Vintage Pledge July - My Hollywood Love Affair

Hello All,  I've just gotten back from spending a week camping.  Camping you say, what sort of jaunty tilt hat do you wear to go hiking? The answer is that you have the option of one that looks like a tiny Daniel Boone hat or a miniature pith helmet.  All jokes aside the boy had a great time and that's what's important.  I'm still happy to be back in the A/C with my internet connection. Hooray for progress!

In other news, I was flattered to be asked to be one of the bloggers featured during the VP July extravaganza. Froggie assures me that no one was bribed with cookies to make this offer. He made sure to put all the cookies in his stomach instead of the mail box.  It's a good thing he sews pretty hems or else he might find himself in the mail box.  Jokes on me though, he's just mail himself to Grandpa at the beach who will let him hang out with the toy monkeys. (I'm not making this part up. The toy monkeys are real!)

Anyway, head on over to Kestrel Makes to see all the details on Hollywood 1412. Oh Hollywood patterns, you complete me.

Vintage Pledge Mid-Year Wrap Up

I fully admit that this post is the blog equivalent of TV reruns. Hopefully not as bad as rewatching that LOST episode about Paulo and Nikki. It's been almost 6 years guys and I'm still put out about that particular weekly installment.  Who cares about the diamonds? NOBODY! Anyway, we've tarried overlong talking about old TV.  Let's talk about my Vintage Pledge progress instead.

Back in February my vintage pledge was to sew 5 vintage patterns for 2016. There was also a post in January which listed a few specific patterns I wanted to finally make.  Knowing my aversion to planning and squirrel like sewing tendencies one might expect the worst.  However I've had my efficiency boss, Froggie, take a look at the blog/sewing basket and he has reported back the following...

- I've already sewn and blogged 5 vintage patterns this year.

- Two more vintage patterns have been sewn and are in the "to blog" queue.  In addition to that there are another 2 patterns that have had the muslining process finished.  These may for may not find their way to finished garment status. I'm waiting for the right fabric to come along and might get distracted by new patterns.

- From my "two sew" pattern list there is only Advance 4227 left to make.

Froggie says he'll give me an A on my sewing report card with the caveat that summer took a long time to get here. Otherwise he'd deduct points for not having Advance 4227 traced.  Wow how about that? Maybe being married to a man that plans everything is finally rubbing off on me. However if you find me setting up an Access database then you'll know I've been replaced with a pod person. BEWARE!

Here's a brief recap of the vintage pledge makes.

Pattern #1 - Hollywood 1032

Still one of my favorite makes this year.  Thanks to the cold Spring I wore this well into May.  The blouse goes with at least 3 of my hats and the skirt goes with everything.  In fact I love this pattern so much that I went and bought a similar style, Hollywood 1412. You'll be sewing that one about 2 weeks from now.

Pattern #2 - Simplicity 4958

This is the make I wear the least. It feels too fancy for every day and I have a large rotation of fancy church dresses. Still like it but it isn't as practical as some of my other makes.

Pattern #3 - DuBarry 5510

I like this a lot, but really do need to sew a pair of black high waisted trousers to go with it. Then I can wear my man-ish Miss L Fire Willlamsburg loafers and have a great rainy day outfit. Believe me it was highly annoying not to have this outfit ready to throw on this Spring.

P.S. - Just noticed this week that Evadress.com has recently released this pattern as one of their multi-size offerings.  Now you can grab a copy without much trouble. Hooray!

Pattern #4 - Advance 3740

You'll probably remember that this one was a total hassle to sew. Thank god I got through it because this is another top make.  Oddly I don't find this pattern too fancy to wear everyday so it gets a lot more use.  It's also Desmond's favorite dress and he's always asking me to wear it.

Pattern #5 - McCalls 4265

Still a great blouse and I want a closet full of them. Hmmm maybe I'll wear this tomorrow.


Since my vintage pledge is already complete froggie tells me that it's time to make another one.  You know so we have proper paperwork. So here goes,

I, Heather Beckley, pledge to sew another 5 vintage patterns for a total of 10 for the year. 

Here are a couple of contenders in the pattern stash.

1. Weldon's 7383 - A nice little summer blouse that should be quick to make if I don't get distracted by some fancy dress pattern.

2. McCall's 6815 - Oh no a fancy dress pattern! What ever should I do? Drop everything and make it, right?  Right.

3. Hollywood 1093 - Or I could sew up the top half of this pattern to get more use out of a RTW dress that shows too much cleavage. If only there were late night sewing elves to double my output.

4. Hollywood 1214 - This might get pushed to 2017, but who could say no is such a great looking coat.

So those are some of the things currently being juggled in my mental sewing queue. We'll have to wait and see how it all shakes out for the rest of the year.  Froggie says just go sew the fancy dress and then buy some new patterns to sew.  Excellent advice Frog, now I remember why I keep you around.

PR Hacks - Flutter Sleeves for Summer

It's officially Summer and for a lot of us that means things are busy, busy, busy.  Currently I'm trying to keep Desmond occupied while tracing patterns and baking an ungodly amount of Nutella Brownies. (Recipe here. Warning, they will haunt your dreams.)  With that in mind I decided to write a quick and simple hack this month.  Using the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern as a base, I'll be showing you how to draft two different types of flutter sleeves.

Type #1 is the Gathered flutter sleeve.  So named because you gather up the sleeve head to create the fluttery goodness of the sleeve.  These are set in the standard scoop neck Renfrew body so all you have to do is draft the sleeve and you're good to go. (I've paired the top with Colette Beignet in case you were wondering.)

Type #2 is a Half Circle Flutter sleeve. Here the fullness is added by slashing and spreading the short sleeve pattern. This increases only the hemline of the sleeve, leaving the cap set in normally.  In this version the V-neck Renfrew body was used and I drafted a facing for it in the same manner as here.  And because I like to entertain myself, the Lady Skater skirt was added create a dress.  I simply must complicate matters if at all possible. ;)

For all the drafting details pop on over to the PR blog. I can guarantee that you can draft one of these sleeves in no longer than a hour.  That way you've got plenty of time to still take the kids to the beach....or sit on the couch and eat your Nutella brownie. I think you all know which one I'll be doing. :)