Artwear Symposium and Trunk Show in Minnesota

I am attending a couple of Saturday seminars at this year's Artwear Symposium   at the Textile Center in Minneapolis this June.

I am currently working out details with staff at Treadle Yard Goods to put on a patterns trunk show that same weekend. I have many sample garments made from my patterns that will be on display at the store in advance (date as to when they will be ready to view not yet determined, but stay tuned).

I will really like everyone's input as to what they would like to see in the trunk show opportunity as far as instruction I can give to help with your vintage pattern projects.

I have offered to make the times I will be available there as open help sessions for anyone needing assistance or questions answered about any sewing project they are doing with a vintage pattern (the pattern does not have to be from my business).

Looking forward to seeing you in Minnesota!

Error in pattern B30-1465

Today, I discovered an error in pattern B30-1465, the multi-size blouses.


I failed to put the size key on each piece of the paper pattern, so please be advised that the pattern is for sizes 16-46. Here is a  link  to the size key so you may print it.

Also, on the long sleeve band (piece 'M'), I noted to cut sizes 14 to 42 on the same line. It should read 'Cut sizes 16 to 42 on this line'.

I am sorry for this oversight in my final printing of the pattern. Trying not to do that again!

How I Live

Just a mere glimpse into part of my personal life:

I have been living in a circa 1947 town home with the BEST wood floors upon which I have done a great deal of pattern and sewing work. I feel what I do in my life highly influences my lving space. I grew up around good old things, I travel, I make paper patterns and I sew.

I refer to my kitchen as the 'oversize butler's pantry'. I took antique glass pulls from a dresser to spark it up as you see above the shelf over my sink:


My grandmother changed my diapers on this 1862 sideboard-sadly, it is one of a few pieces I am selling to move out west. The detail shot shows fresh sage I cut from the garden of my former residence just before the weather turned too cold for it last December:



Drafting patterns weighed down with an antique glass doorknob:


Of course, I sew with vintage machines-this is the one I use most often for the last few years. It is a circa 1941 Singer:


The nightlight in my bedroom is this sheet of glass upon which I sat the two pieces of Berlin Wall I picked up at Potsdam in 1991-together they weigh 19 lbs:

1887 Bat Costume Progress

I finished the first piece of the 1887 bat costume (refer to Jan. 12, 2010 post). It is the black silk satin corset laced with thin silk ribbon.
Since the style is more along the lines of an evening bodice, there is no busk to close it at the front, so when I write the instruction for the pattern, I will recommend one create a side opening to put it on and off as lacing it each time may not be practical (especially for single girls not unlike myself who live alone!)




This is the part where I stitch the channels for the 1/2" boning at the back (on my 1941 Singer with the circa 1889 quilting foot attachment).

Next bit is to work on the bustle construction and then start the skirt.

Scintillating - An Amalgamation of Past and Present, also to honor Charles

I just posted this project on THREADS Magazine's Fancy Fabrics Contest. This is 80% metal/20% silk crinkle organza, one of my favorite fabrics with which I have been working over the last three years.



The bodice is cut from a contemporary Vogue pattern and the skirt is from this 1935 evening gown pattern.

It was this evening when I learned that Charles Kleibacker had passed on yesterday. As I commented on Threads: I was honored to have one of my clients bring him to my dressmaking shop here in Columbus 4 years ago and I since talked with him at The Columbus Museum of Art where he had been curating.

I meant to look him up again not long ago and now am sorry I hadn't. I had thought about him the two days when I was building this gown, particularly when modifying the bias part of the bodice.

The sewing world is a lesser place without him and his positive attitude. 'Good things' he would say to me at the end of our phone conversation...

Photo by Cynthia DeGrand

Skirt sewn from a bed sheet

I found a Ralph Lauren bed sheet for $2 at a tag sale with my daughter three months ago and sewed this 1950's skirt from it! Of course, I shortened it considerably...





Photos by Cynthia DeGrand

Hers was my favorite

I am in the throes of updating my portfolio for graduate submission. It has caused me to re-visit one of the last projects I did before retiring from custom dressmaking:


I created it for what was to be my favorite bridal client. She was an inch taller and a pound heavier than I. The style of the gown suited her particularly well and I realized when working on it that if I were ever to make a gown for myself for the purpose, it would be in a very similar vein. I love how the breeze looks so slight as it picks up the silk tulle veil.

I still have the pattern for it whereas I let all the other ones go into the recycling bin years ago...

The elongated flounces at the bottom were an adaptation from this 1933 nightgown pattern: