Wee Vintage Wednesday 9/28/11

It’s late tuesday night where I am in the world, but I figured I should post this while the house is quiet and I have some time to myself 🙂

This week features the ever cute Eleanor!  She has the most vintage clothing out of all my kids I am figuring out.  Seems like that should be remedied 😉

I find I am always drawn to little cardigans for her.  She has quite the collection growing.  I think it is adorable to see a sweater on a baby 🙂  I especially love it when I find something hand made.  This cardigan is the prettiest shade of green, I would almost call it seafoam.  It’s hard to see but it has one button closure at the top in a loop.  It is so perfectly sweet.  I love the pattern throughout the cardi, it is so feminine and dainty.  Just lovely 🙂

She is getting so smiley! 🙂  It is adorable.  She almost laughed today, like she was trying really hard to make the sounds.  I love this age.

This ruffly shirt is also vintage and is so so pretty.  It has lots of lace detailing and I just love the capped sleeves 🙂

The back of the shirt has some buttons.  I am loving the buttons on vintage items, you don’t find that too often anymore.

Her boots are some that I made.  I love houndstooth in the fall time, don’t you?

Outfit details:

Shirt- vintage

Cardigan -vintage

Jeggings- The Children’s Place

Boots- Handmade by me

Will link up to Little Vintage Style, Small Style and Mod Baby once they are posted.

Happy Wednesday! 🙂

Reversible Lined Pants Tutorial

It’s monday (almost) and time for that tutorial! 🙂  These pants are so versatile and EASY to make.  I am kicking myself for not making them sooner.  They are like two outfits in one people!  They spill something on them?  Whip those things off and flip them inside out and put those puppies back on like it never happened 🙂  Are you ready?  Let’s break it down! (sorry, lots of Yo Gabba Gabba today).

Why yes, I do know that my baby boy is the cutest thing to grace this planet we call Earth!  Thank you 🙂

Step 1.  Gather supplies and draft your pattern.  Making a pattern for pants is SUPER easy.  It’s almost ridiculous.  Get some freezer paper handy if you have it, it makes the best pattern paper.

2.  Trace around the pants and then add seam allowances.  See photo for measurements I used.  You can feel free to adjust to whatever best suites your taste.  It is pretty hard to mess these up as long as you get the crotch area right.

3.  Make sure to make ample seam allowance for waist band.

4.  I used a 3/8″ seam allowance, but I think from now on I will use 5/8″.  Also, I would add a bit more to the butt area when tracing the back.  Diapered bums are big. 🙂  So I would drop the point out an inch further even and make it roomier.  Rule of thumb, just trace the bum of the pants and then add an inch or so extra just in case.

5.  Tape pattern pieces together, the shiny side will face up one half.  It doesn’t matter.  I use packing tape to get them to really stay put.  You just drafted a pattern!  How cool is that?

7.  Repeat after me, right sides together, right sides together.  Don’t forget that bit.  You can even fold both liner and main fabrics right sides together, stack them, and then pin the pattern onto all 4 layers and cut all at once.  I like shortcuts.  They make me happy 🙂

*after you have cut out the fabrics, mark the butt of the pants on both the liner and main fabrics with a erasable marker or chalk.  You want to be able to match them up when assembling the pants.  You don’t want a crotch and a butt!

9.  Pin along curved edges and sew with your chosen standard seam allowance.

10.  Sew all curves on both liner and main fabrics.

1.  Because you are lining these pants, you need to finish of the seams so they don’t fray and unravel.  My serger is in the shop so I opted to pink the edges. You can also zig zag them.

12.  Now look at that!  They are starting to resemble pants!  Pin along the other edges taking care to match crotch seams and bottoms of pants.

13.  Finish off these seams as well.

14.  Flip main fabric pants right side out.  Leave the liner inside out.

15.  Now tuck the liner into the pants!  You want the seams matching each other inside (wrong sides together).  Pull liner legs down and match with bottoms of the main pants.  Make sure to match bum to bum using your markings!

16.  I decided to finish the bottom of the pants with coordinating seam bias.  Store bought works great or you can make your own very easily!  Another option is to simply fold and iron the main and liner fabrics in towards each other and top stitch the bottoms.  Basting the layers together might be helpful with some fabrics to get them to stay together.  I used vintage sheets and they stuck together pretty well and I had no problems.

17.  Pin waist layers together at seams and then into quarters distributing the fabric evenly around.

18.  Measure the child’s waist and cut elastic (non roll kind works best) that length+2″ for overlapping to sew closed at ends.  So an extra 1″ per end.  Did that make sense?  It is late and my brain is mush.  If not, leave a comment and I will try it again. 🙂

Iron waist band down 1/4″ and then another 1 1/4″.

19.  Feed elastic through casing with large safety pin.  Overlap 1″ on each end and sew several times over securely.

20.  Pull on the waist band to get the elastic to retract into it and then sew the opening shut using same seam allowance as the rest of the waist band.

That’s it!  Easy, no?  Now go and make some!  And then, come and show us all on Flickr!  Happy sewing!

 

Thrifty Finds

Every now and again I like to take pictures of my thrifty finding adventures and I have had some good luck lately so I thought I would share them on the blog! 🙂

I go thrift shopping at least once a week.  Often times I come home empty handed, but finding something is just icing on the cake.  I just love to walk through the shops and look at all the fun things!  It is like therapy for me.  I do not feel this way about all shopping, only thrift shops.  I don’t know why that is.  In fact, after spending an hour at the mall I often feel like throwing myself off a cliff 😉

The last time I went I finally hit the jackpot in the boys vintage shirt department!  I always look for my oldest who is 7, but someone must have donated an entire wardrobe (in like new condition I might add) in just his size because there were several things there!  I snatched them right up.  I am particularly fond of these button and snap up shirts.

I also found some very lovely vintage sheets!  I use vintage sheets for lots of things.  For their original purpose, as bed linens, as backdrops for photos and for sewing with.  I am always on the lookout for fun and fresh prints when I go thrift shopping!

 

 

Oh vintage Pyrex, I love thee 🙂  I have quite the collection already as I had  the luck of a lifetime about a year ago when someone on Craigslist was selling her father’s collection that literally filled an entire house.  No lie!  I still like to look for special pieces when I go thrift shopping.  I found these at two different shops.  I have a fantastic bowl in the pattern on the top (not pyrex) and I can never get enough Butterprint (on the bottom).  If I find some, it is mine!

Just the other day I was wishing I had access to some lovely vintage patterns for kids clothes.  You know, to make it my own 🙂  Well, the pattern Gods must have rained on me yesterday!  I went to my local craft thrift vintage shop and they were having a pattern closeout sale on all vintage patterns!  Most of these were 5/$1!  I got about 30…….that sounds like a lot doesn’t it?  Here is my favorite one.  If you would like to see the rest you can click on the link to the right to get to my Flickr stream.

Today is a lazy day.  I am not feeling well and I got almost no sleep last night.  My little babes turns 8 weeks old today and she woke up about that many times last night.  Have a great rest of the weekend and I will see you all Monday for the pants tutorial!

Pants!

Coming Monday! 🙂  Y’all come back now, ya hear?

p.s. The Force is strong with little one 😉

These boots were made for………

hmmm, not walking…….how about for sitting there looking cute? 🙂  I have been sick as a dog these last few days.  I never get sick so when I do, it is a doozy!  I took some Sudafed right before bed.  I don’t have much experience with the drug, but needless to say it did NOT help me sleep.  It did the opposite.  I felt wired and jittery.  My mind was racing and I was not sleeping any time soon.  While lying there cursing the thought popped into my head, “Hey, I should get up and design some baby boots!”  So, I did.  I have made a few pairs of shoes now and once you start making them you can’t stop.  Shoes are also pretty straight forward to make.

I drafted a pattern of what I wanted to do and got to work.  The first couple of tries did not work out.  I fixed all the errors I could find and finally a boot that worked!

I added elastic to the backs to help keep them on, but that wasn’t enough to make them stay put.  So then I added elastic to the fronts as well.  I need to work on that part a bit and figure out how to center it more.  Next time I will also use regular thread on this part and not the heavy duty thread.  It looks a little funky.

These are lined with wool felt and the soles are also wool felt.  They are nice and cozy 🙂

The ruffle on the top is actually part of a skirt she had that no longer fits her.  I like the added touch 🙂

Snaps are KAM snaps, love those things!

The houndstooth fabric is a Joann Fabrics find!  They had in grey as well and you know I snatched that up too!  I love me some houndstooth!  Eleanor seems to like her boots, they seem comfy and cozy and that adds up to success in my baby dressing book 🙂

Wee Vintage Wednesday 9/21/11

This sweet vintage knit shirt reminds me so much of my childhood.  My brothers wore shirts just like it all the time and when I found it at the thrift shop a few weeks ago it made me feel all sentimental 🙂

I remember having a few shirts like this too!  They just scream late 1970’s-early 1980’s.  Rowan likes to rock his vintage on down to the bus stop.  That is where we are headed in these photos.

He loves this daily ritual.  He gets so excited when it is time to go and get “Da Tids” (the kids) 🙂  He is so fascinated with every little thing he sees.  He loves to see all the animals out and about.  He is a little animal lover.

His favorite thing to find on our little walk? Rocks or Docks as he lovingly refers to them.  He simply cannot get enough of the rocks.  He ooohs and aaaahhs over them like they are the most amazing thing he has ever seen 🙂  It is pretty adorable.

He also fancies flowers.  Particularly Dandelions 🙂

He is such a fun little guy 🙂

Todays vintage wears are brought to you by HealthTex and Minnetonka Moccasins  🙂  Pants are thrifted and are Baby Gap.

Photo effects are from Hipstamatic for Iphone.

lens- lucifer VI

film- Kodot XGrizzled

Linking up to Little Vintage Style,  Mini Mod andSmall Style.  Happy Wednesday!

Shoes, Glorious Shoes!

You know I had a baby girl just for the fashion, right? 😉  Ok, that is only partly true!  I was so excited when I found out I would be having another girl, girls are SO much fun to dress up!  Before I ever knew I would be having another child I saw these shoes on Etsy.  They are so adorable in my opinion 🙂  I bookmarked them, you know, just in case 😉  I purchased the pattern/kit.  My machine (a singer 201-2 is having major issues with the leather, it is skipping stitches).  I however made a pair out of wool felt in the always fabulous mustard!  I love them and they fit her perfectly right now, shoes are hard to find this tiny!  I use KAM snaps and their hand snap tool, I use that thing all the time!  Best purchase ever!

Then I saw these on Pinterest.  I decided to make them out of felt too and used some double fold elastic for the strap.  I added a felt flower from this tutorial and embroidered a closed blanket stitch around the shoe opening.  I love these, but they will not stay on her feet 😦  I even tried sewing some elastic into the back of the shoes to cinch them a bit around her foot but they just fall off.  I will have to mess around with the pattern a bit I think.

Shoes are really fun to make!  They have a big cute factor and make me smile lots 🙂  I plan on making the ruffle shoes in every basic color out of the felt.  They stay on her feet wonderfully and dress up any outfit.  If you know of any other fun and cute shoe tutorials or patterns, link me up in the comment section!

Have a wonderful night!

 

 

It’s getting to be fall

pumpkin spice syrup, originally uploaded by joomoolynn.

in these parts 🙂 I saw this recipe on Pinterest this morning. I love the Starbucks version, but they are so expensive! So, I jumped right on this wagon 🙂 I had all the ingredients on hand and, people, it smells like heaven. I cannot wait to slip some into my coffee later.

I love fall!

Wee Vintage Wednesdays

I recently came across a blog called Hart & Sew (thanks Pinterest!) and about fell over at all the eye candy going on over there!  She is a cute mom with fantastic style who also loves to dress her wee ones in vintage clothing (she also sells children’s vintage items in her Etsy shop!).  She does a feature every wednesday with the cutest vintage clothes and encourages her readers to dress their little ones in vintage, blog about it and share their link!  I think it is so fun!  So, I think I will try to make every wed. a wee vintage post.  Sometimes it will be thrift store finds and other times it will be things I have upcycled using vintage fabrics or vintage patterns!  Here are a few posts I have already participated in.  If this makes you feel all squishy inside, like me, why don’t you join in the fun? 🙂  I entered myself twice this week, hope that is ok!  I had already made Violet a darling shirt from a vintage sheet.

I recently found a bunch of wonderful boy vintage items at the thrift store.  Frankly that doesn’t happen very often so I was really stoked!  I love to dress Rowan in vintage but I only had a couple of pieces for him that I inherited from my mother in law (my husband used to wear them as a baby).  You can see one outfit here.

The overalls are the thrift store find and the shirt is from the above mentioned outfit.  He is only going to have a few weeks to wear these sadly, it is turning cold here now and these for sure will not fit him next summer 😦  Oh well, enjoy it while it lasts, right? I just love overall shorts on chunky little thighs! 🙂  I also love the nautical detail on the shorts.  I love nautical themes on clothing.  I just found a vintage sheet with little anchors all over it, but that is for another day 😉  The reds in the shirt and shorts matched perfectly!

The moccasins are another thrift store find and are vintage Minnetonka.  We have a couple pairs of their moccasins, so adorable! 🙂

Outfit details:

Shirt and overalls – vintage (shirt was my husbands as a baby)

Shoes – vintage Minnetonka moccasins.

For more wee little eye candy check out Small Style as well!

Have a fantastic Wednesday! 🙂

Vintage Sheet Charm Packs

Come and get em! 🙂  I have begun listing some new vintage goodies in the shop starting with some charms from vintage sheets!  I have most of the same prints from the listing, they may vary slightly, but I have very limited quantities.  If you need more than one pack, convo me and I can set up a custom listing for you.

You can use these charms to make a quilt just mine!  The listing is for (36) 6.5″ squares, the perfect size for a baby quilt!

Vintage sheets are a dream to sew with.  They are a bit more slippery than regular quilting cotton, but I find that to be a good thing!  They are much more forgiving as well.  You will need to change your needles a bit more frequently when sewing with vintage sheets as the thread count is much higher and the weave tighter than other fabrics.

Vintage sheets are so soft!  They are just dreamy!  See, Eleanor thinks so 😉

*photo by LisaRuth Photography

I am also listing some full sheets and some vintage children’s clothing!  It may take me a few days to get it all listed so be sure to check the shop every now and again to see what’s new!  Have a fantastic Monday 🙂