Sewing Intentions

In my sewing pattern stash, I have around 100 cut vintage patterns. This 1961 McCall's is one of those. I love everything about the graphic - the hair, the featured fabric, the styling, the gloves, and the pillbox hat. While I won't attempt this dress right now, I will try for a festive plaidwork skirt. 

Free People is featuring a plaidwork skirt that I want to recreate from a pattern and fabrics I have on hand.

Maizie Plaidwork Maxi Skirt

I have the plaids.

The fabric pull from my fabric on hand. 

I have a pattern - not quite the FP style but festive nonetheless. I will try and angle the fabric so it widens at the bottom. 

This will be another stretch of my sewing skills. I think the easiest method will be to pre-sew the pieces of plaid fabric together using another pattern drawn from the original. I will post on my progress. 

I will be altering the little girl's Retro Rocket dress. I ordered more of the material to finish off the back and add pockets to the inside of the dress. girl-dress-retro-rocket-rascals

Delighted that I have kept vintage sewing patterns, and I can pull from my existing stock I have listed on eBay. 

It is a cold, foggy day here in Northern California. A perfect day for a sewing project. 

Girl Dress Retro Rocket Rascals

So excited to get to my girl dress project, 1996 McCall's 7940. I have had this tres adorbs fabric for quite awhile now - Retro Rocket Rascals by Michael Miller. 

It was the first time I had sewn a Peter Pan collar. Biffed on the first attempt, nailed it on the second. 

Ran out of the retro rocket fabric so I supplemented with a pale yellow backing. Such is Life Living with Remnants. 

The buttonholes were another new thing. My quilting machine a Baby Lock Jazz 2 came with both the quilting attachment and the buttonhole setting on the machine. Praise be to the Baby Lock machine designer. In home economics in the 1970s, we had to figure out the dimensions of the buttonhole manually. It took me a couple of days learning how to work the attachment, I have it down for the next garment. I should have made a prototype first. 

The baby shower is set for Saturday, October 25, 2025. Rachel gave the A-OK for a Bluey-themed event with purple and gold colors. 

Finally found the fabric pull I intended for the New Look 0185 pattern. 

On the eBay seller front, my sales have been worse than awful. Usually sales pick up after summer ends. This year not so much. Perhaps a collective tightening of the purse strings. I had hoped to pay off wedding expenses before Christmas hit. 

It is official and as I suspected. Quilting posts are much less popular than sewing posts. I will admit that patchwork quilting has improved my sewing skills. 

Bought a bag of fabric at thrift and this pieced heart-themed one with matching baby fabric was included. I have bumped all of my other projects to whip up this throw. I removed the purple strips borders shown in the upper left of the image. I don't have any fabric in my stash that marries well with the pieced top. The baby print will be used as the border fabric. Wool batting and a flannel backing for this quilt so it will be warm. 

The crib quilt I intend to give her is not what one would consider warm. It has a thin cotton batting and would serve better as a wall hanging. 

Off to cut the New Look pattern.