My mother-in-law made this beautiful wool rug as a wedding gift.   She let me pick out the shape, size and colors (she even dyed a couple herself).  We didn’t really know what to expect with the grey, yellow and ivory color combination.  Though it seems trendy, I figured these colors would make the rug look more modern while still retaining the old-fashioned feel from a braided rug.  I have to say I was completely thrilled when I open the box!

The photos don’t do it justice, plus you can’t feel how soft it is.  As you can see, even the four-legged member of the household approves!  This photo was taken soon after I unrolled it (you can see the edges are still a little wavy) and Spoo has pretty much claimed it as his own.  Because of this I’ve had to move it from the living room to my office (oh geez that’s a real shame, now i have it all to myself) where I can shut the door when I’m not around.  See, Spoo Kee likes to dig his claws into the wool (as most cats would);  he knows he’s not supposed to.  In fact, while I was on the computer the other day, I heard the faintest of  sounds behind me: *pick* *pick*.  Yes, that was Spoo Kee trying to be ever so quiet while scratching the rug!

Oh, and thank you for the comments on Dress Parade (Yellow, Part 1), I’m glad you love that little yellow dress.  Part 2 is coming up very soon!

I have this habit of buying vintage for a bargain (because pieces are damaged, ill-fitting, etc.) and taking forever to getting around to making repairs and thus wearing said items.  But I’ve made the commitment to change this bad habit into a good one and I’m working my way through my to do pile. This is the first post of my vintage dress parade and I’ll detail the fixes and tweaks I’ve made for each one.  I’ll try to remember to include “before” shots next time, hee hee.

The above late 1930s or early ’40s dress was quite the steal as it was falling apart in various places, had a motley crew of ugly buttons and was an unflattering mid-calf length.  My fixes:

• Changed the buttons to clear glass ones with faceted edges; I figured this would work well both in the light-colored printed (and flocked!) fabric as well as the navy blue organdy.  (My camera died before I could get any close up shots.)
• Added bust darts for a better fit.
• Trimmed the flutter sleeves for a little bit more modern look.  (I felt like I would fly away before I narrowed them down!)
• Hemmed the skirt by a few inches.  Each tier in the skirt was a little bit wider (taller?) than the proceeding one, from waist to hem.  Instead of hemming just the bottom tier (and messing up the sequence) or hemming each tier (too much work!), I hemmed the second navy blue tier to match the width of the first one.  This way there is still some order/design to the width of the tiers.
• Used the piece I trimmed off the skirt and turned it into a sash (original belt was missing).  I can see here that the sash could stand to be shortened (that’s the beauty of taking photos of your projects - you see things you might miss in the mirror!).
• Made other minor repairs like loose seams, wonky tiers, etc.

Next: I love wearing this ’50s dress.  I found it soon after seeing (500) Days of Summer and thought it looked like something Zooey’s character might wear.  I bought a pale grey-blue crinoline just for this dress.  I’m also wearing the same pale blue slip I’m wearing under the dress above.  I considered going dark but then you wouldn’t be able to see the print on the sheer fabric very well.  Anyway, here’s what I did:

• Removed the sleeves: this dress had half sleeves with quick and dirty hems that were not so great.  Since I don’t like fixing/sewing sleeves I just took them off and finished the openings by simply folding under the edges (which doesn’t always work due to the curves but luckily it did in this case).
• Let the waist out: the wearer before me had a tiny waist and had taken it in in several spots around the ruched waist panel.
• Hemmed the skirt. (I will almost always do this!)
• Repaired little holes and opened seams.
• (I thought about pinning on that dark blue rose that I’m holding at the waist along with a ribbon sash but the flower is a bit dark and I think the dress looks nice unadorned.)

Hope you enjoyed this little dress tour!

(By the way, thanks for the Lucy love from the last post - it made her blush!)

It’s a perfectly dreary, drizzly day; not good for photo-taking but just right for hot chocolate (which I’ve already had) and split pea soup (which I plan to make for lunch).  Regardless, I snapped this photo of my latest creation, a rag doll named Lucy!

Drafting a pattern for this doll has been a surprisingly slow process.  It was important to me to make this doll from scratch and while I felt like I was reinventing the wheel at times, it’s satisfying to finally get the proportions down.  My doll-making supplies box is full of forlorn and random limbs, which is both a little creepy and amusing.  But finally something just clicked and I drew up these plans rather quickly.

And the hair is completely experimental - how does it look?  It’s a mohair/silk blend yarn from Rowan. And painting on fabric - did you know?  It’s FUN.

Like with my Leda softie pattern, I’ve looked to old-fashioned dolls for inspiration.  Lucy looks like something you’d find in an old chest in the attic, amidst bone china teacups, lace collars and tattered school primers.

I think Lucy needs friends now, don’t you?

Happy Thursday dears!

I’m feeling a little giddy this morning because I finally finished up my little swan that I have been working on for AGES.  And when I say that, I’m not exaggerating.  For those of you that read my olde blog, do you remember this?:

I went back to the post to find the photo to show you and I reread it.  I totally forgot that this original version was 2 YEARS in the making, and that post is dated almost 1 year ago, to the date.  So, what, that makes this a 3-year craft project?!

Ha, I’m actually a little embarrassed to admit that it would take me that long to finish.   But I’ve become aware that may happen; I mean, just the other day I was saying I won’t commit to any sewing project on this blog because I know that it might take forever to finish (if at all).  But 3 years?  Sheesh.

Anyhow, back to the felt-y one.  Yay!  I’m glad she’s done.  I cut these pieces out a month ago and since I decided this new version was going to be stitched by hand, I figured that it would take me a long time to do it, so then I just didn’t feel like it.  You know, it’s very satisfying to post a project on this blog.  I feel like a little kid coming home from school, “Mom!  Look what I made!”

Ok, it’s not 100% finished finished. (Scandal!)  The crown is not stitched on yet, just kinda floats there for the picture.  Oh, I’ve decided that I love making silver pipe cleaner crowns.  Just bend bend bend.  Maybe I need metallic gold pipe cleaners too.  You know, for gold crowns.   And the wee scarf was a last minute thing as I still like my scalloped capelet from the first one.  But this scarfie is cute too.   I love the vintage foil-backed buttons attaching the wings but wouldn’t covered buttons be sweet as well?  And I’ve got some other ideas for the head dressing.  Oh!  Why don’t’ I just make felt critters all day?