Finished Project: Rehearsal Dinner Dress

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to Palo Alto, CA for my sister's wedding. It was such a fun time and I managed to finish both of the dresses I'd intended to make and wear for the weekend's events. Tom and I even did a tiny bit of thrifting and managed to find some tasty food in our small amount of down time.

The rehearsal was our first event of the weekend, and it was held at the beautiful wedding venue, Mountain Terrace. The dinner for family and friends that followed was at a delicious Italian restaurant in Redwood City, Donato Enoteca.

To the rehearsal and dinner, I wore the dark blue, cotton sateen, McCall's 5845 dress I'd previewed for you all back in December. I really love the shape of the bodice (I'm considering making it again soon with a full, gathered or circle skirt, instead. Is it springtime yet??) and only made a few minor adjustments to the dress, from what the pattern instructed. As I noted in my earlier post, I stitched the darts inside, instead of outside, and I both curved and raised the back neck opening into a scoop that just barely covers my bra (phew!).

Mistake #1: I fully lined the dress with silky bemberg rayon, but managed to make the outer and inner layers uneven. So, there is some noticeable (IRL, not so much in this photo) bunching at the edges of the skirt vent, and the lining sticks out a lot in the front when I sit down. Facts I'm willing to ignore while wearing the dress.

Mistake #2: I got a picture of the dress front before we left, while the lighting was still great, but forgot to get the back photo until we got back from dinner that night when things were much fuzzier... both the lighting and my mindset.

Looking back at the photos, I really like this dress! For the rehearsal I paired it with a pink necklace from ShopNestled and my nude Ivanka Trump pumps (so ladylike and comfortable). I'm looking forward to wearing this outfit again, for sure.

2 Years & 3 Big Announcements

I have three exciting bits of news to share with you today, friends!

#1: The little ol' blog turns 2 years old today. 

Over the past 24 months, I've sewn and blogged (to some extent) approximately 35 finished projects. I've tried new techniques, participated in a few sewing blogger challenges, completed my own Seamless Pledge, found a couple of tried and true patterns that I love, finally sewed something with a crotch, made projects from vintage, modern big-4, and indie patterns, re-vamped the blog, and made it to well over 150 posts. I'm sure I'm forgetting things, too -- there's been a lot!

 

 
Thank you all (really) for sticking with me along the way! I've loved reading your comments and advice and encouragement, sharing my thoughts and projects with you, and just being part of sewing blogland. Ooh, I'm also on instagram now, too!

#2: I'm throwing a giveaway to celebrate. 

Get excited, because one of you is going to be hitting the jackpot of Sewin' Steady favorites. I've got 2 cuts of vintage fabric, 2 vintage sewing patterns, and a handful of bright, vintage buttons up for grabs to one lucky reader.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by Sunday, January 12, 11:59pm EST. Anyone can enter and I'll ship anywhere, because I love you.

There you have it! That's 4ish yards of black & white medium weight mini-hounds-tooth check fabric. I think this one's a blend of sorts, perhaps some wool in there -- I didn't do an official test. This would make a perfect suit, pencil skirt, shift dress... anything.

Also included is about 1 & 1/8 yard of the sheer, spotted, floral poly I used to make my floral pendrell. I adore this cute print, but there's really only room for one garment made from it in my closet.

Lucky you! You'll also win 4 cards of vintage buttons along with DuBarry 5172 in size 16 (bust 34") from 1941 plus Simplicity 6104 size 16T (bust 36") from the 1960s.

Hurry up and leave a comment before my last announcement blows your mind and you forget what you were doing! It's ok, I'll wait...







Ready? Ok.

#3: And, I've opened a vintage shop on Etsy!!!!!!!

Surprise! Do not fret if you don't end up the lucky giveaway winner. You can still snap up some hand-picked, Sewin'Steady-approved vintage sewing patterns AND clothes in my newly opened vintage shop. You're welcome!

 

***For now, the shop is offering FREE SHIPPING but is only taking US orders. Once I get the hang of this Etsy-shop-running-thing, I'll re-assess.

 

Some of you readers who have been with me for a while will recall I used to have a "Vintage Finds" page on the blog where I shared my latest thrifted pieces and estate sale finds. Though the page was taken down during some general blog sprucing over the past year or so, I've kept (and still keep) up the vintage collecting. 

At this point, I have managed to amass more old sewing patterns and articles of clothing than a single human could possibly use or wear in a lifetime (or so it seems). So, I've decided this is the perfect time for me to start sharing them all. I've always dreamed of opening a shop full of my favorite things and now I've finally got my chance!

There are still loads of items (clothing and sewing patterns) that I've not yet had the chance to list, so check back frequently because I'll be adding more and more (and more). 

Now, I'm just wondering. Did any of you have any inkling I'd at least be mailing something with that Sewin' Steady custom stamp I sneak peeked for you earlier? I know, it was pretty vague. :)

Anyway, it's high fives all around in these parts. Thank you for being awesome readers and hooray for exciting new vintage-y, sew-y things!

The '60s are my Jam.

Remember in my 2012 reflections post when I mentioned that one of the things I've learned over the past year is that even though I've loved 1950s fashion my entire life, I've found that 1960s styles are more my thing when it comes to making and wearing 'em? Well, yeah.

Recently, I've been infusing my wardrobe with even more sixties style (and working on my "wear more everyday dresses/skirts" goal). Over my little Christmas break, I snapped up a bright purple, all-season shift on sale on Etsy, and just this weekend I bought two more dresses while on an antiquing extravaganza in Frederick, MD. Check 'em out!

These dresses are easy enough to wear and not so fancy that they can't be worn for everyday, casual occasions. The linen one with white spots fits great, and the black wool one fits in the shoulders, but might need taking in along the sides for a more flattering shape.

In Frederick, I also picked up these two sewing patterns - a 1950s(?) blouse and a 1940s looking skirt. Just because the '60s are my fave doesn't mean I can't wear other decades, too, you know. Both of these patterns are the un-marked kind that don't have any printing or lines on them, only hole-punches in the shape of numbers to let you know which piece is which. Scary. I hope I don't chicken out and can actually make myself use them!

I didn't realize just how good I was being already, until typing this up now. I'm also in the midst of a refashioning project, too. Just chipping away at my "do more refashions" goal! Here's a peek.

I'd thought I would be using this black velvet ribbon to do some kind of embellishment or collar detail, but the stuff is too stiff to really work in this situation. Now I'm thinking I might make (or buy on Etsy?) some sort of embellished, detatchable black peter pan collar necklace thingy. I don't have any particularly rich black fabric in my stash to match with this spotted silk and I really don't want to buy any more FABRIC, since I'm already drowning in it.

Beaded Collar Necklace from SoStyle

I do like this collar found on Etsy. Any thoughts - make one? buy one? do something else entirely? I'm all ears.

Happy Birthday to Meeeeee!

So, it's my birthday and as a present to myself I did a little vintage pattern shopping on Etsy (I'm 25 today, I can do what I WANT!). One of my favorite shops on the site is MissBettysAttic. She has SO many adorable patterns to choose from (hundreds!) and they are ALL cute. I follow her on Pinterest and get the scoop on her new additions (obsessed!). Really, now that I've scooped up some of the patterns I couldn't live without, you all should hop on over there and check out her store. She's currently having a 25% off Christmas in July sale. I mean...how could you say no to that?

Anyway, here are the two lovelies I picked up:

Simplicity 4986

McCall 5470

Eeeep! I'm so excited for these patterns! Apparently, early 1960's patterns are my jam - I feel physically compelled to POSSESS pretty much any one I come across. Cuteness overload.

The Simplicity number is an adorable little wrap dress with gathered skirt and hidden pockets and I just LOVE the bodice on the McCall pattern - such a snappy look, and check out that cute collar! Excellent purchases, if I do say so myself.

Also, let me say THANKS! to the lovely Johanna over at Making It Well for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. If you'd like to check my list of random facts about me, click over here, and by all means, give Johanna's blog a visit if you've not been before! She's just knitted the cutest sweater that has totally re-ignited my mission to learn to knit in 2012.

Spring sewing obsession

Today really felt like spring. Even though it's only early March, and I was inside my office building all day, away from windows and natural light - not to mention fresh air, I could just tell the weather was lovely (and it was - 70 degrees and breezy). I found myself daydreaming about colorful fabrics and cheerful prints, including a little bit of the following, which has been taunting me from my upcoming projects queue.

Colette Patterns' Sencha blouse

Fabric.com - white with red dots, rayon shirting

Then I saw Zoe's post about blouse patterns and I just couldn't get those cute-blousey-ideas out of my head. One of the things that excites me most about the Sencha pattern is the little grown-on sleeves that are part of the bodice, instead of being set-in sleeves. It's a sleeve type (akin to kimono?) that I've been wanting to try and that just seems like it'd be so simple and quick to sew up. This is the line of thinking that has encouraged my mind to go crazy and dream up about eighty-seven different versions of this blouse, which I'm sure I could just sew up in no time at all... I mean, look - the sleeves!

I became a little bit obsessed and scoured the internets for MORE BLOUSES.

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The adorableness became a bit overwhelming. (I recommend you all stay away from Etsy for at least 20 minutes after reading this.) There were so many out there, between Etsy and Ebay, I about lost my mind - and a LOT of them say "EASY" or "SIMPLE TO MAKE" -- um? yes!! I guess I always knew these types of patterns existed, I just never took the time to drool focus (this much!) on them.

Then I realized, derr, I already have another (in addition to Sencha and Violet) cute, springtimey top pattern just WAITING for me to match it up with some fabric and get going (once I've finished everything else I'm working on). Enter, Simplicity 2154.

Check out the adorable blouse!

That's right, ladies (and gentlemen?). This baby doesn't' even have sleeves to fret over. All she needs is some adorable, springy fabric and we've got unlimited (meaning I could make forty-two of this thing, it's that cute) blouse-making possibilities! Just check out Alana's darling version.

Just in case that wasn't incentive enough for me to do some fabric shopping (or at least dreaming/window-shopping), the amazing Tasia over at Sewaholic has got Hart's Fabric to do an awesome 10% coupon in honor of her. So, there's that.

Here's a bit of what has caught my eye, fabric-wise. I've found myself surprisingly drawn to prints & fabrics of the pink/purple/orange variety, rather than my usual greens and blues.

Fun!

Coral!

Yes, this is chiffon, but it's such a cute print!

Not 100% on this print, but I love the bright purple + orange combo.

More colorful prints, please! Today's colorful, springtimey fixation has definitely got the wheels turning (in my brain?) for planning my Spring/Summer sewing list. Stay tuned for more on that soon.

Put a little spring in your step

So, maybe by now you can tell I'm a big fan of blogland giveaways - who doesn't like the chance to win something special? Well, it's officially March now and I'm very ready for spring to be here. In the spirit of a fresh season, I've found another giveaway I wanted to share with you all.

Dottie Adele - heart-shaped waistband skirts

Valerie over at Threads & Thoughts & Things I Love, and sewist/designer behind the shop Dottie Adele, is taking a little survey to see what everyone's got in mind for their spring wardrobes. I know I'm personally excited for some bright patterns, colorful florals, and twirly skirts (and a green Joan dress)!

Just complete the survey over on her blog and leave a comment saying you've done so. This will enter you in her awesome giveaway. If you win, I'll be very jealous and you'll get one of the many marvelous pieces from her Etsy store, ($50 dollar value or less) custom made for you by the adorable, talented Valerie! Can't beat that, can ya!

Now hop on over to her blog, pick out your favorite piece in her store, and get ready for Spring. :)