Back to sewing!

Friends, thank you so much for your amusing and candid responses to yesterday's post about things you'll skimp on and things you won't.  I know more about you than I probably should (and vice versa), but what are blogs for if not unburdening ourselves to strangers and who doesn't like to talk about shopping?  It's a like a cross-country bus trip, but with better conversation and cleaner bathrooms.

Today I am committed to returning to sewing.  As you can see up top, my Featherweight is threaded, I've inserted a brand new #9 needle, and I'm all set to get started on my summer shirt, made with a lightweight, somewhat sheer lavender cotton (lawn?).  I haven't sewn much in the last few weeks and I'm eager to begin.



I've also rethreaded my Brother 1034D serger with light-colored thread; not sure I'll serge anything on this shirt but just in case...



Exciting news: Claire Schaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide arrived the other day and it is an amazing resource -- so much more than I'd expected.  I'll certainly be writing more about it later on, but for less than $7 with shipping, it's a tremendous bargain.  Apropos of areas where we like to skimp, buying an older edition of a sewing book is usually a great idea.  Who cares if the photos are all from the Hatey Eighties?  In a few years, it's all going to look super cool again, trust me.









I wasn't expecting this book to be quite this large and heavy -- we're in doorstop territory.  I would love to spend a week alone with it with no distractions, and I may have my opportunity soon as my mother is being released from rehab early next week and I'll probably be spending the week with her.  I was thinking of bringing sewing supplies up -- and still am -- but I don't think I'm going to follow through; too much stuff.

Finally, readers, I watched another old (if you consider the Eighties old; I don't) movie, Pretty in Pink.  I don't know what I was expecting, but I was disappointed by what was essentially an ABC Afterschool Special about a poor high school girl falling for a rich high school boy; the same tired Cinderella story we've seen a million times.  Why is it that the girl is always poor and the boy is always rich and never the other way around?

And when did actors stop studying diction?  Big-screen mumbling is a pet peeve of mine.



There are a few cute performances and the period outfits are fun, but I think I'll skip Sixteen Candles.  Next on deck: Sex and the Single Girl, which I have a sinking feeling I'm going to hate.  The one essential ingredient of a Doris Day Sixties sex comedy is Doris Day.  As much as I like Natalie Wood...

Readers, that's all for today.  I am going to sew and I will report on my progress tomorrow.  I hope you're sewing or saving or something fun.

Pretty in Pink -- pretty awful?

Have a great day, everybody!

Making a Ginger Rogers Dress

What can you say about Ginger Rogers that hasn't already been said on a million other sewing/vintage style blogs?  I'll try to come up with something. I've actually written about her a few times, early on, here and here.

Growing up, I adored Ginger Rogers and the more I learned about her the less I liked her.   Aside from her politics -- don't get me started -- she apparently wasn't much fun to work/be/live with.  As recounted by someone I knew years ago who performed with her in Hello Dolly, she was very grand and very cheap, at least by that time in her life. 

But let's not let facts get in the way of fiction.  On screen, especially in the late-Thirties, early-Forties (her heyday), Ginger was wonderful fun.  Working women, especially, identified with her.  You always knew, whatever part she was playing in the film -- and she was usually a shop girl or dancer -- that she'd worked hard to get where she was.  Nothing had been handed to her, and she was tough, which endeared her to struggling Depression-era audiences.



And how lovely she looked.  Obviously she didn't dress herself, but she wore clothes beautifully, having been blessed with a lean and lithe dancer's body.   The films she made with Fred Astaire at RKO are classics and her on-screen contributions are equal to his, especially in the later films.  When they dance, I watch her.

Whatever her personality quirks, Ginger Rogers endured; she started in movies in the Twenties and was still working in the Eighties.  I saw her live at Radio City Music Hall in 1980 in her nostalgic one-woman (and a zillion effeminate chorus boys) show, and I remember being very entertained by it.  She even autographed my program!

Cathy has been begging me to make her a Ginger Rogers-style dress and I'm kind of eager to make one too.  The styles are easy to find: nearly any late-Thirties secretary dress from a pattern company like Hollywood or DuBarry fits the bill, and I recently found one that had a lot of the elements from the dress pictured up top, which Ginger wore in the Pick Yourself Up number in Swing Time, one of the very best of the RKO Astaire-Rogers musicals.

Here's what I recently bought on on Etsy:

Another shot of the Pick Yourself Up dress:

If you inspect Ginger's dress (you can click on it to supersize) you'll notice it has a fitted midriff yoke.  I may or may not try to recreate that.  This Hollywood pattern, currently for sale on Etsy, has a similar yoke, but I will not pay $35 for a vintage dress pattern.

Ginger's skirt is pleated and it seems to wrap across the front, below the midriff yoke (or does it?  If you inspect the top photo you'll see it looks like the layers overlap for additional fullness; in the video below not so much).  What do you think a dress like that was made out of, silk?

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking about sewing next, or soon, though things could change, as they sometimes do.

On an unrelated note, if you haven't contributed your recipe for a happy life on yesterday's post -- or you'd like some good instructions for whipping one up this weekend -- please have a look.  Some wonderful comments -- and a lot of wisdom -- were contributed.

Thoughts about Ginger/the Ginger dress?

Happy Friday, everybody!

Ginger as I saw her:



In her prime:

Midriffs and other Monday Musings

Good morning, sewing machine hoarders and others!

Let's not even talk about the Singer 401A from yesterday's post.  No doubt it is rusting in the back of a truck somewhere, but at least it's not collecting dust in my apartment.  End of story.

While I bypassed the purchase of another vintage Singer, I did pick up a few choice items this weekend, though not exclusively at the flea market.  While taking my daily virtual stroll through the Etsy pattern listings, what should I stumble upon but this jewel, which conjured up memories of so many favorite movie outfits.

 

With summer upon us, can't you see Cathy sporting a little vintage-style playsuit?  I'm letting her know now so she can start her sit-ups immediately.  (Did anyone look better in a midriff than Barbara Stanwyck?)

Of course, google 40's midriff (in Google Images) and you'll immediately notice the category is virtually owned by one of my favorite vintage-style sewists.  How that happened I'll never know, but I must admit that Casey is beyond adorable in hers and she deserves her (as of 8:45 am EST) Number One position. 

On a roll -- some might say a relapse -- I picked up another vintage slip pattern on eBay -- this one, which dates from the mid-40s, arguably better than my previous 1939 one.  If you're wondering what a man is doing with a growing collection of vintage slip patterns, hang around and you'll find out.



Back in pajama land, after laundering my seersucker shorties on Saturday, I decided that the rise of my shorts was still too high and I performed a little surgery on them yesterday, re-opening the waistband and cutting another 2" off the top, and then making a new casing.   I am very fussy when it comes to where garments sit around my waist.  The bellybutton must be able to breathe -- this is not a vintage Forties playsuit.







Friends, I fear I am keeping you from your daily duties and there's much to do here, including carting two bags of discards to the thrift store.  Behind the scenes, we're still decluttering.   Must make room -- physical and psychic -- for the Next Big Thing, whatever that may be. I'm open to suggestions.

If you're have feelings about belly button-obscuring midriffs, please feel free to unburden yourselves here.  We don't judge.

Have a great day, everybody!

A Day of Rest

Loyal readers, today is all about R&R here at MPB.  Having just finished a two-week Jeans Sew-Along, I badly need a vacation, or at least an afternoon wrapped in compression bandages -- maybe two.

I still photograph well, of course, but one does lose one's dewy freshness (among other things).



As always, along with R&R comes a notable investment in R&D, as we strive to keep the pipeline stuffed with new products and projects.  The competition is fierce and I am committed to staying one step ahead of the pack.  I may have to hire more staff.

Needless to say, my mind is teeming with ideas, both fresh and moldy.  Any little thing can spark a new project.  A quick peek at the headlines...

A new book...



A trip to the salon...

And suddenly I've bought a new pattern, which should arrive any day now.

The problem with a dress like this, friends, is that there's really only one event you can wear it to, and you have to plan it.  Given Cathy's love life these days, I don't think there's any rush.

But there are other new patterns in my life.  I won this on eBay recently -- you can't have too many vintage slip patterns; who wants to line everything?



I picked up some wonderful books at the flea market on Saturday and I wanted to share one of them with you today.    

New York Fashion, by Caroline Rennolds Milbank, is what's commonly known as a coffee table book, but you don't need a coffee table to enjoy it.  Upper body strength is essential to lift it, however.
 

This gorgeous volume, published in 1989 by Abrams, is my new favorite vintage fashion book, and focuses primarily on Twentieth Century fashion from the turn of the century through the 1980s.  This is the period when New York became a fashion capital, and New York Fashion covers all the major designers and the glorious clothes (and fashion trends) they produced, decade by decade.  It's a great read and full of gorgeous photographs, both black & white and color.







More pics of New York Fashion here. 

Moving right along...

Thank you for your kind response to yesterday's fashion shoot.  I think Michael and I are going to dress alike more often -- all couples should, really!



Whatever became of this charming tradition?

Friends, we're out of time.   I hope that whether you're at home, at work, or even on the road, you're planning your next projects along with me.

What's next for you and does it include a white tulle veil or matching Pendleton plaids (for your next trip to Disneyland)?

Go for it, I say.

Happy Monday, everybody!

Decisions, decisions...

File under, Must Sew and Soon.

Good morning, friends!  First, let me assure you that the view from the wrong side of 49 is much the same as the right side, just blurrier and shorter.  But the less said about that the better.  We have decisions to make.

Do you ever walk out of the fabric store with bundles under your arm, wondering, What did I just buy and why?  I looked at a lot of lace and taffeta yesterday at my rock-bottom fabric dive, but nothing seemed to go with anything else.  Finally, I just closed my eyes, ran my fingers over the bolts, and picked whatever they struck first.  Here's my take:



Let's call these two colors steel and burgundy.  They're both heavy acetate taffeta and subtly iridescent, on 60" bolts and $2/yd.  As far as I can tell they're the same stuff for sale here.   I know I just made a taffeta dress, but what can I say?  I like taffeta and want another shot at it now that I know it better.  This time I won't put water in the iron.

Here are the new colors next to the green I used last week, to give you a better idea:



Christmas wrapping paper, right?  What I like is that with black thread in the weave the taffeta has a rich velvety luster, especially the burgundy.

So I was thinking of making a simple, somewhat monastic dress with one of these two patterns in my collection:



Despite its ugly envelope, this Advance pattern is versatile.  I'd put a zipper in the back and cut the front as one piece, maybe extend and/or lower that bateau neckline a bit.  I love the kimono sleeves. 

The alternative is this, which I bought last month on Etsy.  Its virtues include an interesting neckline and construction (the front bodice and skirt panel are all one piece). 



It makes me think of this New Look silhouette.

As well as this vintage gem I found, perusing Etsy.

I also poked around in my fabric stash and found this oyster cotton sateen I bought last year and never used.   I have at least 4 yards from a 60" bolt.

Here it is with black lace overlay.



Doesn't it remind you of this dress, which I posted yesterday?

Picture it with matching bolero or something in taffeta perhaps.

Friends, if you're confused, imagine how I must feel?  Not wanting to disorient you further, I think I'll sign off now and pour myself some more coffee.  You may be needing some too.

Readers, I hope you have a pleasant day in store -- if not in your real life, than in your fantasy one.

Have a great day, everybody, and easy on the taffeta!