Happy Friday, my friends! I got up early before work to take some quick photos to talk about something that's been on my mind this month. You get lip balm, an un-ironed dress and possibly unbrushed teeth. Aren't you lucky. ;) As we near the mid-point of May, I thought I might spend a few minutes explaining why I'm not participating in Me Made May 2015, because you might expect me to. And the best way to sum it up ... Read more »
A very basic 1950s sleeveless top
I have my next Vintage Pledge item of the year to share! I believe I pledged to sew 5 things from vintage patterns, which I figured would be easy for me, since I sew with vintage patterns quite a lot in general. Though I haven't been sewing as much this year, so it's taken until May to hit #2 and #3. Soon you'll see my second item, a wrap dress, as soon as I finish up the jewelry that'll go along with it. In the meantime, ... Read more »
6×4 chartreuse cardigan for a tiki night
I'm happy to share my latest knitting project! This is a little vintage-style short-sleeved cardigan or bolero, however you'd like to think of it. I came up with the design for this cardigan myself. I knew wanted a fitted little vintage cardigan or bolero. I knew the yarn I was going to use. I knew roughly what I wanted to do, but I couldn't for the life of me decide on a stitch pattern to use! I kept waffling and ... Read more »
Plastic fanatic
There are a lot of things I love about vintage and retro styles. It hits all the fashion high notes for me... the clothing, the purses, the shoes, the jewelry, and other accessories. Swoon! When it comes to jewelry, while I love lots of different styles and types of jewelry, the plastics have long been my favorites. New, old, I love and collect it all! Source: LIFE Magazine, April 28, 1941 found via Pinterest, original ... Read more »
An outfit for doing something and going somewhere
Hello hello! First off, thank you for all the sweet sweet birthday wishes! ♥ ♥ It was a wonderful birthday and a great weekend spent celebrating with friends. Just perfect! I have to say, the longer I go not blogging as regularly, the easier it becomes! It's been a struggle to try and get back the desire to hang around these parts, write, and catch up on all my favorite blogs lately, I have to admit. :) But today I ... Read more »
Victory Gardening birthday dress
Hello hello, my friends! Lots of things to say today! And it's my birthdayyyy! I don't usually go three weeks between posts, but I've been extraordinarily busy lately. We were already having a very full early spring and then about the same time as our friends who moved to Wales have been in and out visiting for the last couple of weeks, I've also been unusually swamped at work, which has meant I've had very little time ... Read more »
My tweed Cascade duffle coat
Wee heeeee, my Cascade duffle coat is complete! And this is a big post, because hello, I sewed a coat and it took me from January to March, so there's a lot to share! Right off the bat let me apologize these aren't the greatest photos... it was as bright as could be the day we went up to northern Illinois to walk around and take pictures, and honestly it was such a beautiful day (omg spring came for the ... Read more »
Knitting pattern release: Sprigs and Berries
I'm very happy to announce that I've just released my latest knitting pattern! It's a unisex mitten pattern in four sizes and two color palettes, and it's called Sprigs and Berries. You can buy it and read more about it on Ravelry (you don't have to be a member!). I actually did a lot of the work for this pattern over a year ago, and only recently brushed it off to iron out some details and finish everything up. ... Read more »
Sparkling up any ol’ winter day
As I've mentioned on occasion, I mostly work from home. This is something that developed slowly over time at my job to where, several years later, we work remotely 99% of the time. The few of us from my department that are actually located in the same city sometimes pop into the office to be reminded what each other look like, for the Christmas party, etc. So I went from thinking a lot about business-very-casual clothes ... Read more »
Coat toggles until the end of time
Friends: do you ever have a piece of a project that absolutely paralyzes your ability to make a decision? I don't care if it's a craft-related project, but perhaps it's writing, work, whatever. When it's a hobby however, I personally find it's very easy and sometimes fun to let myself fall down into the rabbit hole of obsessing over making a decision over minute details. Enter my toggle hell. It's the first peek ... Read more »
Light on the bottom
Hi, friends! Before I move on to today's post, I have to stop and say how much I've been loving all your comments on my last post about my new hair color and more importantly, about celebrating yourself. Thank you for all the lovely compliments, but REALLY thank you for sharing all of the things you love about yourselves!! It's been refreshing and inspiring reading what everyone wrote. Honestly if you need a little dose ... Read more »
Blue eyes, black hair, and celebrating yourself
So I mentioned in my last post that I went back to black hair last week. I'm enjoying the much more carefree routine, including using our fancy rain shower head again, woo hoo! Prior to red, I had dark brown hair for awhile, but I've had black hair more often than not over the last decade or more. And I forgot something about it—it reminds me that I have blue eyes! It's the feature I really like about myself, ... Read more »
And then there was Snow White in a glass casket on a dress
At the end of last fall I was really excited about sewing knit dresses. Until I realized that sitting around wearing knit dresses a lot meant I'd gained a few pounds and hadn't even noticed. Whoops! So that kind of soured me on them for awhile. But there's one I never shared that has a great print, and I felt like busting it out recently since I don't know about you, but I could use a bit of fun in the dark days of ... Read more »
My pattern stash interview for Vintage Pledge at Kestrel Makes
Hi everyone! If you sew, you probably already know about Vintage Pledge, which is the vintage sewing challenge being hosted this year by Marie and Kerry. I'm tickled to say that Kerry interviewed me all about my vintage sewing pattern stash, and today the interview is up on her blog! So if you'd like to see a bunch of my favorite vintage patterns, and read what draws me to vintage patterns and the like, pop on over to ... Read more »
Tour of our retro kitschy kitchen!
Ready for our kitchen reveal?? Okay, "reveal" makes it sound like we did a big remodel. We didn't. We really we just painted, hung up some new blinds and installed a new doorbell. But if you've seen my previous two kitchen posts (where we painted and the "before before" photos), you may agree it's a pretty big change! Especially since that old paint kept me from ever sharing the kitchen on my blog. And now, a little ... Read more »
A technical look at my Innsbruck pullover
Hi everyone! I'm back with some details on my Innsbruck ski pullover. Like I said in my first post, I knew I was going to have a lot to say about the construction, so I wanted to dedicate a separate post to it for the folks who like the dirty details. As you may recall, I was initially planning on knitting the pattern exactly as written. It's an unusual construction, particularly for a vintage pattern: you knit the ... Read more »