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A bittersweet week, this one.  I happily have to offer the 1942 Two-Piece Dress pattern from 32" to 46" bust.  A generous customer in Maryland sent it to me so it could be available in the collection! Sadly, we lost the birdie member of our family this week.  Here is a little look back at a time last year when she very closely supervised my pattern CAD work!     

This week's board comes late.  I was out of town by week's end to bond a special needs rabbit with my single Teddy.  This special needs bun has a wheelchair, although he is training to walk without it as well! Meet Georgie (and you see him being introduced to Teddy).  Georgie came from Bunny World Foundation!   There is a patterning connection to rabbit rescue in a piece of work I am doing for Tranquility Trails Animal Sanctuary in Scottsdale, AZ. Flat Bonnie (.com) created the likeness of Fred, a rescue bun at TTAS who died of cancer last fall.  He...

You saw that the finalist in this challenge sewed her suit around a few 'found objects' such as her grandmother's buttons, shoes and a hat.  Well, another submission was also based on meaningful found objects. Selene put emphasis on a no-longer-functioning enamel buckle by making it into a center piece in the front of her gown, nearly as a dress clip!  She used vintage glass buttons to close the gown.   She was also otherwise successful in creating a dramatic (yet historical) effect in using the right and wrong side of the fashion fabric for contrast!  She chose the color...

We had some stellar submissions for this challenge and it was Nicole's 1949 Butterick Suit Dress that took the finalist spot! She conveyed how meaningful this project is to her by telling us about using her favorite buttons from her grandmother which she waited YEARS to do! Nicole also added that she stitched hair canvas into the pockets and fronts of the jacket-a step the original instructions did not necessarily advise.  That was a good move as you can see in her pocket detail photo! Her hat and shoes are vintage accessories she already owned and yet, she found this...

I presented a trunk show to the Prescott American Sewing Guild yesterday with great success!  I took the group through my process of creating single and multi-size patterns from vintage originals and had plenty of garments to show and tell. I have a .pdf version of my presentation available here for you to enjoy.  It is a condensed and slightly edited version as the ASG paid me to do this for them. More patterning progress to share in next week's storyboard!