August | 2012 | SewVeraVenus

Some women do…

28 Aug 2012 14 Comments

…take pictures of their new shoes.

Well I do when I’m really pleased with them like these from Poetic Licence that arrived this morning. Pretty box and lots of tissue, well made and yes, on sale too

The wide-leg striped linen trousers based on my french knicker block came into being… complete with sailor style front placket openings. Next time I make trousers with so many buttons to do and undo I will put a sneaky invisible zip in the side seam as this many buttons is a pain.

Did a 12 mile cycle around the tiny lanes of Romney Marsh in Kent on Bank Holiday Sunday. It was gorgeous. Didn’t take much in the way of photos as I was concentrating on cycling…staying on the bicycle that is. We did pass this little church and wish I had taken pics. Turns out it’s a really popular photography subject anyway and this photo by Stephen Nunnery is a beautiful one of it.

On the drive home made a little stop at Pett beach for an ice-cream and soggy chips (french-fries) and we could just glimpse Dungeness across the bay. That’s our next cycle destination apparently as having finally got me on a bike at long last Mr.Outdoor Activity insists we do more! Honestly, though more of a walker, I did have a fab time. Need my own bike , borrowing my daughters un-comfy off-road bike wasn’t ideal. This bike from Beg Bicycles is more the style I have in mind. The Mister may beg to differ. I see trouble ahead…

Hay rolls always signal the end of the summer to me. Getting to the last of the garden posies too.

So this was just a little catch-up post… I do sometimes do things besides sew. Some costume work has just come in so I’ll be busy and quiet until it’s time for the French Knicker Sew-along. See you then.

French Knicker Sew-Along Announcement

27 Aug 2012 24 Comments

by VeraVenus in 1940's, Free pattern, How To, Sew-along, sewing, Vintage Lingerie Tags: 1940's, French knickers, sew-along, sewing french knickers, sewing vintage lingerie

Over the weekend of September 8 & 9 I’ll be hosting the first ever VeraVenus sew-along on making 1940′s style french knickers! More

Bows into Darts. A Mini How-to

23 Aug 2012 7 Comments

by VeraVenus in 1940's, dressmaking, How To, It's in the Details, sewing Tags: clothing, sewing skirts, skirt darts, skirt detail

In the post before this one Holly commented that she’d love to know how I put the bows into the darts on the skirt I made for myself a few weeks ago (and as I’m always ready to avoid what I am really meant to be doing) here is a mini how-to do just that.

1940′s style silk crepe Bow Skirt

-Basically the ‘bows’ are sewn into pair of parallel darts creating a centre strap effect. If you only have one front dart divide it into two darts. They can be very shallow. (when I do a more in-depth tutorial on drafting the complete skirt, I’ll show how to divide one dart into two) The darts on my skirt are 2cm apart and finish parallel to the centre front skirt seam.

- Stay-stitch a fraction inside the dart ‘legs’ and iron on a 2.5cm strip of light weight interfacing from the top edge to 2/3rds of the way down in the ‘strap’ area between each pair of darts. It will cover the stay-stitching you just did and be caught in with the final dart stitching.

- Make 2 pairs of bow ’ears’. These are simply strips of fabric bagged-out into a tube. No interfacing was used as they would probably have been too thick. The finished dimensions of my ‘ears’ are 4cm wide and 4.5cm extending out from the darts. I coaxed each into a centre box pleat with some hand stitching. More

I See London I See France Draft Some New VV-underpants

14 Aug 2012 39 Comments

by VeraVenus in 1940's, DIY, How To, lingerie, patternmaking, Vintage Lingerie Tags: 1940's, free french knicker drafting tutorial, French Knicker pattern, Making vintage style lingerie, vintage lingerie

DIY French Knicker Draft ….

10 page ( don’t panic, it’s because of pics and largish print ) PDF takes you through the drafting process… no diploma in pattern-making needed.

Includes information on fitting and a brief sewing guide.

Slightly flared 1940′s style French Knicker

All because:

A couple of weeks ago when some nice weather arrived I decided I had Absolutely Nothing To Wear

and fixated on making 3 new skirts as the solution. Of course couldn’t find my custom skirt block anywhere so did a quickie draft and after I’d made a 30′s, a40′s and a 50′s style skirt…

French inspiration from August 1939

10 Aug 2012 14 Comments

by VeraVenus in 1930's, DIY, Inspiration, It's in the Details, lingerie, sewing, Vintage style Tags: lingerie, Making vintage style lingerie, vintage inspired

Last weekend I bought the 1939 August of issue Marie Claire magazine in a antique market

from 73 years ago this month!

It has these lovely illustrations of men’s holiday fashions in ice-cream colours which really caught my eye.

Just one month later WW2 was declared.

In the same issue is this article of ideas on using lace as appliqué on ‘bibelots” (I’ve always loved that word)

Inspiration hit and I made…. wait for it…… more french knickers of course.

Serendipity in the form of some lovely soft turquoise-y blue silk broadcloth I bought only the week before.

To make lace appliqué bows you tie a length of lace into a bow and fiddle about with it on your ironing board sticking pins in here and there until it has the shape you like and then you press it very flat.

Carefully re-pin it in place on whatever you will be sewing it on. Flat fabric is easier than an already sewn garment because of having to turn it every which way while sewing.

You can either hand baste it in place first (the methodical way) or go straight to sewing it down (the impatient way) though the pins will really get in the way.

I used a small size 2 straight stitch and was very grateful my machine has a presser foot knee lift!

You could cut some sections of the backing fabric away after sewing which would look lovely and airy- in which case either a tiny machine zig-zag or close hand-whipping the lace edges down would be better.