Happy Seamstress » vintage

Opera Gloves

Joanna — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:45:33 +0000

So I got a “new” fur-trimmed vintage coat a few weeks ago. It has these short-ish sleeves that need to be worn with longer-than-usual gloves (at least, if I want to avoid getting frostbite). So of course, whenever I need a new pair of gloves (or a new pair of anything knittable!) it’s a good excuse to head over to Romni Wools in Toronto for another stash-enrichment expedition. Not that one needs an excuse to go yarn shopping, but I do feel a little less guilty about adding to my already ridiculously large yarn stash when I have a reason to. Anyhow, I had the pleasure of going with my yarn buddy Ilana. Yarn shopping is always fun of course, but so much more fun when you get to go with a friend who enjoys fondling yarn as much as you do. After an enjoyable tour around the sizable store (so great to be living close to such a big yarn store!), and…fondling countless soft and fuzzy skeins, I ended up finding some truly delicious yarn, Diamond Luxury Collection Mulberry Merino a really lovely and super-soft 50/50 blend of silk and merino wool. Well, you know how it is…I picked up a skein of this deep red, shiny and fuzzy yarn…well, it was so soft and lovely it just had to come home with me.

I made this pattern with a lace and bobble panel up the center front, to give it a bit of luxury. The silk and merino blend makes these gloves quite warm, even in spite of the eyelets in the lace. You can get the pattern here, if you want to make a pair for yourself. Happy crafting!

Sexy Librarian Skirt

Joanna — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:04:10 +0000

A skirt to get checked out in

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and after weeks and weeks of being busy with other stuff I thought it was high time to reacquaint myself with my sewing machine. I had the idea kicking around in the back of my mind for a little while to make a skirt that combines crisp tailoring with some movement, so I came up with this design. It’s a fitted pencil skirt in the front, and has a shaped flounce in the back that flows really nicely when you walk.

Business in the front…

The front is a fitted princess-line pencil skirt. If I were to make this pattern again, I would probably peg the front pieces to actually be narrower at the bottom than at the top, rather than having straight sides.

… Party in the Back!

I think the back is really fun. The flounce is really flared, and it sways from side to side when I walk. I added a bit of velvet piping to the shape at the top of the flounce to give it a bit of definition.

I used this technique to finish the hem of the lining with some nice brown lace I had kicking around in my sewing room.

Pretty Lace Hem Tutorial

Joanna — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:15:24 +0000

I used this technique for the hem of the lining of a skirt I made this weekend. It’s really easy to do, it looks really pretty, and it adds no bulk to the hem. It adds a charming vintage look, and I think it would be great on just about any dress or skirt lining hem, or use a nice silk lace for the hem of a gorgeous silk charmeuse slip or nightgown. Most recently I used this technique to finish the hem of the lining of this skirt. The best part of this technique is that the lace edge is so soft, you don’t notice as much if the hem is a bit crooked.

What You’ll Need

Something lightweight that needs hemming (like a skirt lining or slip)
Enough ½ inch–1 inch wide lightweight lace to go all the way around the hem, plus 1 inch
Scissors
Thread to match the colour of your lace

Step 1Pin the Lace to the Hem

You should have at least a ½–1 inch hem allowance, and it’s easiest if your hem allowance exactly matches the width of your lace (that way you can just pin the lace all around with the bottom edge matching the bottom of your hem allowance). Otherwise just pin the lace keeping in mind that the bottom edge of the lace will be the bottom of your hem. When you get back to the beginning, overlap the lace by about 1 inch.

If you’re making this hem for a skirt or dress lining, it’s usually best to make the lining about ½ inch shorter than the dress hem, just to make it look neat and tidy from the outside.

Step 2Sew on the Lace

Using a short and narrow zigzag stitch, sew the lace to the hem along the top edge all the way around.

Step 3Trim the Hem

Fold the lace back along the zigzag stitching, and cut as close as possible along that line without cutting the stitching or lace. When you’re done, stitch over both ends of the overlap with the same narrow zigzag stitch.

Fascinator Tutorial

Joanna — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 22:52:15 +0000

Make Your Very Own Feathery Hair Pin

I’ve always loved fascinators—they’re just so dramatic and whimsical. You’re sure to get attention even in the most crowded room when you wear one. I love them so much that I’m going to be offering fascinator kits for sale on Happy Seamstress very soon, so that you can make your very own! If you want to be notified as soon as they’re available, just sign up for our newsletter in the sidebar. You’ll also get a coupon to use towards your first purchase.

In the meantime, I’m so excited about fascinators that I can’t wait for the kits to come out to share the joy with you. So I put together this tutorial for a simple fascinator you can easily make in an afternoon with just a few materials.

What You’ll Need

A hair clip (either a barette or bobby pin)
A handful of soft feathers. Feathers with a hard stem won’t do for this project.
A small piece of felt in a matching colour
A glue gun and a glue gun stick
Scissors

Step 1Cut out a Felt Base

Plug in your glue gun so that it can start warming up. Cut out a small circle out of your felt, no larger than ½ inch in diameter. You’ll be attaching all of your feathers to this base. The size of your base will determine the size of your fascinator—you’re not done until all of the felt is covered!

Step 2Strip a Feather

You don’t have to strip your feathers if you don’t want to, but I love the way they look. To strip your feathers, first pick the point to start at so that you’ll have a nice shape at the end of the stem. Starting at this point, grab the feather on one side with your fingers and pull down. The fuzzy feather bits should easily come away from the stem. Do the same on the other side. If the fuzzy bits don’t come off in one piece, just keep pulling the bits off until you have a clean stem. Mix it up if you feel like it—a combination of stripped and regular could make for a really interesting fascinator.

Step 3Apply Glue

Apply a very small bead of glue to the tip of the feather. The smaller a bead of glue you apply, the tidier your fascinator will look (nobody wants a fascinator with a bunch of stringy glue gun hairs hanging off of it!). I find the easiest way to get a nice small bead is to just push the end of the stem a short way into the tip of the glue gun, without pushing the trigger.

Step 4Attach the Feather

Attach the feather to your felt base. Consider what angle you want your feather to sit at—you probably want to have feathers in the middle standing straight up, while feathers that are closer to the edge should probably be more horizontal. If you follow that as a rule of thumb, you should end up with a fascinator similar to the one in the photo at the top of the page, with a nice rounded overall shape. Of course there are no Fascinator Police, so do what pleases you!

Step 5Attach more Feathers

Repeat steps 2–4 until you cover your entire felt base. Don’t forget about the edges! The photo at the left shows what my fascinator looked like when I was about halfway done. By this point as you can see, I also attached the hair pin to the bottom of the felt base because I found it easier to handle.

Step 6Attach the Hair Pin

I attached my hair pin when I was about halfway done putting the feathers on, because I found it much easier to handle the fascinator. You should be able to attach most hair pins just by putting a blob of glue on the end of it and placing the felt base on top. Gently squeeze it down a bit, if need be.

Step 7Hide Your Shame!

In spite of your best efforts, you’ll probably have some ugly glue bits visible between the feathers. I found that a good way to hide these is by gluing the tips of some feathers in between the stems of the stripped feathers. To do so, just take a feather and cut the tip off at 1 to 2 inches from the end and glue it down wherever you need to cover something up. I liked the look of it so much that I ended up adding feather tips all over my fascinator—apart from hiding glue, I think it really helped to fill the fascinator out.

Step 8Send In a Photo

If you make a fascinator inspired by this tutorial, I’d love to see it! Send in a photo of your creation to info@happyseamstress.com and we’ll post it up in our photo gallery.