I have some of this fabric coming my way:
I'm sure you can see (ha!) why I'm really looking (ha!) forward to it.
If you want some, too, it's all over Etsy. I grabbed this image from Kallistiquilts.
I haven't sewn with Echino before — anything I should watch out for? Not quite sure what this will be yet, either.
These two have been languishing on the sewing machine table for weeks — I just have to hem them and sew down the bias-tape facings, but man, getting the time to do that … hasn't happened.
But aren't they nice? I can't wait to wear the blue one. Maybe by the time you read this I will have managed to get it done!
I know I'm late to this party (CRAFT reviewed this a year ago!) but I just bought Digital Textile Design
On first pass through (very briefly!) it looks fantastic. Just the right blend of inspirational and "how-to-do-it-ness."
Digital textile printing is my "someday" hobby — sewing is very rewarding, of course, but I've gotten into a bit of a rut where I make the same things (cough, Heidi, cough) over and over again, because at the end of the day what I really want is a wearable garment. Right now the limiting factor for me is fabric — can I find fabric I love? That's where textile printing comes in — it holds the promise of being able to get ANYTHING I want, fabric-wise … but with a steep learning curve.
So as a kind of down-payment on that someday-when-I-have-time-to-design-fabric, I've been amassing some books, including this one. Anything else I should be investing in? (I already have a [very old] copy of Photoshop and Illustrator.)
I love this pattern Tina found (at What-I-Found):
Especially the Princess lines and the dolman sleeves together — I think that looks so "modern," in the retro sense of the word.
Of course, anything with lines like this makes me think of color-blocking (dark gray! with a chartreuse yellow center panel!) but I can't figure out how to add pockets here, other than patch ones. Hmm. Any suggestions?
I didn't buy this pattern as I have a sneaking suspicion that I already did, at one point. I just can't find it. (And yes, I know that one guaranteed way to find it would be to buy this and have it arrive in the mail, at which point my first copy would turn up, but that seems kind of wasteful.) So it's fair game, ladies. Go for it!
Eithne Farry's UK publisher sent me a copy of Lovely Things to Make for Girls of Slender Means
I reviewed Eithne's previous book way back when, this one is very much in the same spirit: jump in, let's do it, don't fuss too much, let's go!
If you like punk-rock, rough-edged, uneven-and-so-what-who-cares? projects, you will love this book. (If you measure eight times and cut once, this book will give you hives. But you should read it anyway for new ideas and to loosen up a bit already …)
Being a UK title, there are some materials we won't be able to get here in the states (I'd never seen a chip fork!) and others that seem implausible (c'mon, is there really such a thing as a "holiday donkey" and do they wear hats?) but most of the projects are universal. (I may just have to make the Lego belt buckle, goodness knows there are enough Legos in my house …)
I think I said that her last book would be an excellent gift for a tentative teen sewist, and that goes double for this one. Eithne has a very freeing perspective on sewing — basically, try it, it just might work! (I love the "roughly pleated skirt" project, which is the sewing equivalent of "add some flour until it looks right" school of cooking.)
I'm really pleased with this Heidi (which I have been working on in ten-minute bursts for WEEKS, it's been so busy here). Even though it looks like nothing in the picture:
It's this lovely heavy cotton with a thin orange stripe. Think a cross between ticking and seersucker. Bought it from Fabric Mart Fabrics, very cheap!
I plan to wear it with a white sweater and an orange watch, or maybe an orange sweater and a white watch, and white penny loafers. And then I will eat a Creamsicle.
Here's a closeup of the fabric/pocket:
See? Very subtle, for me. Except for it being ORANGE.
I also took some more pictures of previously-constructed Heidi dresses and will try to post some this week. Stay tuned!
Commenter Lynne sent me the link to this dress from Posh Girl Vintage, which combines two of my favorite things: buttons and polka dots.
It's pique, too, so I guess that makes it three of my favorite things. Oh, wait — piping — that's four. If only it had pockets …
It's a little small (maybe a modern 6?) but it's so adorable. (Click the image above to visit the Posh Girl listing.)
Did you all know that the Vintage Pattern Wiki is up to nearly THIRTY THOUSAND patterns? Holy Moly. (We only have about 700 to go. If everyone who reads this post in the first hour that it's up goes and adds a pattern, we'd be there and past there!)
This is one of my recent favorites:
Lovely, isn't it? You can find the full wiki page here.
Many, many thanks to all those who have uploaded pattern images, tagged patterns, left extra information and generally made this a fantastic resource for lovers of vintage patterns. You are awesome.
I love this pattern. Someone sent me the link last week (can't find the email, if it was you, please claim credit in the comments) and I've been thinking about it ever since.
In fact, I woke up the other morning having dreamt that I had bought and sewn this pattern (in a green-and-white gingham) and that it was hanging on the back of my sewing-room door. It wasn't … wish it had been!
Do you have sewing-related dreams? I find that if I don't sew when I'm awake, after a while I will start to I sew while I'm asleep. Either I make stuff like this (and am REALLY DISAPPOINTED when I wake up), or I have dreams where I make impossible things, like soap-bubble ballgowns. Once in a dream I made a skirt of a fabric that was made of dimes, melted and beaten thin, but with Roosevelt's face still visible. (In the dream it wasn't heavy.)
So a question I often pose to myself in idle hours (not that I have any "idle hours" anymore; "idle forty seconds" is the most I can hope for) is: is there a garment you could wear in any era? Say, if you were a time traveler (for example, cough, a companion to a certain Time Lord, cough)?
This pattern might be a contender (especially the cowl-neck Princess Leia version). Doesn't it say "I'm going to get medieval on your ass" and "the future has stewardesses" simultaneously? If it were made from that fabric they had in the Zenna Henderson stories which could be smoothed and stretched to any length, this would be perfect. Lengthen the skirt for the past, raise it for the future, add a nice cardigan and go anywhere in space or time!
This pattern has a very precise location in space and time: it's at CoconutPie's Etsy shop. (And Susan at Coconut Pie offers a a 10 per cent discount to anyone who mentions "dressaday" in their notes to seller.)
A Dress A Day 
