A New Sewing Project!

I have a new sewing project (assuming I can figure out how to use the sewing machine the Schmitts gave me)!
There's an event in February-Military History Fest, previously known as Reenactor Fest, and we're planning on attending. They have a ball in the evening, and you can dress from any time period you want. I'll be doing my usual 16th century garb, but if I decide to go to the ball I really, really wanted to the 1940s. All my patterns for 40s clothes happen to be in a faraway storage unit in Illinois, but Rebecca Schmitt offered to loan me some patterns.
I'll be making this dress and coat, and the hat.
The dress pattern is from 1939, so obviously it would have been used in the 40s too, so it works perfectly for what I wanted. My color scheme is going to be rather patriotic, which works too!
I chose a red fabric with small white dots (I've always liked the fabric but never had anything to do with it) for the dress, and I'll be using a dark blue linen for the coat and the hat. So, hopefully I can get it all done in time!

Blargh

Well, blargh (saying that word makes me sound like Jeremy...). The pattern for Jeremy's doublet is too small. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to change now. I just wish the first one had fit. Oh well.
I'm off to copy and enlarge the sleeve pattern!

My Dress

I finally have a picture of the dress I made:


From McCall's pattern M5619

More About Sewing...What a Surprise!

I didn't expect to be able to go to Hobby Lobby until next Thursday, but my Dad kindly offered to take me today! I bought the fabric that I needed, and I also picked up some embroidery floss. I'm going to teach Jeremy how to make his own buttons and eyelets for his garb.
The fabric for my dress is currently in the washer. My Mom is sewing right now, so the table is unavailable, but once it is I may cut out the fabric for my bodice. Or, I might start on Jeremy's garb. I'll cut out a mock-up in a cheaper cotton before cutting into the wool, but if it ends up fitting well I'll go ahead and finish the mock-up and then Jeremy will have two sets of garb.
Unfortunately, before I can cut out my bodice or any of his garb, I have to draft the patterns. Before I can draft the pattern I have to take a piece of poster board (one of my Dad's customers was throwing away a LOT of white poster board, and it was in perfect condition! But my Dad asked if he could have it) and make drafting paper. This involves using a yard stick and drawing 1" grid. It's very tedious, I really hate doing it, but I also hate paying $25 for 100 pieces of drafting paper.
I may get Jeremy to draw out some of the drafting paper...

Oops!

So, I accidentally (actually, saying accidentally is fairly pointless; it isn't as if I would have done this on purpose) messed up on the dress I'm working on (the pattern I bought yesterday; there's a picture in the previous post). I failed to notice where the pattern instructions said it was only for dress A, and I'm making dress B. So, I was able to salvage some piece, but I'll need to get a little more fabric. I could have gone ahead and made dress A, but I really didn't want the sleeveless dress. I like the dress with the short sleeves so much more than the dress with straps. I might make the dress with straps some other time, but I really, really wanted this fabric for the one with short sleeves. I probably won't be able to go back to Bourbonnais and Hobby Lobby until Thursday, though. So until then dress making is done.
I did, however, manage to finish cartridge pleating my garb skirt, and I even got it sewn to the waistband. My fingers currently feel like pin cushions, but it was worth it. Now I just need to hem the skirt, but I'm going to wait on that for a little while; I have to decide what I'll be wearing under the skirt before hemming it.
Since I don't have a dress to work on anymore, I'll go ahead and start on my bodice. I'll draft the pattern and get it cut out tomorrow. It's getting to late to start that tonight.

Yard Mart

My uncle's church has an annual sale that they call "Yard Mart". It's normally a really good sale. It lasts 3 days (but you want to get there early on the first day if you want anything worthwhile), and has amazing prices. Last year I got a brand new Christopher & Banks skirt for 50 cents (normally $50), and brand new $99 boots for $1.00, and many other great deals. Jeremy got a suit for $2 (it's the suit he wears for his Billy Smith videos), we got some books, baking dishes, LOTS of stuff, and only spent $15. I was really looking forward to it this year, but it was terrible . Besides not having much stuff, lots of things were way over-priced. And my Mom and I got totally beat up there! I was looking through the clothes rack and people were shoving me out of the way and grabbing things out of my hand. People were ramming into people, some old man bumped into my Mom and turned around and said "Well I hate you too!". Isn't that crazy? And I saw some lady throw a doll at another lady's head. Seriously! I don't think the lady meant to throw the doll at her head, but why was she throwing a doll in such an incredibly crowded place? Dumb plan!
The only thing I found was a corduroy skirt and a recipe book. My Mom found a Saxon physics curriculum. Luke might use it, or we might sell it. She also found a couple other little things, but it really wasn't worth it. We left very disappointed.

After Yard Mart we went to Joanns, where we had terrible service. I wanted to get fabric swatches to send to a friend for her approval (she wants me to make her garb this year), and when I asked for them the lady working there told me that she could only give me a 2" swatch and that it would cost. I asked her how much it would be, but she wouldn't answer me. She wouldn't even check to see how much it would cost! So I went and got my Mom and she came over (which made the employee roll her eyes at me; how rude!) and asked for the price. The lady made a big production about having to check the prices. It ended up being 6 cents a swatch. Why couldn't she have told me that it would be under a quarter? I was concerned that they would want to charge for the smallest amount of fabric they normally cut (1/8 yards). She just didn't want to work with me because I'm not an adult. I can't stand people like that. Seriously, it's dumb. What's the person's problem? They'd save time by dealing with the kid rather than refusing to help them and waiting until a parent comes. It's so annoying.
I think I quit with Joanns; I get terrible service whenever I go there!
I'll be going to Hobby Lobby from now on. In fact, I'll be going to Hobby Lobby's website soon to sign up for their coupons.

We did go to Hobby Lobby today, after I got disgusted with Joanns, and I found another really cute pattern and fabric to go with it.
I think I'm becoming addicted to patterns and fabrics and sewing...

I like the dress in the main picture.

I Want These Patterns!

I found these dresses online and I think they're really cute, but I don't want to pay $99 for them, so I want to watch for similar patterns and make the dresses myself.

Baking! Sewing!

I started working on my green wool garb. I thought it might be nice to get a head start on it. Last year I was unable to finish my garb until midnight the night before the Janesville faire. And for my new garb for Stronghold I didn't finish it until the morning of the faire. I'd like to avoid that this time!
So far I've cut out the skirt panels, sewn them together, sewed the edges on the front opening of the skirt, and started cartridge pleating. Cartridge pleating is easy, just time consuming. Especially when you mess it up multiple times, like I did. First, I started on the wrong end of the skirt. Oops! So I pulled out those stitches and put them where they should go. I finally got to the end of the row of stitches (the stitches are 1" apart on a 180" across skirt), and as I was tying it off a very sad thing happened... Apparently the knot on the other end of the skirt was not big enough, and half my stitches came undone. It was very, very sad. I did eventually finish the first row of stitches, but it was very frustrating! Now I need to do a second row of stitches just under that row. That row of stitches should be easier; I can just use the first row of stitches as a guide. On the first row I had to hold a tape measure while I was stitching to insure that each stitch was 1".
After I finish all of those rows of stitching I can finally put the skirt on the waistband.

As for baking...I made a loaf of whole wheat bread last night. It came out a little bit dry, though. I think there was a little too much flour, so I'll cut back on it next time. Other than that it was very nice. I took a picture before it was baked, but I forgot to take a picture of it once it had been baked.
Tonight I made oatmeal cookies. About two dozen are just plain oatmeal cookies, and another two dozen have walnuts.
Since we're going to be low on bread (because I made one loaf instead of two) I'll probably make white bread tomorrow. I might make a double batch (that will be 4 loaves) and freeze some.

Now I'm going to go wash some of the kitchen stuff (my apron, towels, wash cloths, oven mitts, etc) and go through fabric for some of the patterns I bought yesterday.






Oatmeal cookies.
This isn't all of them; there was still two batches being baked.

Whole wheat bread before it was baked.
I forgot to take a picture of it once it was baked.
I always braid my bread, I think it looks nice!

More Patterns!

Joanns was having an absolutely amazing sale today! All Butterick patterns were on sale for 99 cents! A fantastic deal! So, I bought 11 patterns (the limit is 10, but my Mom paid for one separately). Now I just have to purchase all the necessary fabrics...
Our friend Emily Nee will probably be coming later on this month and will let me go through some of her unwanted fabric, so hopefully I'll find some that I can use for some of these patterns!
The first dress I want to make is the first picture I have up; the polka-dot one. In fact, I want to make it look like the pattern picture! I've already priced the polka-dot fabric, and with the 40% off coupons that we regularly get, it should be pretty cheap!
The next pattern is a retro pattern from '47. I think it's really cute! The next one is similar to a dress I have from Kohls. The 4th one I really like; I think I'm going to make the version of it with the cap sleeves (the white one). I think all the aprons are so cute! I can't wait to make some.
The 8th is also a retro pattern from '47, I prefer the one with cap sleeves. And the penultimate pattern (the 1st one in the last row) is another retro pattern from '52. I originally didn't care for the pattern, but after I saw the idea of it I started to really like it. It's a wrap dress, and the sides are open. Once you put it on you take the excess skirt from the back and it wraps around and buttons in front of you. I think it's really neat!
I have a pattern that we already had at home, it's for a dress and jacket. The jacket should work with most of sort sleeve dresses, so I'll make it.
Now, the total for this patterns without the sale price would have been $174 before tax. I spent less than $12! I love sales!
You can click on any of the images to see the website for them.

Now time to get sewing....

Patterns!

I bought two patterns today:

http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v2903-products-4894.php?page_id=850

http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v1266-products-3946.php?page_id=265

There was another dress pattern that I really wanted, but sadly Joanns didn't have it in stock.


There's several other dress patterns I want to purchase in a few weeks (when they'll be on sale for super cheap), and hopefully I'll make them for this summer!