May, 1936 Dress Styles

I have a bunch of things to show you, but I haven't had a minute of free time lately. For now, I'll show you some beautiful illustrations from May, 1936.

CSI: Sewing

Enhanced by my CSI like photo-editing capabilities!

 During Hurricane Irene last weekend, we lost power for a day and a half. To satisfy my sewing craving, I traced a pattern for a vintage romper that I want to make Andy for the fall. While tracing the lower back, I noticed a strange tan mark that looked like....yes....a baby's hand print!

Here's a picture of Andy's little hand next to the print on the pattern; they are about the same size! I imagine that a Mother in 1919 was making this pattern for her little boy and he put his hand on the piece. After nearly 100 years, the oils from his hand darkened into this amazing print. I love this pattern even more knowing that it has this little bit of history on it. Here's the pattern I'm making:

I found a soft-as-flannel houndstooth brown and tan cotton and I have brown velveteen for the trim. I will make the long sleeve version and try to find some wooly knee socks to go with it. 


I hope you enjoyed this episode of CSI: Sewing!

September Means Back to School

In our part of the country, school starts just before labor day. I know that's later than much of the heirloom sewing world. This year, Pete is in 10th grade at the High School, Katie is in 8th at the Middle School, Rosie is in 6th at the Upper Elementary, Davy is in 1st at the Lower Elementary, and Andy is home with Mommy. You can imagine that I spend much of my day driving to and fro for carpool. We are very blessed to have wonderful schools with amazing teachers! Rosie and Davy have "re-run" teachers that we love! I was surprised when Davy said he would like me to ME a t-shirt for his first day of school. Do you remember the photo school bus shirt I made for his first day of kindergarten?
This year I chose a "1st Grade Rocks" design from Embroidery Boutique. It stitched beautifully, though it took a little while because I made the 6x10 size with 23,000 stitches.

Davy's teacher sent me an email that he had a great day and she loved his shirt!

I'm hoping to spend at least some of this long weekend sewing and I have something really interesting to show you in my next post!