I Love Vintage Rompers!

Today I am sharing a little treasure. It has taken me years to collect a small number of nice vintage patterns. Four of my favorites are these little rompers, circa 1915. People always think that you can sew cuter things for girls. I think boys have some exceptionally cute styles. Romper legs, whether loose or gathered, are adorable on chubby baby legs. Here are my favorites:

This romper is so sweet. I love the drop-seat backs. I guess they were supposed to make potty training easier, but with all those buttons, I'm not sure it did! I also like the cuff at the bottom of the leg. This style was available in sizes 1,2,3,or 4 years. Mine is a size 2. It is a Butterick pattern with a "Deltor" which was their name for an instruction sheet. It was a shortened version of their fashion magazine, the "Delineator."

 Here's a close-up of this style. This pattern has a few options for neckline, collar, sleeves, and cuffs. It's original price was 25 cents.

 This next pattern is also a size 2, originally 25 cents. Notice that it's "The New McCall Pattern". They didn't change it to McCalls till 1951. This one is interesting because the front and back are cut in one piece and the back gets brought around through the legs and buttoned to the front at the sides. Most of these rompers came with short and long sleeves, so they must have been intended to be worn year round. I can picture them with the heavy stockings people wore then. 

This pattern is special inside, too. 
It was one of the early "printed patterns" which means that the pattern pieces had words printed on them. The earliest patterns were unprinted, pre-cut tissue paper. I'll do a post with examples of this sometime. 
This pattern gave ideas inside.

 

Vintage Redwork Children Done!

Little boy Gardening

 I finished the redwork blocks for my 30s quilt. These all stitched really well. I used just one layer of Pellon Wash 'n Gone in my 6x10 hoop. If you want the link to these wonderful freebies, check my previous post.
The simple quilt I plan to do only needs 5 redwork blocks. I originally stitched my 5 favorites (though it was hard to choose just 5; all 8 are adorable!). When I showed them to my Mom the other day, Katie said, "Mom, why did you make 3 girls and 2 boys?" DUH. I immediately realized that I should have made 3 boys and 2 girls, just like our family!! So, I stitched one more little boy and now I have an extra girl for a pillow or something! I have already cut my strips for the pieced blocks, so if I have some free time this weekend, I may be back with a finished quilt top.
Keep going to see all 6 blocks, below:

This little sewing girl is so cute. Those polka-dots were a jump-stitch trimming challenge!

This little girl reminds me of Ramona!

When I was little, I loved fishing with my Dad, even though I am a girl!

Starting Another New Project!

Oh, my goodness. I need a new project like I need another case of poison ivy. But my sewing friend Lillian is making a baby quilt for her new grandbaby, due in December and she invited friends to sew along. The pattern she chose is the perfect canvas for 5 machine embroidered blocks and I had some that I've been waiting to stitch, so...

I stitched the first block this morning. It stitched flawlessly! Whoever digitized this did a fabulous job. It is nicer than many sets I've purchased and it was FREE. That's a word self-control cannot resist! You can get this ME design and 7 others of vintage boys and girls on Sew Forum.
I also bought the basic Embird software recently and re-sized these designs to fit my 6x10 hoop. I'm pretty proud that I figured it out. Once I know how to use the basic Embird, I'd like to try the digitizing module.
Here are the repro 30s prints that I'll use for this little quilt.

I chose these at a great quilt shop while I was at the beach. I went with blue and red with a bit of yellow, since those are good colors for boys and girls. I will do all the ME in red. I can't wait to finish the ME and start putting this sweet little quilt together.