On A Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I did not exactly get off to a roaring start this year when it comes to posting. I haven't had much I wanted to post lately and didn't really feel like being online last month, but I'm hoping to remedy that within the coming weeks as I would like to finally get a long overdue outfit post up and I have a new tiny sewing project that is almost ready to share. 

Today, however, I just wanted to pop on here to wish everyone a happy Valentine's Day and share my latest garland. In December, I got it in my head to sew a bunch of small hearts using poly-poplin and stringing them up on baker's twine seemed to be the best way to display them. As I mentioned before, despite it being a pain to work with, I like the wonkiness that results from a fabric that doesn't really hold a crease. 

And to conclude, one of my favorite vintage valentines from my personal collection (for some others see this 2017 post). I love that it has a wheel you can turn to change what appears in the theater, though today I'm only treating you to the one view! 

A very happy Valentine's Day to you!

♥ ♥ ♥

On Some Valentine Flamingos

I am of the firm opinion that flamingos should make their way into one's Valentine's day related accessories if at all possible and if there's glitter involved all the better! 

♥️ ♥️ ♥️

On Heart Shaped Scraps: A Photo Post

Small and quick Valentine's Day themed project in progress.

 ♥️ ♥️ ♥️

On Some Vintage Valentines

Happy Valentine's day, everyone! 

Today I am happily sharing a very small handful of valentines that I bought at the antique store in September. The particular bunch I bought (all 80 or so of them) mostly belonged to someone named Carla who must have kept them some place safe as most look like they just came out of the box.

It would be quite hard to forget this girl considering the bird on her head!

This one was to someone named Joey from Geraldine. He apparently felt the need to add to it.

❤ ❤ ❤

On My Valentine's Day Oufit

Happy Valentine's Day! Just a quick post to share my outfit for the day. 

Despite the fact that I wasn't going anywhere and have spent the majority of my day fiddling with a hem that just won't cooperate, I decided to dress up this morning. I also decided, after what I realized has been probably about six years, I wanted to style my hair with faux bangs.  

As you can see, I pulled out my Valentine skirt from two years ago (seen previously here and here, if you missed it the first two times). 

Feeling a bit Edith Head here.

I paired it with a shirt I've had for about eleven years and have never worn since it's always been too short for most of my pants and it's so snugly fitted that layering wasn't an option. When I started sewing 50's skirts I figured I'd finally be able to wear it with something and clearly it was meant to go with this skirt! For the photos, I also donned the vintage hat I found in December. I'm absolutely smitten with it!

The strong breeze is not going to blow my hat away!

Hope everyone is having a delightful end to their Valentine's Day!♥

On What I Wore For Valentine’s Day

It’s a week late, but I still wanted to do a post on the skirt I made for Valentine’s Day. 

Much like my Christmas skirt, it was a last minute decision (a week before to be exact) to make a skirt I could wear for Valentine’s Day. I choose a Simplicity circle skirt pattern and then for a change I thought I’d try for a new type of fabric, which was much weightier than I was used to. Well, as beautiful as the fabric was and as quick as I was in getting the skirt constructed, it turned out to be too heavy for my petticoat and had too much of a drape to put the appliqués on and not have them get lost in the folds.

I was so determined to have a skirt in time for the holiday, I went and bought more fabric, black broadcloth this time, pulled out my go-to pattern Simplicity 3773 (used here, here, and here,—I’m sure everyone is getting tired of it by now), and started on skirt number two. This was Monday the 10th.

I finished the skirt quickly, went to try it on only to find it was a fraction of an inch too small, and I thought I could fix it easily. It was NOT easy to fix! Because I used a triple zig-zag stitch on the edge to prevent fraying, my attempt to sew a little further into the seam allowance meant the zig-zag stitching showed on the right side and, of course, I chose to use the other stitch that works pretty much the same way the stitch on a serger does, so ripping it out became a huge ordeal. By the time I got it unstitched (Thursday morning), I decided I would just completely replace the panel. I spent the entire day sewing and by the time I went to bed the skirt was ready to be worn for Valentine’s Day!

Paired with my red blouse I made in December, a sweater that has a retro look, my Valentine pin, and a red ribbon in my hair, I felt I had the perfect outfit for the day!

I really love how the appliqué hearts turned out and how the metallic thread looks. (sorry for the poor quality of these photos)


The only thing I didn’t get to finish in time was embroidering more arrows along the hem (I learned that metallic embroidery thread is not particularly fun to work with), but I had enough done for the day and will definitely be adding more later. And, despite making it specifically for Valentine’s, this is one skirt I’ll be wearing year round! ♥

On a Heart Pin to Make for Valentine’s Day

I’ve been thinking about heart pins for awhile and look as I might I never seem to find one, vintage or otherwise, I absolutely love enough to buy. As a result, in a moment of frustration, lack of fabric for another project, and a great desire to make something, I decided I was going to remedy my lack of a heart pin by making my own and wanted to share it with you!

Supplies

♥ Felt
♥ A pipe cleaner
♥ Darning needle/something that will poke a small hole
♥ Thread in a matching color
♥ A pin backing or safety pin

*The finished pin is about 2 ¼ inches long

Instructions

1. Cut out two hearts from the felt about 1 inch by 1 inch in size.

2. Now to make the hearts thicker. Take the two hearts you just cut out and sew them to the larger piece of felt making an attempt to stay as close to the edge of the cut out hearts as possible. Cut them out again.

3. Overlap the hearts slightly and sew them together by hand or machine.

4. Cut off a 3 ½ inch piece of the pipe cleaner.

 

5. Remove all but ½ inch of the fuzz by pulling it off. (You could also trim it as short as possible if you don’t mind your arrow being a bit fuzzy- both methods are equally a tedious.)

 

6. Decide on the two points you want the arrow to go through. Use the darning needle to poke through just enough (not too much or else you’ll have a large hole!) to create a hole for the pipe cleaner to go through. This may take a few tries since the end of the pipe cleaner gets stuck on the felt. 

The back...and, yes, I took this picture after step 7. 

7. Fold the non-fuzzy end so it looks like this and squeeze it into shape. You especially want to be careful the end is folded in because you don't want it to catch on whatever you pin it to.

 

8. Sew your pin backing or safety pin to the back. Be careful not to sew through to the front!

Try to sew it more towards the center or else the pin will show.

9. Pin it to your sweater, cardigan, bag, or hat!

While I’m not giving up my search for the perfect heart pin or brooch, I must say I’m enamored with this one and am happy to have made it just in time for Valentine’s Day! ♥♥♥   

On Wishing Everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all my lovely readers! ♥

 

On Decorating with Paper Hearts

While, unlike other holidays, Valentine’s Day does not bring about the same degree of decorating, it certainly is not one to be skipped over either. And while there are any number of things that can be made to decorate the home or workplace for this holiday, foremost among them are paper hearts.

Now when it comes to making paper hearts one can go about it in several ways. First there’s the method of just taking the paper and going at it with the scissors. In many cases this method will result in some rather uniquely shaped hearts. One will also probably succumb to the urge of wanting to even out these hearts, which, in turn, will often bring about a growing pile of oddly little shaped triangular figures.

Then there is the method of folding the paper in half, drawing half a heart, and cutting it out. While this is an easy way to get a symmetrical heart, there is always the matter of making sure that the half heart drawn on the paper is not going to result in a somewhat squat and oblong heart that looks like it could be a paper butterfly wing. When making them this way there is also the additional downside that the otherwise perfect heart will have a crease down the center. However, the crease could also prove to be beneficial if one where planning to make something three-dimensional like a mobile.

And finally (at least in the case of this post), there are always the options of using a stencil or drawing templates for oneself. Not only does this provide beautiful hearts instead of weird vaguely heart shaped cut outs, but multitude of similarly sized and shaped ones. It also allows for the convenience, provided the paper is thin enough, of tracing them onto just one sheet of paper, placing several additional pieces under it, and then cutting through several layers at once.




 

(Some authors I love...Lewis Carroll, Mervyn Peake, & Rumer Godden)


No matter the method used, before one knows it one will have a small handful of hearts (or maybe about eighty or so), which can then be decorated, taped, hung with thread or string, or displayed in whatever way one wishes for Valentine's Day! ♥