Sewing with Old Sheets

Readers, as you probably know, I'm a big fan of repurposing old bedsheets.

I was going to say vintage bedsheets, but really, the age of the sheet doesn't matter, it's the cost that counts.  You see, the best thing about sewing with sheets is that they can usually be found in thrift stores for just a few dollars (if that) and they're generally huge.

A twin flat sheet has more than enough fabric to make a men's shirt, and with a king-size you can probably make a cotton ball gown with a luxuriously high thread count!   Always look out for prominent stains and fading, of course -- we want to avoid those.

I've found some wonderful sheets at the Salvation Army -- the designs from the Seventies are the most fun, I think.  The downside is that in that era, sheets were generally cotton/poly, and they can get smelly.  Then again, you don't have to iron them.

Here are some of my favorite sheet projects...

Shirts, shirts, and more shirts!









And even some of Cathy's outfits.  Don't tell Cathy someone slept in her dress -- besides her.







So yesterday afternoon, as I was finishing up my lavender cotton shirt, I had a vintage sheet epiphany.  As you know, I'd made the collar and collar stand white, which gave the shirt a nice crispness and highlighted the lavender.



Unfortunately, it also gave the shirt a banker-y formality I didn't want.  Plus, a white collar calls for white cuffs, which would only intensify the banker thing, plus, white cuffs show dirt.  What to do?

Then it hit me!  I dug through my collection of vintage sheets and voilà!







Sort of Lily Pulitzer meets Wamsutta, right?

Yes?  No?  Maybe, with a matching bowtie?

The big shirt reveal will be tomorrow but you get the idea.  The sheet -- which is pictured up top -- is a huge Seventies-era flat sheet I found at the Salvation Army last year.  Not sure what I'll do with the rest of it -- maybe a jumpsuit!

In closing, friends, do you ever sew with vintage (or just plain old) sheets? 

When you wear what you've sewn, do people ever guess that you're clothed in second-hand bedding?  (Do they inadvertently start yawning when you tell them?)

Is the ewww factor just too insurmountable?

Sheets-into-clothes: yea or nay?

Books about Fabric -- Your Recommendations Please!

Readers, when I say I have a lot of sewing books, I mean I have a lot of sewing books -- many dozens.  I bought some of them new, purchased even more used online, stumbled upon others at the flea market...I even found a couple in the trash!

I'm always looking for that sewing book that's going to both inspire me and bump my sewing skills up a rung or two, but it rarely happens.  Usually I leaf through a new (to me) book enthusiastically when I first get it, and then maybe -- maybe -- I'll remember to dig it out of the pile when I need to research a new technique for a sewing project. 

What happens more often is that I'll find myself perusing, say, The Readers Digest Complete Guide to Sewing at 3 a.m., and, bleary-eyed, stumble upon some very clear section about, I don't know, welt pockets, and wonder why it didn't occur to me to refer to the book when it could have helped me.  When you have so many sewing books, they start to cancel each other out, or you don't remember which book describes what.

One of my frustrations, as someone relatively new to sewing, is that my knowledge of fabric is not very good.  As you know, I shop for fabric in stores barely one step above the dumpster, and the people who work in them know less about fabric than I do and nothing about sewing.  There's no guarantee you won't ask for cotton voile and be directed to acetate linings.  YOU have to know the difference.

I was re-reading Bridal Couture yesterday at the cardiologist's -- my mother is having hip surgery tomorrow and this was a recommended precautionary visit; everything's normal, it turns out --  and while Susan Khalje is pretty good about describing the most popular bridal fabrics, some of them are hard to grasp and a photo just isn't enough (for me).  I'm honestly not sure I get the difference between dupioni and shantung, for example.  (This was something I liked about the McQueen show last week: the fabric was identified for each dress; I was like, So THAT'S silk taffeta...embellished with human hair and vulture skulls.)

Sometimes I'll go to Etsy and look at vintage dresses to see what a particular fabric looks like sewn up.  There's some great photography on that site, though that's not a perfect solution.

I just ordered a used copy of Claire Schaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide, and I'm hoping it will be the fabric book of fabric books.  Do you know it?  I didn't get the latest edition, as I'm a sucker for old editions that cost less than shipping and handling. 

There's also a series by Julie Parker --  All About Cotton, All About Silk, and All About Wool.  These reference guides include actual fabric swatches that you insert in the book itself.  I've read good things about this series, though it's not cheap at roughly $50-60 per book.  And they don't cover synthetics.

My other option is to make a date with some fabric guru here in New York and, perhaps in exchange for lunch, make them tour me through some high end fabric store and show me what's what.  Does this sound like your idea of fun?  Let me know!

Readers, did you learn about fabric from a book, or did you learn by taking on projects that use a wide range of different fabrics?  I have certainly picked up a lot these last two years just by sewing, and only rarely mistake denim for taffeta.  But I'd like to know more and I'm hoping the Schaeffer book will prove indispensable.

So how about you?  Do you own any fabric reference guides and if you do, which is your favorite?  What are their strengths and drawbacks?

Any books -- or strategies -- you recommend?

Thanks!

The sheer overlay cocktail dress

Does anything scream Fifties glamour more than a sheer lace overlay cocktail dress?  (Yes, Liberace comes close.)

My cousin needs a dress like this and she needs it soon -- big party next Saturday night!  I hightailed it to the fabric store yesterday.  They don't call me "Two-Bucks-a-Yard Pete" for nothing.

Voilà!  Five yards of emerald poly taffeta.  Five yards of black nylon lace.







Originally I was thinking something like the Simplicity Designer's Pattern I showed you on Thursday, the black version.



I really don't want to pay $20 for that pattern, though, especially because it's the wrong size and not quite the right style (that detachable collar -- too daytime).  It wouldn't arrive in time anyway.

I'm going to cobble something together working with pieces of patterns I already have.  It's a slip with a lace dress over it -- no boning in the bodice.  There are a lot of photos of this kind of thing online, some more stiffly structured than others.  Often the overlay was attached to the bodice and the darts sewn through both layers together, but not always. 

In the version below, the lace overlay is removable -- it's called a redingote -- and not attached to the dress itself. 

Here's something designer Helen Rose whipped up for Grace Kelly at MGM (for the film High Society, her last).  Not quite the same thing but close.  There was so much of this look out there at the time.

The overlay movie to beat all overlay movies is Paramount's White Christmas.   There are more sheers in that movie than in Martha Stewart's entire Home Collection.

So there you have it, kids: ten yards of frou-frou and a week of hard labor.  This is my kind of fun, what can I say?

Thoughts, recommendations, caveats?

Happy Saturday, everybody!

Last Sunday before Sew-Along stream of consciousness

Friends, have you ever seen the original version of The Thomas Crown Affair from 1968?  I bought a used copy of the DVD at the flea market yesterday, having heard about what a stylish movie it is, and it is indeed quite glamorous.  Faye Dunaway is fetching in styles familiar to any fan of vintage Sixties Vogue Paris Originals.

Lovers of taupe nail polish, this is the movie for you.

Otherwise it is something of a snoozefest, though not unwatchable, especially if you're a Steven McQueen or Michel Legrand fan (The Windmills of my Mind won the Oscar for Best Song that year). I read that the Persol sunglasses McQueen sports in the film were auctioned off recently for something like $60,000, which is a lot of money for a pair of sunglasses even today.

Anyway...

Other fun flea market finds include three yards of this vintage cotton fabric for $2.



I was originally attracted to it because it had a very distinct right and wrong side and I thought it would be perfect to use for my Sew-Along Negroni muslin.



It was a little stiff originally but after laundering and ironing it has softened up a lot. Does it look too much like something you'd pull out of a Dixie cup dispenser?  Should I save it for something better?

I also found some wonderful old patterns for just $1 each.  I picked up three but I may go back for more today.  A vendor had an entire boxful of largely Seventies patterns that had likely belonged to the costume designer for Eight is Enough.  

Have you ever in your life?  The last time I saw this kind of foreshortening was in a Mannerist painting.  And just think what a shirt in that vintage-airplane-and-hot-air-balloon pattern would cost today -- if you could find it.





Words fail me.



And then there's this.



If there was ever a Junior pattern that tacitly acknowledged the reality of teen pregnancy, I think this is it.  You'll be relieved to know that this pattern includes matching "bikini pants."







I know more than a few of my readers were dressing this way back then, and probably well into the Eighties.  At first I thought that girl was holding a yarmulke, but on closer inspection I think it's a 45 rpm record, no doubt Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves or Paper Roses.

Speaking of Marie Osmond, did you know she has her own Marie-branded Janome sewing machine?  Apparently she's been sewing her whole life, quilting in particular.  Who knew?

I have a soft spot in my heart for Marie Osmond I won't lie.  Any Marie fans out there?

Oh, before I forget! -- If you have a few minutes: remember that video I posted yesterday of an Eighties-era commercial for the Nevele hotel in the Catskills?  Well if you really want to laugh -- or cry -- read some of the feedback left by some of the Nevele's last guests on Trip Advisor (12 pages of them). 

The titles of the reviews are a bit of a giveaway, from "Pathetic and Disgusting," "The Worst," and "Remember the Shining?" to the more nuanced, "No!!!!!!!!"  Honestly, I nearly peed my pants reading them, so go now just to be safe.

Friends, it's time to get moving -- much planning in the works.

There is still time to join our Sew-Along Flickr group if you haven't already and I am delighted to see that you're getting to know one another there.  Frankly I wouldn't be surprised if some real and lasting relationships came out of all this or at least a hook-up or two, given the amount of activity under some of the discussion topics.  Fortunately I'm a very laissez-faire moderator.

Does everybody have their fabric and pattern(s) at the ready?  Hope so!

NOTE: You have only one more day (January 31) to get the 20% discount on the Negroni pattern offered at the Colette website if you're just joining us.  More details here.

Happy Sunday, everybody!

Giveaway winners and SO MUCH MORE!

Readers, it seems this McCall's 1954 sport shirt really struck a nerve with you yesterday.  Sadly, the only recourse is a root canal.  Please make an appointment with my secretary on your way out.

This shirt has proven as polarizing as Bristol Palin on Dancing With the Stars, or for those of my generation, new Chris on The Partridge Family.  Love, hate, and everything in between.  So let's move on -- quickly.

It's snowing hard again today but luckily I managed to get to the fabric store yesterday just in time.  (Unlike Meg of Shop the Garment District, who simply couldn't bear the cold to walk three blocks from her office during her lunch hour.)

Here's my take, a Liberty-esque cotton from Metro Textiles that will make a beautiful shirt for....Michael. 





He is so difficult to buy fabric for because he literally has a wallet-sized Color Me Beautiful color chart I have to carry with me when I shop for him, and if the teal isn't the teal he thinks it isn't right for him.  It's annoying.  Anyway, this pattern is enough of a blur that it works and what's more, he likes it.

In other news...do you ever make one of those What was I thinking purchases on eBay (or elsewhere) and literally, two seconds after clicking "Commit to Buy" you're wondering what possessed you?  That happened to me late last week and the result arrived in the mail yesterday.

Brace yourself.



It may be time for a clutter intervention.

But I also received something I am excited about.  I'm not really a silk-screened tee shirt type, but I saw this on Etsy and had to have it.  It's an organic American Apparel tee and the printing is done with water-based inks.





The Etsy store is called Elemental Shop out of Oregon.  Less than $20 with shipping.  I think we all need one.

(AFTERNOON UPDATE: The lovely people at Elemental are offering MPB readers a 20% discount on anything from their online store.  Just enter the coupon code MPB20.  Thanks, guys!)

Oh, before I forget -- our Vogue pattern winners.  First, the winner of the Dior Paris Original.  I am happy to announce that for the first time ever, we have an Aussie in the mix. 

She's a Sagittarius who makes her own paper (for sale in her Etsy store, The Forty Acre Wood), join me in congratulating SARAH! 

Next, the winner of the Vogue 1947 reproduction:

A curly-headed brunette with a killer recipe for potato chip cookies on her blog, Chicken Marie, please give a big hand to JANNA (aka Jannamo)!  

Sarah and Janna, please email me your addresses (peterlappinnyc at gmail dot com) and I will send your patterns off to you ASAP.

Friends, we're nearly out of time.  So many of you have expressed concern about my poor cousin, whose life has been reduced to something out of that Lady Gaga / Beyonce Telephone video with much dumpier outfits.

Please rest assured that Cathy will be sprung from the clink shortly, a sadder but wiser girl.



Folks, that's it

Sew-Alongers, we're one week away from our starting date so make sure there's plenty of wood in the woodpile and cookies in the fridge...we're gonna need 'em!  Do you have your fabric, your pattern... a sewing machine?

Happy Tuesday, everybody!