a modern twist on the Victorian era (adore) which to me kind of suits the weird world of Doctor Who. 

When I was looking for a jacket pattern this one kept popping up in the Steampunk category on Pinterest. I just thought it would look great as a 50's style too so I'm seeing this pattern resurrect itself as Steampunk.  

I'm seeing a lot of plaids and ruffled skirts in my future but not the full blown corsets that is often associated with Steampunk. If I can get what I want in my head transfered to the sewing table I'm liking the results. Although my head and my hands sometimes disagree so we shall see!  I already have a chair though.  :)

The Cigarette Pant

Long before leggings or jeggings or super slim fitting jeans or pants, came the cigarette pant. Heck if you goggle it now you can find they've made a comeback of epic proportions but I'd have to say in my opinion it was the most beautiful Audrey Hepburn who made the women of the 60's covet these pants.

Pinterest

Here's the pattern that I used to get my own version of these pants.

I wanted a pair of pants that I could wear year round more or less so I wanted a comfy stretch denim. I had no idea that denim( I haven't bought denim in years and years) had gotten so pricey at $20 a meter and then I had to do a quick pro/con list. 

Pro- I'll get the pant that I want and it would be the vintage high waisted loveliness I'm becoming accustomed to.

Con- I can probably find something similar in a low rise much cheaper then 40 plus dollars 

The latter was winning out in my mind but I had one more chance at obtaining my goal. The remnant pile!!

Searching through the remnant pile like I was searching for the Holy Grail I found approximately 2 meters of stretch denim at $8 meter. Now we were in business, pants for under $20. 

But wait...when I took my fabric to be measured she asked me if I'd be willing to give my email address to get an additional 50% off. Uhh YES.

My new jeans were going to cost me $8 in fabric plus a zipper and thread. Now this cheap  thrifty little dutch girl was dancing in her wooden shoes.

Fitting and sewing pants is not for the faint hearted I'm learning. It took me a trial run in another stretch fabric and one in cotton to get major fitting issues out of the way. (I'm thinking I might want a cotton capri from this pattern as well) 

With my new jeans I still had to tweak some fitting issues and with the help of YouTube I'm now happy with the fit and have worn them a few times and I find them super comfortable. I've rolled the pant leg up and down, so I'm checking the box that allows me to wear them all year as long as it's not too hot out.

One day people I will own a serger but for now my seams are old school.

 Sew, trim and a zig zag stitch to finish them off.

I can see why women adored these fun, casual pants so much because...

Oh look you can pretend to water the plants when its' pouring outside in them.:)

This entire outfit cost was $15.

Sweater -thrifted

Shirt -thrifted and modified

Pants- made by me

Earrings-thrifted

scarf- I already owned 

Spring for Cotton.

My Spring for Cotton outfit is finally done. When I first thought of what I was going to sew I thought it was going to be a simple pencil skirt and that was that. But then as I laid in bed my mind began to wander and two hours later I had a new plan.
Before Christmas I wanted to make myself a winter coat but as time began to slip away I had to let the idea go..for now. At the time I was also having a hard time finding a vintage pattern to meet my criteria of what I wanted my coat to look like.
This gives you some idea of the look I wanted.

Via Pinterest

Then I found this pattern.

McCall's M6800 and I was back in business

To me View A of the pattern was close enough to give me that vintage feel of the coat I was looking for. 

To complete my outfit I thought why not throw a skirt into the mix too!!

This is my ten gored skirt pattern that I've now made 3 skirts from. It's a super easy pattern and out of all my skirt patterns it is my favourite.

Now for fabric...

The first thing that springs to mind when you say cotton( at least for me it is) is quilting cotton but tucked away for the last 20 years, yes 20 years, is a piece of denim that I held onto. When I bought it, it was the last of the last and I think I only paid $2 a meter.

Then a couple of years ago I had bought a Michael Miller cotton print that had caught my eye. Now  armed with the fabrics and patterns from two different decades my sewing plan was coming together.

Meet my souped up jean jacket and beach tent skirt. hehe

The whole sha-bang cost around $25 to make.

Shoes-Globo shoes bought two years ago

Purse -Thrift Store

Shirt-Old Navy bought two years ago

Necklace -Thrift Store

Petticoats- made my me

Sunglasses-prescription so now I can look ultra cool.

Now remember my clothes need to make other outfits and this is no exception. My daughter had given me this blue knit fabric as a gift and I thought how perfect for Sewaholic's Renfrew . I had it done in about an hour, bonus!!  Who doesn't love fast sewing clothes. Great with jeans but its going to pair nicely with a few other things hanging out in my closest. 

I went grocery shopping last week sporting my new jacket and Renfrew....in the snow.

So from Vintage to 2015. I think it works just fine! :)

  

Better, better, better.

I'm trying very hard to become better at the things that interest me. Better sewist, better upholster, better baker, better painter, better knitter...you get the picture. I also believe that each of these things plays into the next. Patience must be practiced in all things newly learned and unless you're lucky right out of the gate it will take time to hone one's skills. Rome really wasn't built in a day. No really it wasn't, look it up.

Last fall I began a knitted sweater project. Worked on it on and off and by Christmas it had been set aside. Not totally happy with it but far enough along I had to think twice about ripping it apart. Once the Christmas festivities had passed I pulled out my completed pieces to the sweater I unravelled the whole thing. I decided, not happy.

I had two patterns, a vintage and new that I liked and both were very similar in style. I thought why not combine the parts I did like and if it didn't work I could rip it out again, after all this is just part of the learning process. Right??

Results, VERY HAPPY!!

The base of the pattern, sleeves, back fronts is from the new, the added cables and length come from the vintage. 

Side note- another plus for making my own things. The pattern called for a certain length for the sleeve but I think I added 2 extra inches so that it would be long enough. Pure joy factor there. Things that are too short on my arms annoy me.

The cables are what I'm most proud of having never done them before and was what caught my eye when I bought the vintage pattern in the first place.

When I tried it on and everything was as it should be and I may or may not have squealed with delight. I've got big plans for this sweater and it's the first piece to a puzzle I've been sorting out in my head. Stay tuned!! :)

The yarn used came from KnitPicks

Hangin' by the Wood Pile 40's Style.

My husband has a thing for wood, can you tell? We don't burn wood he just collects it in hopes of putting in a wood stove next year. (which would have been handy since while writing this we had a power outage and things got a bit cool for my liking) I have been checking out wood cookstoves. I think it would be interesting to learn to cook and bake with wood plus I think the wood makes kind of a neat background for pictures.

So these are my 1940's trousers made from this pattern and fabric picked up from a thrift store.

As you can see the pleats are missing. I took them out. To me they weren't flattering on me in the 80's and that hasn't changed now. If I had lived in the 40's I can't see me liking them much then either but I suppose the design was to mimic the men's trouser since women wearing pants was still a fairly new thing. 

You may be wondering why oh why I'd want to make a pair of 1940's pants but as I continue my journey of only wearing clothes I've made or thrifted a whole new world has opened back up for me.

 I've always adored the simplicity of 40's clothing and the 50's with it's petticoats and hat wearing styles. If you've known me for a really long time you'd know that wearing these eras is not really new for me. I've played with these styles since highschool.

 Yes thats me at prom with sweetheart and husband to be. My ensemble was not the same as every long gowned girl but more reminiscent of a 40's knee length style complete with hat and black lace gloves. 

I find today's clothes fairly generic and that's why I've found making my own clothes has begun to suit what I've been missing for so long... a reflection of me. It's not that I'm trying to stand out in the crowd by wearing vintage clothing but because I'm beginning to feel more at home in my clothes again.

These pants not only cover what today's jeans don't on my backside when bending over, ( think the old plumber's cliche and you get the picture) but they allow me to wear my beloved long johns underneath! 

I made the blouse from another 1940's pattern and the sweater came from a thrift store as did the shoes. 

I can tell you this is not my everyday wardrobe but its more of my going out to dinner or Sunday go to church look.

Right now if I took a picture of myself you'd see a yoga pant, sweatshirt clad girl and I intend to sew myself some new everyday clothes and share those with you too.

I also find that I can't call myself The Vintage Counterfeiter and not at least try and look the part. :)