Update a Pattern Workshop

This coming Saturday (20th April) I'm going to facilitate another UpCycling Workshop at the Green Living Centre on King Street Newtown.  I think it is fully booked but there is a wait-list and if this workshop is successful, the centre will probably run it again.   Here is a link to more info and the wait-list. 

This workshop will be all about updating commercial sewing patterns. 

There is nothing quite as dated and out-of-style as something that has recently been very fashionable. 

Out of date & out of style sewing patterns are really cheap in Op Shops and they lurk in the cupboards of most home dress-makers.  What to do with them?  I mean apart from laugh at those enormous shoulders & that dreadful styling - or go all nostalgic because mum used to wear something just like that  ...

Well - let's look at one of those patterns again.

The flipped-out Farrah Fawcett hairstyles effectively date this to the late 70s and look at the price - $3.50!

Another good reason to re-use old sewing patterns is the cost of new ones!

But these styles are old enough to be fashionable again.  Paper-bag waists are totally in fashion once more and that little cap-sleeve top is quite cute esp. if done in a plain fabric.  However, this pattern is a size 8 and that is a 1970s size 8 ! Some basic grading can bring this pattern up to a modern size 10  or 12.

What about some of the more extreme styles like this -

The skirt is a basic straight style with a little split at the back - a classic.  But the top is a different matter - massive shoulders, close plain neck-line, a long peplum & buttons makes this a very dated 80s look.

But - here is a quick idea - badly sketched (sorry). 

Scoop out the neck, make the shoulder line more natural, delete the buttons & peplum and we could use this pattern to make a nice batwing sleeved top.  Very now!



Here is another 80s pattern - a rather Princess Diana inspired look here - all pretty and demure with the lace collar, thin belt and long skirt length.  The shoulders are big but a cross over dress is always flattering and easy to wear.

Again, my quick sketching is not very skillful but if we reduce those shoulders, give the dress slimmer sleeves,  add flair to the skirt and make it a better length - we could make the dress button up and instead of lace put on a floaty bias fabric collar / frill.  Far more wearable.  

This is the sort of thing we'll be doing this Saturday - how to look at our out-of-date sewing patterns with fresh eyes and how to make some alterations to the patterns so we can make fashionable garments that fit.

Once were Sarongs

At the very beginning of this year I was gifted some wonderful, unused cotton sarongs that were bought in Malaysia over 20yrs ago.  This bright purple one was still wrapped and labeled.

Hot stuff indeed - the photo doesn't do the strong bright colours justice.  Well, I never wear sarongs but I do enjoy working with them & sewing them into something.  Sarongs and Saris are often great fun with their border prints and panels of different designs - working with all those elements and making the most of them makes the cutting out quite a challenge.














I decided to make my granddaughter a dress from the purple sarong - with such bright & busy fabric a simple design is best and I found this in my collection of vintage patterns. 

Made some adaptations - a gathered skirt rather than pleats that would need ironing after every wash, also made the longer sleeves but with elastic cuffs.

Border around the hem of the skirt and the big flowers 'grow' up the front.







I should've placed the butterflies better - though these 2 seem to be talking to each other!









The 2nd sarong was black&white - and I forgot to take photos before I sewed it up.  Quite a busy print with borders and panels of zig-zag design and lush bouquets etc.

It is a lovely cool cotton fabric so I made myself a summer shirt - loose fitting with elbow length sleeves and a mandarin collar.  

Placed the strong zig zags up the fronts either side of the buttons, put a bouquet on the back and the borders round the hem again.

It looks quite good on too  :-)

Knitting Knews brought to you by the letter K

A progress report on 2 large on-going projects.

The 'Sampler Shawl' from the wonderful book 'A Gathering of Lace' is progressing quite slowly as I've got so many other things 'on the boil' at the same time but I'm loving the way it looks.
Traditional lace shawls can look really pretty, pristine and well ... prissy. This is not prissy - it is slightly rustic and earthy. It's the yarns, I'm using 2 held together - Kaalund's lovely sheeny blue/grey silk Enchante & Dairing aka Habu's silk thread with Fern Fibre (AK20). The fern fibre has fluffy nubbly bits of tan brown which is adding that touch of earthyness.

I'm also knitting toys again for the ongoing Alphabet Project ... and K = Kangaroo


A vintage pattern which I knitted up back in the 80s for my daughter - unfortunately the moths ate holes in that roo ... this time I made a few very minor changes but this is still a fiddly pattern which relies on careful sewing-up to refine the shape.
This is it pre-sewing ...




It is a clever pattern though - the roo stands up well and she has a pouch :-) I've added a security chain so the Joey can't get lost. I could blame the mummy roo and call her a helicopter parent but really it's because I don't want to have to knit another Joey - he is a fiddly little thing.

Grandkidlets

Back from a lovely time in Melbourne with our gorgeous daughter and the grands :-)

Finished the madly purple twinset for granddaughter while I was there:

Loosely based on vintage (early 50s) patterns, I kettle dyed the yarn which is Bendigo's "Luxury 4 ply".

Here are both littles wearing their twinkly capes:
Whenever I go to Melbs I take my Blythe doll, Lillian so that she can catch up with my daughter's doll, BiBi. Lillian travels in a shoe box in my hand luggage, I've put a "window" in the lid of the box and she often causes consternation with airport security staff. Lillian shows up on the xray machine and if they open my bag, the last thing they expect is a huge eyed dolly looking up at them - snicker snicker evil grin!

Here are BiBi and Lillian wearing their new blouses and skirts made from the Simplicity sewing pattern - the skirts are in a lovely vintage cotton and that is the very last of it :-( there is now not enough left to make "Tippets for Mice"*.

* Beatrix Potter "The Tailor of Gloucester".

Plotting and Planning

Sometimes the plotting and planning of a project is the very best bit - and sometimes a project proceeds no further than that stage! But let me tell you of my latest schemes :-)

Now I may have mentioned before that I have a very large collection of vintage knitting patterns ... one I've had for a very long time is also one of the oldest in my collection. A Patons & Baldwins "Helps to Knitters" leaflet No: 2324 - probably dates from the early 1930s. There are 2 patterns in the leaflet - only they are called "Recipes".

Don't you just love the snooty model - she looks so terribly bored (and so terribly thin!)

I've been wanting to knit this little top for decades and finally I've found some yarn which I think will work. You see, back in the 1920s and 30s a lot of handknits were in rayon yarns - and in my work with vintage clothing I have seen (and fondled) some rayon handknits ... lovely things :-) Rayon has a sheen and great stitch definition for lace knitting. But until recently, rayon yarn was just not obtainable - until all the bamboo yarns came on the market. "Bamboo" is just a rayon fibre made (we presume) from bamboo rather than from crop waste or timber or some other source of cellulose. Unfortunately, most of the bamboo yarns are in the thicker plys and the vintage knits call for thinner stuff ... but I stumbled upon this 4ply Cleckheaton Bamboo at my favourite yarn shop + cafe - A Coffee and A Yarn YIPPEE

Now I wonder if I can get the snooty look and thin arms (well maybe not that thin!) by the time I finish the garment?

There is also a great deal of plotting and planning is going on in the dolly department.

Simplicity have issued a pattern for Blythe doll clothes - mine arrived today from This is Blythe and Lillian is trying to decide what she would like first - her pet green bird is trying to help but I think he is confusing matters somewhat.

Lance a Lot has a Frilling Time

Lance -a Lot of Knitting is finished:

This is for our grandson - it'll be a bit too big but better too big than too small, he'll grow (gosh, I sound just like a grandmother!) Adapted from a vintage pattern circa 1930s or 40s - the lovely stitch pattern is just knit and purl stitches.
Usually when you adapt a vintage pattern the original calls for very fine yarn and the modern knitter opts for something thicker & quicker to knit up - not this time :-) the original pattern was for 8ply yarn (DK) and I used 5ply (sport weight in the US). I kept the vintage styling, making the armholes quite shaped and the Vneck quite high.

In other news - I'm currently sewing costumes full-time for a big musical that will open in Melbourne in a couple of months. At the moment we're doing lots of mends and alterations on existing costumes made for previous runs of the show overseas. Some crochet frill trimming needed replacement and I got to do it yesterday :-) simple shells in cotton yarn - very effective.

Some Knitting, Some Lace and the Dolls' House

Knitting - found a bargain on my last trip to Spotlight ... Patons' Bluebell at $2 a ball! There was a nice dark tealish green and my grandson lurvs green so I grabbed enough (plus a bit) to make a vest for him. A vintage styled vest. In the 30s & 40s textured stitches were very popular for masculine knits, lots of twisted stitches, some cables and lots of patterns in simple knit & purl.

I had a lovely time trawling though my vintage patterns and eventually selected this knit/purl stitch pattern - the original is called "Lance" or perhaps that was the name of the dog. I'm using a more modern pattern for the maths but will adapt as it has 80's armhole shaping.

Lace - lots of lace news :-) At Epping Lace group on Thurs I only managed to do 1 tiny exercise - The Footside from Jennifer Fisher's book "Torchon Lace for Today" but that night I had the bright idea of making that exercise - in much finer thread - to put on the ends of the towels I'm making for my dolls' house. Only problem was that I'd had the book on loan and had returned it. So next day I had to try to remember how it went - luckily it is very simple. Not sure I got it quite right but in 1 strand of embroidery floss it does make quite a good, very fringe like trim for a miniature towel. Cheap Emb floss does not wash well though - I think this will benefit from a bit of ironing.

I must say that it felt wonderful to make my first pieces of Lace for a Purpose - not just a sample or exercise - even though the purpose is rather a silly one, being trim for miniature dolls' house towels! Here are some of those towels in situ - with new "perfume bottles" and new "plant" - it is a new species, the African Sage Violet.

The bathroom is almost done now - solved another little problem too. As the dolls' house is a cupboard all the rooms are quite deep - which means that the small rooms are awkward to arrange - with one bit of furniture hiding others and those at the front dominating. The ceramic wear was a cheap set (which I then painted) and I've always been unhappy with the base of the hand basin, it's clumpy, but how to disguise it? plants? a little rubbish bin? Had another bright idea looking at my sewing thimbles ... I had one that is too large and has a flat tip ... paint it up and voila!


But back to Lace - also went to the Lace Guild day at Linnwood on Sunday, spent lots of credit card and now I have my own lace-making equipment YEA! pretty pearwood bobbins :-)

Celebrated last night by making that sample (it is not an amoeba!) lace-makers will recognise it from Rosemary Shephard's book (I hope!)

Update on bonnet from yesterday

Finished the Petal bonnet last night (apart from the ribbons) once again it is being modeled by Ms Yellow Balloon.

Only slight adaptations to the pattern - to make it a little larger.

Love the way the pattern forms a pretty flower / star at the back.

Sewing for Little People

Well the Christmas / New Year break was nice and productive (could I have another one please?) here is some sewing I did before Christmas and during the time off.

Granddaughter is walking now which means dresses no longer get in the way (I like to keep frocks very short - or make rompers for crawling bubs) This is from a vintage pattern - McCall's 2244 (copyright 1958)

Big inverted box pleats front and back with ribbon down the middle of the front ones, more ribbon over the shoulders with bows. Cotton fabric with a lovely print of irises (?) but it is a one-way design because it is actually intended for patch-work quilt making ... I like using interesting and fun fabrics for kids' clothes but those one-way designs keep me on my toes!

More "patchwork quilt" fabrics for shirts and summer PJs for our 3yr old grandson. PJs in this aeroplane fabric and I got aeroplane buttons too !




This chook print became a shirt and because the print is quite busy I kept the styling of the shirt plain and simple (no pocket, no yoke ...)

On the other hand, this beige plaid, really boring fabric became a long-sleeve shirt with lots of detail just like a grown-up business shirt and I'm planning to make a vest (and perhaps trousers) to "go with" this shirt.

Just sew sew ...

Have been doing quite a bit of sewing for the grandchildren in the last few months - I've given them these items and there's more to come. I think there will be twelve days of Christmas this year :-)

I like to use cute and/or unexpected fabrics for childrens' clothes and this year I've indulged in some fun prints intended for patchwork quilts. Here's a Christmas shirt with shiny buttons for our grandson -

and a close up of fabric and buttons on his new PJs.

He likes fun buttons (don't we all) and likes to do them up himself - so I've made larger than normal buttonholes to make things easier.



Our granddaughter has had her first ever birthday :-) and I'd made her a cute play-suit from a vintage pattern. Lots and lots of frills especially across the ample bottom (designed to be worn over cloth nappies)


Well, it is not just the bottom that is large - seems that sizing was just as unreliable back in the 1950's as it is now - the pattern says it'll fit a 6mth old and I knew it was large but I think this playsuit will be a nice fit next year !!!