Best Mom's Closet Find Ever

When I was in high school my mother decided she needed to clean out her closet, and she asked if I wanted to see if there was anything of hers I wanted. Based on what I saw my mom wearing day to day, I wasn't sure I'd find anything worthy of my delicate teenaged sensibilities, but agreed to help.

Little did I know that my mom had kept nearly everything from before she and my dad had even met.  Back then it was cheaper to make clothes than buy them, and she had made nearly her entire wardrobe herself. Being a bit of a sentimentalist, she had kept most of it long after it no longer fit. So I got to take my pick of wonderfully handmade, deliciously retro 1960's and 70's vintage clothing.  I was ecstatic. Until I realized almost none of it fit.

See, I take after my grandmother shape wise, and am long legged, small chested and wide hipped.  My mom is almost the complete opposite. 

There was one pair of bright cherry red bell bottoms that I could just barely squeeze my hips into. I let out the hem as much as I could, and wore them for a few years. Then my hips filled out some more and that was that. I still have them in my closet, though I have no idea why. Like mother like daughter I guess.

The only other thing I kept from that closet cleanout was a halter top made from the absolute best fabric I have ever seen. I have kept it and hoarded it, building up my knowledge of fabric and sewing until the day I felt confident enough to try to alter it.

It's been almost 20 years since that closet cleaning. When I recently told my mom that I had dug out the halter top and was finally ready to try altering it,  she dug around in her craft room a bit and found the remnants of the original fabric.  I have never been so grateful for her hoarding tendencies. Armed with my own sewing experiences by now, and a backup stash of fabric, I got to work.

So here it is, pinned and ready for the final sewing.  I don't have a before picture, mostly because I forgot to take one.  Just imagine it sized for a much bustier figure and hanging loose on my flat chested dress form :)

Knitting Tricks: Knitting two Pieces Together

I am an avid and primarily self taught knitter. I learned most of the techniques I know by trial and error as I worked a pattern that was probably too advanced for me at the time. Collecting these tricks and techniques into one place is hopefully as helpful to others as it is to me.

Knitting two pieces together is very similar to the three needle bind off method, except you don't bind off.  It is a way of joining two knit pieces together, and then continuing to knit one piece from there.  

I first encountered it as a way to add layered ruffles to gauntlets, and I use it frequently in my own designs to make seamless hems and other features.  It is incredibly useful for joining parts of garments without binding off or seaming. It does only work if the two pieces have the same number of stitches, however.

Insert the right hand needle into one stitch from each left hand needle, as if to knit.  Just like you would if you were working two stitches from the same needle, knit the two stitches together and pull them off the left hand needles.

Continue working stitches this way; knitting one from each left hand needle together.  Once the row is finished, your two pieces of knitting will be joined, and you will have live stitches on your right hand needle ready to continue. 

Always Read the Fine Print

I shop at thrift stores a lot.  Really, a lot.  Clothes, books, decor items, cookware, raw materials for my shop; most of the goods I buy come from second hand shops.  This is partly because I am cheap and refuse to pay full price for new when perfectly serviceable things are available used.  Mostly, however, I shop at thrift stores because they can offer some hidden gems found nowhere else.

Sometimes these gems are beautiful and unique vintage clothing, or really high quality kitchenware for a bargain, and sometimes the value of a find is because it is a wonderful piece of written hilarity:

I found this tucked inside a box full of old recipes, half of which included jello or marshmallows. I didn't even bother looking any further through the recipes and just bought the box, giggle-snorting to myself at the phrase 'long time napkin losers'

Apologies for the bad pictures but lighting in thrift stores is not always the best. These too had me giggling helplessly in the store: "...give your entire thought to preparing him for domestication..." and "When she appears to wilt, take her out to dinner..." are my particular favorites.

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Teach Yourself to Knit the Easy Columbia Minerva Way (1968)

Another of my many needlework hobbies is the collection of vintage craft books. Found in dusty corners of second hand shops, in pride of place in used book stores, these old tomes often contain beautiful nuggets of crafting wisdom, and a heaping helping of vintage charm. Reviving the techniques, tips and retro projects is just one more way for us to bring back the wonders of the handmade.

Teach Yourself to Knit the Easy Columbia Minerva Way - 1968

Another of my bargain finds, these old yarn manufacturer's pattern books are often filled with hidden goodies.  As a beginner's book, most of the patterns in this one are pretty basic and easy to make. That said, I do really like the little bits of color and ribbing on the cover projects.

As would be expected of such and instructional book, the first few pages are wonderful illustrations of various knit stitches and and cast on methods. All of it very handy and easy to  access for the beginning knitter.  I am not a beginner, and so I almost passed this one up, even at the low price, until I started flipping through it.

Peppered throughout the instructions are these adorably snarky babies that had me giggling aloud in the store. If nothing else I will page through this booklet whenever I need a good laugh in the middle of a tough project.

Also, this halter style man's vest is probably the coolest design in the whole book.

Marvelous

Ok, I'm a little late in getting this up (by several months) but here's the results of this year's comicon costume scramble.

I have a personal rule that whoever I cosplay as, they have to have hair that is similar enough to mine that I don't have to cut or color it. 90's cartoon Rogue fits that bill perfectly. I even have greying forelocks. Unfortunaly I've been coloring those grey hairs purple for the last few years, and purple doesn't bleach as well as I'd hoped...hence the orange streaks where there should be white.

My husband is a good sport and even offered to do a bad Cajun accent while in costume.

My best friend wasn't enough of a good sport to be Captain Marvel in a skin tight leotard, but she was thrilled to be Carol Danvers in a flight suit.

         

Rogue's suit and Gambit's shirt and boots were the only things I needed to really make, the rest are altered thrift finds. Way easier than the Gundam Wing VIPs from last year!

The hardest part was finding good spandex in bright yellow. For some reason I guess there isn't much demand for a nearly see through color for skin tight clothing, huh...

YaYa Han's bodysuit pattern was easy enough to follow and alter to my size/shape, though I do wish there were more finished measurements given on the pattern itself to make the altering process easier.

Working with spandex and stretch pleather was a new experience for me. The pleather especially was a bit finicky, and I had to put tissue or tracing paper on each seam for my machine to sew through it at all without missing stitches.

Still, it was a fun challenge, and I can't argue with how well it turned out!

Vintage Craft Book Feature: Spinnerin Vol. 181 (1967)

Another of my many needlework hobbies is the collection of vintage craft books. Found in dusty corners of second hand shops, in pride of place in used book stores, these old tomes often contain beautiful nuggets of crafting wisdom, and a heaping helping of vintage charm. Reviving the techniques, tips and retro projects is just one more way for us to bring back the wonders of the handmade.

Spinnerin Vol. 181 - 1967

As you can see from the tag, I got this quality knitting magazine at a good bargain. You can also probably guess what styles will be inside just from those first two models and the phrase "poncho parade"

Spinnerin doesn't disappoint with a bevy of retro

styled sweaters and dresses. They also manage to make the whole magazine look like a guide for how a well to do man can score himself a threesome.

I get that the intent was to show two sweater models on each page, but trying to set up the domestic and romantic looking scenes just makes each image kinda creepy.

There are no men's sweaters in this book, so the male model is clearly just for decoration. Far from making me focus on the sweaters, the scenes in the photos just have me writing soap opera-like drama plots in my head as I flip through the magazine.

Also, in quite a few of the pictures the women look oddly bundled up in heavy sweaters for what is clearly an indoor setting with an attendant man in a suit.

Those argyle socks are very distracting too.

That's not to say this magazine is all bad. Quite a few of the sweaters and dresses are neat, or at least have elements and patterns that could be easily reused elsewhere. These sequined sweaters are officially at the top of my knitting goals list. I really want to make the one with the sailor collar.

And as promised, here is the Poncho Parade :)