I made this dress several weeks ago, strictly on a whim, inspired by a wee baby’s dress I found at a yard sale and a blouse spied on Pinterest (via Casey).  In my excitement and haste, I went about things rather haphazardly, throwing all caution to the wind.  It’s made in a typical 1920s fashion, the skirt is created from a series of squares and rectangles sewn in various ways, not wasting too much fabric.  2 rectangles for the front and back, 2 slits cut into each, and a triangle (half a square) set into each slit is all the skirt is, easy to do but looks extra nice.

While I love wearing silk georgette, I simply do not like sewing with it (see my other dress using this fabric).  The nude fabric inset’s seams are a bit wonky.  I think if I had planned better and not rushed, stabilized the fabric (or something) it would have turned nicer.  All I can say is the next time I do a fabric inset like this, it won’t be with georgette!  The bodice and hem are finished with a zigzag stitch and the back closes with a single vintage button (that I forgot to photograph).   I like to think it looks like an actual vintage garment and not something newly created.

But, despite the issues, I adore this dress.  Unlike many projects I have sewn, I wore this out and about–to the pet store of all places…ha!  Why wait for a fancy occasion to wear a fancy dress?  And the color is gorgeous.  I’m not sure how it looks on your monitor but I would describe it as salmon pink.

I have other sewing projects in the queue (as usual) that I hope to continue working on this weekend but I’m also going to start a knitting project, something I haven’t done in quite a while.  (And it’s all I can think about even though it was 98 degrees yesterday!)  I bought a skein of the prettiest mermaid green yarn that I’ll use to make this little scarflette.  I’m just going to ease into knitting slowly before I jump into anything more complicated!

Have a splendid weekend.

Don’t you love it when you are so inspired to do something that you have to do it RIGHT NOW?

Several weeks ago I saw these 1930s floral-pattern and metallic shoes on Pinterest (from the Thought Patterns blog):

Beautiful!  I immediately bookmarked this image, on Pinterest, and in my mind.  I knew there was a way to make/refashion similar shoes.  I had a starting base:

Very old, maybe 1920s or ’30s Mary Janes.  You can see me wearing them here.  I had been thinking about getting them professionally repainted/dyed a darker color for fall but had been putting it off for no particular reason.  (OMG, I just realized, looking at this photo, the perforations form a heart in the center!)

So I’ve been trying to figure out how I was going to get the roses on here.  Paint them?  (HA!)  Waterslide decals?  (Probably not suited to leather.)  Decoupage with Victorian clip art?  (Might be messy.)  I have a whole bunch of Victorian stickers on my stationery drawer that I haven’t used.  While decorating a package today (for a certain little fairy friend), I realized that the stickers were printed on thin, clear plastic.  Eep! Just the ticket.

I went to work straight away.  No, I don’t know how durable this is and what will happen when I actually wear them out and about.  But I didn’t care, I was having too much fun.

And they are not perfect, there is a wrinkle here and there but I think they look pretty good.  I’m going to wait a while to see if the stickers start to peel off; if so, I might put on a coat of satin clear acrylic paint over them.

To finish these off I painted the trim a pretty, faded gold (“Champagne Gold” metallic acrylic paint from DecorArt).  These are now the prettiest shoes I own!  OK, so where to wear them?

Bought peonies for the first time yesterday.  Aren’t they incredible?  They are the most beautiful things in the house right now.  I can’t stop smelling them and I even brought them into the bedroom last night so they’d be near me.  If friendly aliens from outer space came down to visit us, we should welcome them with peonies.

I’m not the only one enchanted by these flowers:

Here is Spoo Kee just before I shooed him away.  He likes to sink his kitty teeth into plants, the more fragrant the better.  The other day I found the most pitifully chewed up tea rose (from the garden) lying down on the mantle, OUTSIDE of its vase, due to this mischievous feline with an affinity for rosids.

Oh, before I forget to tell you, I’ve updated the vintage shop:

Have a wonderful weekend!

My Sleepy Hollow quilt template came today!  After searching high and low and I found these templates on Createforless.com.  Actually I’m just going to use the 45 degree triangle on the right for the quilt.   It’s the perfect isosceles triangle for the Sleepy Hollow pattern.  (The much more spindly-looking 30 degree template on the left is being saved for another project.)

And I’ll probably use this tutorial to cut out my triangles:

I got the idea to use this method from someone else on the web who is making a Sleepy Hollow quilt. (I know, can you believe that?)  I think we should all make one!  Just saying.

Happy Friday!