Category Archives: fashion

June 1, 2009 · 9:10 am

Vintage Sewing: Part One

Hmmm, in what order did this all occur?

I suppose I bought the curtains first. A pair of vintage floral curtains, 42″ wide, and just over 1-3/4 yards each in length. I ripped out the tucks and seams and ironed them flat, knowing that I would have more than enough fabric for a skirt. At $4 for the set, I think I did rather well.

Alison, tired of admiring vintage patterns but being too intimidated to actually sew one, decided to schedule a weekend where a few of us could get together, patterns and machines in tow, and curse our meager skills in the company of friends. And possibly margaritas. And, since I’d just purchased another stack of vintage patterns, I decided that perhaps there was enough fabric in these curtains for… yes! I should have just enough to make Simplicity 3282, view 1!

Hmmm, the pattern might require some grading. The bust should fit just right, but I’ll have to scale up for the waist and hips… well, let me take a look at the pattern pieces and see if… oh, drat. All of the pattern pieces for view 1 are missing. I have only have the skirt, cummerbund, and sleeve pieces for view 2. No wonder this pattern was only $1.

Okay, I’ll make (unknown designer) 7245 instead. I have all the pieces for that one. But, I don’t know what size it is, so I’ll have to make a muslin just to see where I’m starting from.

I iron all of the pattern pieces, careful not to melt the 50-year-old cellophane tape repairs made by a previous owner. I smooth out an old, partially-cut bedsheet, and start laying out the pattern.

I don’t have enough bedsheet.

Which gets me to thinking… and no, I don’t have enough curtain fabric, either. What to do? Mail Order 9370 would definitely require grading down. Simplicity 4260 might work, IF the pattern pieces lay out juuuuust right. There’s plenty of fabric for Vogue 9996, but do I want a bathing suit of (likely fireproofed) blue rose floral? Actually, the colors are right in line with the view B suit.

But no. No, I don’t think so. So I measur all of the fabric in my stash, and I have nothing over 3 yards. 7245 requires nearly 5 yards. I could buy 5 yards of new fabric, hoping to find something on sale… or I could buy a complete pattern for 3282 online… for $26 plus shipping. And hope that the pieces lay out properly on my TWO pieces of curtain fabric. Argh!

To be continued…

Sacramento Tally

Mosquito bites: 8
Bloody gashes on shin: 1
Giant, painful zits: 1
Photos taken at car show: 14
Photos taken of ONE car at car show: 11
Pairs of dangly plastic whistle earrings: 1
Enormous black sun hats: 1
Estimated ’40s-vintage Vogue suits: 1
Saving-for-birthday-present vintage faux-leopard coats: 1
Circa 1969 PlayTape 1200 machines: 1
PlayTape cartridges: 3
Flat pennies: 3

Things to do upon returning home: approximately one million

Lowbrow Cosmetics Review: e.l.f.

Every once in a while I get hit with another round of those email scams exclaiming that Macy’s or Nordstrom’s is buying out the e.l.f cosmetics line and that I should buy now while prices are low. For the record, neither retailer has ever been in dealings to buy out e.l.f. At last check (not today, I’m lazy), both stores had Web pages dedicated to debunking the persistent myth. The truth of the matter is, e.l.f. is a low-priced line of cosmetics that has a respectable policy of not testing on animals.* So, the last time the email came around, along with a handy coupon code for 50% off my order (up to $15), I decided to go for it. Here’s what I got for $21.45, after shipping:

Eyelashes: Can’t beat the price, and they’re more flexible than cheapo-but-still-more-expensive N.Y.C. lashes. I didn’t use the glue they come with, so I can’t vouch for its efficacy. I’m not terribly picky. They just need to stay where I put them, but come off when I want them to. For this price, I bought 4 pairs.

Eye Widener: This “soft” white eye pencil is not soft enough to use along the tear line as intended, thus rendering it useless. Skip it. Maybe use it under your nails for a subtle French manicure look.

Eyebrow Lifter & Filler: I like this one. A double-tipped pencil with a light neutral end for highlighting under the brow, and a colored end for filling in. Easy-peasy. In fact, its ease of use is why I’ve neglected to more frequently use the:

Eyebrow Kit (e.l.f.’s version of Benefit’s ‘Brow Zing’): I only used it once, and forgot to pay any attention to it throughout the day. Sorry! At least it wasn’t noticeably BAD, right?

Lip Definer & Shaper: Another double-tipped pencil, with one “natural” end and one “nude” end. When used according to directions, I thought my mouth looked sloppy. As a last resort, it makes for a couple of neutral, frosted lip pencils.

Lip Brush: I don’t remember the web site mentioning that this brush had two tips (one for lining, one for filling) AND that they both tuck inside for tidy travel. Which is, yes, neat. You can load them up with color at home, retract and tuck the brushes inside the handle, and go out on the town without having to carry your lipstick with you. That being said, though, I personally have trouble with lipstick brushes. I guess I need some instructional help or something, but I can never seem to load up the brush enough to fully color my lips.

Lip Liner: It’s a pencil lip liner. I don’t have a lot to say about it. Functional, nice color (I chose “bitter,” heh heh), and inexpensive.

Concealer Pencil & Brush: Love love love! The blending brush that is included on the other end of this pencil does a great job of feathering the edges of your concealed blemish, and the concealer end is just waxy enough to stay where you put it with good coverage that doesn’t feel like you’re wearing concealer. I wonder if I should order more before they do something dumb like discontinue it?

Tinted Moisturizer: SPF 15, in a range of colors. It’s not greasy or heavy, which is nice. I know that it’s hard to pick shades via a web site, but it’s just tinted moisturizer, not full-coverage foundation. I did fine with Tone 1.

Cuticle Pen: This is like a fat magic marker filled with cuticle oil. Very handy for dabbing at my ragged Winter cuticles before I go to bed. Immediate results without the oily mess of using cuticle oil and a cotton swab. I’m sure it would work even better if I remembered to use it more often.

I also bought a shadow brush and a blending brush, but haven’t used either one yet (my Sephora brushes are doing me fine).

NOTE: ALL of the e.l.f. pencils come with sharpeners. All but the lipliner’s are built into the cap, which is nice for carrying in your purse, if you do that sort of thing. However, all of the double-tipped pencils have the writing that explains each tip printed near the sharpened end of the pencil. Sharpen that thing twice, and you no longer know which end is which. When it’s a dark/light pencil like the Eyebrow Lifter & Filler it’s not a problem, but the Lip Definer & Shaper colors are so similar that it would be tricky to determine. And you wouldn’t want to define your lips with the shaper end, or vice-versa (rolls eyes).

________

* Does e.l.f. test on animals?: We do NOT test on animals or endorse such practices. Our products do not contain animal derived ingredients. Beeswax has been replaced by synthetic beeswax and lanolin has been replaced by Bis-Diglyceryl Polyacyladinpale-2. We currently support HSUS and are partners with PETA in the Caring Consumer Project.

The Skirt

Finally, the skirt that I promised to blog about. This skirt is near and dear to me because it combines so many things that I like: Vintage illustration, thrifting, handcrafting, fashion, recycling, and BALL FRINGE.

You see, this skirt started life as a vintage kiddie curtain-and-valance set. Wonderful old Mother Goose illustrations, and, if I haven’t mentioned, BALL FRINGE. Oh man, do I ever love ball fringe. (Some day I will have a skirt that is tier upon tier of ball fringe, hopefully with a matching box-cut sleeveless top, but this is not that day.)

I saw the curtains in a thrift store, and immediately knew that I would make it into a skirt. Because I am some sort of thrift store goddess, I got the set for $2.48 (plus tax). Step Two would be finding a pattern to match what I was seeing in my head. A simple, high-waist pencil skirt. I went to JoAnn. Butterick had nothing. Simplicity had nothing. New Look, Burda, Vogue, McCall’s… nobody had what I was looking for. And my own drafting skills… well, they get me by for Halloween costumes, but this was going to require better than that. So I sat on it for a while, but I knew that I wanted to make this skirt to wear to the Hooch n’ Smooch event at Viva, and time was ticking away.

Enter: Another trip to the thrift store.

Thrift stores always have sewing patterns, and more often than not, they are a disorganized mess of the worst that fashion had to offer… in the ’80s. And that’s saying something. I usually give the pile a cursory glance, to see if there are any promising yellowing envelopes sticking out, and then I continue on my way. But this one day, at this one thrift store, the stash of patterns was small enough to consider flipping through each and every one. I wasn’t even looking with the skirt in mind, but rather just to see if anything seemed workable for any project. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Without merit. Ugly. And then… skirt! Here’s a skirt pattern, in my size! Three options, one of which is JUST what I am looking for! There were no prices marked, but I took a risk. At the counter, the cashier informed be that all sewing patterns are 49¢. Was I okay with that?

Glee!

Ahem, um, yes. That’s fine. Thank you.

I got it home, and cleaned off the dining room sewing table. I knew that the pattern would already be cut out, but hoped that if it was cut smaller than my size, I could at least estimate up to… holy chit. This pattern is untouched. Nobody has ever cut it, and as best as I can tell, nobody has ever even unfolded it. There’s still an advertisement in it for new, upcoming Spring (1987) patterns. LA LA LA LA LA!

I got busy with my seam ripper, opening up the curtain panel everywhere I had to, and nowhere that I didn’t. I laid out the pattern pieces so that I could salvage most of one of the original curtain seams, thus NOT having to cut the ball fringe in one place. I wound up using just about the entire curtain for the skirt, and a bit of the valance for the waistband. The waistband which turned out to be FAR easier than putting in the zipper, and shouldn’t have slowed me down to a procrastinating crawl. And then I was done! Well, except for the last hook-and eye… hook-and-eye… I have about 300 (okay, 48 and yes I did count) assorted hook-and-eye sets in my sewing basket, and none are the right size. Damn damn damn. A trip to JoAnn and back home, and now I have the hook-and-eye and WHERE the hell are my sewing needles? Oh, come ON. I am NOT going back to JoAnn AGAIN. And then I remembered the emergency sewing kit I kept in my desk at the office, and that my desk at the office was still packed into a box in the basement, and lo and behold, I have a needle.

The end result is a one-of-a-kind, semi-vintage skirt that cost me approximately $4 (curtain, zipper, hook-and-eye, thread) and is, like anything I sew for myself, only a little too big in the waist.

(They’re difficult to see, but the flowerpots full of smiling daisies are my favorite bits.)

ADDITION: Dur, I forgot to post the pattern! It’s Butterick 4706, ca. 1986, and it looks like this:
dresspattern121

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Filed under blogging, cute and fuzzy bunny, fashion, sewing, vintage, Viva Las Vegas

April 4, 2009 · 10:52 am

Weekend Update

A blog post? On a weekend? No, Hell hath not frozen over. Although, by looking out the window on this April morning, you may not realize that. Yesterday was beautiful; sunny and warm, so today? Snow. Welcome to springtime along the Front Range.

If you follow me on Twitter (@ampersandwich) you know that I was sewing a skirt the other day, and even hinted at a blog post about it, but suddenly stopped talking about it. Here’s the deal: it’s coming out really well. Seriously. The first evening of sewing went off without a hitch. The initial fitting is just about perfect (as with anything I sew for myself, I could have cut it a little smaller). The only thing I have left to do is the waistband, which I’ve been putting off because I’ve never done a waistband before and I don’t want to screw up an otherwise excellent sewing project.

On the other hand; without the waistband, it’s unwearable. So there’s that.

Also, I desperately need to finish this skirt because not only will it be fodder for an interesting (I hope) blog post, but because it’s a planned outfit for Day One of my annual pilgrimmage to the Viva Las Vegas rockabilly weekender, and Day One is getting very, very close. So close, in fact, that while I certainly miss the income that comes from being employed, this is the last weekend before the big event and were I having to head to the office on Monday, I would be FREAKING OUT right now.

Which brings us to Viva Las Vegas. Vivaaaaaa Las Vegas. In past years, I have spent the month or so before the trip planning and plotting and packing with local friends. This year I’ve been on my own, although with the supportive buzz and hum of assorted online “friends” whom I expect to run into down there. I suppose I should be more assertive (eek!) about getting people’s phone numbers, so we can actually coordinate general times and locations. It can be difficult to find people in the sizable crowd even when you DO know what they look like in 3D. I was planning on spectating from the safety of The Boyfriend’s arm, but it turns out that he has a handful of friends who will be there, and he’ll want to spend some time with them. My last attempt to make friends with his friends didn’t go so well, so I think I’ll bypass this “opportunity” for now. (It wasn’t their fault. It’s just that, even when you explain social anxiety to folks, they think that once they say “hi” and the sky doesn’t fall down, that I’ll become a normal person. But it doesn’t work that way. This, apparently, leaves them feeling inadequate. Or something.) A couple of my own friends recently decided to go as well, but they’ve been keeping to themselves lately and I don’t want to interfere with whatever they’ve got going on. So I guess I’m back on my own again, for some events. As a result, if you’re down at The Orleans and see a ’billy girl hyperventilating quietly in the bathroom, that’s just me, freaking out about having to interact with other, live, human beings. Please move slowly, bring me something to drink, preferably liquor, and I’ll be okay. I have already put the schedule of bands I want to see into my iPhone, so if you can help me calm down enough to operate it, I’ll know where I need to be next.

As for now, I need to busy myself with finishing the skirt, creating three more hair flowers, researching spray tans so my pasty glow doesn’t blind people poolside, getting my hair color touched up (appt is on Wednesday; nothing like the last minute!), making a new necklace, and figuring out how to fit 8 dresses, 8 handbags, 8 pairs of shoes, plus all of my toiletries and whatnot, into ONE suitcase and ONE garment bag. If I have time left over, I’d like to sew my Standard Oil patch onto the back of my jacket (Suggested company motto: ‘Squishing a dwindling supply of dinosaurs for over 100 years’) and paint flames on the cuffs of a pair of jeans (although I’ve been saying I’m going to do that for a year).

Today’s agenda: Finish skirt. Glue flowers. Make trip to Walgreen’s to exchange the Almay Moisturizing Eye Makeup Remover pads for the less drippy Almay Oil-Free Eye Makeup Remover Pads. Seriously, I think Almay took all of the oil they WOULD have used in the oil-free pads, and added it to the oil in the moisturizing pads. Dipping a cotton ball into straight mineral oil would be less oily. I went through two tissues before switching to a washcloth just trying to get the excess oil OFF of my eyes. I’m all for moisturizing the delicate eye area, but come on. Oh, and the gal who will be doing my hair on Wednesday asked if I could stop by her shop today so she could take a look at what she’ll be dealing with. And, um, post this. So, step one begins… now.

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Filed under blogging, fashion, friends, nostalgia, sewing, vacation, Viva Las Vegas