Family Pictures

Family pictures this year turned out great! A photographer friend and I get our families ready, meet at our location, then snap eachother's family and couple photos, then take our own kids' photos and go home and edit. It works out well! 

 I made my husband and boys newsboys hats and mixed a couple patterns for my daughter and made myself a dress. I used Love Notions Willow Wrap Dress. I love this pattern! I think this is my fourth iteration of this dress for myself! I also just made one for another girl. 

My daughter's dress is a mix between a M4M Brooklyn and a hand-drafted half-circle skirt and her sweater is the Swoon Scarf Neck Cardigan.

Dress Like Your Grandma Challenge

The lovely Tanya issued the "Dress Like Your Grandma" Challenge and when I read about it I was so excited! I love the fashion of my grandparent's eras. My mother's parents were married in 1947 and my dad's parents in the 1930s. I loved learning about the fashion during the 40's and especially about how it changed due to the war and rationing. I didn't know that the pencil skirt was born in this era due to limited availability of fabric, but it's a fashion workhorse!

Originally I couldn't find any pictures of my grandmother during the 40's/50's and my mom didn't seem to have any either. So I found a picture I liked online and a pattern in my stash that I bought on sale a few months ago. Tanya had also made this pattern and her version is so beautiful! It's McCall's 7433. I made the size 22 and after a muslin, I added 2" height to the button placket and added an inch width at the bust.

As I was finishing my dress my aunt, whom I had asked for pictures of my grandma, emailed me a picture of my grandmother and her family. I was floored to see that my dress was the same style as my great-grandma! The collar is different and so is the color scheme, but it's so similar! The photo was taken around 1953/54.

This my great-grandmother, Grace Adele Blake.

And this is my "grandma dress."

And from the side...

View from the back...

And just for fun, my two year old wanted to be in the picture too.

I was also blessed with the opportunity to go my parents house (we live far from them...like 30 hour drive far). I remember looking through a box of old photos from 1930-1950 of my grandparents and I tried to find it. While I didn't find it, I did find a treasure trove of other photos from my mom's family. This was such a fun way for me to view family history. I've loved old photos but now I see them with a new fascination with the fashion and curiosity of how garments were made. It's also neat to see family pictures and know that they too enjoyed sewing and made their own clothing. I love that I learned my love of sewing from my mother who learned her skills from her mother who also learned from her mother. I love keeping this skill alive even though to many people now-a-days it seems an "old-fashioned" idea. But I love being able to sew clothes that fit my body, in all it's stages, and to make them how I see clothing in my mind.

The Bronte Top

So, I absolutely love the Curvy Sewing Collective. I love reading the contributor's blogs as well, especially Cashmerette, Idle Fancy, Mrs. Hughes, and Two Random Words. I kept seeing the Bronte top and just loved the style. A little elegance to a comfy tee. So I jumped on the wagon and bought Jennifer Lauren's The Bronte Top. I'm so glad I did!

It took a little fiddling, but once I got the pattern adjusted, I'm in love! I needed to do an FBA and then still had to shorten the shoulder seam. I still need to learn how to do a shoulder adjustment. Even as a teenager I remember my mom always having to move the sleeves up higher on my shoulders. I didn't think I had narrow shoulders, but I guess so! I've had to change it on nearly every pattern I've made.

 This is just one version that I've made and my latest one. I saw the fabric at Hobby Lobby. It's lightweight knit and sadly starting to pill, but I still love it. I wear it with my Fay skirt and just feel lovely! And check out that pattern matching on the side!! You can hardly see the side seam. Score!! I did elbow-length sleeves so it's great transitioning into Fall.

I've been longing for a dress form for quite a while since it's so stinkin' hard to fit clothes on yourself. My sweet husband bought me a dress form for our anniversary! Man does he know how to make his wife happy! Thanks Honey! I haven't adjusted it to my measurements yet, so the shirt looks baggy in the waist, but all versions of the Bronte were fitted to myself and are perfect (not baggy)! The form also comes in handy to take pictures of the clothes I make because, let's be honest, it feels weird taking pictures of myself.

The Bronte is a lovely pattern and now that I have the fit right, a great, easy sew. Perfect stress reliever! Plus, it's classy and comfortable...who could ask for anything more in a shirt?

Pattern Hack: Tonic Tee 2 into Ruched Maternity Tee

I have a dear friend who is pregnant (hooray!!) but struggling to find maternity clothes that fit and that don't cost an arm and a leg. SBCC has a free t-shirt pattern that I thought would be lovely as a scrunched maternity shirt. Plus, awesome pattern hack for the Sewing Indie Month.

 Ruched maternity shirts are so comfy and they look great. Now, my friend lives no where close to me, so I simply made do with my dress form.

To alter this pattern for maternity, I used this gal's tutorial as a guide. I used this to make myself a maternity shirt when I was pregnant with my last baby and did something similar to make a maxi dress with the baby before.

Cutting at the waistline, I added about 5 inches in length and an extra inch on each side of the pattern, grading from the top cut line down to the new bottom edge. It's a rather steep grade, but so is a baby bump! Then when sewing, I gathered the front piece from the original waistline down to about 2 inches from the bottom. Then I simply sewed the shoulder seams, sleeves, and then down the sleeves and sides. Then a simple neck band and hemming sleeves and bottom and we're good to go. I hope she likes it! I also made this 3/4 sleeves instead of long sleeves.Thanks SBCC for a great pattern!

Trying out the SBCC Mimosa Blouse

I don't know about you, but sewing is a stress reliever for me. Well, unless I'm under a deadline, but I usually avoid those with sewing. I read about the Sewing Indie Month contest and thought, "Hey, why not??" So I found the SBCC Mimosa Blouse and thought it was just what I'd been looking for lately.

I used a lightweight polyester I found at Hancock's in their spot-the-dot clearance. I actually went back and bought more to make my daughter a dress it was so cute!

I didn't do a muslin, figuring this would work as a wearable muslin. It turned out pretty well. Next time, I need to do a small FBA and lower the bust darts. Luckily with the busy print, you can't tell! All in all, I love this and will be making another in the near future.

The skirt is also me-made. It's the Fay Skirt from StyleArc patterns. I changed the pattern, since it was a little odd with a self-lining. I just eliminated the lining and hemmed the bottom. The fabric is a scuba fabric I found (also at Hancock's). I love how it turned out and I wear it a lot!