The good news is, I have a brand new sewing room!

It’s really not a whole lot different from my old sewing room (which was secretly my dining room), except I painted the furniture and arranged things a bit differently. I was searching for the perfect aqua paint color and immediately fell in love with this one mainly because the name is so awesome. It’s called “Mermaid’s Song” by Valspar. Tell me that’s not the coolest paint color ever!

I still have a bit more rearranging to do. I recently inherited a massive yarn stash that I’ve yet to find a place to put, but I couldn’t say no to free yarn! …I also can’t say no to homeless cats. That’s why I have five of them.

Yep. I’m SO excited to be reunited with my kitties!! Though Nikko here is kind of is a massive brat and has been pretending she could care less that I’m home. Whatever, Nikko. You know you love me.

This little cactus got left behind before we moved into our place in Vermont so I decided to keep him and then transport him with us to NY. He’s our little piece of the Green Mountain State that I’m trying not to kill. I’m not sure how “green” my thumb is. What’s a good name for a cactus?

There’s slightly less natural light in this new room but at least it’s off the ground floor so I can leave the curtains wide open and not have to worry about neighbors peeping in on me. I tried to use lots of bright cheery colors to make up for the smaller window.

Oh yes, I should mention that the other side of the room is occupied by William now that he works from home and also needed an office space.

I’d say that’s a pretty typical “his” and “hers” situation.

Lucille is actually really happy to be back home too even though her face says otherwise. It’s nice to have our own yard again, and be able to walk her in a nice quiet neighborhood, where the few other dogs are also walked on leash, so we don’t have to worry about being charged (or attacked) by off leash dogs anymore.

It’s been bittersweet to leave Vermont, we lived there long enough to fall in love with it, but all in all we’re very happy to be back surrounded by family and old friends. I also can’t tell you how excited I am to be closer to WWII reenactments and renaissance festivals!!

Stay tuned for more New York adventures! …and cat photos. Lots more cat photos.

xo
Rochelle

Oops! I was supposed to announce the winner yesterday but I got so sidetracked from unpacking my sewing room (more on that later) that I totally forgot! I’m so sorry.

So the winner is!!!!!…

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. What kinds of things would you like as giveaways in the future?

Have a great week!

xo
Rochelle

Today I’d like to welcome the lovely Beckiy Winston of  Trunk of Dresses online vintage boutique! Beckiy has the most beautiful assortment of vintage clothing and accessories, all in impeccable condition and accurately described. This girl sure knows her stuff!! Beckiy has been kind enough to share a few wise words with us, AND offer up a generous gift card to her shop for one lucky winner!

Thanks for joining us today, Miss Winston!

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1.) What inspired you to start Trunk of Dresses?

- Well I’d started collecting vintage clothing when I was about 15 years old with no real direction. I eventually realized I had tons of vintage that didn’t fit me, nor had a place in my “collection” and decided if I could make a living buying and selling treasures how could I go wrong?

2.) What is your favorite thing about being an online boutique owner?

- It’s so wonderful that the treasures I find can find homes all over the world like Singapore or Norway! I also have to admit I like that it frees up more time to go treasure hunting than if I had a physical boutique!

3.) For those interested in wearing vintage for the first time, do you have any tips on where to start and what to look for?

-Start with what you like and what you can afford. It takes time and patience to really learn how to accurately date things so it’s most important to be happy with the fit, the print, and the style, more than the era. You will eventually figure out which decade suits you best but have fun until you get there! Although I will mention that closures are a good indication of true vintage vs. used clothing; snaps, hooks & eyes where commonly used in the 1930s and earlier, metal zippers became commonly used from the 1930s into the 1960s, and from the 60s onwards they become more commonly plastic. I’m obsessed with vintage closures so I will also mention that plastic zippers have existed since the 1930s but they are incredibly rare and I’m trying to hoard all of them for myself!

4.) What would you consider to be 5 essential vintage pieces for the new collector?

-That’s a tough one! Number one would be the simple 60’s “little black dress” that you can dress up or dress down, a simple 40’s or 50’s cotton day dress that you can wear easily and pair with the accessories you already have, a 40’s or 50’s solid colored cardigan, a pair of wearable dead plain heels from the 50’s or 60’s that can go with the rest of your wardrobe, and seam back tights for that vintage touch!

5.) Tell us a bit about your experience with fashion design school. Do you believe people can be self taught, or is there a true benefit from learning from professional hands-on instruction?

-The school I went to was one of the only ones that taught their students how to pattern draft from scratch without pre-set pattern blocks. I personally wouldn’t have been able to learn this on my own but I know that there are some people who just get it! So maybe it just depends on personality types or how clever someone is with altering the patterns and things around them!

6.) Do you see yourself designing your own line of vintage inspired clothing in the future?

-It’s currently in the works! It’s not entirely vintage based but I can’t deny pulling ideas from some great silhouettes of the past! I’m hoping to have my first collection finished within the year but don’t hold me too it!

7.) I see from your instagram that you’re into motorcycles! How did that all start?

-I’ve wanted to ride a motorcycle since I can remember! So it was kind of inevitable that I would end up with a guy who rides a vintage bike and encourages me to ride! I’m still very much learning and mostly just ride around in the dirt, away from traffic, with my friends!

8.) As far as style and overall esthetic, what’s your favorite decade of the past?

-It’s funny how things change, as I get further into my obsession with vintage. When I started collecting I was really into the late 50s, early 60s rockabilly styled stuff and now I can’t get enough of the late 30s and early 40s war time dresses!

9.) What is one piece of advice you can offer to fellow women in small business?

-Invest all your profits back into your business until you are truly making enough money to pay yourself. Living broke isn’t so bad and it’s worth it in the end… I hope!

10.) And finally, (because I’d really love to know!) what’s the best way to wash a vintage dress? …more specifically, in my case, a Rayon one

Here’s my dress created for Erin’s Great Gatsby Sewing Challenge, inspired by this 1920′s sewing pattern that I stumbled upon via a google search. Sadly, the pattern sold years ago so I was left to try and recreate the dress on my own.

Luckily I had taken advantage of one of those $0.99 pattern sale days at Jo-Ann’s and frivolously purchased a million patterns that I don’t even want, like, or need (I’ve gotten better with that, let me tell you), so I had something to help me recreate the main body and belt of the dress. The sleeves and neckline I drafted myself.

Don’t ask me how I actually put this dress together because I swear I don’t know. I had a small moment of epiphany induced brilliance that turned me into a complete sewing cyborg and allowed me to sew this dress from start to finish in one go. No directions. No mistakes. …I may have actually been temporarily possessed because there’s no logical explanation for how I managed to pull this off with no plan. The sewing Gods were on my side I guess.

I squeezed this dress out of the most insanely small piece of stash fabric, which is some sort of partially stretchy polyester blend suiting. I think I had about a yard and a half  to work with. In order to lay out my front and back pieces on the fold, I had to  bring both salvages to the inside fold line and create two new fold lines pointing to the outside. It just barely worked out. All of the materials used for this dress were in my stash for so long that I feel like this dress was free!

I’ve always been a huge fan of the flapper movement and I love this article about how The Great Gatsby portrays women of the era all wrong. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I’ve heard awesome things about it when you accept the fact that it’s not historically accurate. I’m hoping to see it this weekend. Have you seen it? What did you think?

Oh, and of course I had to take some photos with Lucille since there’s been an unacceptable lack of her adorable face around here lately!

Caught her mid yawn lol.

Lucille is generally a really lazy dog, but sometimes being outside summons her inner spaz. She was just standing around and then all of the sudden she started digging furiously and rubbing her face in the grass haha! What a dork.

Blur face dog! That’s how you can tell she was having fun

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

xo
Rochelle

Okay, so pull up a chair and get ready for a good sit down because Meredith has A LOT of amazing information to share with you about Victory Gardens, both modern and historical, and their impact on ourselves and our neighbors. Enjoy!

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Sow for Victory

Let’s take a little field trip back to 1943.   Go ahead and hop in those time machines!  We’re going to explore the day and age when the world was at war and our food supply was in peril.

American Life in 1943
Think about this: the average family in 1943 was living on $29.00 a week.  Food staples were rationed out to families in order to provide for the troops.   As you can imagine, fresh fruits and vegetables were in short supply.  In order to keep the nation from starvation, the US Government encouraged folks to help out in any way that they could.  Propaganda posters popped up in every town urging families to plant ‘Victory Gardens’ to provide their own produce.

(photos courtesy of Victory Garden Foundation)

Over 20 million American families took up the call for ‘victory.’ They collaborated with friends and neighbors and took control of their own food supply.   Even schools got involved in the cause by planting gardens in schoolyards to provide supplemental food for school lunches.  The number of canning supplies sold more than quadrupled from 1943 to 1944.  Eleanor Roosevelt encouraged her fellow citizens by planting a Victory Garden at the White House in 1943.

(photo courtesy of Victory Garden Foundation)

The plan was a wild success across the nation. As the National WWII Museum website indicates, “By 1944, Victory Gardens were responsible for producing 40% of all vegetables grown in the United States. More than one million tons of vegetables were grown in Victory Gardens during the war.”

FORTY PERCENT of all vegetables? Holy moly! Can you imagine if we did that today??

After the War
After the war was over in 1945, Victory Gardens began to steadily disappear from backyards and rooftops. Grocery stores popped up across the nation and buying everything we needed from them became commonplace. Commercial foods became more widely available and Americans didn’t see any reason to continue growing their own anymore.  New and different problems began to crop up in our nation’s food supply…

“The effort of the victory gardeners was directed toward the defeat of an easily identified enemy – the Axis powers. Today, our ‘enemy’—the eco crisis looming on our horizon—is more elusive and complex and is potentially a greater adversary.”
-Phillip Wenz, San Francisco Gate

Food Today
All right, let’s hop back in those time machines and return to the present day.

Today we live in a very different world than that of the 1940’s. With the opening of commercial grocery stores in towns across the country, the food system has adjusted to meet the ever-increasing demands of the public. Scientists have genetically modified our food in labs.  Farmers have resorted to using industrial methods of growing food and raising livestock.  Vegetables are now coated with poisons in the fields. Animals are kept in tight quarters where they lead miserable lives. All of this all happens even before the food is packed onto a truck, shipped across the country, and stocked in a supermarket. During the long journey almost half of this produce will spoil.

Producing food isn’t what it used to be, and our bodies and wallets are taking the toll.

(photo courtesy of Occupy New Mexico)

The next time you’re at the grocery store, take a closer look at the produce section.  Do some investigation.  Become a food spy.  You can even wear a trench coat and a spiffy hat!

Try this: Check out the labels to see where the produce comes from. Consider the massive amount of fuel it takes to get a piece of produce all the way across the country. Consider the nutritional value of food that traveled on the road for two weeks before it arrived at your store.  Also consider how hard it is for your local farmer to compete with industrial produce from overseas.  Farm workers in other countries are paid pitiful wages and food safety practices are lax, which makes it cheap and easy to produce low quality, sometimes down right poisonous foods.

(photo courtesy of Indigenous Environmental Network)

 Food is our energy source; it is what we give our bodies to run on.  Food matters. And everything that is done to it before it gets to your mouth matters too.

So, what can we do about it?  
Our agricultural system is a mess, it is enough to make your head spin.  There’s a slew of information available to cover the various problems we’re facing. It’s not my goal today to depress you, it’s my goal to give you hope. If you’d like to research on your own, please check out the links at the bottom of this page. I’m here to tell you there is something that we can do about this.

So, keep reading!

Our problems today may be different from that of 1943 but our solutions are in many ways the same.  We can take a lesson from the wisdom of the past and go back to our old ways.  We can take control of our food: where it comes from, how it’s produced, and what goes into it.  This power can be in your hands, and let me tell you, this is the most almighty of powers!

Bring back the victory garden!
Even without food rationing and propaganda posters, people all across the nation are taking notice of the condition of our food supply and choosing to do something about it. Consumers are starting to look more closely at food labels and are refusing to buy things with unpronounceable ingredients.  Organic foods are becoming an increasingly common sight on grocery store shelves. Farmer’s markets are popping up in neighborhoods across the country.

Even Michelle Obama got into the act and planted a kitchen garden on the lawn of the White House as part of her campaign to end childhood obesity and advocate healthy eating.

(photo courtesy of Mother Earth News)

Obama was the first First Lady to plant a garden on the White House lawn since Eleanor Roosevelt did so in 1943.  70 years later, her actions give us hope for a new age of agricultural awareness.  She says of her efforts: “It is my hope that our garden’s story – and the stories of gardens across America – will inspire families, schools, and communities to try their own hand at gardening and enjoy all the gifts of health, discovery, and connection a garden can bring.” –Michelle Obama, American Grown

Our collective outlook on food is changing for the better.  Once again, families are taking control of their food, and you can too!

What you have to Gain:

Personal Gratification
There is nothing, nothing so gratifying as walking out your back door to cut some lettuce, pick a tomato, and dig up some carrots to throw together a salad.

You know that the food was grown in sustainable conditions.  You know that the laborer was treated fairly.  You know you’re not eating poison in the form of pesticides and herbicides.  You know that it took zero energy resources (no gas and no oil are used in transport) to get your food to your plate.  Unless of course you’re counting the energy you spent walking into your backyard!

More Money for your Pockets
Skyrocketing food costs are due in part to the increase in gas and oil prices.  The vast majority of our food isn’t even coming from within our states, and all that food has to get to your store somehow. The food you eat is often shipped from farms and factories all over the country, sometimes even all over the world!  New studies show that more than 40% of food is thrown away before it even gets to the consumer, much of that because of spoilage during transit.

Local food advocate Joel Salatin writes on the subject, “The average morsel of food sees more of America than the farmer who grows it, traveling fifteen hundred miles from field to fork.”

Growing your own food on your property cuts out the middleman.   You can take pride in knowing that very little food is wasted when you grow it yourself.  You also don’t have to pay the farmer, the truck driver, the gas company, the cashier, the produce manager, or any one else.  You only pay yourself, and you get paid in a glorious bounty of food…best paycheck ever!

(photo courtesy of Natural News)

Control your own destiny
Growing your own food makes you feel powerful in a world where lack of control is commonplace.  Knowing that the food you’re eating is safe and full of nutrition is priceless.  Don’t get lost in the shuffle and leave your fate in the hands of others. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps and take control!  Families in the 1940’s made an effort to provide for themselves, and you can too!

Be Prepared… (Cue singing hyenas and scar faced lions)
Another reason to grow your own food is for preparedness.  Food is a necessary resource, and we can’t live without it.  In times of need, be it an emergency, or getting laid off from work, it’s important to know that your family can still eat. Having the knowledge and ability to grow food will never let you down.  You’ll never find yourself saying, ‘Dang! What a useless skill!’  Unfortunately, the knowledge and skills for food production are getting lost more and more as each year passes.

Educate the Youngins’
If you talk to many children these days, you’ll find that they’re quite confused about foods that don’t come in boxes and bags.  Many of them can’t tell you that a carrot is the root of a plant, or that mashed potatoes are made with a vegetable that’s grown underground.

If you plant your own victory garden, this can be your way of showing your food independence, but you can also teach your kids valuable lessons.

This next generation is going to have to bear the burden of our current food system.  Change starts with these kids, and raising them well is the best thing you can do for our future. Your kids crave knowledge; they want to learn, so teach them! Allow them to form a connection between the earth and their plates.   Working together in the garden can strengthen your family culture. Cook together, eat together, and you will grow together.

This clip from Jaime Oliver’s Food Revolution documents this issue perfectly.  I can only hope this is a very extreme example of kids’ food knowledge.

You can do it too!
You don’t need to be a farmer to grow a victory garden, and it’s okay if you don’t live on seven acres in the country. You too can grow a victory garden with just a little creativity and persistence.  For city dwellers, you’ll need to think outside the box…or inside the box, rather.

You can grow a lot of food in little containers- boxes, cartons, buckets, bags, even in old tires—the sky’s the limit!  My fiancée and I live in the heart of the city and we still manage to keep chickens and a garden.

Think about how helpful it would be if you could grow even just one of the plants you regularly eat.  You could cut that right out of your grocery bill, and I guarantee it will taste much better than store bought. To read more about growing in small spaces, check out the link on city gardening at the bottom of this article.

No Garden? No Problem!
If growing your own food is an absolute impossibility for you, but you still want to do something to make a difference, there are still several things that you can do.  Consider buying your produce from a farmer’s market, or a CSA (community supported agriculture) instead of from the grocery store.  This food is not only cheaper, it almost always comes from a local farm, and you have the opportunity to talk to the farmer first hand!

(photo courtesy of Institute for Responsible Technology)

I’m all about putting my money directly into the farmer’s hand for the food they grow, rather than paying several companies in between farm and table.  If your farmer’s market isn’t an option, start making calls to your local grocery store and ask them to carry more produce from local farms.  If they are eager to keep you as a customer, they will do what it takes to make you happy.

I truly believe that every action made to improve our food system makes a difference.  Even if that action is simply shopping at the farmer’s market once a month or starting an herb garden on your windowsill, every little bit of change helps.  These things add up, and before you know it, you may start a food revolution in your own neighborhood.  You can change the world; all you have to do is take that first step.

(photo courtesy of Red White and Grew)

Sowing for victory in this day and age has a different connotation than it did in the 1940′s.  Growing your own food may not help in the war effort, but it will help save the environment, strengthen family bonds, save money, and increase your independence.

The time is now, so get out there! Sow some seeds! Sow for independence! Sow for knowledge! Sow for victory!

References for further education:

On Victory Gardens:

National WWII Museum

Victory Garden Foundation

Living History Farm

Bring Back the Victory Garden

On Gardening and local agriculture:

Find a CSA near you

Find your local farmer’s market

Small Space, Low Skill Gardening

Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden

Gardening Basics for Beginners

Vegetable Gardening for Beginners

On the condition of food:

Milk: America’s Health Problem

Joel Salatin

Food Inc.

Center for Ecoliteracy

Sustainable Table

The Food Trust

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Wow – thank you, Meredith! Now if that doesn’t make you want to get up right now and start your own patio garden or hit up your local farmer’s market, I don’t know what will.

Meredith isn’t just another pretty face full of vast knowledge, folks. She also has baby chickens and a super cute rescued angora rabbit. Go check out her blog!!

xo
Rochelle

Oh hey, back so soon? Yes, well, I finished up my latest sewing project and just couldn’t wait to share it. Since I had been away from my sewing machine for nearly three weeks, I decided I better re-make my last most successful garment to get back in the swing of things.

That last most successful garment I made happened to be a skirt version of the Sewaholic Cambie pattern. I had second thoughts as I started putting this pattern together since I don’t even wear denim skirts. “Why am I making a denim skirt?? …I don’t want a denim skirt. I could be sewing so many other things right now” said me to myself. Half way through construction I seriously considered ditching it all together and moving on to my Great Gatsby project. But, I figured I better start practicing a little discipline since I just applied for school and there are certainly going to be things I don’t want to finish (*cough* small business mathematics *cough*).

Now that it’s all finished though I’m really happy with it! I guess I DO wear denim skirts after all.

I left the bottom pocket seams raw on accident, and didn’t realize it until after the seam binding was already on the sides. They look kinda cute left raw though so whatever. It’s on the inside anyways!

I did a button tab waistband and lapped zipper again. I can’t help it, I just really like the way it looks. This is pretty much how I finish anything and everything meant to go on the bottom half of your body. (Speaking of which, I hope it’s obvious that I took the above two photos after the initial photoshoot and was in fact wearing pants while doing so. Yeah?)

I used a cheap stretch denim from Jo-Ann Fabrics paired with some regular quilting weight cotton for the pockets and inner waistband. I like having a stash of fabric and notions at home because it allows you to sew things like this on a whim. Yay for whimsical sewing!

I stole this checkered shirt from my mum while visiting and have pretty much been wearing it every day since. No shame. It’s super cute and equally comfy!

This location is actually a wedding venue that just happens to be right down the road from me. It must be nice to afford a wedding at this place! Pretty fancy! I wanted to sneak some photos here before it starts getting booked up for wedding season. Mission accomplished

This is probably my new favorite photo of myself since it sums up my nerdiness perfectly. All I do is push my glasses up on my face. Even when I’m not wearing them I still catch myself trying to push them up haha! Yeah. SUPER NERD.

Oh, in case anyone is wondering where Miss Lucille is at, she’s here. She was just in dire need of a bath and I didn’t want her to look scrubby on camera. I feel like a bad mom when she looks scrubby lol. I’m sure I’m not the only kid who had to stay home from school once or twice because I was faking my baths all week and when my mom found out how gross I was she refused to let me go. …please say I’m not the only kid who did that.

You can breathe easier now knowing that Lucille and I have both had baths this evening and are no longer scrubs I’ll make sure she gets lots of spotlight in the next post!

xo
Rochelle

Well technically this is a lakeshore and not a seashore, and there were no seashells to be sold, but it was a beautiful way to spend an evening none the less. It’s been quiet on the blog for the past few weeks since I’ve been back and forth between New York and Vermont trying to wrap up some housing changes that will be taking place in the near future. I will elaborate more on those vague details at a later date, but until then, we’re trying to soak up every ounce of Vermont’s beauty while we still can.

I found this adorable little vintage dress at a thrift store while in New York and knew it had to come home with me. It’s not actually from the 1940′s, but it has a great 40′s vibe and is pretty much the quintessential summer dress! I’m in love.

And the shoes! These adorable wedge sneakers are also a thrift store find. With little obvious wear, and for only three dollars, I was certainly not passing them up. Since taking The Seamless Pledge in February it’s just been getting easier and easier to “thrift” or sew my own clothes. I may never buy store bought clothes ever again!

I’ve also vowed to participate in Me Made May but, with all the long road trips, I’ve been cheating a bit with how much “me made” I’ve worn. I missed out on the 1st completely (oops!), but did wear a handmade skirt on the 2nd, and have at least been wearing handmade headbands since then. Already this challenge has taught me that I need more solid colored separates in my wardrobe, and also a pair of handmade pajama pants. I’ve been living in PJs between painting, packing, and driving. Can you blame me really?

William took these photos of me at Red Rocks Park in Burlington. It’s not exactly a white sands kind of beach, but it’s so peaceful and so scenic that the lack of sand hardly matters. It must be so amazing to live on a lake.

Have you ever watched a sunset over the water? If  not, you need to remedy that immediately. Sunsets are good for the soul.

I also posted some little clips to Vine if you’d like to follow me. Moving pictures are a nice change from regular ol’ instagram don’t you think? I’ll try not to be a stranger in the coming weeks but, realistically, I won’t be back to blogging full time until the end of the month. Lucille can’t wait to have her own back yard again!

xo
Rochelle

Recently I’ve been blessed (lucky, really) to be featured along with 5 other incredible ladies in the MyDaily article “Seven Reasons Why Sewing Is A Big Deal“. Now, any fellow seamstress already knows why sewing is a big deal. It’s our hobby, our creative outlet, our reason to blog, sometimes our day job, …it’s our whole lives! I was asked to share just three sentences (about my blog and passion for sewing) to accompany the photos I included for the interview, and as you can see from the other responses, it was pretty much impossible to sum it up in less than a paragraph! Trendy or not, I am SO passionate about sewing and I love that it’s on the rise. Sewing IS a big deal and here’s why…

Sewing isn’t just a hobby for me. It’s a way to honor and connect with my mom and grandma, a way to recreate my favorite bygone era, a way to empower myself, to support small business, it’s a means of income, and most importantly it’s been a way for me to meet new people and make new friends. Oona hit the nail on the head when she said sewers have the best, most supportive corner of the internet. We do! Whenever I catch a hint of some lifestyle blogger vs blogger drama on Twitter I just smile knowing that doesn’t really exist in our little crafty web on the web. Sewing, Knitting, Crafting, Making is just such a nurturing thing on its own that it draws nurturing, community driven people to it.

Being a sewing blogger is different. We are not in competition with each other, well maybe some friendly sewing challenge competition every once in a while, but as far as trying to beat out other bloggers strictly for popularity… I feel like that doesn’t happen. If you are new to sewing/blogging and are intimidated by “bigger” sewing blogs, then you’re being silly! I love commenting on “big” sewing blogs because I know my comments are read and are appreciated, and when time allows, even responded to!

The bigger message here is this: YOU are a big deal! You are appreciated! Your creativity IS inspiring, your projects ARE blog worthy, people CARE what you have to say, you are important to the sewing community! Any skill level, any “coolness” factor, any level of “good enough” …YOU MATTER!

On behalf of everyone in the sewing community, I want to wish you a warm welcome. You have found your place.

You belong here.

xo
Rochelle

This is my latest sewing project made using the Sewaholic Cambie pattern. Instead of making the full dress, I just left off the top and made a skirt version! This skirt is the best thing I’ve ever sewn to date. Not because it was challenging to make, but because of cleanliness and execution on my part.

I used bias tape to bind all of the raw inside seams (my first time doing so) and I love the way it looks. It’s so sharp and neat.

After taking Sunni’s Free Zipper class on Craftsy I learned the proper way to install a lapped zipper and it just so happens to be the best zipper I’ve ever done. EVER. It was because of this skirt that I got cocky and rushed my next sewing project (my Peggy skirt) and ended up throwing it away. It was an unsalvageable failure. But every failure is a lesson! I learned this time that it is rarely my sewing skill that makes a project a disaster, but rather my lack of attention. More specifically, in this case, my math.

I was feeling such a sense of heightened accomplishment after making the Cambie skirt that I got overzealous and tried to alter another skirt pattern to get a better fit. I didn’t even trace the pattern pieces before “doing the math” and hacking off inches at the waist to correct too much ease. I was so sure the math was right and would give me the perfect fit for my size. And technically it was… I had forgotten to add a bit of ease back in to the pattern which made my attempted Peggy skirt, quite literally, skin tight. I was crushed! I needed to finish that skirt before traveling back to New York to visit my mom. I didn’t finish it and I won’t finish it. I have no sewing machine with me and therefore no hope of completing Julia’s Mad Men challenge. I messed up.

I’m bummed, but it’s not the end of the world. I’ll tell you what though, after that fitting disaster I can’t explain how excited I am for Erin’s 1920′s challenge! That unfitted flapper silhouette is just the kind of pep talk my sewjo needs!

This is what I would have worn (different skirt obviously) for the Mad Men challenge had I finished it. I suppose this could still pass as Peggy inspired, but it’s just not the same. Anyways, enough with that sad story…

Let me introduce you to my old cat and my old room! I’ve been helping my mom re-do the upstairs bedrooms of her house in preparation for some new tenants. Did you see the original wallpaper we discovered under the baseboards? Amazing!

My little friend here is Miss Tabby Mae. I adopted her when she was 6 months old and I was in 3rd grade. She was my first ever shelter rescue (I couldn’t resist her stubby tail and permanent owl face)! She’s about 18 years old now and still as spry as ever, minus some arthritis in her back legs. I’ve missed her so much since I’ve been in Vermont and can’t wait to spend some more time with her again. She means so much to me… she and the other 4 rescued cats that still live with my mom in New York. My mom isn’t a crazy cat lady lol. I am!!

The weather in my mom’s neck of the woods is incredible! It had been so cold in Vermont for so long that I swear I forgot what it felt like to be warm while outside haha! Lucille really loves having her own deck and her own yard again. Sharing with other neighbors and their obnoxious dogs is no fun.

And for the record: Lucille and the kitties get along swell. They always have, though I don’t think the cats were overly impressed when she waltzed back through the door.

“Oh. It’s you again. …dog”

O.G. Tabby is impressed by nothing.

*edited for those who asked*
hair, shoes, sweater (thrift store), skirt fabric

xo
Rochelle

p.s. I forgot how hard it is to take photos of yourself all by yourself. Wil! Get here soon!

If you’re going to be in the Burlington, Vermont area this summer be sure to stop by nido and check out these local artisan pop-up shows. Featuring pottery by Jeremy Ayers, jewelry by Jennifer Kahn, and quilts by Ashley of Film in the Fridge. Meet the artists and shop for some gorgeous fabric and yarn while you’re there.

You won’t want to miss it!

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