A long time coming… at last all six sizes, UK 8-18, of my 1940s Pleat Coat are finished.
The weekend 20% off SALE IS OVER
Category Archives: All Vintage Dressmaking
The VV 1940’s coat pattern is now available in six individual sizes.
Here’s what it looks like in tweed compared to my first make in cavalry twill.
Coat pattern info can be found on this page
Well Hello!
Long time no see.
A year and a bit since last post but I’m still here. Over the last month I’ve been giving the blog a visual brush-up and dust -off. Lol, that’s been fun… fighting with themes, wrangling with css and making some big messes under the WordPress hood. Along the way this site suffered some serious downtime and non-downloading pdfs… apologies to anyone who came looking for a pattern at just the wrong time.
Anyhoo, I’m all finished moving the furniture around for now and hope you like the fresher look and easier to find (well I hope they are! ) free pdfs etc. If there are site issues, for instance you’re getting a “404 Oh No!” on a download from my Free Patterns page and you have a moment to contact me please, please do let me know. I have checked through everything myself but things do slip between the cracks.
So where was I for this last year? Pretty much right where I always am but dealing with : Continue reading Well Hello!
Meanwhile Back on Planet VeraVenus…
I recently read a Blogging Tips article and I now know it’s terrible that I don’t write regularly (five months of silence is pretty bad so thank you to those who had faith and stayed with me), apparently my SEO is terrible, while starting to write this I should already have a title ( I don’t) to help keep me focussed, this post will probably be too long … what else I can tick off the list of Top Blog Don’ts ? Oh and I over-use ‘…’ but hey, on the plus side I do try to keep a tight reign on my use of exclamation points!! Mostly. Such is life.
I am looking forward to 2016.
Non-the-less I’m back and as usual there are quite a number of project-asteroids spinning around in my little universe, I’ll start with the closest one : Continue reading Meanwhile Back on Planet VeraVenus…
A Little Post About Making Box Pleated Skirts
A reader got in touch yesterday and asked me about how I worked out the pleats in my box pleated skirt so I thought I’d post the info for doing just that . Continue reading A Little Post About Making Box Pleated Skirts
Gingham & Stripes & More- Oh My!
It’s been awhile since my last post in April so bit of a catch-up post. Back in May when I went to visit my Mum in New Mexico among other lovely outings we spent a wonderful afternoon at an iris farm. Irises by the thousands, so gorgeous…who knew! On my “to-grow” list for next year. No smuggling of bulbs in my luggage was necessary as apparently I can buy similar beauties from Holland and also in the UK. However something I couldn’t seem to get in the UK (at a price I was willing to pay) was a half scale mannequin. Yes, I know irises to mannequins? – quite a jump. Anyway ‘back at the ranch’ after the iris outing I was doing some recreational web surfing and came across a place in Alabama that sells PGM half scale mannequins at a nice price. Clickty click done deal. It arrived at my Mums house a week later. You maybe wondering what is the point of a mini-mannequin. Continue reading Gingham & Stripes & More- Oh My!
U.F.O -abbreviation for Un-Finished Object. [noun] A sewing term.
UFOs.
Oh yes.
If you sew you have ’em.
They lurk in closets or huddle in bags. If left long enough they transform from UFO into a WTF was I thinking? or an OMG I remember this! and get cut into quilt pieces if they are lucky or simply binned if not. This past Friday I had a pre-summer closet shuffle, a.k.a. What-Fits-This-Year and I found two UFOs from last summer.
But isn’t it wonderful how if you take a break from a project, anywhere from overnight to ahem a year! and look at it with fresh eyes that whatever seemed wrong with it isn’t such a big deal after all? That’s how it works for me most of the time anyway. A sleeve suddenly fits in perfectly…. the pattern correction needed is blindingly obvious…. the pocket placement is clear. Continue reading U.F.O -abbreviation for Un-Finished Object. [noun] A sewing term.
All tied up
Issue 58/March 2015 of Making magazine was released in the UK yesterday and in it is this simple front buttoning bow tied blouse pattern and tutorial by yours truly 🙂 Now the issue is on the shelves I can share this version with you- available on my Free Patterns Page
A little more on the kimono front
Left over from my recent adventures in vintage Japanese kimono deconstruction I had enough of one to also make this simple magyar/kimono blouse.
The definition of magyar blouse says that ‘…the sleeves are cut in one with the body.’ I’d also call that a kimono style top. I’m not sure of or even if there’s much difference between a magyar and basic kimono cut …if anyone does know a distinction please enlighten me.
In any event the magyar style of dress bodice & blouse seems to have been around for a long time in western fashion history from before WWI through the 30’s, into the 50’s and pops up beyond though in more recent decades maybe that’s when it began to be called a ‘kimono’ cut. Really I’m just making a supposition on that, don’t quote me. Continue reading A little more on the kimono front
Kimono My House
Ok, so what I didn’t know when I started writing was that my post title is also the title of a Sparks album from May, 1974 ( I guess I was listening to other music at the time) I like the album cover anyway so there it is. Next I learned that the title is a take on the 1951 Rosemary Clooney song ‘Come on-a My House’. Next stop was at the rather wonderful Japanese YouTube version which I share with you:
Isn’t the stuff you find on the internet amazing…
But I’m wandering.
Anyway to get to the point this is a post about my most recent up-cycling/ re-purposing/ extreme ‘make-do-and-mend’ venture involving, you guessed it- Kimono. Continue reading Kimono My House