Sewing Inspiration: Old School

There are lots of things that I keep around the sewing room mainly for inspiration. Many of these inspirational objects are old sewing books, and some of my most very favorite are a series of home sewing course booklets published in the early 20th Century.

The Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences was a correspondence school established in 1914 in Scranton, PA offering courses in cooking, sewing, dressmaking, tailoring and fashion. It quickly became a popular way for women to learn on thier own time, and in the 1920's was the largest long-distance educational establishment. The school closed in 1938, but many of the booklets continued to be published. Most of the instructional sewing booklets were written by Mary Brooks Picken (my hero!) who also was the founder of the Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts & Sciences. Her instructions are well written, and the illustrations are absolutely mahvelous!

Although there were over 100 sewing instruction booklets published, I have only colleced a small handful. This one here is my all time favorite - Aprons and Caps. Not only because I am a collector and researcher of vintage aprons, but also because this is just a very cool little booklet!

I just adore the illustrations and descriptions of the aprons! Don't you love the big bow in the back of that long house apron? And how about the elegant lines of this Kimono apron? While the first part of this book is more of an overview of certain styles of aprons and caps, the second half goes on to give specific instructions and illustrations for making several types of aprons and caps.

Sometimes when I'm feeling frustrated with a sewing project or stuck on a sewing problem, I'll take down one of these booklets to look at the illustrations or read about a certain technique or project. It usually helps to relax and to clear my head!

Oh, and believe it or not, someone snatched up that second half of the Aprons booklet to copyright and republish it (no, not me!). So, if you are unable to find a vintage copy of your own, you can find a republished copy here.

The Truth About My Foot Fetish

Earlier this year I was asked about my sewing habits and if I liked to sew with lots of accessory feet. I answered honestly (or so I thought) that I didn't like to sew with a lot of feet, but rather that I preferred to sew with as few accessory feet as possible. Little did I know that I was in denial! Read on to see how I discovered the secret of my foot fetish!

I started sewing with this totally bitchin' vintage ashtray next to my machine to help hold all the "stuff" that I use while I am working on a project. It works fabulously, and makes clean up easier when I finish a project - I just have to put everything in the tray back in it's place!

This weekend I started sewing on that Oliver+S Tea Party Sundress, a simple toddler dress with matching panties. Oh my gosh! Look at how many accessory feet I used for this one simple pattern!

That's FIVE different feet in there! So, I have to admit it to myself, I really do love feet! I didn't NEED to use so many sewing machine feet, and you might be asking why right about now, so here's what I used:

I used the plain jane foot for stitching seams, the Patchwork Foot for 1/4" seams, the Overlock Foot for finishing seams, the Edgestitch Foot for topstitching, and the Buttonhole Foot for, yes, buttonholes. So what about you - do you have a foot fetish like me, or do you sew with just a few staple accessory feet?
And I do have to admit that I have 2 favorite accessory feet; the Ruffler and the Walking foot! Do you also have a favorite?

Something old and something new

Hey, where did this week go? Wow. Not a stitch of sewing this week! What I did accomplish during the week was fitting in working from home around toddler-wrangling and house-choring. Working from home sounds so easy, but add in a teething toddler and a few extra work hours, and you've got one exhausted momma.

Fortunately, I see light at the end of the tunnel! I am planning to fit some sewing in this weekend. I have just a few more changes to make to that old t-shirt pattern to call it finished. Then I hope to start on some new summer clothes for Kate!

Here's a sampling of some of the fabrics I picked up at the International Quilt Festival for Kate:

And here's the first project - Oliver + S's Tea Party Sundress and Bloomers!

I also plan on making a coordinating sun hat for Kate. I asked around, and no one seems to have a pattern that they recommend, so I decided to give this one a try from Debbie Colgrove at About.com. Looks easy enough and I like the style!

Hopefully I can post some pictures of my progress next week (in between everything else, of course!). Here's wishing you a happy and productive weekend as well!

Happy sewing all!

Just in time for SPRING!

I saw this project posted at ikat bag a few weeks ago and KNEW I had to make one for Kate. I also sent a link to my sewing buddy Stacy, who is also making chicks for her little ones, too!

Photo from LiEr at ikat bag

So without further ado, meet...um...well, she doesn't have a name yet (but I have a feeling her name will be Baby, because that's the only word my Kate knows right now).

And look...there's eggs in the nest! Yes, the bestest most fun part of this Hen is that she actually lays eggs!

Eggs that have little bitty chicks inside! How fun is that?

So clever, I would have never thought to create a Hen that lays eggs! If you are going to purchase and download this pattern to sew up some chicks of your own, check your printer first. The pattern pieces go all the way to the very edge of a standard letter sized piece of paper. If your printer won't print all the way to the edge (like mine), print the pattern on legal sized paper. You'll have a little extra paper, but the whole pattern will be printed.

This is also what I would call an intermediate to advanced project, not really easy for a beginner to tackle without help. But, all in all, a great project that I'm glad to have made!

Spring Cleaning Motivation

This is a little intervention...for myself...so that I don't end up being featured on Hoarders. In fact, watching several episodes of Hoarders and American Pickers has totally motivated me to get my stuff under control.

Here's what I've learned from these two programs:

1. Be clear about what you do collect and what you don't collect, and stick to it. Sounds so easy but can be so hard! I really need to think about this one, since I seem to start collecting new things all the time.

2. Be realistic about valuing your items or collections. If you're holding on to an item or collection ONLY because you think it is worth a lot of money, have an appraiser give you an honest estimate. If it's really not worth all that much, consider getting rid of it.

3. Quality over quantity. Sometimes when you are growing a collection, a few really nice pieces beats a hundred mediocre examples. I realized this when my vintage sewing machine collection started getting out of hand. I took a hard look at what I had, kept the best and got rid of the rest. (Now I just need to apply the same thinking to all my other stuff!)

So with all that in mind, I am attacking several of my "collections" as part of this year's Spring Clean-up, beginning with the vintage aprons.

This giant pile represents 20 years of collecting vintage aprons. These have all been in storage the past few years, I haven't even been enjoying them. I did a lot of research on the subject, and even have an apron lecture that I used to present using several of these vintage aprons as samples.

But, it's been years since I even presented this lecture, and the few places I've approached recently just had an apron event or already have one on the books. So I don't see another apron lecture in the near future, and I think it's time to re-evaluate this collection.

I imagine that I'll keep most, but I know that some can go. I'll have to think hard about what criteria I use, what will make an apron worth keeping or not. At any rate, it will be an interesting project.