Adventures in Vintage Resales... fka adventures in baby-sewing

Today has been a marathon cleaning day, no sewing on mini-wardrobe until next week, so I will be two steps behind from the start. I really just want to have the guidelines to make things in a timely manner, but being judged by everyone else may be fun.

This is my tentative mini wardrobe. I may decide to swap out a blouse pattern or even the print depending on the muslins. I need a plan as well as a deadline to get anything done. I must be nuts!

Cleaning house! Inlaws are expected next weekend and the sewing area/bedroom as well as the whole house need immediate attention. I spent part of today cleaning up the sewing area of our bedroom by moving a cupboard into our bedroom and reallocating stash around. I also gave away thebaby's changing table and bought a secondhand dresser for the end of her crib. So I will try to sneak in some sewing/quilting, but no promises. I have been looking at everyone's blogs, wow! Some really cool things are being made. I have bought more fabric, and cut out a dress and a few other things, but have not sat down to sew, so we can only try... Last resort, school starts in 4 weeks and I may not leave the sewing machine for much after that.

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B 5216 was made over in the plisse and cut shorter and still needs something done to cover the plunging neckline. I made a v.2 in a slinky knit and seamed the two bodice fronts together from the dot to mid bust, much better. I still had to wear a camisole, but much better. The plisse will need to be tweaked a bit. Wore the knit one with cargo pants last night to dinner at a friend's home/ranch. DH said it looked great, so that's a plus.

Made 5216 over using view C, much better results, but tunic is about 2-3 inches too long at bottom which needs to be cut off. Front is open to elastic waist area, per pattern, so a panel is needed, but if I sew it shut, bodice gapes, so, I will have to add material there if I want to sew it shut. I am not finished with the hems, so I will photo later as I plan to wear it this weekend. I am trying it over in a knit to see if it drapes better on me. The plisse I used is thin, but stiffer. I also cut out another Simplicity that show to be too tight in the sides and too long at bottom, so I will wait to tackle that another day.

I have worked on a few wearable muslins for butterick patterns #5216 (A) & 5217 (D). How do they look so good on the envelope and like balloons on me? I don't get it. Maternity clothes look better on me. The 5216 was awful (A). I am trying (C) next as it has a defined waist. I can salvage the material used for (A) and have enough scrap leftover to try that version. I am stumped on 5217 since there is only one version of the lower bodice on that pattern. On a better note, I went to a local antique shop to look for auction items for church festival. She had 11 vintage patterns, some are pictured here. Many were in B36 and B38, absolutely wonderful. Look at the man's pattern, looks like Clark Gable was the inspiration. Get aload of the loafers with boxers and cigarette. 1945 is copyright date. A few are too small and they may end up on ebay.

Went to San Antonio Zoo and Lone Star Train Shop with all 4 kids, had a great day. Plan to sew tomorrow and all week as possible as I really need to complete some UFO's. I have been too preoccupied with the household and other things so maybe with the kids able to play outside this week they will be busy and we can move on to bigger and better.

No sewing Wednesday, more rain, kids in the house, need I say more? Thursday was shot/doctor day for the baby, so we went to Hancock's and found for 1/2 off black pique, panne velvet (for winter) and a gauzy bottomweight plus .99 Butterick patterns (of course we bought the limit) and some notions. There is a version of a walkaway dress (I guess a pinafore) for girls and toddlers, so I bought both. I think it's B5019. I also bought online somethings, biggest news is Hot Patterns has OOP's on their ebay store. I got the Prudence blouse, which I could not find anywhere. I recently got the Pennant online.

Not much sewing, kids too crazy with all of the rain, bible school, etc. going on. I did cut out a pair of shorts for each and a diaper cover all out of a 2 yd remnant of dalmation print. I think I paid $3.98 for the piece at Hancock last summer. Each garment should cost about a dollar, which is pretty cheap, I would say and I am using up stash this way. I started sewing the oldest's ones, but have had a terrible headache since yesterday, so not much was done. I am also ripping up a maternity dress out of rayon to recut into a blouse for me. Baby woke up, kids are too loud.

I finished the blouse at 10:30 last night and wore it to church today, but the sweetheart neckline opened a little too much. One of the quilting/sewing ladies admired it and suggested running thin elastic in the topstitched area at the neckline to tighten it a bit, so I need to do that. The facings were a little off so I improvised and trimmed them back; Elaine couldn't tell, said it looked great. She liked the overall look. Pictures later, bbaby is awake.

The rain is welcome, but it makes for cagey kids. I haven't gotten back to the blouse, which needs facings, french seams and hems. If I can finish that this evening, it will be ready to wear tomorrow for church with tan capris. We'll see how much I get done, because baths and bed take alot of energy and then we usually feed the baby and settle in watching something on tv.

A slow start today, but I am going to work on another version of S4176, tunic with cap sleeves, but morph sweetheart neckline onto it and swap out facings, using the new aqua colorwash paisley print. It's 60" wide with more than enough yardage to match up centers, so let's see if we get it cut/sewn today. I have all kids here plus husband, but I may have a chance to sew when he BBQ's outside this afternoon, because the oldest 3 will go outside with him to watch and the baby will (hopefully) be napping or in her bouncy seat watching me. Baby is 5 mos old plus 1 week and just started tolerating baby food yesterday. Before she either fished it out with her tongue and would spit or blow it at me. My friend who babysits her could get her to take it from a feeding bottle, but she wouldn't for me. I guess she decided to give it up and eat it for me. Such a little turkey!

Went to Walmart, bought 3 pieces of fabric, brown broadcloth to line a voile, white bordered eyelet and a stretch faille in a yummy mint/aqua. What I will do with them, who knows?

I guess I need to post this on my blog with the cute little button: The Pledge I,Myra, pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months. I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed Myra. Let's see how well we do... Worked on a 2nd romper for the baby, was almost done with the snap tape (decided to try it the way the instructions asked for since I bought some Monday in Victoria) and ran out of thread in the bobbin and had no more white prewound. I would have wound some, but the baby was asleep next to me and would have woken up, so that was all for today. Tonight, after kid...

I just added some of these to my ebay store, along with a couple of others. I need toreduce my pattern stash, so these are some that are either not close enough in size or I have something similar already. I acquired a large stash from the local resale shop when they were trying to reduce their inventory to sell the store/retire.

Not much accomplished with all these kids, but I did get some more back issues of Burda WOF. I muslined one from 4/08, can't remember if it's 113, the one that is in the mocha section with 3 ruffles on the lower part of the bodice. I was surprised at how much better that fit me than anything from the big 4 companies. I only had to make a couple of minor adjustments and if the fabric has some give to it, it should be fine. I have cut out the pattern in an inexpensive crinkle polyester to see how a fabric with some give will work. If it works, I have some kiwi knit crepe I would like to make it in, so we will see... Some much wanted rain yesterday cooled off the 99+ deg. weather, but the high today will still be in the mid 90's.