New adventures with sewing

I went on a sewing retreat last weekend. What is that you say? It was with the American Sewing Guild Virginia Chapter. Twice a year a group of ladies book hotel rooms and get to use the ballroom for setting up a group sewing area. We had two breakfast buffets and two dinner buffets included with the retreat cost. We stayed at a historic hotel,The George Washington Hotel  in downtown Winchester VA. It was marvelous to be able to sew for hours on end. I started sewing by 9:30 am on Friday and didn't stop until 9:30 pm my first day. I got two pillows made and some repair work on a pair of pants. I decided that I wanted to make a purse that I saw on the Indigo Junction website.  permission purse.  I cut out 17 squares and used my machines Janome 8900 to decorate the squares. I stitched out all sorts of combinations. I used a variety of decorative threads I had on hand and used a top-stitching needle for most of my work. Here is how it turned out. (I bought the handles because I had a 50% off coupon for Hancock Fabrics. )

Willow on her Patriotic Love seat with new pillow

I finished the topper on the back of the couch

Day two and three I worked on a labor intensive purse with all kinds of decorative stitching. I used the Indygo Junction pattern for the inspiration.The pattern is called the Permission Purse.

There were quite a few ladies at the retreat and I had a ball talking to everyone about their projects. Some people made quite a few tops in two days. I was amazed. I just wanted to work on this intense project. I used a Jacket that I bought for $7.00 at the local Salvation Army. It was the cheapest way to get a good quality 100% wool tweed. So have you ever been on a sewing retreat?

Style goals for 2015, self descriptors

My Style goals for 2015:
Tribal, Equestrian, Embellished, Textural,Tomboy, Chanel, Western,these are my self describers. Boy what a mess of words, yet they describe what I like. I have no ideal what my style architype is with these words. Yet when I look at my former clothing pictures I do see a theme. Separates are what I wear. I wear pants, pants and shorts in summer hardly any skirts or dresses. I love color and prints and I wear a lot of them together. I like the 3 piece idea;jacket-top and pants or sweater-top and pants.  I love boots because I can no longer wear heels. I love flats but they give me problems too. I am confined to wearing tennis shoes because they give my old bones cushion.
1. I need to buy more unique and stylish and comfortable tennis shoes. I only have 2 pairs and I am wearing them out too quickly.
2. I have lots of boots so I need to wear them. ( At least for part of the day)
3. I like pants I have plenty of them maybe buy some that are leather or of a different material than denim.
4. Wear more hats. I make them and sell them but don't have really nice ones for myself to wear duh!!!!!
5.Wear my jackets I have plenty of them they are dressy but look good with jeans and a blouse or top, this is my dress up go to.
6. Get a new pair of glasses mine are now 2 years old and I think I need a metal frame...??? 

I was reading Angie's list over at youlookfab and that inspired me to write this post. Hopefully it will become clearer what my style type is as I move forward this year. Funny how something so personal can seem so elusive.

Plans for a New Year:Where to go with this Blog?

Have you noticed lately that bloggers are getting much less feedback than lets say two years ago? I have noticed this. I still read all of my favorites and a few more that I am always discovering. Is blogging loosing popularity to twitter? I don't really have the answer for you but I am still blogging. My blog does not raise money for me nor is a career stepping stone, rather it is a public documentation of my hobbies and interests. I like the fact that others can randomly read it and respond to it. That is the purpose in a nutshell. I don't need to be famous or popular or necessarily right about anything just feel the need every once in a while to put my thoughts on my blog. So in the upcoming year I will continue with my hats and sewing as my most frequent posts. I am going to post some updated pictures of what I am wearing as well. I think my style is evolving but to what I am not sure. I just purchased the color theorist's book,"Color Your Style, A Fashion Expert Helps you to pick your colors etc, by David Zyla. He has an interesting way of picking out colors based on the ones found in you skin and eye colors. I think I like this in principle. I have been draped but not always able to find those specific colors. Am continuing to work on my two piece jacket my Chanel inspired boucle wool jacket and a few other unfinished pieces. I am having so much more success with my embroidery machines. Oh and for Christmas I bought a Janome 8900 quilting and sewing machine. I will let you know about it but so far it is amazing. Have a great 2015 my friends!!

Is black the only color for a funeral?

I am going to a memorial service to honor my mother tomorrow. She passed away in September and has lived a long life. One of the things she enjoyed was for me to help her put together her 'outfits' and to pick out her jewelery to go with the outfits. This process has been going on for a long time.
I do remember once in 1966 helping her get ready for a date with my dad. We spent hours getting the makeup on and the wig combed and teased. I put on those old fake nails that you glued on for her. Her shoes had 3 inch heels and were gold and sparkly. It took me at least 10 minutes to hook up her long line girdle-bra combination because she could not reach them on her side.
Once she was all glammed up and walked down stairs my dad looked at her as she descended and pronounced,"Where is my wife who are you?" . No she didn't kill him but it was not the reaction she was hoping for.
I learned from that event to dress my truth and not to transform myself into something I wasn't.
Tomorrow we are having a service to honor her so I decided to glam up for it just for her. So I bought a new dress with some stones sewn to the neckline. I normally wouldn't go for the sparkly but my mom would have loved it so I 'll wear it in her honor. Normally people would wear all black to a funeral. I gave up wearing black several years ago because I just don't look good in black. It makes me look washed out. So I hope nobody in my family will be offended but I am not going in all black. In fact I will be wearing a blue coat. Is there really a dress code for funerals?

Jerry 2012

Two piece jacket vest combo

I am starting a new jacket project. I bought a quilted leaf print fabric.

It is reversible so here is the other side.

There is something about leaf prints that attracts me.
There are a few patterns that were specifically developed for this kind of pre quilted fabric.
Butterick Pattern 5400 is one of them. I decided that I didn't want such a simple jacket, yes, the fabric is busy already but I wanted to kick it up a notch.

I decided I needed a complimentary non quilted fabric so here is what I chose. A printed cotton calico.

I believe this will make for a nice contrast in that it is a different scale print and also it is one of the colors in the leaf print.
The other issue with the Butterick pattern was that is had a poor fit in the shoulder and bust for me. I found Butterick 6062 view C. It has a built in bust adjustment for D cup and a really nice vertical dart.

Now to the gist of this post mixing it up or transforming a piece of fabric into something fabulous. I am going to make two pieces that work together. A jacket and a vest that can be worn alone or together layered. One piece will be the jacket with the back from the quilted fabric and the front from the calico fabric. The vest will be the made with the front from the quilted fabric and the back from the calico. The sleeves of the jacket are two pieces so the larger one is quilted and the under sleeve is the calico.

I am going to admit it is not my original idea. This is a poor picture of page 229 form Oct 2012 INStyle magazine. I loved the idea of these two pieces working together or alone. So that was my inspiration. Stayed tuned as I will be doing a follow up post on the embellishment details I have planned.
I am linking up with Not Dead Yet Style

Georgia O'keefe influencing my designs

I went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe the other day. These two paintings done by her have so influenced me in how I want to decorate two new hats I am planning for my 2015 spring/fall hat collection. I love the stone color of the first painting and the use of a simple green leaf, then over to the side the black/blue combination. I thing a stone colored hat in felt with a green leaf embroidered on it with a black/blue ribbon simply tied on it will be sublime like her painting.

The next patchwork painting could very well end up being a hat band on a blue hat. I love the hues of the browns juxtaposition ed with the blue and white.




The last painting shows beautiful adobe colored hills with yellow leaves with a hint of green. I like how fluffy the leaves look almost could be flowers. Well I have an adobe colored panama straw I think I will try yellow fluffy flowers to mimic the same effect here.
Just some of my new inspirations cooking in my head for next year.

Hatmaking many methods

I have been making hats for about 12 years now and many people want to learn the art of hat making. That encompasses many different techniques and different equipment and materials. Here is my best attempt to explain all of this. I consider myself a milliner. Webster's definition is : a person who designs, makes, or sells women's hats. That is a very broad definition but correct. The method I like to use is to shape pre woven straw hat blanks with wooden hat blocks that have two parts. The crown and the brim. I will usually dye the straw and add a gelatin stiffener before I block my hats. I can also use pre felted hat blanks that are made up of wool or rabbit fur.


The way I get the the hat blanks to take the shape of the wood is to wet them and for the wool ones I use steam. Once the hats have dried I then can finish them so they maintain the shape. This usually means adding a wire to the edge of the hat and or a binding over the wire or to just leave the edge unfinished. Sometimes the crown and brim have to be sewn together if they were made from two pieces. I then finish the head band inside of the hat which will serve to maintain the headsize.
Next onto the fun part which is making up a trim that goes on the outside of the hat.

Another commonly used method of hat making is to use fabric in yardage the preferred choice to this method is Sinemay which is woven out of banana leaf fibers. Again the yardage is dyed and sometimes stiffened. Using a crown and brim block the hat parts are made and assembled. This is a more difficult and time consuming process because you are using 3 layers at once to fit over the hat blocks to give the required thickness so it will hold the shape.

A third method is to use a buckram foundation shape that is covered with fabric utilizing the bias of the fabric to stretch over the shape with out excessive puckering and wrinkles. Many fascinators are made this way as are cocktail hats.

Then there is another whole different technique using sewn braid straw. This product is bought in sufficient quantity in order to sew out a crown and brim. It utilizes a sewing machine and the technique roughly is to start with a little coiled center and to sew round and round which grows out of the center until the crown is sewn then with a slight manipulation the brim is added sewing round and round adding width to the brim as you go. This is a very different technique from the blocking method. Sometimes after the braid is sewn the hat is blocked as well. There are different types of braids as well some are natural milan straw for example and others are synthetic as in the case of horsehair braid. There are many hats made with ribbon this way.

The last type of hat making I will mention is flat pattern sewn hats. These are made out of a huge variety of types of fabrics, leathers, suede, wool. The pattern pieces are cut out and sewn and usually a lining is cut and sewn as well the crown is stiffened by using interfacing or plastic canvas inserts.

So when you express a desire to learn how to make hats think about which method suits your fancy. Each method has its own unique equipment and techniques. Some of the vintage hats that were made in the past were made out of materials that are no longer available. On the flip side there are new materials that are being used such as fossshape.