Slowly but surely, a sweater is appearing.

Slowly, slowly, as I find time to fit in some knitting, the 1900's cycling sweater is coming along! Can you believe that huge piece is the sleeve? Holy mutton! I just started on the second one. So, I'm nearly there.

Just keep ribbing, just keep ribbing...

The Ten Minute Tea Cozy

This has absolutely no historical value, whatsoever. I can't even pretend. But it was so cute and easy, I had to share!

Lately, Ive been on a tea kick, and I've been using a sad little towel to keep my teapot warm. This morning, I was pinning all these darling knit tea cozy patterns, planning to make one, but then I was at Target today and saw this darling little knit hat and lightbulb!

I opened up the hat's seam a few inches, on one side, for the spout. On the other side, for the handle, I machine stitched a rectangle between the ribbing, sliced up it, turned the selvages to the inside and button hole stitched, with yarn, around the slit, to tidy it up. This side can be seen in the photo below. Basically, it's a giant buttonhole.

And now, I have hot tea to fuel me up for some real sewing. Cheers!

The 40's Dress

While I don't love this one on me, It was quite fun to sew. I got to explore new things, like bound button holes. And wow, these little dresses happen so fast. I'm so used to yards and yards for gowns, so this was like poof! A dress!

I made it up because I was supposed to serve pancakes, WWII-attired, at a fundraiser for Honor Flights. I ended up not going, because I had to stay home with my injured pup.

Repairing a 19th Century Hair Comb

I found this Georgian beauty last year and loved it, despite it's toothless grin. I thought there had to be some way to fix it.

Well, this afternoon, I finally took it to the jeweler, and they said no go. The comb is an alloy, probably pinchbeck or ormolu, and they didn't have the ability to repair such a material. Ah well. But not to be defeated, I ran straight up the street to the craft store.

They did clean it for me, though, which really shined it up. It was kind of crusty before. 

The seller had kindly included a spare coral bead, which was faceted like the rest of the beads on the comb, but just a bit bigger. But two were missing, so I picked up some similar beads and some thin jewelry wire.

Ta da! 

Pretty darn close, all things considered. 

And the wire is just wrapped around the comb, so I didn't resort to glue or anything permanent that could damage the comb.

So yay! Now she has a new life. I think I will wear her to the Jane Austen Evening at the end of the month. Just think, two hundred years later, this lovely diadem gets to attend another ball. And hopefully many more after that!

2014 in Review

As the months go by, I always think to myself how many things I would like to sew and I feel like I never get anything done, but then, by the end of the year, I look back and, wow, I actually made quite a few things!

This year was sort of empty, event-wise, so I didn't make up too many full outfits. I kind of wandered around from era to era, stitching up some things that struck me in the moment, and some that lend to vague plans for future outfits. 

All in all, I was pleased this year at the quality of my work. I think general sewing skills, as well as historical accuracy were expanded upon, and while I didn't get everything I wanted done (impossible lol), the things I did work on and/or complete, I'm quite happy with. Yay! I also made my first foray into vintage sewing, which I thought was really fun, since they can be worn modern context. 

So, here went 2014!

I started off with a whole outfit for the Jane Austen Evening. I made some adjustments to my Regency undies, made a dress and petticoat, shoes and a reticule.

The New Years Dress

Happy New Year, all! 

Ok. So I decided I like the dress. Yay!

It wore it to a New Years party last night and it was very fun to wear, very comfy and stretchy, and very warm, too!

It's Butterick 5533, from the 1930's, made up in cranberry and navy plaid wool crepe. I'm not sure what year, exactly.

I ended up deviating from the pattern, which called for a continuous, lapped CB placket and buttons, and went with a side zip. I just sewed straight up the back to close the slit. Didn't have time to mess with all those buttons. 

The zip worked out great. Because of the nubbly nature of the crepe, the prick stitches almost disappeared around the zipper.

I faced the hem, cuffs and neck with self bias facing. The extra weight around the hem worked out nicely for the drape of the skirt.

And the belt.

And for the neckline, I didn't have a drapery weight, so I used a 5p. Aw, the Queen :)