What? It's STILL February?

How is that fair?

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Being adorable sure is tiring work.

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Sewing Do-Overs

Unfortunately, not everything I sew turns out to be something I actually wear. There are various reasons. Sometimes the fit just isn't flattering, or I used the wrong weight of fabric, or something just seems to look not quite like you expected it to. This week on the Sew Weekly we are refashioning those forgotten items and giving them new life. I ended up doing two. Here's the main one...

Remember this shirt from a couple years ago?

It just didn't work for me (explanation here). So I turned it into this.

I'm still not sure if it works for me. We'll see if I wear it more than once in the next two years.

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Amish Dresses

A while back I was commissioned by a colleague at work to make two each of Amish-style dresses, aprons, and caps for a photo shoot. Though I had little time (one week) and almost no pattern (I adjusted one for the dresses and made up the aprons and caps while looking at a couple very small photos) they turned out nicely. The girls who acted as models loved them. I got to see some of the photos a while back, but as they were copyrighted by the photographer and were going to be used for illustrations for an upcoming series of children's books, my company obviously did not want them floating around on the internet.

However, the illustrated book cover is now online because the Fall 2012 season of book releases has just been announced. And that means I can finally give you a glimpse!

This is the first in a series of four books for girls ages 8 to 12. There are line illustrations throughout (or there will be when the time comes) that will show more angles of the dresses, aprons, and caps, but for now a front view will have to be enough.

It was really fun to be able to use my hobby to support my real job. If you have or know girls who might like to read about life on an Amish farm, the first book comes out in October!

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The Chicago Dress

Friends, through comments here and on Facebook, you chose Chicago over Gosford Park for my Oscar-inspired dress for The Sew Weekly. Mentally, it was a challenging project but it came together fairly easily once I got my mind around how to get it all put together. In fact, I named it the "Dr. Frankenstein's Flapper" dress for my post on The Sew Weekly because at times I felt like a mad scientist piecing together a diabolical creation born from my demented mind.

It is made from three different fabrics, all of which are slippery and difficult to marry harmoniously together: a sheer, a knit, and a lining. The sheer and the knit stretch, but not in the same way, and the lining doesn't stretch even a millimeter. The instructions don't include a lining, but the thin fabrics definitely needed to be lined. The instructions also failed to say just how the collar should be properly attached (plus the pattern piece for the collar was missing) and what sort of closure the belt should have. Let's just say that if I had tried to sew this dress with these fabrics a couple years, I probably would have pursued a different hobby.

All of the deep thought and time that went into putting it together makes me like this dress even more than I might have if it had been a breeze. I love how comfortable this it is. The fabrics are flowy and soft and don't wrinkle. It has a good weight to it and is a great color for me. It also perfectly matches my blue corduroy coat I made last week and is even the exact same length. Talk about a happy coincidence.

I don't feel like I'm wearing a costume, but I do feel unique. Late 1920s and early 1930s clothing has such interesting details. Flutters, geometric skirt yokes, big collars, sleeves of all shapes...

I'm starting to seek out patterns with more of these details. More gathers. More pleats. More ruffles. More prettiness.

I'm starting to think about pairing contrasting fabrics for interesting effects. I've realized that small details show up far better when you use solid color fabrics and they tend to get lost when your fabric is patterned.

Altogether I feel like I'll be taking my sewing skills up a notch this year. I'm making more thoughtful choices in patterns and the restriction I've put on myself to only use stash has made me think a lot harder about which fabric to use for which project.

This was my first dress of the year. I'm making more separates, which my wardrobe needs, and I'm thinking a lot more about matching my already existing clothing so I can get more looks from fewer pieces. But I still have plans for several dresses this year. Some are patterns and fabrics I've had for some time now, just waiting for my vision for them to be fully realized.

And I find that the various Sew Weekly challenges are a good way to get me thinking outside the box about just how to put together a pattern with a fabric and come up with something I will actually wear a lot.

I must say as well that I am happy about the prospect of spring coming along sometime soon. I'm getting a bit weary of winter garb and am looking forward to getting into my more summery dresses.

Anyway, for full length pictures of this dress, click on through to my post on The Sew Weekly. And then take a look at some of the other awesome sewists and their creations. It's truly a fun way to share a passion and exchange ideas.

Coming soon to The Sew Weekly are some refashioning projects (I turn a shirt into a dress and make a sweater more wearable), an artist-inspired shirt, and, the project I'm currently working on, a dress inspired by Mad Men in which I combine two late 1950s/early 1960s patterns and try to channel Joan Holloway. That ought to be fun.

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A Face to a Name

Almost a year ago I posted about some quilts my great-grandmother Augusta Koch made for two of her grandsons (my father and my uncle). At that time I did not have a picture of her. Then on Ash Wednesday, a mysterious box appeared on my doorstep at about 5pm. Inside was a note from my second cousin Dave (who can be seen in the last photo in the post about the quilts) and a beautiful framed photograph of Augusta around the turn of the century when she was probably in her late teens.

She was also Dave's grandmother, and after a conversation with Dave at my cousin Andy's wedding, he promised to send me a picture of her. I had forgotten (and so, apparently, had he). So to open up that box yesterday was a real treat. When I saw the picture I immediately thought, "She looks like Nick and Kennedy." (Nick is one of my first cousins. He has the pink rose on his lapel in the last photo. Kennedy is his eldest daughter.) Funny how features keep showing up, generations later.

What's so wonderful about this photo is that it is probably from the same era as two more heirlooms I have of Augusta's (or "Gusty" as she was affectionately called). One is this locket, engraved with "GD" on the back.

The second is a beautiful (but broken) pocket watch (made by Elgin), also engraved.

The casing (made by Fahys) has lovely flowers and birds, but the really special engraving is inside the back: "From Pa to Gusty Nov 11th '05"

In November 1905, Augusta was 19 years old. She didn't marry until 1913 when she was 27 years old, so this was not a wedding gift. The 1910 census has her living at home with her parents and four siblings in Detroit. Her father Albert (66) was a carpenter, her older brother Herman (26) was a cabinet maker, and the census lists Augusta's (23) occupation as a cigar maker (which I understand she disliked immensely). Younger brother Louis (20) was a machinist hand in a machine shop, younger sister Elsie (18) was a "credit girl," and the youngest sister Eloise (14) and mother Christine (53) were not employed.

Having every able bodied child working shows me that the Durrow's were likely not wealthy. But the photo, the watch, and the fact that mother and 14-year-old daughter were not working tell me that neither were they poor. They were, however, of hardworking German stock. Albert was born in Germany in 1844 and emigrated to the US in 1872. Christine was born in Canada and arrived in Detroit in 1861 at age 5. Her parents emigrated to Canada from Germany. So Augusta was a first generation American and her immigrant parents obviously worked hard to establish a respectable, industrious, self-sufficient family.

That work ethic has been passed down through the generations. One of the most important lessons I think my father has taught my sister and I is that we are responsible for our own living and we should not expect others to hand us anything on a silver platter. This work ethic hasn't made anyone in our family fabulously wealthy, but it has made us good citizens who take care of our families, contribute to society, and don't milk the system. In an age when nearly 50% of Americans don't pay any income tax at all, and yet use billions of dollars of tax revenue through various government services, I think this legacy of personal responsibility is ever rarer and ever more precious to me.

Between her birth and the 1910 census, the time at which the picture was taken and the watch was given,  I have no information on Augusta. In cousin Dave's note to me about the picture he mentions that his mother, my great aunt Marion (Augusta's eldest daughter), was wondering when I was going to come pick her brain about family history. So I will have to plan a trip to Holland, Michigan, soon to find out what I can about the watch, the locket, and the rest of Augusta's life.

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Seeds of Spring Sown in My Heart

What can possibly be going through my head when I suggest to my little boy that we go out to Van Atta's nursery and "look at" seeds we might want for our garden this year.

Silly, silly, silly. Because you can't just look at them. You have to buy them. Not that you're going to start them for at least a month or more. But you have to buy them.

And I have to say, it was so encouraging to see little pansy seedlings in trays in the greenhouse and to imagine that in a couple months, things will be growing outside once again.

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Red Plaid Skirt and a Sneaky New Coat

I made this skirt back in January for this week's Sew Weekly Challenge: Red.

I really like it. It's easy to wear, comfortable, and goes with any black top.

It also goes with the amazing red raincoat my husband got me for my birthday.

So besides the awesome color, what's so amazing about it?

Pockets! Eighteen of them. Many hidden.

This coat is made for traveling and can easily replace a purse and carry-on. My mother-in-law bought one in classic tan for her upcoming European tour and when I saw it I immediately wanted one. But in red. Now I just need to plan a trip.

To check out the trench coat in different colors and look at other awesome travel gear, click here.

To read more about why the plaid doesn't match up on my skirt, click here.

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UFO Featured on The Sew Weekly

Excited to see that my latest project for The Sew Weekly is featured today: The "Champagne" Dress. I won't go into all the details here (you can read about them there) but I will leave you with a photo I didn't post over there.

The photos for this project were taken the same place the last ones were, the capitol building. To see the color ones, please jump over to the post on The Sew Weekly.

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Building a Wardrobe, Piece by Piece

So, what did I do with this lovely $5 fabric?

I turned it into this.

Which can be worn like this . . .

That cream skirt and mulberry shirt are things I made last year but didn't include in my year-end post because I haven't yet made the coat that goes with them, which really makes the ensemble. I promise I will do it this spring. For real.

And many other ways as well. I see more separates in my future.

For more on these pieces, and the beautiful building in which they were taken, click here.

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