Monthly Archives: January 2011

2011 Colette Patterns Spring Palette Challenge

Posted in Musings & Everything Else by

Sarai at Colette Patterns is hosting a Spring Palette Challenge where you sew a mini wardrobe with specific colors in mind.  It’s a 10-week challenge and the first step is to create an inspiration board, which was a lot of fun!  I chose to go with fabrics already in my stash — hey, that just means more room for future fabric purchases!

My “Playground of the Pacific” Spring Palette
(dress patterns at lower center courtesy Wade Laboissonniere,
Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1940s)

The palette I chose — gold, blues, reds, and what I’m calling “sand” — are vibrant colors (well, except for sand, but I like having a neutral in there to balance the others) that contrast my current dreary winter surroundings.  Virginia has beautiful colors for most of the year, but in the winter everything seems so dull and grey, and not exactly inspiring.  I need a punch of color, or 2 or 3 or 4!  Really, just throw ’em all at me, I can take it.

Continue reading →

Pendrell Blouse & Beignet Skirt!

Posted in 2010 Sewing, 2011 Sewing, Finished Projects by

Alrighty, a completed project for the blog! This thing’s been lonely for awhile with just a couple of paragraphs to its credit so I’m glad I got something up before the end of the month. Phew.

The Beignet skirt from Colette Patterns was made last year when I was still in L.A. enjoying that mild winter. I used cotton canvas for the shell and a green voile for the lining, and with all the concentration in the world made 11 buttonholes for those brown buttons. I was very proud of my Janome, it worked through those with no problem! I love the color and feel of the skirt. Colette patterns are designed with very little ease so it’s a good idea to go up a size if you’re between sizes.
And now for the newest garment in my handmade wardrobe – the Pendrell blouse from Sewaholic Patterns!  I just happened to find Tasia’s blog last fall and am very glad I did. She has excellent tutorials and such a great, feminine style. This is her very first pattern; she designs for pear-shaped women (which I’m not), so I just brought in the hips of my size and voila!  Tasia is hosting a sew-along if you’re interested in making this blouse and need a little guidance.

The blouse is meant to be semi-fitted and tucked in. I went with View B since I don’t have anything with ruffles and wouldn’t have thought about them otherwise.  I figured I’d give them a go, even though my shoulders and hips are about the same width and I wasn’t sure if they would look good on me.  Sewing’s all about trying new things and if they don’t work out, we move on, right? :)

Continue reading →

In the Beginning…

Posted in Musings & Everything Else by

Hi!  This is just a quick post to say I’ve been sewing garments for awhile now and figured I’d finally start up a blog to post projects and such. Truth be told, I’ve been participating in sew-alongs and was getting all bummed that I had no where to post those pretty buttons/badges!  Silly, right?  I’m like a girl scout who can’t wait to get her next patch.  Anyway…

In college, I took an historic costume course that later helped me date photos for my work as an architectural historian (I knew rick rack as a detail on mid-century Ranch houses before I knew of its sewing equivalent!).  For reasons I can’t remember, I signed up for sewing classes one day at this great little store in Los Angeles called Sew LA, and that’s all it took!  Yep, sewing’s been on my mind ever since.

Okay, first things first — back to the cutting table so I can get some projects posted here!