On a Thanksgiving Pie Skirt

For various reasons I haven't been sewing clothing items for the past year, but when I saw this pie fabric early or mid-summer, being a pie baker I just couldn't resist and knew that even if I had to push myself I was going to make a circle skirt for Thanksgiving. 

In September I decided that if I could at least get the pieces cut out I would then be able to sew them together at a later date, which ended up being Veteran's Day weekend and this past week. 

Sewing a circle skirt together is fairly quick, although when I reached the hem I found I forgot how to use the narrow hem foot on the sewing machine. As usual the hem waffled, but as I always shorten the pattern when I'm tracing it, I never have a perfectly curved hem anyway, so this probably just adds to it doing that. While not typically considered ideal, I actually like the look.

I had wanted a baby ric-rac on this, but for some reason neither fabric store had off white and I ended up finding a nice olive green medium sized ric-rac for purchase by the yard, which I'm rather happy with as it was the color I wanted in the first place. 

Only a few things need to be adjusted on this. I need to go back and fix the 1/8 inch worth of white selvage that is showing in the one side seam (I spent about an hour unpicking the other side seam to remedy this problem and just could not handle unpicking a second seam, thought I'd be okay with it, but it bugs me) and I think I'm going to try using a fabric marker to color the bit of white showing at the zipper opening (I will NOT be redoing the zipper). Last night I also managed to sew the hooks slightly off from where they are supposed to be and as I didn't make my typical adjustment for my larger than me pattern, this skirt needs all the help it can get it terms of it being tighter in the waist, so they'll need to be re-sewn on.

That being said though, it's a very nice skirt for Thanksgiving and while it wasn't going to get it made this year, I already have the Wearing History "Harriet" Drop Shoulder Blouse pattern and some white on white print fabric lined up for a matching blouse.

  Happy Thanksgiving!♥

On Autumnal Decorating: A Photo Post

Last year I shared my wonky pumpkins, but never got around to sharing the other two decorations I made and now I have a few more new decorations to share before we move into the more Christmas-y decor makes (forewarning, you'll be seeing some shortly!)! 

I really like decorating the mantle and with Thanksgiving being my favorite holiday, last year I went all out making an applique and a garland of acorns to add to the pumpkins, leaves, and other little glass and stuffed animals which typically grace the space.

The garland of acorns was made last year on somewhat of a whim and involved cutting out the fabric at random without any definite pattern being used. Because of this I ended up trying two different methods of making them thus resulting in some that are flat and some that are round and puffy and, while the stems are looped on all of them, some I decided to put thread loops on, which allows them to hang at different levels from the baker's twine. When I pulled them out of my autumn box again this year, I was just as equally delighted by them as I was last year!

Moving on to the bigger decorations, last year I also created a pumpkin and leaf applique to hang from the center of the mantle. This past week, I made two smaller mirror image appliques to go along with it. I'm becoming rather fond of making these and am thinking about making a few more for other holidays.

And finally, all the stuffed animal making this year resulted in the desire to make patterns for and sew a few more poly-poplin fruits and veggies. Last month I learned I do a marvelous job making square apples (I felt a bit like Dumbo blowing the wrong shape bubbles when I stuffed it) and this past weekend I sewed an ear of corn (pun very much intended). 

Wishing a very happy Thanksgiving to my US readers!

♥ ♥ ♥

On The Remainder of My Christmas Crafting

Aside from the reindeer and a few Christmas cards, I didn't do all that much in terms of Christmas crafting due to some health issues, but I did want to share what I did get done!

I had pulled out my 1964 copy of Christmas Magic by Margaret Perry at the beginning of the month with the intention of making a few of the projects in it. Many of the projects involve aluminum and copper sheets as the primary material because they are meant to serve as candle holders. However, not actually wanting to make candle holders, I decided to give a few of the projects a go using heavy weight metallic paper instead. While I set out to make a few angels and a couple different animals, I ended up just making a donkey with adjustments made to the saddle piece and was quite pleased to find that the metallic paper worked perfectly. 

As for the next round of crafting...While I was looking for Christmas Magic, I also happened upon a few pages torn out of the October 1990 edition of the magazine Crafts 'n Things, specifically saved for the cute little balsa wood house ornaments and the patterns to make them! 

These were supposed to be really simple with an open back and a piece cut out of the base to slip a tiny twinkle light in to get glowing windows. I (as usual) had some different ideas and ended up using the patterns as a starting point. 

The first one I made as a gingerbread house. This one I shortened all the walls and gave a back piece. For the icing and peppermint I added extra hot glue and painted it. The gumdrops are cut out of glitter paper. 

For the others, I decided to go for a dollhouse look and make them as ornaments! For the bigger house I added a strip in the middle to be a second floor and after much eyeballing of measurements, careful cutting (or rather attempts at it), and having glued myself to tiny furniture and tree pieces multiple times, had a house and cabin ready for some tiny inhabitants to celebrate Christmas in them! 

♥ ♥ ♥

On Inky's Christmas Reading Recommendations

A little late in getting this up as eye strain has kept me mostly off the computer the past few days, but it's not Christmas yet, so there's still a little time yet! 

Way back in 2014, I complied a list of Summer Reading Recommendations and rather than do a book review this month, I thought it would be fun to make a list of Christmas books and stories.

Story Collections, Novellas, & Novels

 A Vintage Christmas, A Classic Christmas, & A Timeless Christmas 

Three books in this set so far! Looking for a collection of Christmas stories that weren't the traditional ones included in every collection and by literary authors in 2018, I serendipitously happened upon the collection A Vintage Christmas and have been delighted that a new collection seems to be eminent each year! 

Each collection includes a section of stories and poems by classic authors including Louisa May Alcott, Harriett Beecher Stowe, L. M. Montgomery, Mark Twain, and Christina Rossetti among others. Longer works are included in the two later books with A Classic Christmas including Dickens' A Christmas Carol and A Timeless Christmas including, a new read for me, L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus. These are perfect for reading through a little at a time or having the intention to do so and getting completely sucked in. As a warning, many of the stories and poems are somewhat maudlin in nature given that most were written in the 1800's or early 1900's, so not always the happiest, but still lovely none-the-less.

I also have to mention how beautifully bound these are! 

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Moving on to something more contemporary, we have one of my all time favorite time travel books. This isn't exactly a warm and cozy Christmas read, since it involves Medieval Europe and the plague, but it takes place at Christmas and seems particularly appropriate this year. You can read my full review here.

Told After Supper by Jerome K. Jerome  

Okay, so this is kind of a stretch to be considered a Christmas story, but it's Jerome poking fun at the British tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, so I'm including it because, in all fairness, it does take place on Christmas Eve ("There is too much 'Christmas Eve' about this book. I can see that myself. It is beginning to get monotonous even to me.")! Anyway, this story recounts the narrator's evening at his uncle's house taking some of the "more traditional" Christmas and ghost story elements to a level of light-hearted silliness in a way that only Jerome can.

This one is available to read for free on Project Gutenberg (here), since it's in public domain and as it's short (my copy with a larger print is only 50 pages), it's nice to read when you only have a short break.  

Children's Books

The Story of Holly & Ivy by Rumer Godden

One of my most favorite holiday stories from the 1950's! I started watching the cartoon of this every Christmas at a young age and was thrilled when I found the book when I was in elementary school. This story can also be found in Godden's book Four Dolls, which comes with the added bonus of one of her other Christmas stories, "The Fairy Doll".  You can read my full review here.

Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies 

Based off the movie (yes, that's the right order of those words), the classic story of a little girl, her mother, and Santa Claus. Read my full review here.

The Coat-Hanger Christmas Tree by Eleanor Estes 

Marianna and Kenny have never had a Christmas tree, their mother won't allow it because they don't need to be like everyone else. They know if they bring one home, though, she'll just have to say yes and the two of them go to work trying to find a way to change her mind. A sweet Christmas story that has an unexpected twist. (Thank you Phyl for the recommendation a few years ago!)

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever! by Barbara Robinson

Originally published as a story in McCall's magazine in the 70's, I read this a few times when I was younger and was very happy upon revisiting it this year to find out it still holds up to my childhood memory of it. When the horrible Herdman children show up at church (the one place everyone normally gets a break from them) and volunteer for the annual Christmas pageant without any knowledge of the Christmas story, things become hilariously disordered.  

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry

What do you do when your Christmas tree is too tall? You cut the top off! And then you give that top to someone else or throw it out the door for someone else to find and then they too can repeat the process! The illustrations in this are delightful and only add to the fun of this story first published in 1963!

This is another book that my love for stems from a tv special, in this case courtesy the Muppets, which, unfortunately, has never been released on vhs or dvd, so I continue to watch my fuzzy taped off tv version each year.

Tiny Stocking-Stuffer Books 

I wasn't quite sure what to refer to these as, but as they are all small and slim enough to fit in a stocking, tiny stocking-stuffers are what I'm referring to them as.

A Century of Christmas Memories: 1900-1999

A lovely glossy page book that chronicles seasonal happenings, fads, and favorite holiday traditions over a century. This one is fun to flip through at random just to see what you learn!    

The Night Before Christmas: A Classic Illustrated Edition
(chronicle books)

This fun tiny edition of the classic poem uses illustrations from antique books from late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Christmas: A Season of Traditions

A 39 page book that touches ever so briefly on the history of some beloved Christmas traditions in the US and accompanied by quotations both fictional and historical!

♥
Merry Christmas Readings! 

♥🎄♥

On Reindeer Sewing!

With the arrival of December comes Christmas crafting! A few weeks ago while I was searching for some vintage paper reindeer cutouts, I accidentally stumbled across the DIY Vintage Reindeer Toy Plush post on the blog My So Called Crafty Life, which included a pattern from the November 1961 Woman's Day magazine. 

Being a huge fan of Woman's Day patterns and all things reindeer, I dropped all my weekend crafting plans to make one...which then predictably resulted in the making of a total of five over a period of two weeks. 

I adjusted the pattern for two different sizes with the intention of both machine and hand stitched versions. 

For the larger machine stitched one, I added a small seam allowance and used some very soft and silky suede like fabric scraps a friend had given me, which were just perfect for a reindeer and for fun used a white on white polk-a-dot fabric for the belly. For the antlers I used felt. 

The antlers were supposed to be stuffed, which, having very dry skin that catches on everything at the moment, I was having a nightmare of a time with. Taking inspiration from my actual 60's reindeer decorations that have wired antlers, I slipped in a pipe cleaner to fill them with the added bonus that they are adjustable! To finish it off I added some silver ric-rac, a few bells, and a cord bow and reindeer number 1, named Silverbells, was done!

Having completed Silverbells, I started thinking that if I made the pattern small enough it could easily be made into an ornament. So I shrunk the pattern down, used the recommended felt (and here I thought I wasn't making any more tiny felt animals this year), and hand-stitched the 3 1/2 Poppet.

Poppet was such a cute size, I decided having the right color redish-orange fabric that I should make a Rudolph too and that really I should make some does as well. This resulted in a tiny Rudolph, Marigold (Poppet's match), and because I wanted one with pink, Cranberry. 

If my hand wasn't so dry from all the sanitizer and alcohol wipes there is a good chance there would have been more. For now, though, I think my little herd is just perfect!

♥ 🎄 ♥

On a Dress for the 4th of July!

This started with the fabric I used for the bodice, which was given to me and as such creates the interesting challenge of trying to figure out what pattern matches the length I have rather than picking the fabric based on the pattern requirements. This fabric piece was fairly small and also had fading down the center to work around making it even more challenging.

Enter the 1946 version of Simplicity 1682, which has the advantage of three separate pieces and is very simplistic in terms of not having any tucks, darts, pockets, or really anything else you might need extra fabric for unless you do an overlay. 

My sole trip out of the house to a store since March was motivated by fabric for this dress and they were out of navy blue broadcloth. Being horribly stressed about being out to begin with, I was not going to try to find the right color elsewhere and after a quick browse through the fabrics, I came across a lighter weight and looser weave homespun fabric. I'm not sure that it's really appropriate for clothes, but it has a nice flow to it and it's soft, so at the moment I'm going to be happy with.

Some details about the construction...The silly inset (or rather of lack of inset) on Style 1 caused me some issues, since I was doing the solid inset from Style 2 and should have switched over to that part of the instructions at step 5. I attached the front piece and had top-stitched it to the bodice before realizing that both it and the facing were meant to be stitched at the same time (fortunately I hadn't attached it to the skirt yet). This meant either ripping out the seams and starting over with both or handstitching it in. I went with the later because I'm at the end of the blue thread I was using.

This was my first time making puff sleeves! I adore puff sleeves, but oddly enough I only have a few patterns that have them.

On the subject of sleeves, I also ended up making my own bias tape for this project to use on the sleeves and neckline, since what I had was a more orange-y shade. This was one of those patterns that the measurements were all over the place (3/4 inch seam allowance except for some seams that were 1/2 inch seam allowance, but only mentioned on the pattern pieces), so I think it actually should have been 1/4 inch, not a 1/2 inch in width. It does create a nice pop of color, though, when it's a little wider!

I'm going to be honest and admit the past couple of weeks have been hard on me and I wasn't really in the right mindset to be sewing this, so getting this done was a struggle. That being said, my V for Victory pin is just as much for getting the dress done, as it is to match the dress.

And to conclude this, a silly picture with the mop cap my friend's mom made me in 5th grade for our Walk Through the American Revolution day and the keys that hang beneath it.

Happy Independence Day to my US readers!

♥ ♥ ♥

On Decorative Eggs for Easter

About a week ago I pulled out my 1973 copy of Easter Eggs for Everyone. This book is a mixed bag of history and cultural practices, methodologies for coloring eggs (the crepe paper idea is intriguing), a lot of suggestions on how to decorate them, and a section devoted to Easter egg games. 

Some of the suggestions given are more interesting, such as the Golden Eggs for the "mature egg crafter" who wants to glue pasta and seeds to their egg shells and then paint them. 

It also takes the very retro approach of making pigs, which are "fun to make and attractive to busy mothers who dislike the mess so often associated with Easter Eggs" by putting pieces of gumdrops into a hard-boiled egg. Along the same lines, are instructions for making miniature vases and candle using emptied eggshells.   

Other fun ideas consist of a Hawaiian Hula Dancer Egg Head and Moon Men and Maidens!

After perusing the pages awhile, I settled on being inspired by this book's ideas for animal eggs and made a lion, a rabbit, and a German inspired egg bird. Rather than use real eggs, I pulled out my childhood plastic egg supply, which having dwindled to a considerable number of mismatch-y colors has made it perfect for crafting, and used hot glue to attach the various paper bits and the rabbit's pom-pom tail. 

I didn't use the instructions in the book, although under normal circumstances I would have actually liked to have tried making the rabbit using powder puffs for the ears and feet as they suggest. At a later date, I might have to have a rabbit making craft day!   

And to end this post, here is a picture of Mrs. Muzzlesworth my aged styrofoam egg bunny that belonged to my grandma.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Easter! 

♥️ 🐇 ♥️