:: so much to say ::

I have so much to show and tell you–it is just practically jumping about in my head dying to get out! But I won’t reveal it all at once; don’t want to subject you all to The Post of the Century, do I? hehe!!!

Before we delve into this week’s super-special Double Vintage Monday feature (I know!! So exciting!), I wanted to show a little something I whipped up on Saturday:

The top is modified from the Burda Style Lydia pattern. I found some gorgeous, black jersey recently; and it was a very tiny length (a little over ½ yard). My original top idea had to be modified quite a bit to get all the pieces to fit on the material, but I did it! *jumps up and down* I left the body of the pattern pretty much as-is, just scooping out hte neckline a bit more. The sleeves is where all the action is: I shortened the piece, slashed and spread from cap to hem, added about 5” and reshaped the bottom edge a bit. The cap was shirred to its original width, and I gathered the bottom onto a wide band. Voila!! Pretty, fun sleeves!

The skirt was originally a rummage sale find from last autumn; I think I spent $1 on it. Although I loved the waistband, the rest of it was kinda blah and a bit frumpy. So I chopped off the old hem (a good 11”!!), rehemmed it and replaced the back buttons. The pockets I made from the leftover pieces of the old hem; just eyeballing the size and proportion, and topstitching them to the front of the skirt. I added a couple vintage buttons for the cute factor and now I have a new skirt! Hurrah!!!

I tell you: this recycling/refashioning and sewing-from-scratch experiment is proving to be the little kick I needed to really get back into sewing for myself. I’m having a ball!!

Anyway, now to compose myself and move on to the Double Vintage Monday! Here is the “official” image for today; a series of four, lovely shirtwaists from 1906. Aren’t they so pretty? I can think of at least half a dozen ways you could reinterpret any one of them into something very modern and cute. For instance, that large, Bertha collar on the middle left blouse? You could reuse that idea (possibly scaled down a bit) on a light, sleeveless summer dress. What ideas do you see?

The bonus feature today is a series of photo-excerpts from a 1964 Vogue pattern catalog!! I inherited this years ago from my grandmother, and paging through for ideas and inspiration is something I do frequently. Unfortunately, its a bit of a chore scanning this behemoth, so pictures are the only solution! I do hope you’ll enjoy these! Click on the image above to be taken to my Flickr album, or view the whole set here!!! Feel free to comment on the photos with your ideas and inspirations!

I hope you all are having a simply lovely and inspired Monday!!!

Cheers!

[ Poppytalk Handmade Market is up? And this month it’s got an eco-friendly theme!