Well, now I've gone and done it!  I made a pair of pants in December.  The idea popped into my head last Fall, and I finally got around to it a few months later. To be fair, I have made myself two other pairs of pants over the last 20 years, and while they were vintage reproduction patterns, they just didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, and they really don't see any wear. This time around, I decided that I would give an actual vintage pattern a try to see if I had more luck. One of the main issues I have with pants is that I have a long torso, and this affects the fit.   ..read more

I suppose the question is, does this dress look exactly like the velvet version? And yes, it's pretty obvious, right down to coordinating color stories.  But honestly, I don't mind having two of these dresses in my wardrobe. What I found interesting is that I didn't notice that extra length just above the back waist with that velvet fabric. If I look really, really closely at the photos of the velvet dress, I can see a small bit of wrinkling, but that might be due to the rotation or angle of my body.  It could also have something to do with the fact that the velvet fabric is sli ..read more

This is the first version of Vogue 1907 that I made.  I decided that it was time to try this pattern that had caught my attention as soon as it was released before I got distracted by something new and shiny.  It feels a bit late in the season to post a sweater knit, long sleeved garment . . . then again, it was hailing and cold two days ago so I am going to call this seasonally appropriate! This particular sweater knit had been taking up a whole lot of space in my sewing room for at least 9 or 10 years.  I have pulled it out a few times, but it never seemed like the right pro ..read more

The weather around these parts can't seem to make up its mind if Spring has sprung, or if the wet and cold weather isn't quite finished with us. We had a few really lovely days a couple of weeks ago which felt like a tease now that the rain and wind has returned.   I suppose that gives me some more opportunities to wear my wooly sweaters, but I am really ready for the warmer weather at this point.  Then again, I am currently working on a wool coat, so make that make sense!  That may come to an end soon, however, as I don't have a suitable lining on hand, and I am starting to ..read more

My knitting projects as of late have been more of the easy to wear type.  I find that I gravitate towards a comfy sweater on rainy days when I wish I didn't have to get out of bed because of the soggy mess outside.  Those are the knits that I pick over and over again during the Winter months. And I do have a few of those options in my wardrobe, and more hand knit versions have been added to the collection over the years.  But what most of them have in common is that they are darker in color, with a few bright pink exceptions.  So when I decided that a lighter pastel shoul ..read more

I thought that a floral themed velvet was an appropriate outfit choice for a day at the Legion of Honor to see the Botticelli exhibit, and so the first outing for this dress just happened to be at a museum. The day was rather gloomy with quite a bit of rain, but my Mom and I made the journey to San Francisco to spend the afternoon exploring the galleries. My main reservation about this dress was the fiber content.  I am not a fan of polyester, and I avoid it as much as I can.  But I was stuck on the thought that this design would look great in a floral velvet, and since the patter ..read more

This is the second version of Vogue 1907 that I have made and I posted a lot of the process over on Instagram.  I'm not all that proficient with knits, but I was drawn to this pattern when it was released, and I decided to finally get to it with a sweater knit that I had in the stash for a long time.  And then things got complicated with Mr. Tino. I went to work with essentially no sleep that Friday, and finally managed to exhaust myself enough during the day to fall asleep for more than a few hours that evening.  When I woke up Saturday, I knew that I needed something to keep ..read more

My precious Valentino came into my life on July 7, 2007.  He pranced his way right into my heart.  And while the prancing slowed down over the years, he could still put on a show whenever he wanted to impress someone (usually another canine) with his little tail straight up in the air and his high-stepping trot.  I never would have imagined that he would be such an incredible companion to me for over sixteen years.  It wasn’t enough time. I don’t know the story of his first few years of his life, other than the records that stated he was brought from Madera County to th ..read more

For so many years I avoided most 1970s styles.  But since I have been searching for a "perfect" blouse for at least a decade, when I found this pattern at an estate sale, I decided that I needed to give it a try. Now, to be fair, I don't think that a fairly stable woven cotton is exactly what this design calls for.  On the other hand, it's easy to work with, I thought that the floral design would look nice with the style lines, and I had enough stashed away to give the pattern a try.  Which was good enough for me! Now is it my dream blouse?  Probably not . . . I'm b ..read more

Why do I retain items from the late 1990s that I haven't worn in close to twenty years?  Because of this, right here.  Who knew I would need a green silk skirt decades later?  I surely didn't . . . but it suddenly seemed the perfect choice for my oversized and very fluffy sweater. After discovering a fabulous yarn from Knit Picks that is fluffy and cozy and doesn't shed (how do they manage that?!) I had a hankering to make a bunch of comfortable sweaters out of the miraculous fiber, this time in the shade "Kale." My bright pink turtleneck gets quite a bit of wear in the colde ..read more