Sense and Sensibility – The Elegant’s Lady Closet

by alwaysacraftylady

Oh look, Regency dress!!! I was very unsure how this silhouette would look on my bottom heavy frame, but it turned out pretty well! It’s all due to peer pressure. Two of my friends wanted to go to a Jane Austen Evening and it gave us all an excuse to sew for a different time period.

Project: Jane Austen Evening Dress

Recipient: Me!

Pattern: Both from Sense and Sensibility, The Elegant’s Lady Closet for the dress and Regency Gown for the bodiced petticoat.

Fabric: Lots of stash busting on this one. Lavender dimity from @shopmakethislook on Instagram. Ribbon I bought at Costume College in 2018. Lavender organdy left over from my Lanvin reproduction, and left over white tulle from my (unblogged) Rear Window dress. White for the petticoat and hem came from Dharma Trading, but I can’t remember what I used.

I love the back so so so much.

Hand embroidered purse to coordinate with my dress!

I even found white ballet flats at Target in January. Why? Who knows. But I hot glued some pleated organdy on those suckers and it really made the whole ensemble that much better.

My friend group is planning to go again this year and I’m torn on whether to make another dress. How many Regency dresses does one woman need? I might just wear this one again because I still love it.

1Sep2019

Halloween 2018

by alwaysacraftylady

The girls talk about Halloween all the time. 2019 will bring a vampire and…a superhero? Plans are not yet set. But 2018 was pretty fun.

Our budget was very tight last fall, so I might have pressured the kids into costumes I could make mostly from my fabric stash. Plus, what is more fun than Dorothy and the witch???

Project: Halloween 2018

Recipient: Lu and Charlie

Pattern: Simplicity 4139

Fabric: Lots of leftovers from my stash. I don’t remember where I got the solid black, but the purple and black lace was from my 1910s mourning dress. The white on the Dorothy costume was the same leftovers from their Baptism dresses, my 1918 winter ensemble, our Lanvin reproductions, and my Ottobre blouse. I STILL have more of that fabric! The gingham is 1/4″ gingham from Robert Kaufman. I wished I’d bought 1/8″ gingham because tiny child is tiny.

We also found a single pair of ruby red slippers at Payless Shoes (RIP) and they were exactly Chi’s size. Kismet.

I used the same pattern for both and holy cow, Simplicity runs huge! Lu’s was I think a size 4 and Chi’s was a size 3. I didn’t bother to save the pattern when I was done because the proportions were so strange.

While Chi’s costume was very cute she really rarely wore it. On the other hand, Lu wears here witch costume ALL THE TIME. Both wore their special Halloween shoes until they had holes. So I’d call it a successful holiday.

25Aug2019

Jalie – X Back Gymnastics Leotards

by alwaysacraftylady

I made these leotards a full year ago. Aren’t they cute? Too bad my kids quit gymnastics a few weeks later. It’s okay. We all needed a break.

Project: Gymnastics Leotards

Recipient: Lu and Charlie

Pattern: Jalie 3241

Fabric: Left over fabric from Halloween 2017.

The girls needed new leos, but nothing fit from shops because Lu is so long and lean. So I pulled out some left over fabrics and gave this pattern a try. It went together super well, but the fabric lacked the vertical stretch really needed. So Lu’s was never quite long enough. Oh well. They’ve been worn dozens of times around the house as base of super hero costumes, so I consider the project a success!

18Aug2019

Rhinebeck 2018 – The Knitting

by alwaysacraftylady

What’s Rhinebeck without a couple of Rhinebeck sweaters???

I knit two sweaters just for my trip. The weather can vary quite a bit on each year, but I’m a thin-skinned California girl so I opted for a couple sweaters on the heavier side.

Pattern: Keynote by Wencke Pertermann

Recipient: Me!

Size: 38.75 at the shoulders and 43.25 for the hip

Yarn: Madelinetosh 80/10/10 Sport

Sadly this is no longer in my life. It was huge in the shoulders. A wide neckline that didn’t sit well. The stitch pattern was really pretty though. The yarn had been in my stash since 2011, so it was a worthy project and looked nice for the event.

Pattern: Ellery by Jenn Emerson

Recipient: Me!

Size: 38 ish, I don’t know what that means now, but I probably added extra increases through the hip.

Yarn: Madelinetosh 80/10/10 MCN Worsted

Jenn is a knitting friend of mine and everyone in one of my knitting groups knit the same pattern. It’s tradition and it was super fun to be part of the rainbow in 2018. This sweater is pretty heavy for my usual climate, but I’m holding onto it for chilly winter nights as our living room doesn’t have heat. Easy pattern and pretty too! I’d had the yarn since 2014 and it sheds so much. So many pills. So soft though.

And just in case you think I’m the only person who knits a sweater for Rhinebeck, I encourage you to click here! You’ll find me looking really awkward right around 1 hour, 43 minutes.

11Aug2019

Lamplight – The Knitting

by alwaysacraftylady

And now for the knitting from Lamplight 2018.

Project – Lamplight Sweater

Recipient – Me

Pattern – Miss BB from Chic Knits and French Aviation Hat #613 (from Wearing History)

Yarn – Foxhill Farm Millspun Cormo Cross

This yarn was my Rhinebeck splurge. I saved for the trip for months and I couldn’t afford to buy a lot so I had to really be choosey. I landed on this so soft and warm Cormo Cross that my Rena recommended. The color was perfect for my Lamplight costume, but I also wore this sweater all winter. The biggest problem was time. I had to sew a whole costume AND knit a shawl collared sweater in one month. Thank goodness I got it done! The hat was less successful. In an ideal world I would have had tons of time to swatch. But that just wasn’t my reality so the hat is much much less slouchy than intended. Oh well. I was plenty warm and cozy for the night time program. Too bad I had such a hard time learning lines last year. Ugh. Much too big a part for my meager acting skills. This year I’m requesting a part with a much more manageable amount of speaking!

4Aug2019

1918 Winter Ensemble

by alwaysacraftylady

The museum is already planning Lamplight for 2019, so let’s look at what I made for last year’s program!

The 2018 holiday program at the museum picked the very boring fashion year, 1918. Our costume coordinator on the night of the performance said, “I think pretty good considering.” Ha! The late 1910s do have a pretty subdued palate, but I think I did pretty well on our limited budget. I ended up pulling everything from my stash except the skirt fabric! No way I could have done that if I’d needed a bustle dress, but 1918 is a pretty tame fashion year.

But for fun, this time I thought I’d show you the under layers too. All these historical looks take some serious underwear and even though the 1910s are more relaxed, there are still underclothes.

The bottom most layer is a chemise. This is one I made years ago and I wear it under any light colored ensemble. Is that historical accurate? Heck no. I don’t care. Chemises din’t change a huge amount , so I think its good enough. I’m also wearing knee high stockings, sturdy shoes, and an underbust corset. I bought the corset, but I’m starting to maybe think on making my own. Or even better, do a trade with another costuming friend to see if we can do a skill trade.

Next up is a corset cover and petticoat. This corset cover was made last year when we performed Cinderella. I swapped the red ribbon for a white one and even though the cover was patterned after an original from 1880, the style was super similar to the 1910s. The petticoat is new! Nothing I already owned was short enough and shaped correctly. Thankfully I had left over black twill from Lu’s halloween costume. It wasn’t much, but by stitching a few panels together, I had just the right amount. Thank goodness I saved that strange shaped remnant.

Next, the blouse! Made with remnants from the girl’s baptism dresses using Wearing History’s Elsie 1910s WWI Era Blouse. It came with the original instructions that are best described as brief. But the blouse was similar to others I’d made so I was able to muddle through.

Finished with a skirt of plaid purchased from Renaissance Fabrics. I love their selection, reasonable prices, and fast shipping! The pattern is the 1918 Ladies Two Piece Skirt from the Vintage Lending Library. It also came with original directions that were pretty confusing, but Wearing History’s YouTube channel came in VERY HANDY!

So that was my sewing for last year’s Lamplight program. Next up…the knitting!!! We had a super tight budget last year so I am so thrilled with how much I was able to source from our own home.

28Jul2019

Vintage Nightgown – Butterick 3077

by alwaysacraftylady

Project – Vintage Nightgown

Recipient – Lu

Pattern – Butterick 3077 from the 1970s

Fabric – 1950s vintage plisse bought from shopmakethislook on Instagram

A sweet little nightgown I made last year for those hot summer nights. It has a teenager girl listening to records printed all over and the yellow ribbon matches the girl’s yellow hair. It’s been worn many time since I made it even though my girl has grown a lot this year. My sister found the pattern in a thrift shop and it was just perfect. Size 4, but with added length it fit Lu well at 6 years old and still fits well more than a year later.

21Jul2019

Rhinebeck 2018

by alwaysacraftylady

After an absence, I’m back and I’m going to try and make blogging more realistic for my life. I missed sharing my projects and having a record to track them. So here is a little bit different format with a few details of each project, a few photos, and hopefully more frequent posting again.

original_url: 1960FF6C-074A-4AEB-9796-F4A992F884DA

Last fall I went to the New York Sheep and Wool Festival, aka Rhinebeck with my friend Erica. It was a bucket list trip for both of us and going with a friend made the whole thing a little less overwhelming. Rhinebeck is the most talked about wool festival in the US and because its location is close to so many major cities in the Northeast, a lot of people attend. A lot of my yarn-y friends attend.

It was a lot of fun. We ate the best damn falafel. I found a historical museum at the fairgrounds and met a man who had attended school in this school house. I pet a lot of animals, and I hugged so many people. It was amazing.

Technology is such a gift. I finally got to meet my health and exercise support group in person. We all bonded over Orange Theory and it bloomed into so so much more. I knit the same sweater as 20 other people and we made a human rainbow. Erica made me a political hat of rainbow goodness.

The best part of the trip was finding that Erica and I traveled so well together. It was a huge leap to spend 5 days with someone, but we came out the other side still friends and now we’re thinking up our next adventure together.

7Mar2019

Make Nine – Take 1

by alwaysacraftylady

This year I’m trying the Make Nine Challenge. I’m not usually very good at sticking to these things, but ha! Why not keep trying? Thankfully I’ve finished my first look of the year. In fact I finished it back in January so I’ve had a chance to wear it many times already.

This is the Washington Dress from Cashmerette and I hacked it to have a cowl neckline. I’ve used the pattern a ton of times now to create different looks and it’s worked pretty well. This time I sized down to a 12G/14 and I like the fit!

I will say the cowl neck is not at all as dramatic as I wanted. I was tentative when I was drafting the pattern and could have gone far more extreme to make it lower. But this is make from wool jersey (from the Fabric Store) and it doesn’t have as much stretch as say, cotton/lycra jersey. Ohhhhh, and right now I’m having an inspiration moment. My friend recently gifted me a sack of fabrics including a dark purple rayon jersey. Now that would have made a better cowl neck dress.

Regardless, this pink wool version is super comfortable and though it looks tight when I first put it on (like in the photos), it relaxes a bit with wear and feels so lovely. We’ve had a cooler and wetter winter this year and the high neck has turned out to be a blessing on all those windy winter days. So I call this a success!

7Jan2019

Back to School!

by alwaysacraftylady

So, I’m just a little bit behind on sharing projects from late 2018. Moving forward I’ll be intermixing newer projects with older project until I get through the backlog. Today, back to school outfits!

Both of my children wear a uniform for school, but the dress code is not terribly strict. As long as their shirt has a collar and the colors are correct-ish neither school will complain. I usually buy most of their school clothes as polo dresses and leggings as both cheap and easy to acquire, but the first day of school is special and deserves something fun to wear!

For Charlie I went with separates.

This is the Oliver + S Music Class pattern. It’s a great little uniform pattern with a classic blouse and simple skirt. Great for wearing to school and pretty easy to sew as well.

Back when Lu went to preschool I bought all kinds of uniform fabric. I was definitely going to make all her uniforms. Ha! Nope. I had a Charlie a few months into Lu’s preschool years and that fabric has mostly sat in my stash. This fall I used most of the uniform stash to actually make more school uniforms including this adorable back to school outfit.

Charlie likes it pretty well, especially those cat buttons.

Charlie is very obsessed with cats, even though we don’t own one. When I saw these buttons at the Costume College marketplace, I just knew they would bring a smile to Charlie’s face…and they did!

The fabrics are both from Robert Kaufman, but after 3+ years my memory of the specifics is gone. I’m sure the shirt is lawn, but the skirt is…? Who knows. Something sturdy that took the pleats really well.

This little girl is not real fond of school, but wearing pretty clothes makes her happy and that makes momma happy too.

For Lu’s first day of first grade, I used a vintage pattern. I went on a little vintage pattern ebay spree over the summer and this little number called my name as something cute, uniform-ish, and practical. It’s Hollywood Pattern of Youth #1504.

I could not find it on any of the vintage pattern cataloging sites and was a bit hard to date, but I’d guess its from the 1930s. The starlet for this pattern is Virginia Weidler who was born right now the road from us and it best known from The Philadelphia Story and The Women.

Lu was a total ham in this dress. I think she liked it quite a lot, but she really loved those shoes! Too bad they broke on the third wearing and had to be returned 😦 The belt was also a huge hit. I had no idea such an accessory could bring so much joy to a child.

The fabric was nothing fancy. My stash was all really stiff skirting fabrics and so I journeyed to JoAnn’s to find something with a touch more drape. I returned with a rayon blend twill and some white rick rack. The twill was also a bit too stiff for the pattern, but I didn’t want something too delicate.

Neither of their first day of school outfits has made it into heavy rotation. Those polo dresses really so just so much easier to maintain and comfy to wear. That’s okay though. Special clothes don’t have to be worn all the time. Making them brought all of us such joy. They have served their purpose.