Nested

Vintage Sewing Tips

2009-11-23T10:48:14-08:00

Casey posted a great set of tips on sewing with vintage patterns. Especially helpful (to me at least) is the tip to trace out older pattern pieces onto sturdier paper. That way I can also mark the notches better and not fear that they're going to disintegrate after use.

My Letter to Tavi

2009-11-18T10:09:56-08:00

If you haven't seen Style Rookie, the blog of thirteen year-old fashion prodigy, Tavi Williams, then you aren't reading one of the best blogs out there. I've been reading the blog for a while but have never had the nerve to email her. Today, however, I got the courage to let her know how I feel. Here's an excerpt from my email to her:

Hey Tavi,

I'm sure you get thousands of emails like this but since I don't write thousands of emails like this I felt it was worth sending.

I'm 32*, founder of a company (Six Apart -- they make blogging software), mother of a two year-old and, I would think a fairly accomplished person. I've been on the cover of Fortune (along with some other folks), spoken at conferences with Al Gore in attendance and hung out with celebrities.

There's a point for this totally insane bragging, however.

All that being accomplished, I still manage to be completely envious of your style and your approach to life. To be so young (that's not an insult) and be so creative, unique and articulate is such an amazing feat! I've shared your blog with countless friends in my life -- mostly 40 year-old adults and we're so moved by how incredibly funny and talented you are. I remember being a pre-teen and teen and being creative but not able to express myself. I was a dork at school and had my days when I'd come home and cry because everyone was mean and they made me feel stupid/ugly/unpopular or whatever. Today, I wouldn't change a thing since it has made me who I am. I only wish I could have been even dorkier since that was truer to my personality.

To get an idea of my dorkiness, here's a comic I created in 2001:

I'm raising my daughter, Penelope, and I am constantly wondering how do we (my husband Ben and I) raise a daughter like you. I don't care if she hates math and doesn't do well in school or whatever as long as she has a passion. That's not saying I think you do poorly in school -- it's just the traditional measure of success for a kid. I just want her to be passionate about something and put all her love into it...

I wrote a bit more to her, but nothing exciting enough to excerpt. I think her parents need to be interviewed and share the secret to Tavi's wonderful precociousness.

* I actually had to do the math to figure out if I was 33 or 32. It's crazy how ages just start blurring once you hit 30. This wasn't part of my email to Tavi -- just a random sidenote.

Halloween Success!

2009-11-02T05:37:19-08:00

Penelope was quite pleased with her mommy-made "Big Duck" costume.

Sewing Lessons

2009-10-27T12:34:38-07:00

Long ago, when What Not to Wear was something to watch on BBC America and not TLC, I was given (or rather the fashion disaster was given) sound advice on dressing a big bosomy woman: don't wear high necklines! I've heeded that warning ever since and with very rare exceptions will never wear a high neck or turtle neck.

With that said, I'm not quite sure why I spent a great deal of time making a dress with a neckline like this. The pattern is an old Hollywood Patterns number which I purchased at the Vintage Fashion Expo in San Francisco last month. This was my first adventure with an original 1940s pattern and I would have to say it was a bit of a nightmare to put together.

The fabric I chose was incredibly difficult to work with and the instructions called for a lot of folding over and stitching instead of using linings or interfacing. I actually felt I failed miserably, threw the pieces aside for a week and then came back and reworked the entire bodice. That's why the neckline is higher (I added a neckline piece with interfacing) and I went the route of pleats instead of gathering. I also added cap sleeves because I was just too tired to fiddle with the thing anymore. The dress is longer than the pattern indicated because I wanted it to have a slightly more 1930s feel.

Here I am wearing it at the Vintage Clothing and Style Festival this past weekend. While the dress wasn't a complete failure, I have a hard time imagining that I'd wear it again. Still, I learned a lot about working with 1940s patterns, synthetic silks and buttons.

The hat, however, was a festival find and I think it's beautiful.

Eleanor's Halloween Birthday Party

2009-10-26T09:16:25-07:00

One of Penelope's BFF, Eleanor, celebrated her second birthday this weekend with a Halloween themed party. Personally, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday so tying it into a birthday party makes it fun squared. Thankfully, the shortage of cute and not-to-scary decorations available led Eleanor's mom down a crafting path and I got to see an admittedly "non-crafter" get into the spirit.

Workday Dress #4

2009-10-23T10:17:53-07:00

I've been on a sewing tear as of late. One day, a couple weeks again, I decided that I was going to start wearing only things that I made or that were vintage (with the exception of jeans, of course). It's going to be a gradual process and I've started by making at least one outfit a week. For the past four weeks I've worn a homemade dress to work on the day I work at the office -- Wednesdays. Oddly, I hadn't thought to take a picture until today. Here's the dress I made with a Simplicity dress pattern from the 1960s -- here's a copy that's available on eBay.

Feature: it's a small world birthday party

2009-10-12T21:50:37-07:00

Last year, moments after my daughter's first birthday party -- a Cuban theme blowout with catered lunch and rented palm trees -- I exhaustedly uttered a simple sentence to my family: "Next year is going to be a whole lot simpler." The big party of this year was our Gatsby picnic and all plans for Penelope's second birthday were made as simple as we could imagine.

Read the entire feature article...

Halloween Preparations

2009-09-29T08:23:58-07:00

I'll give you one chance to guess what costume I'll be making for Penelope this year.

Feature: Zion Memories

2009-09-23T13:31:31-07:00

A couple months before I became pregnant with my daughter, I took a solo trip to the Red Mountain Spa in St. George Utah. I was to spend seven days getting into better shape and being all introspective. Basically, one of my last big opportunities to make it all about me.

Read the entire feature article...

Vintage Finds at the SF Vintage Fashion Expo

2009-09-21T09:54:18-07:00

Despite being a bit burned out on vintage from all the Gatsby preparations I did, I was excited to head out to the San Francisco Vintage Fashion Expo this past weekend. Although I didn't have any event in mind to shop for, I managed to find a couple of dresses I couldn't resist buying. Most of the stuff I really loved was out of my price range, but I managed to find dresses in need of a little bit of TLC. For that reason, I think I got them at great prices.

This blue 1950s/early 1960s sundress needed the most repairs. The zipper was detached, it was unhemmed and there were various (hidden) holes around the neckline. Originally $28, I got it for $10 once I pointed out all the problems. The fixes were fairly easy to make and now it just needs a washing.

I bought this hat for $15. Even though I'm more a fan of straw hats, I couldn't resist the flowers.

Yes, I'm already thinking about next year's Gatsby. I know I want a later 1930s silhouette and this dress may just be a little too unstructured for the look I'm going for. That said, at $35 (it needs some mending around the shoulders), I could not let this dress go unpurchased. Dresses from the 1920s and 1930s are often way out of my price range so this was a nice surprise.

And finally -- the find of the day -- this velvet 1930s evening gown. It has absolutely no wear and is in near perfect condition. And despite its slender appearance, actually fits me. I absolutely love this dress and will most likely wear it to the next formal event I attend -- perhaps the Art Deco Preservation Ball. The dress was hanging high at the top of a expo booth so I had to ask the price. Though it was $125, the store owner let me have it for $95! I couldn't even get a new formal dress for that price.