Vintage pajamas: the supplies

Last night I pressed the fabric for my Butterick 2197 vintage pajamas.

It's a very nice rayon challis, much better quality than what I can usually find in the chain stores. It's got a nice weight and drape. I've washed it twice and dried it in the dryer, and it looks as new as it did when I bought it over 10 years ago. This fabric was my final purchase at our last local independent fabric store which closed around 1995 or 1996. I really miss that store.Anyway, when I saw this pattern, I immediately thought of this fabric.

The buttons are vintage buttons from the thrift shop. That light blue package above the buttons is vintage silk bias tape which I also found at the thrift. Yes, back in the day, you could buy a package of pre-cut, pre-folded silk bias!

(I wish I still had the wrapper so I could also tell you the original price of that bias tape. Unfortunately, it was dirty so I had to discard it as soon as I got home. I also had to wash and re-press the tape so I lost the original folds. It's slighlty frayed now, but I think I can make it work for a hong-kong finished hem.)

This is turning out to be a very vintage-y and thrifty project. :)

I still need to order thread; and although the pattern doesn't call for it, I plan to use some sort of interfacing for the buttonhole area. I'll probably use a sew-in rather than a fusible, to keep it from getting too stiff.

I showed all this to the Sewing Critic. She is not impressed.

Learning from my own show-and-tell

This week my sister came over to visit. She lives out of state and we hadn't seen each other for a while. She asked me what I've been sewing lately.

As I started to show her my creations, I realized that I was most excited about showing her the items made from nicer fabrics. And making excuses for the items made from cheap fabrics. ("It looked a lot nicer right after I made it" etc.)

There was a simple t-shirt made from really good quality cotton-lycra which was probably 3-4 years old but still looked pretty good. I thought about how I wear it at least once a week during the winter.

And there were a lot of things I couldn't even show her, because I'd gotten rid of them already. They were things that hadn't lasted more than a few months because--you guessed it--they were made from poor quality fabric.

I also noticed that my favorite garments are made from Burda, Kwik Sew, and Sandra Betzina's Today's Fit line of patterns. I knew I liked Burda and SB but I was a little surprised at how the Kwik Sews had become such staples in my wardrobe.

It was a bit of an eye-opening experience to go through and describe all my sewing projects. It confirmed my belief that fabric quality really does make a big difference (even bigger than I had suspected). And I'll be taking a closer look at my Kwik Sew patterns in the future when I need some new basics.

Fitness update

About a week ago, I finished up my stickk.com contract challenge to exercise 4 times per week.

So how did I do? Well, I did o.k., but I have to be honest and say it was really hard; and by the end of it, I was getting resentful and negative about the whole deal--which kind of surprises me, because I expected it to become easier as I developed a consistent habit.

Here's my conclusion about this type of challenge: it is worth it, but perhaps only for 3 weeks instead of six.

And that's not because I think I only need to exercise for three weeks. Of course I will continue to strive for a consistent fitness routine. But I learned that scary consequences are good for motivation for only a short time: they help you figure out which barriers are real, and which are just excuses. They force you to really listen to the stories you tell yourself, and decide if they are true.

But after you work all that out, it's just something you have to do. And this is where I think the fear of negative consequences stops being so effective. Instead of thinking positively--about why I wanted to become healthy and being reminded of how much I enjoy my workouts (and I really do)--I found myself thinking about how I have to get that last workout in or else it will cost me $10. Grrr.

I'm relieved to be free of that feeling. I much prefer exercising because I want to.

But don't get me wrong--I still think that little bit of negative motivation can work wonders. For example, by eliminating excuses, I learned that:

• I don't have to exercise in the morning in order to get my workouts in.
• But I'm more likely to exercise if I do it first thing in the morning.
• A consistent sleep schedule is way more important than I thought it was.
• I feel better when I allow a day of rest between workouts. (This one surprised me!)

I learned where I was fooling myself, allowing bad habits to get in the way of success, and also where I was perhaps pushing myself too hard. I found solutions to problems that had been getting in my way for a long time. All in all, the "scary contract" was worth it.

It's a useful learning tool, and I'll probably use it again, but on a more short-term basis.

I'm back, with new projects

Hi everyone,
I'm back from my blogging break. (Actually, it wasn't a complete break. I had that YSL post -- I couldn't ignore that. And I've been posting comments and messages here and there on other sites.)

But anyway, I did manage to get some sewing done during the last month.

This is the Vogue 2945 top that I've been working on for some time.

I finished most of it, but I purposely left the side seams and sleeve seams unfinished. Since the fabric is wool jersey, I won't be able to wear it until the weather cools. That will be in a few months, and I'm planning on losing more weight by then. So I decided to wait until winter to do the final fitting and finishing of this top.



And remember this coat? It's Burda 8017. I was going to make it in a melton wool in a dark teal blue.

I had already cut out the pattern (but not the fabric) and gathered most of my supplies. But then I took another critical look at my fabric, and had to admit that it is really too light and drapey for this pattern.

I really like this pattern but I have learned the hard way that you can't force a fabric to work for a pattern that wasn't made for it. You have to listen to the fabric. I listened and my fabric told me it wanted to be a soft drapey coat.

I do love this Burda pattern, though, and I hope to make it up before it goes out of style.


In the meantime, I've decided to use my lightweight melton wool for this pattern:

It's a Built By You (Built by Wendy) pattern from Simplicity (now out-of-print). I like that it's soft, but still modern. I really wanted a modern style coat for my fabric which has a somewhat intense color.

In the meantime, I've also started another project more appropriate for summer.
This is a vintage pattern from my stash. It's one of those fun 10-cent thrift store finds.

I call these the "Laura Petrie" pajamas. I bought it because I thought the lady in the picture looks like Mary Tyler Moore on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

Here's the back of the envelope:

I think it's curious how the pajama top is made from the same pattern piece as the robe.

To make these pajamas, I'll be using some rayon challis which has been in my stash for at least 10 years. It's a vintage-y looking blue print, just like the pattern picture. I'll show you the fabric in an upcoming post.

Yves Saint Laurent

Le Smoking

Photo: Helmut Newton, from Wikipedia





Use of transparent materials
Photo: Rare Vintage blog

Safari suit

Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timeline of Art History




"Mondrian" dress
Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Timeline of Art History

A blogging break

I've decided to take a month-long break from blogging and commenting and posting on message boards. In other words, I'm going into lurk mode for a while.

I have so much to do right now (and probably won't get most of it done) but mostly I just want to be in a "doing" mode for a while.

My fitness habit is still on track (slowly becoming a routine). I've done a tiny bit of sewing; that's one of the "doing" things I plan to work on during my blogging break.

See you in a month!

My turn at the literary meme!

Elaine of Goodworks 1's Notes tagged me. Here are the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

I'm cheating a little. The nearest book was about investment decisions and those sentences would have put you to sleep. The book under that was The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey and I decided to use it instead. You can see this book over on my "currently reading" list in my sidebar. I've been "currently reading" it for over a year. Someday I'll finish it.

"Stillington brought in his evidence and his witnesses, and a report was prepared to put before Parliament when it assembled on the 25th. On the 10th Richard sent a letter to the city of York asking for troops to protect and support him."

"Ha!"

I suppose you'll have to read the book to find out what that "Ha!" is about. :P

I'd love to tag someone, but I think every blog I read has already been tagged. If you haven't, please consider yourself tagged and join in the fun of this meme. :)