elegant musings

I’ve been struck by the urge to go through all my stacks and stashes of stuff and dispose of items that I no longer need. I suppose it’s only fitting, considering that it is springtime, and spring cleaning is in order. Most of the items I’m giving away/selling/otherwise dispossessing were collected during my teenage years. Perhaps it has to do with my birthday two weeks away.

I had a very lovely--albeit far too short--weekend with my Beau. He was only up for two days; we had so much catching up to do, things to discuss, places to go... But we did get to just sit on the deck Saturday evening as the sun went down and enjoy the beautiful weather.

I have been listening to the Lost in Translation soundtrack and various Jesus and Mary Chain albums almost constantly since yesterday morning. A rainy gloom has settled over the sky, but its different from the cold gloom of the winter; I think the warmth of the air makes it more bearable--almost fun. I walked around outside yesterday with an umbrella held over my head, my toes splashing in the warm rainwater as it cascaded down the street. I love springtime!

Last week I found a new-to-me antique shop in one of my favorite, small towns nearby. Although it was generally overpriced, there were a few deals here and there--one just had to do some digging! I unearthed these two, darling drum majorette pins (I’m especially fond of the silhouette one), and a 1945 copy of Seventeen. Its kinda falling apart, but I love all the illustrations and fashion and oh! I’m just as in love with the 1940’s as ever. lol. So in place of my usual, Vintage Monday feature, here is an array of images from this lovely find; hope you’re inspired.

[ more images here! ]

Cheers!

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p.s. Oh, and I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the feedback about the site design I did for Kate! *blushes* Yes, I do a little bit of graphic work and website development on the side, I just rarely tend to talk about it here!

Besides the clothes rack, my biggest preoccupation whilst digging through thrift stores is vintage patterns. While yes, part of the motivation is that I do sew, and thus am always on the hunt for some new and “exciting” style to whip up, I do love collecting them for their graphics! (Because honestly--I don’t think I could ever sew all of the patterns--although I’d like to think I could! hehe!)

They’re little time-capsules of previous eras and fashion styles. I love seeing how not only the trends have changed for the home seamstress, but also the sewing techniques!

I also feel a slight connection to the ladies who owned these patterns before me. I think the best patterns are the ones that have pin markings, notes, or even just simple circles around the size they needed to cut out! (Something I do!)

I also occasionally light upon a “how-to” booklet from the 1950s or 1960s. I love flipping through them for ideas and inspiration! Look at some of these pages:

See more vintage-pattern goodness here and here!

[ Read the other Nifty-Thrift posts here. ]

Cheers!

[ email me ]

I still haven’t quite finished that dress I posted a sneak peek of on Monday (the polka-dot material was snipped from the most major alteration I did). It is just missing the voile ruffle, but I dare not show the entire piece until it is complete! hehe. Hopefully by Friday I shall have eked out an hour of sewing time to finish it...

Anyhow, I spent a little bit of time the other night, winding down with a cup of chamomile tea, my pretty little cahier (I found the website of the manufacturer--they are some other, absolutely delicious notebooks!), and a pile of inspiring images that had been sitting on my computer.

As you can see by this page, Art Nouveau has been absorbing me quite a bit lately! Design History class this week we spent most of the three-hour class discussing the movement and viewing utterly gorgeous slides!! I was in heaven! I think I took nearly four pages of notes... hehe! I just love the color and vibrancy of line; I think it fits quite well with the mood springtime brings. Do you ever feel a stylistic look fits well with a particular season?

I think perhaps next week I shall declare it A Week of Thrifty Finds! I’ll post a photo (or two...) of some lovely goodies I have happened upon in the past months, since I have been so bad about sharing them (and its quite a pile now! hehe!). Is anyone else game for five days of blog and thrift-fun? Do let me know... perhaps we can organize an informal little something.

Oh, and before I dash off, I wanted to remind you that the deadline for signing up for the Creative Cacophony Swap is nearing! Be sure to drop me an email by Friday evening if you’d like to be included... I think it is going to be so much fun!!!

Have a lovely Wednesday, all!!

Cheers!

[ email me ]

p.s. Ali, is having a week of Amelie themed posts!!! What a perfectly lovely idea... a whole week of basking in Amelie goodness! Read all the posts (thus far) here. Discovered via Frolic!.

Aw... Thank you for your sweet comments about my wee posting that my Sweetheart was home for the weekend! It was really so lovely to find those in my inbox this morning; softened the feeling of loneliness a bit. Thank you.

Onto sweater-reveal goodness! Its a cardigan that originally looked quite drab, unfitted and well... basic. (Somewhat like this one, although this is a different sweater. I forgot to take a “before” shot! Ack!!) I picked it up at one of the local thrift shop’s dollar days, and since it was a lovely silk/cashmere blend, I thought it would be worth refashioning into something a little more... me!!

I used this book, The Yestermorrow Clothes Book as a reference point for starting the refashion. It details how to take apart a sweater, adjust the fit, and put it back together again! I figured out how much I wanted to take the sides in (‘cause the fit was too boxy for me), cut the side seams apart, removed the bottom ribbing band, cut the sleeves off, and shortened the body of the cardigan by about 4”.

Despite the fact that it is a sweater knit, it wasn’t really that hard to sew the pieces! I just used a very narrow zig-zag (almost a straight stitch... but not quite) on all the seams, trimmed them down and then did a larger zig-zag over the edges. The sleeves I shortened by cutting off the original sleeve cap, and cutting a new one (I was bad... I just eyeballed it, although the book does recommend using a pattern!), and then reattaching to the new armhole (which I narrowed at the shoulder seam).

The reconstruction work was a breeze; deciding on trim and buttons was the hard part! hehe! I hunted through my stash of vintage textiles and pulled out two sleeves I had chopped off an old, eyelet and lace dress. I knew the salvaged eyelet would come in handy one day!! I just enclosed the front edges with the eyelet, topstitching everything down. The buttons were just from my stash; and I decided to go with the white and red because I didn’t have enough red buttons of the right size.

So... I have a very cute (in my opinion! lol!) cardigan for only nickels and dimes, as my dad would say! Now that I have made you endure the long, drawn-out details of how I did this, here is the fun, belated, Friday links roundup!!! Oh, and now you can reference the older posts of Friday links just by clicking the “inspiration” image. Hurrah!!

♥ make a no-pattern, no-zipper skirt!
♥ sweet ideas for accessorizing with vintage doilies
♥ beautiful, inspiring fashion and outfit ideas
♥ a great interview with Polaroid artist Jen Gotch [ via ]
♥ Jenny’s meditation on creativity and developing a collection
♥ knit a very cute, stripy hat!
♥ breathtakingly beautiful photographs and illustrations
♥ how to take a pattern from a favorite garment!!!*
♥ I so want to live in this space...

*I am dying to try this! I mean... wouldn’t it be great to finally take some patterns from my vintage collection?! *sigh*

Enjoy all the linking-goodness and inspiration! I shall post the Vintage Monday image a wee bit later today...

Cheers!

[ email me ]