If I Had My Own Blue Box:

Mom, Swimming in Blue

With being under the weather and the weather being heavy, this was not my favorite Ag Fair. Though, I did realize I entered my first Ag Fair entry 30 years ago.
This year, Mom was swimming in blue. She did really well. I think we counted 7 blue ribbons and 1 white.

Butter was one of the categories new for Mom. She joined a dairy coop this summer, which supplied her with an ample amount of local milk. She separated the cream and fats herself. The quest for a butter churn started in May, if I remember correctly. She found a nice reproduction piece. Then she found an original bottom in nearly the identical shape. They look nice sitting next to each other in the living room. I’m not sure when or where she found her butter press. It sure is pretty. (So is the pineapple) She was worried the butter would get stuck. But, out it came.

I won’t even try to get the names of the preserves right. I really should have written them down. I know there is a pickle, corn relish and a jam that won.

Here is her pumpkin pie. She also did an English gingerbread which is very heavily molasses. I happen to love molasses. So, I enjoyed the uber-darkness of the bread.

Mom decided to enter two plants this year. The first is a scented geranium. It smells wonderful. The other is a rosemary.

I missed a photo somewhere of her 4th blue. I have no idea what that was.

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Working on - Events/Activities

on October 6, 2013 at 3:39 pm Comments (5)
Tags: GCV

Peppermint – Full Size, Mini Size

I have waited so patiently to share the photos of this project. Now that the Agricultural Society Fair at the Genesee Country Village is underway and judging has taken place, I can share. Yeah!

This bonnet is called “Peppermint”. The striped pale red and creamy white just begged to be made into a bonnet. (This is one of the silks that was swapped in the FanU Silk Swap). The bonnet is drawn on canes over a buckram base. The flowers are paper in blues and rosey reds.

This is the bonnet that made me a little ribbon nutty for a few days. I just could not decide which ribbon to go with. There were several ribbon colors that would contrast so nicely with the stripes, a royal blue, a blue-lilac, even a warm brown. But, the more I looked at original drawn bonnet, I saw most of them went with a matching or nearly matching ribbon. With this in mind, I opted for a four inch wide ivory satin from The Ribbon Store, which is much more ivory than the cream of the photo.

I did say “full size, mini size”. So, here is the mini-size:

A bonnet Mea and Jo to share.

In this miniature version, made from the left-overs from the full-size version, the silk is drawn on wire over a small buckram frame. The lining and frill are of the same materials. The flowers are tiny blue paper from the larger roses in the full size bonnet. The ribbon ties are the same as the narrower ties above.

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on October 5, 2013 at 11:00 am Comments (1)
Tags: Anna's Millinery

A Must Dress

You know those moments when you see a dress you absolutely must make?

This is one of those moments. This is the dress, the must dress….

I just love how this simple plaid fabric has so many special details.

Look at that neckline. At first, I thought it had two wide ruches applied on the bodice. But, looking closer, that neckline is made from strips of gathered and flat fabric. I think the bodice would have a flat lining with the fashion fabric layered over it. At least, that is how I would do it. The very center of the bodice appears to be pieced together along the plaid. Then there is that cord. I have to ponder that cord.

Moving down to the skirt…. Oh, my! that hem!! (The zoom feature is a must here.) Those corded tucks, for a lack of a better word, in two different sizes are stitched to make the horizontal plaid lines disappear. Amazing! I can see how the stripes may have been hidden as the fabric wraps around the smaller cords. I would just stitch right on the stripe. But, those larger ones? Were the threads pulled out? Or was this section of the fabric different? There are white sections side-by-side. Is there piecing hidden in those tucks? I would be very tempted to do sets of corded tucks emphasizing the white in a couple bands and sets of corded tucks emphasizing the color in other bands.

Looking at the sleeves, the upper sleeve looks like an easy assembly with a larger cord and an inch to inch and a half tuck or fold inserted. The cuffs mimic the neckline with the alternating gathered and flat bands along with the thick cord.

This is a dress that will take a good bit of hand sewing, tiny hand sewing in some cases.

Now, I just have to find the right fabric at the right price at a time I have the cash.

Published in:

Working on - Projects

on October 4, 2013 at 1:10 pm Comments (1)

FanU Crazy Swap – Sign-up Day

Today is the day to sign-up for the FanU Crazy Swap!

To Sign-up, simply comment below with your email and mailing address. (I’ll erase those before approving your comment, so the whole world doesn’t have that info.) You can also email me or send me a message on Facebook.

What is a Swap?

This is a chance for to exchange fabric with a small group of people. Each group will have 8 people exchanging pieces of fabric. All you need is a half yard of fabric and envelops along with your copy of Fanciful Utility.

To Participate:

1: Sign Up Day! On sign-up day, groups will be assigned on a first-in basis; the first eight will be the first swap group, second eight in the second group, etc.

Crazy Sign-Up Day: September 30

2: Mail-Out Day: Place a 9×9″ piece of fabric suited to the mid-19th century in envelopes for each of the 7 other people in your swap group, stamp them (be sure to double check at the post office, but the small 9×9″ pieces should mail in a regular envelope with a normal stamp), and send them off no later than the Mail-Out Day. Crazy Mail-Out Day: October 8th.

3: Get Fanciful! Use your Fanciful Utility templates and techniques to make a project from the book, or copy your own from 19th century sources. We’ll all look forward to seeing your projects! You don’t have to sew right away, but don’t keep us waiting forever to see all the fun things!

(If you need a copy of Fanciful Utility, you can purchase them from the publisher at www.thesewingacademy.com

Fabric Guidelines:

For the cotton and silk categories, your fabric should be mid-nineteenth century appropriate. (If there is a want for an earlier or later group, we can do that.) Prints and motifs should reflect those available in the 1840s, 50s and 60s. Cotton should be 100% cotton. Silk should be 100% silk.
To keep the swap and sewing possibilities interesting, please avoid solids as best we can.
Fabrics that do not work well for sewing cases should not be swapped. These include sheers, gauzes, heavy, thick, easy-to-fray, slippery and stretch fabrics.
For the “crazy swap” category, think crazy quilt in a sewing case. This could include satins, velvets, textured fabrics. Quality synthetic fabrics are invited.

Q&A

Yes, you can participate in 1, 2 or 3 of the swaps.

Yes, if we end up with multiple groups, you can participate in more than one group to swap more fabric. If you participate in 2 groups, you should swap 2 fabrics.

Yes, you can swap large and small scale prints.

Yes, you can swap now and sew later.

Yes, we would love to see what you’ve made with the swapped fabric.

Yes, you can use your own fabric in your swapped project.

Published in:

Favorite Topics - Sewing Cases

on September 30, 2013 at 6:00 am Comments (11)

Photo Chat

I stumbled across a file of CDVs and other photos I forgot about. (I’ve been so focused on my Shawls CDVs for the upcoming book.) Some of these photos need to be shared and chatted about. I’ll start of with this one of a who we assume would be mom and two sons:

Published in:

Resources - Originals

on September 27, 2013 at 5:06 pm Comments (1)

Colors Dancing in My Head

I’m trying really hard not to show this project. But, I just can not seem to make up my mind.
I have no idea how these tiny cropped photos will show…

The top is a lilac silk I have on hand. The second is a blue I will need to order. I will need to order a small piece to work with the purple. I have the small piece to work with the blue.
Alas…. colors dancing in my head.

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I Forgot to Categorize This.

on September 24, 2013 at 9:32 pm Comments (1)

Doll Millinery

For quite some time now, I have wanted to do a line of millinery for dolls. I finally have a set of patterns for hoods and bonnets drafted for a couple different size dolls including collectable china dolls, like my Mae, fashion dolls and 18″ character dolls.
As the weather has already turned cool (or cold) here, I started with some snuggly warm quilted hoods. Both of these are black silk entirely sewn and quilted by hand.

This is Jo in her 1850-1865 silk hood. (She needs clothes made for her and a chair to sit In.) Her hood ties below her chin with a black silk ribbon. The inside is silk with the edges whipped for finish.

Here is Jo with the same style hood done in a dark blueish grey silk quilted in black.

Here is the larger hood in the same style that will nicely fit a doll with a 9″ circ head as most 18″ character dolls have. This hood is also black silk with a period cotton lining. The interior seam are turned under for durability. The future wearer, or her dresser, will need to pick the perfect ribbon and best placement.

I’ll have a section of doll millinery up on Etsy soon.

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on September 21, 2013 at 2:30 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Anna's Millinery, Dolls

Yellow Silk Sewing Case

I have to admit, when I opened the envelope from this month’s Fanciful Utility Silk Swap with the bright yellow silk, I thought “Wow, Bright!”. This bright yellow silk puzzled me. I was worried I would not find a sewing case project for it.

Then I was flipping through the photo files I’ve stacked up in my phone. There they were. Not one, but two sewing cases made with bright yellow silk! I remember saving these from an auction of Shaker items. Here they are cropped together:

Now, which to make? The on the right is fairly straight forward. The one on the left is very similar to one of the cases in Fanciful Utility. But, I’m not too keen on the closing case inside. Okay, I really think they, the auctioneer’s photographer, took a photo of the cases open and a photo of the cases closed, then layered the closed on top of the open. If I make the case on the right, I far prefer something like this:

This is the same case as above with the center piece from another case replacing the center. This structured center has a compartment and a pincushion. You can see the pincushion was well used. Actually, the light blue case shows far, far more wear than the other silk and leather cases in the lot.

Now, the problem… I have black leather rather than brown at the moment. So, I must decide whether to wait for super thin brown leather or use the black I have……

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on September 19, 2013 at 4:38 pm Comments (2)

A Modern Needle-book

Tonight we have a little modern sewing tangent – A coworker has been making little coffins for her Death and Dying health class this week. When I saw those little coffins, they scream “needle-book”.

Here is version 1 of my take on a Halloween Coffin Needle-book:

This fun case is made using the techniques in Fanciful Utility.The exterior is a silk I had stashed away with a bit of padding for the front. Inside, the pair of white wool needle pages are placed like a pillow at the top of the coffin, while a black wool pocket is at the bottom for a small pair of scissors. It closes with a silk ribbon. All the embroidery is cotton. I do have another sewing case version in mind as well. This would be a multi-sided case with a pillow-pincushion inside. I’ll add that to my project list.

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on September 18, 2013 at 8:01 pm Comments (2)

FanU Silk Swap

This month was our second Fanciful Utility Fabric Swap, the Silk Swap.

We had two groups of silk swappers, each swapping with 7 other people in their groups. This means a total of 16 pieces of silk were swapped!

We had an assortment of stripes, plaids, jacquards and solids greeting us in our mailboxes. This swap truly involved fabrics from around the world, as one silk was brought home from China by the swapper and another that is a Tartan plaid. We had two nearly identical silks in slightly different color sets. (I sent one of those.) There is a bright yellow nearly identical to the yellow in three Shaker attributed cases I happen to have saved in my phone.