Greetings and salutations! 

It has been much too long since I've written anything on this blog. To be fair, things have been kinda stir-crazy over here. April and May were near-complete disasters and June has been spent picking up the pieces. But I'll leave that commiserating for my wrap-up post later this week. 

Today, I wish to be spontaneous and write down some really ambitious sewing projects that I would love to tackle within the next five years or so. Will I get any of them done? Who knows. If anything, I love to dream.

So what's on my list? 

1. Aida Opera Dress

I've already touched on this at the beginning of the year when I made my goals sheet for 2021. However, I have not even looked at it since the winter, so I don't know if it's going to fly this year or not. Maybe I'll actually get the patterns this year so it won't be a total bust. 

But anyway, for those who don't know about this hair-brained scheme, you can check out this post HERE. Though if I do ever actually update this project, it will be on The History Cat, since it's historical. And really, that poor little blog needs something of it's own. What I have done though, is made up a secret Pinterest board for collecting fashion plates and I must say...I'm drawn to this one right here... 

2. Jennie Wade inspired 1860's Dress

Some of you probably remember that Gettysburg has a special place in my heart (I mean, after how many field trips, it's hard not to). But many of you probably don't know about Jennie Wade, who was the only direct civilian causality of the battle. She is such a little-known but fascinating (and tragical) figure in Pennsylvania history. Really, someone needs to make a movie on her. 

Anyway, I digress. I've been interested in Civil War history for quite a bit, and the fashions are really nice. So I'd like to try my hand at it. But instead of going for the fancy ballgowns of the plantations, I'd like to go for a simple day dress that I can maybe wear to reenactments and stuff. Because of that, this project does have a better shot of actually being made because patterns and fabric can be sourced a lot easier. 

3. Scottish Highland Costume

This is one that has been on my list since an early teenager. I think I have mentioned before that I have a fair amount of Scottish ancestry. And so, I'd love to make myself a Scottish costume, preferably out of my family tartan. 

Originally, I had wanted to make a kilt, but years later, I discovered the traditional women's Highland dress, which is a long tartan skirt, tartan shawl with a white blouse and black vest. And it's preetttyyy. Though now I have to decide whether I shall go with the historically accurate Ancient Mackinnon or the modern Mackinnon tartans. I personally like the look of the modern better, but we shall see. 

4. Polish Costume

If I have one, I might as well have the other! Over time, I've learned to appreciate my daddy's Polish roots and I love their folk costumes. Such lovely embroidery, ack! And the floral crowns too. My issue is that I have multiple branches of Polish ancestry, so I'm not sure if I want to base my costume off of Krakow or the rural village where my grandfather's grandfather came from. 

5. My own Corset

This is probably the nuttiest one of them all...and I'll probably do this in conjunction with one of the other historical costumes that I have slated. But I wanna try. I mean, I've seen other historical costumers do it. So it can't be that hard...

6. My own Eowyn costume

Is this a surprise? Probably not. You all know my love for Eowyn. I'm not sure if I want to copy a costume from the movies, or maybe make a whole new one inspired by her. She has pretty simplistic costumes. It's going to be the shield that's going to get me, I think. 

7. A Sidesaddle Habit

Horseback riding is one of those hobbies that I don't get to participate in very often. But I love riding habits, especially those of the eighteenth century (ahem, Felicity's is gorgeous, not gonna lie). So definitely want to make one of those (and use it too, if I get a chance!). 

And that is seven! In addition to these, I have some honorable mentions, which include a Regency gown, a Tudor gown with French Hood, and some Edwardian outfits. The only reason I made it seven and not ten is that, well, with the rest there are some *modesty issues* I gotta work through. Stupid low necklines...

So, does anybody think I can pull these off? Which ones would you be interested in seeing? Any you think are absolutely crazy? Tell me in the comments below! 

Old-fashionably yours, 

Catherine

A wonderful day to you all!!

In today's workbasket post, I'm going to bring a dusty mothball filled post that dates back to....a long time ago.

Back when I was playing around with blogging, I wanted to make a lot of tutorial like posts. Especially for things that I wanted to learn how to do but could never find instructions for. No one could really give a tutorial on how to make a medieval dress in a cheap manner, and so I was left to figure it out on my own. I kept a record of how I did it and proceeded to write a post for it. That never saw the light of the internet until now...more for the lack of pictures.

Now, I have realized that there is a lot of things wrong with this post. I warn you now, this post is much more arrogant than you're used to seeing from me (I mean, I know I have a streak of pride a mile long and this post will prove it without a doubt). But I have decided to publish it in it's raw form just for the pleasure of shredding it to pieces.

So without further ado, let's get started!

Hey y'all!

If you missed part 1, it is HERE!

When I last left you, I was in the middle of creating the "Crossing Blocks" which would be in the corners of the Ohio Stars.

I decided to finish all the blocks first before assembling them in their motifs. If anything, it was to get this picture:

All Laid Out! March 31, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

Now came the tedious task of "squaring" everything up. This is when all the uneven edges are cut down to increase the tidiness.
Now, this absolutely requires a rotary cutter and a cutting mat. Scissors are not nearly narrow enough to do the precise cutting that is required and trying to straighten things out by eye is about impossible. Trust me, I've tried.

This also required more ironing. Wheeeee. Long theological discussions on YouTube are such a blessing in these times.

I tackled it one Ohio Star after another, since they were supposed to be on the edges so to speak. The stripe for the middle would then be next.

Ohio Stars were stitched first April 1, 2020 Copyright: Catherine Hawthorn

As I'm constructing these things, I notice that I had to do some more piecing. I mean, it was either that or lose over a half an inch of two other blocks and I couldn't afford that.

Hey y'all!!

Today, I'm going to share with you the story of my Lenten sewing project: a scrappy quilt!

So this project started out as one of those "experiments" that I'm famous for. What I'll do is I'll find out some craft and then attempt to create it. Usually I won't get much further than the first steps.

This particular quilt got it's start a couple of years ago, when I found a book that taught quilting in our craft stash. I decided to raid my mom's scrap bin for some suitable calicos. I simply just grabbed, big ones and little ones. Yellows, reds, purples, blues, greens, and pinks, mostly. I did stick mostly with flowers, but there was one stripey print in there.

I cut out several nine-patch blocks, and even put a couple together. I had a design, made up mostly of nine-patch blocks broken up by triangles. But then I, mysteriously, stopped working on it.

Fast forward to late 2019, when I found the bag of scraps once more when renovating my room. Rather than hiding it again, it got put in a rather prominent place, where I could remember to pick it up again - in my big sewing cabinet.

And it worked, because then I decided to pick it up as a Lenten project this year!

The first was the re-design process. I found a piece of fabric among my own stash, a purple fleece that had a strange texture to it. It was the perfect size for a throw, and I'm sure that it was cut to that purpose (though not by me).

In the blocks that I had assembled earlier, I had a favorite combination - an apple pattern paired with a blue and white flower calico. And so, I decided to feature these. Research into quilt patterns soon brought forth a favorite - the Ohio Star.

With those in mind, I took some measurements and re-created my PatternJam account (which is a quilt design website) to create this design:

Initial Design - with all the horrid colors - Feb 2020

Progress - Feb 29, 2020

Now, take a look at how close those bottom those two nine-patches for the Ohio Stars are. I should have taken better note of that.

Anyway, it remained like this for well over two weeks. At that point, I went on vacation and came back to quarantine, so I had a few things to settle before I picked it up again.

By that point, I was starting to realize my mistake in going ahead with the nine patches. It was then also that I started looking hard on design, as I was prepping to make the "Hourglass" blocks that would make up the Ohio Star design.

I took as inspiration the colors of the apple print and make plans for the Hourglasses to be made up of red and yellow fabric. Alas, I was short on the red and so only had enough to make three sets of red and yellow. I had to find another combination and fast.

I decided to go with green as one of the colors, since there was a nice mint green in the original print but what to match it with? Blue didn't seem to be a good option, and to be frank, there wasn't that much blue to offer.

So I decided to go with purple. From here on out, a lot of decisions had to be made on what kind of fabric I had available to me. It turned out, like in the red, that I was short on purple too - more so, actually. And so after much mental agonizing, I had to piece-meal some triangles together to scrape enough out to make the Hourglasses.

March 27

After the Hourglasses were made and set out, I realized with horror that I had miscalculated the number of rows that I would have needed. All of a sudden, about a dozen of those nine-patches became unnecessary. More on that later.

The last thing then that had to be figured out was what to put in the corners of the Ohio Star. I knew that I didn't have enough fabric to have solid blocks like in the original design. And so, it was back to the drawing board.

I found a "crossing" pattern paired with Ohio Stars that I found that I liked, and it would be simple enough to make a nine-patch design of that.

Taking inspiration from the original blocks again, I decided to go with opposite colors to bring out the hidden colors better. For example, on the Stars with the green and purple Hourglasses, I created red and yellow Crossing blocks. Which, ironically, was the other set of blocks that needed a piecemeal occasionally.

The trickier turned out to be the ones for the red and yellow Ohio Stars. Ideally, I would have had blue or purple for all three, but supplies ran short. I tried looking for more scraps but was rather unsuccessful (except in finding more yellow....). 

So I went then with a blue for one, a pink and blue for another, and to really mix things up, a green and purple one for the third.

It was at this time too that I finalized the middle stripe. This had caused me a lot of anxiety as I original had an X0X0X0X0X pattern going, and the colors were not blending well. I spent a couple of hours one night just playing with designs.

Finally, on the morning of the 29th, I made my final decision. A couple of the discarded blocks were taken apart, and their pieces used for the "Crossing" blocks - which is why I wanted the design to be finished anyway. Three of the discarded blocks were saved with some of the pieces that I didn't use and will be used for another quilt....eventually.

March 30

I decided then that I would update my design on my Pattern Jam to reflect the changes that had taken place. I must say, even with the rather unorthodox colorations, it doesn't look half bad....

Hey y'all!

I had NOT intended to make a post about this particular jumper and as such, I didn't take any pictures of the sewing process. After all, it was supposed to be one of those quickie projects that was going to be a blip mentioned in passing.

Then THINGS started happening, and it was too good NOT to share.

So, here we go.

I started this jumper a few years ago - I want to say I was still in college at the time. At the time, I really liked jumpers and my last one had been recently relegated to the "daughter clothes bin". I also wanted lighter fabrics since most of my clothes are, in fact, dark. And winter skirts were needed.

Hence the buying of two pink flannels - one with a diamond pattern and one with pink and yellow skyrockets on them. I made one jumper with the pink diamonds (still have it, still wear it) and started the second one. Everything was cut, the bodice and skirt were constructed and sewn together. It even had a hem. All it needed was a zipper, the facings and the straps and it would be done.

But for some reason, the project was...abandoned.

*cue the sad music*

I remember having to buy another zipper for it, I think because the first one was so short. But I still didn't pick it up again.

Until January 2020, when I took it out of my sewing cabinet one fine Wednesday that I was off from work.

The problems began immediately when I realized that I was missing half of the instructions for the "View B" I was attempting. I then remembered that I had been following the instructions for View A because of this, but the instructions had pretty much run out at that point.

No trouble, I said to myself. I know how to do the rest of the steps, it shouldn't be that hard. I have, after all, been sewing for over a decade, I should know what I'm doing.

Lies. All lies.

I made a trial fit before I put in the zipper and found that something was really wrong. It was miles too big in the waist.

It was then that I realized that while I was sure I had cut out the correct pattern pieces, I had forgotten to put the darts into the bodice....which would have shortened the waist by over 4 inches.
So, the bodice had to be ripped off the skirt and the darts put in.

That's when I discovered that the bodice wasn't cut right. It was cut straight when it was supposed to be pointed on the darts.
(oh trust me, it only gets better from here)
I had to change the design of the darts slightly in order so that they didn't curve on me. Wish now I had gotten a picture, but it wouldn't have looked flattering at all.

So then, the bodice was darted and the skirt re-gathered and put back on. I then binded the seam with some flannel scraps so that I wouldn't have any fraying issues.

So then, it was time for the zipper, which was an invisible one. I personally prefer them to the regular zippers because they look much nicer.

That's when I discovered, to my chagrin, that my Phaff machine didn't HAVE an invisible zipper foot. Stupid machine was from the 80s and I suppose they didn't have invisible zippers then.

So I had to go use my mother's sewing machine. Except that it was almost inaccessible because the table it was on had Blue Couch up against it. (I'll tell you more about that Blue Couch at another time).

I said "almost" inaccessible. You could use it if you knelt on the couch...you just couldn't reach the foot petal.

So, what does an enterprising girl do?

Fish out the petal, plug in the machine and squeeze the foot petal with her right hand and guide the fabric with the left. Rather efficient system.

Of course my mother doesn't notice my rather unorthodox method until I'm well over halfway putting the zipper in. She asked me why I just didn't move the couch.

Now you tell me, why would I take the risk of moving the couch the wrong way and knock it off it's wooden blocks just to get to the machine for five minutes and then have to move it back? Too much work, if you ask me.

Anyway, after a moment of panic when I thought I had put the zipper in backwards (the opening wasn't big enough for the zipper to flip out, it was fine), it was time for another fitting.

I'll now refer you to the following Hangouts conversation I had with Lia....



 Another couple of hours, and here is the finished product:



I really like how long it is - it makes me feel really feminine. I'll definitely be wearing it around the house this winter :)

Now it's your turn to chat! What sort of abandoned projects do you have lying around? Do you sew, and if so what is the latest project you've done? Tell me in the comments below!

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

I promised that I would do this post back last month or so, but seeing as this summer turned into a hamster ball full of craziness....I'm now just getting around to it.

Now I have idea of what you were thinking when I announced that I had made a classic winter accessory in the middle of summer...that I was really spontaneous. Or crazy.

It all started as I cleaning out my fabric stash from various places in my room as part of Operation Vintage Makeover. A very necessary step in the cleaning process, I assure you, seeing as how there was a very nice wooden sewing cabinet ready to receive it.

As I was going through some of the boxes, I found this piece of faux white fur.

No, it is not folded sloppily, that is a piece cut out of it. Which made things so much more complicated.

And yes, I'm assembling this by my cramped computer desk. Because my room is an absolute shambles....

the curled bottom edge really helped to tuck everything in

It was a seeming miracle that the fur lines actually lined up....

Now to get these folds in where they belong!

The muff is a little uneven here - not sure if it's how my hands were sitting or what

Side View - which looks more attractive, in my not-so-humble opinion

All in all, it worked out so much better than I expected and I now have a fancy accessory that I can keep my hands warm in this winter!!

Come to the fire and chat with me! What is your favorite winter accessory? Do you listen to things as you go about your day? What has been your favorite YouTube tutorial or channel? 

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine

Chat with me! Have you ever done any embroidery or crewel? What has been your most recent project and how close are you to finishing? 

Old-fashionably yours,

Catherine <3

Hey y'all!!

Forgive me for my long absence! If anyone has that pause button on LIFE ready, will someone let me know??? I could sure use it!

Anyways....

So, back in November (or was it February? I don't remember...), I picked up some blouses from a thrift store while I was on vacation down South.

One of which was this little beauty....

The original blouse. I apologize for the horrid wrinkliness.

It is a nice simple fitted blouse, in a really pretty shade of lavender purple. I LOVE the color lavender and always wanted a nice lavender blouse to go with some pretty spring colored skirts I have. 

There was some nice top-stitching on the front placard and on the collar

That, my dears, is a finished notch. *sigh*