You may recall that I’ve mentioned painting my breakfast nook a pale, spring green.  Once I got that completed, snafu and all, it promptly became too dark and gloomy to take any good photos of the results.  But now that spring has seemed to arrive, I can finally show you.  I really love the soft color and the nook has turned into my special little room where I can escape the computer and getting a little sewing done.

My friend Susan remembered that I had admired these spooky dead/dying flower prints at the art gallery in Disneyland and got them for me for my birthday.  I guess they are part of the Haunted Mansion decor although I have yet to locate them inside the ride on my visits there.  Anyway I’ve had them for ages and finally had them framed.

Here’s where my antique dress form lives.  The glass globe hanging from the hook was made by my friend Debbie, a super talented artist.

The built-in.  Don’t you just love it?  I get so excited when I see built-in cabinets in old homes like this.

I’ve cleared the counter top of the cookbooks and MS Living magazines and added some more interesting elements like creepy nature postcards in jars (which are, coincidentally, inspired by the magazines that are now tucked away in the kitchen).  In a month or so I’ll probably put African violets in these.

This is a peak inside the cupboard.  The succulents in brown Terra Cotta pots are new.  Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived in L.A. on and off for so long, I’ve come to appreciate desert-y landscaping that I see around the city - something I thought would never happen!  I used to consider myself strictly an English garden kind of girl - and succulents are so low maintenance.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing my freshened up little space.  It’s time for tea!

One of the best things about our little house is the lighting in the kitchen.  This main window faces the north/northwest and the light does not change much the whole day.  Even on the grayest of days there is plenty of light and I’m ever so grateful for this; I’ve lived in places that were dark and, really, I found it depressing.   This is the light in our kitchen right now: very bright and soft and white.  Yes, some of the doors are hanging off their hinges, the 80+ year old sink has seen better days but it’s really quite cozy, especially now.

My parents got us this Kitchen-Aid mixer as a wedding gift.   I know, I’m super fancy now.   I mean WE are super fancy.  So far I’ve made rapid rise bread with it (from the recipe book that came in the box;  pretty good but I’d like to try others) and some super fluffy cake frosting.   You know what would be really cool?  The pasta attachment.  Then I could make homemade pasta to go with my homemade lamb ragu (a household favorite).

And right now the weather in L.A. is perfect.  Very comfortable in the high 60s, bright and sunny, but not too hot to turn up the oven.  I’ve been brewing up all kinds of things lately which inspired me to make some fall-ish recipe cards.  I decided to post them as PDFs for free because, you know, I like you that much!

We’ve got a 4″x6″ recipe card:

And a 3″x5″ one too:

(Click images or links below to download.)  Just print them on your color printer, “best” setting, cut and go.

» Download: 4″x6″ Recipe Card

» Download: 3″x5″ Recipe Card

Oh, by the way, THANK YOU for the swan-love!  I’m so pleased you liked her.   She’ll have some friends soon.

Have a lovely fall-ish weekend!

I’m trying to finish up these lessons so you can get going on those dresses!  :)  We’re almost done here; this post will go over the sleeves (included felled seams), sleeve hems and the neckline.  You could probably finish up this dress at the end of this post by simply stitching up a regular hem and forgoing the elasticized waist.  (You’d end up with a dress like this one.)   I really love this vintage minty green gingham although it was suggested to me that this looks a bit like a hospital gown.    Do you think so?  Maybe a hospital gown in an old-timey dream; a wayward girl spending her youth in an asylum.  In the South.  Somewhere haunting and romantic.  See, if I make a story out of it, the hospital gown idea seems kind of neat, yes?

Anyway, we left off with the side seams, made the fancy French way. Now, locate the last page of your pattern (Built by Wendy #3835) where it says Top C.  Follow step 1: stay stitching can help a curved seam like a neckline from stretching.  After you do that, skip down to step 3 and sew up the sleeves.  Remember to create French seams for the sleeve seams.  Press seams towards front of sleeve (Indicated with small/single notch).  Before you turn up the sleeve hem/casing, clip a little of the seam to reduce bulk:

When sewing the casing for the elastic (at the hem) leave the opening underneath the armhole, towards the back of the sleeve.  (The back is marked with the larger, or double, notch.)  This is where you’ll feed in your elastic.

Sew the sleeves to the dress as directed.  Since you pressed your sleeve seam towards the front and your side seam towards the back, your underarm won’t have a big lump in it from the side seams on top of each other.  Instead, they are next to each other, pressed in opposite directions:

You may pink the armhole seam allowances, serge them or sew a zigzag stitch close to the edge.  OR, and this is what I did, create flat-felled seams.  These are relatively easy to do although can be a little tricky around curves (like under the arm for example).  But let’s just try it anyway; they are neat and clean especially if you don’t have a serger. (You almost always see these seams on dress shirts.)

First press the seams.  Then trim the body’s seam allowances (not the sleeves’!) to 1/4.”

Starting with one sleeve, fold the wider, sleeve seam allowance over the smaller seam allowance towards the body (and therefore, away from the sleeve); pin.  I like to pin this type of seam parallel to the seam line.  It seems to be more secure this way.  (A quick note about pinning: it’s up for debate but I almost never sew over my pins, even when I pin perpendicular to the stitch line.  [Naturally I could not sew over the pins as they are shown in the photo!]  It’s much too likely to break a needle, dent a pin or worse, somehow damage your sewing machine.)

When you are folding and pinning under the arm you might be faced with some resistance because of the curve.  What I like to do, and perhaps I’m cheating a little, is clip the wider seam’s edge just a tiny bit in a few places along the curve, maybe 1/8.”  This would allow the seam allowance to stretch a little.  Just make sure to fold under the seam sufficiently enough so none of the raw edge sticks out.  When you are done with both sleeves, press.

This is what the inside of your flat-felled seam looks like:

And this is the outside:

Follow the rest of the instructions for Top C as written except for the last step (which is the hem).

Some notes about the last part of the directions:

• Clip the back’s center seam like you did for the sleeves (2nd photo from the top) before you turn under the neck casing.
• Put the elastic in the neckline before putting it in the sleeves - that way you can try on the dress and make sure it’s right before finishing up the sleeves.
• Leave the neckline casing opening at or near the back seam.
• Attach a safety pin to the end of your elastic to help you guide it through the casing.
• Make sure you don’t twist the elastic before you sew the ends together!
• After you’ve added the elastic to the neckline and sewed up the opening, stretch the neckline and evenly distribute the fabric.  Actually, I like to concentrate the fabric more in the sleeve area so the front is relatively flat.  Optional:  if you are feeling fancy, backstitch at each sleeve seam along the neckline to secure the elastic in place.
• Make sure your sleeve hems are not too tight!

We’ll finish up the dress in the next sewing lesson post: adding elastic to the waistline and adding the ruffle to the hem.  If you have any questions about this post, please leave a comment!  Thanks!

The actual sewing portion of our sewing lessons is finally taking place - yippie!  I thought it was really important for me to work on this this past weekend, being that this is a summer dress and it’s almost August! (Although for those of us in California, summer is only beginning.)

Before we start, I want to let you know that I updated the last post (about cutting) with an alternative method to transferring pattern marks - this could be especially helpful for beginners. (Thanks, Andrea!)  And to recap, these sewing lessons focus on recreating my own Built by Wendy dress, pattern #3835.

Let’s sew!  To begin, follow the directions in the pattern for Dress A, Mini Dress B: Pockets A. As you can see in the above photo, I only added one pocket (on the left because I’m left-handed), added rick rack and cut the pocket piece on the bias (diagonal to the grainline).  This is not how I made the original Modern, Old-Fashioned Dress but since this is my 3rd time making this pattern I had to do something different!  Feel free to make these changes (or any, really) but if you’re a beginner it might be best to make the more simple version (pocket cut as indicated on the pattern); sewing rick rack on the bias can be a little frustrating which can lead to you not liking sewing!  (To clarify, fabric cut on the bias has stretch and sewing stretchy fabric can be tricky.)

Anyhow, I usually like to pin perpendicular to the stitch line as you can see here:

After you sew on the pockets, continue following the rest of the pattern, making the back darts.  Don’t forget to leave long (3″ or so) threads at the beginning and end of your darts so you can tie knots (as opposed to backstitching).

French Seams: For the back and side seams I made French seams, which is where the seam allowances are completely enclosed within themselves; this is great because it looks nice and prevents raveling.

This is how I like to do it:  Begin with the back center seam.  First, with WRONG sides (of the fabric) together, stitch seam 1/4″ from the edge.  Cut any loose threads that stick out.

Open up the back so the entire piece lays flat.  Press the seam flat, with the seam allowance to one side.  Then fold the back piece along the stitch line, RIGHT sides together, enclosing the seam; press.  Stitch the seam 3/8″ from the edge, enclosing the previously made 1/4″ seam allowance.  Open up the back piece again and press the seam nice and smooth.  (It doesn’t matter to which side the seam allowance falls.)

Repeat this process for the side seams; when you are done press seam allowances towards the back of the dress.

In our next lesson, we’ll begin with the sleeves - stay tuned!