Thrifting Day!

It was just a long weekend here in Canada - we have a Victoria Day weekend, apparently we are the only country to still celebrate Victoria's birthday, not even the UK does! I guess we just like a holiday ;) 

In any case, not only did I get to do a bit of sewing room cleanup, and cut out a blouse over the weekend, I also did a bit of thrifting -- of course! I did my regular rounds and at my favourite shop (the one with the big craft section) I was able to find 3 beautiful solids. The pinkier red on the left and the blue are both a cotton/linen blend, I think, maybe some rayon? They are heavy and soft. The orangey red on the right is a stiffer linen, we'll see how it looks after I wash it. It may be a bit too orange toned for me, I'll decide later. I don't tend to buy solids but lately have come across a bunch all in my wardrobe tones at thrift stores so now I have a good stash of non-poly solids.

At another store I was fortunate enough to find a few of my favourite things -- patterns! One from the 90s and the two "Non-Stop Wardrobe" McCalls from the early 2000s. I love wardrobe patterns. Have one or two of those and you could sew up an entire capsule wardrobe. I actually feel like taking on a challenge to sew up every piece in a wardrobe pattern -- as long as the size range crosses both my upper and lower body sizes ;) I'm usually right at the break. But these are fun and I've already enjoyed just looking over each one.

Then I stopped in at Fabricland for a couple of basic notions, and went through the pattern discard rack. I ended up with a random Butterick Katherine Tilton top, and two Vogues that have been on my wishlist for a long time. Now I just need an occasion to sew up the Tom and Linda Platt dress for! 

My plan to sew down my stash this year is being thwarted by the amazing thrift fabrics I've been finding. But I am sure it will all balance itself out in the end. And I have some fabulous fabrics to draw from now. 

A Visit to the Thrift Stores!

This weekend was a relaxing one, but of course I had to spend some of it thrifting! We went to our favourite thrift, but also travelled a bit further to a few others in a nearby town. I ended up finding a bunch of fun things. 

I found some fabric - while I'm trying to reduce my fabric intake, I couldn't resist these. All in my colours and all on the 75% off tag sale. So 7 metres came home with me. 

Magenta: textured synthetic -- Rayon floral
Green linen blend

At another shop, I scored with some great 80s patterns. All from someone named Eileen (her name was written on the front of many of them). I ended up choosing 10 patterns from Eileen's stash, 9 of which are uncut. The ones she didn't get to, I will now try to make in her honour. We were obviously the same size and with the same tastes - thanks Eileen! 

And I finished off my discoveries with these two books by Jennie Rayment. I have her first book, Tucks, Textures & Pleats, which I enjoyed, and have been looking for book two for ages. I found it today, but also found book three, which I didn't even know existed. She is quite hilarious and eccentric, but her books also have some great ideas for fabric manipulation in them. I'm enjoying skimming through them already. 

I didn't do much sewing this weekend, unfortunately - it was in my plans but I only got to about half of what I wanted to do. This thrifting trip wasn't really planned but it was a fun sewing-related outing so I'm calling it even :) 

All the Pattern Prep!

One of the things I tend to avoid, but that is very necessary to new projects, is all the pattern prep! I have a lot of projects in the queue that need to be traced out, either from my Burda magazines or from pdf format (as well as a couple of tissue patterns that I need to cut out).

I decided to specialize this week and just focus on all this tracing and cutting, to get a handful of projects ready for the next step - all the flat pattern measuring and fitting before finally cutting out my fabrics. 

I was able to trace out three Burda patterns and one pdf before I lost energy for more ;) But that's four projects now in the actual queue, and that will keep me going for a while, especially considering how much (or little) I've been sewing so far this year. 

Two of my traced projects are items from my #MakeNine2025 -- they are winter dresses so I would like to get to those right away, while I can still wear them. Although since the snowbanks are now as tall as I am, I'm not expecting winter to vanish soon! 

Tracing takes time and can be tiring, which is why I like to do it in short spurts. But I do have one trick to share when it comes to Burda pattern sheets -- when they are super confusing, I just trace over the pattern piece with a Frixion highlighter. It makes it easier to trace, and when you're done just iron them off and start on the next one! I do find that the Frixion leaves a bit of a white mark on the paper once you iron it off but it's almost unnoticeable. And it makes tracing much easier. But four is enough for me on this recent weekend. On to the next steps. 

Make Nine Planning Lists: More Patterns!

When working on my Make Nine plans for this year, I went through many, many things that I was interested in making. I realized there were so many that I made separate lists to organize my thoughts. These are the lists I pulled my final Make Nine from. But it was fun to see all the great things that I *could* make if I had unlimited time and constant sewjo! So I thought I'd share just for fun. 

I organized them into categories: Indie, Big 4, Burda, Vintage, and my own special category, ideas for a Vyshyvanka (Ukrainian embroidered blouse). It was really delightful going through so many of my patterns and prioritizing them. 

(all patterns named L-R, top to bottom)

Indie: 

Baxter Top by Sewing & the City

Perkins Shirt by Ensemble Patterns (oop) 

Naomi Blouse by Coffee & Thread (oop)

Majorelle Blouse by Itch to Stitch

Wrap Cardigan by Pattern Division

Box Box by Merchant & Mills

Stella Dress by Studio Calicot    

Bob Pants by Style Arc

Jasika Blazer by Closet Core (carry over)

Big Four:

Simplicity 9339 (Cruella pattern)
Simplicity 1283
Butterick 5939 (See & Sew)
Vogue 9364
Vogue 8916 (jacket view)
Butterick 6706
Butterick 6333
McCalls 7084
Butterick 6871

Burda: 

118-05-2010
6371 (envelope pattern)
112-01-2020
121-11-2023
118-01-2020
106-03-2020
104-07-2023
4700 (vintage envelope pattern)
116-09-2023

Vintage/Retro: 

Butterick 6583
Vogue 8178
Butterick (flared yoke skirt)
Butterick 4831
New Look 6104
Kwik Sew 1445
Butterick 3895
Vogue 7373
McCalls 2462

Vyshyvanka Ideas: 

Simplicity 3684
Simplicity 3786
McCalls 8042
New Look 6704
McCalls 7434

Burda: 

118-01-2024 
101-12-2020
101-02-2023
107-11-2022

These are all just the top picks in each category - I have so many more things in my pattern hoard that I would love to sew up. Oh for unlimited time and a closet that's bigger on the inside!

Weekend Review: Make it Yours with Mimi G

 

Make It Yours with Mimi G / Mimi G. Ford
NY: Abrams, c2023.
176 p.

This sewing book by the very busy and successful Mimi G is one more thing to add to her list of accomplishments. I feel tired just thinking about everything she does! ;) 

I enjoyed checking out this one - it's exactly what you might expect from Mimi G's style and her patterns already out there in the world. It's very much in her aesthetic. It includes 7 base patterns, and then ideas and instructions for modifications to those basics to create 18 new pieces, as desired. I think it's a book that will encourage many sewists to experiment and use the patterns that they already have to change up their wardrobes. The modifications can be fairly elaborate, and yet the instructions and illustrations make them feel not too scary at all. The patterns are also quite basic, not too trendy, so should be useful for a long while. I read this online so haven't tried the pattern sheets, but some readers have noted that they are a little difficult to trace off as there is no colour differentiation on them. 

Wrap Dress with ruffle

Mimi G says in her own announcement about this book: "Pattern-making and hacking can be intimidating but I truly believe this book will show you an easy and fearless way to dive in which in turn will open your eyes to the possibilities the next time to you look at a pattern and wish it had pockets or a different length, or a certain shape." I think she has successfully created a guide that does just that. Even if the styles included here aren't your own style, the information on modifying patterns and thinking of a pattern as just the starting point is transferable to anything you choose to work with. 

Cropped Shacket hack + Palazzo pants

The only thing I wasn't as taken with here was a lengthy section at the end showing Mimi G wearing the many pattern options in various combinations. This is interesting, but it is also long and feels a bit like padding. It might work better as blog posts or website content, but in a book I felt it was a little repetitive after the first few pages. The idea is to show you how to style your me-made wardrobe, mixing and matching to get over 100 looks. I just felt that many of the looks were very similar to one another - but maybe this is something that inspires other readers. 

Anyhow, if you like her style already, or this kind of modern casual wardrobe is your taste, this would be a really useful book, keeping you busy sewing for ages. If the patterns included aren't ones you'd usually make, you might still want to look through it for all the hacking tips. I thought it was an interesting read with lots of useful bits. 

Duster + T-shirt dress gathered waist Hack

(all photos via publisher)

Weekend Review: Blueprints of Fashion

 

Blueprints of Fashion: Home Sewing Patterns of the 1950s / Wade Laboissonniere
Atglen, PA: Schiffer, c1997.
176 p.

This was a fun discovery I made recently via OpenLibrary. It's a history of home sewing patterns, focused on the 50s, created by a man who was a collector and a costumer. It's so pleasing to look through! 

There's text for about half of it, and then images of patterns divided by types of clothing for the second half. It's so great to see all the examples, many of which were patterns I've never seen before. Looking at all the details was entertaining -- although only the front of the pattern envelopes are shown, without many examples of line drawings or pattern information. 

The text consists of some history of how paper patterns were used in schools and in the sewing world in general, specifically in the US. It's really only looking at the US, but still has lots of interesting info. The final bit is a little section on monetary values of patterns, but this book was written in the 90s and that info is now out of date and not very useful other than as historical data. 

I enjoyed reading this, with the details of different pattern brands and how they were marketed and sold to consumers. He goes over which patterns focused on designer knock-offs (the more expensive ones!) and which were more aimed at everyday wear, as well as those made for schools and home ec students. I thought the organization of the book was well done, and I learned about a couple of small, short-lived pattern companies I hadn't known about before. 

A good find and one that will entertain anyone interested in the history of paper patterns, or just in looking at LOTS of full colour pattern envelope images.