'40s Military Dress

This past weekend I attended Swingfest and swing danced surrounded by tanks and planes! This is the WWII inspired dress I tweaked and wore for the event. I found the original dress in the summer for mere cents at the local thrift haunt. I love its military green cotton searsucker fabric with the bit of stretch. The original dress was basically sleeveless so I spent months keeping an eye out for similar coloured fabric whenever I was thrifting, so as to have some material to make sleeves out of. Nothing turned up. Then one day I was trying it on again, and while taking it off it flipped inside out and I realized it had a slip! Glorious discovery! So I promptly ripped that slip out and started chopping it up to make the sleeves and lapels you see here. I also swapped out the buttons for these brassy ones. Lesson: always look under the dress' skirt for extra fabric!

More Tea Towels

Here are some more goodies from my tea towel making rampage! These were ordered as fat quarters of Linen Cotton Canvas Ultra from my shop, and then I finished the edges with mitered corners. The designs pictured are Pantone, Buttons, Greenery Machinery, Maritime Yarn, and Seamstress Fruit. These and several others are now available for sale at The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum!

Fibrefest 2017

The textile town of Almonte, Ontario, Canada, is decked out in buntings for this weekend's annual Fibrefest!

 Tomorrow the fibre fun continues from 10am to 4pm at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum and the Almonte Arena with vendors, workshops, a raffle and more!

Here are a few snapshots of some of the unique vendor items.

This thrill has begun! I have stumbled across my surface pattern designs being used by creative people making neat products...retro-inspired products no less!

Glorious floral and a pun

Fluffy sheepies!

Vintage Military Buttons

I bought some military buttons from the Ottawa Valley Button Club. Such gorgeous detail! 

Woven Wallpapers

I ordered my Buttons, Looking Out, and Creative Resolve designs on Spoonflower's woven wallpaper swatches. This is the first time I have ordered wallpaper. They arrived safely in a nifty cardboard tube, though, warning, if you don't like the smell of vinyl hold your breath and let it off-gas for a few days! This is a great peel-and-stick material. It can, in fact, be re-positioned as advertised and would be great not only for walls but smaller items like notebooks and such! These designs are of course available in my shop as wallpaper, fabric, and gift wrap.

Suggested Notions in Shop

My Suggested Notions coordinates are now available for sale on fabric, wallpaper, decals, and gift wrap in my Spoonflower shop. The collection features Dress Pattern

Buttons

Spools

and Seamstress Fruit!

Suggested Notions Collection

My entry to this week's Sewing Notions Spoonflower challenge is my Suggested Notions fabric. It is a compilation of the designs in my Suggested Notions collection, which are Seamstress Fruit

Buttons

Spools

and Dress Pattern!

Strawberry Buttons

I painted strawberries on white knit using red and white fabric paint. Then I used a fabric covered button making kit to create these cheery buttons. They are 3/4'' in size.

They will likely get sewn onto a summer garment.

Anchor Attire

I've been on a nautical fashion spree--a wonderfully inexpensive nautical fashion spree! I snagged the chambray anchor print shirt for $2 second hand (originally from GAP), and made the necklace and bracelet using a pair of pliers and some time. The necklace is just a piece of wire I bent into an anchor shape and then wrapped cotton string around it. I made the bracelet out of a scrap of gold chain with anchor buttons attached by gold wire jump rings.



Argyle Style Sweater Edit

I bought this Banana Republic sweater--except I didn't buy it from Banana Republic. I found it at Value Village for $6! The gradient pink argyle combined with the soft oatmeal heather yarn reminds me of a strawberry milkshake.

Plus it has cute pink elbow patches.

But I decided I didn't like how much the rounded pockets and dark buttons stood out! 

So, I took off the pockets and replaced the buttons with some mother of pearl buttons. A quick personalization is all it takes to spruce up a garment!

Quick Tip: DIY Button Brooches

Do you have buttons that are too pretty to keep hidden in a jar? Well, with this easy idea you can now wear them as jewellery without compromising their potential as buttons!

Materials:

Several pretty shank buttons

The same number of safety pins

Step 1: Push a safety pin through the back side of your shirt so the bar sticks out the front.

Step 2: (View from the front side of the shirt) Slip the shank of a button through the bar of the safety pin so the button is on the front of the sweater.

Step 3: Poke the pin back into the sweater and secure it in place. 

Step 4: Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 to make a cluster of button brooches.

You can also turn necklace pendants into brooches by slipping the bar of the pin through the jump ring of the pendant. This technique is super useful if your shirt doesn't have a good frame for wearing a necklace but would still look good with some jewels on the side!