Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin', Plannin' and dreamin'...

I know I haven't posted a new project in a long while, and if you read carefully you will notice that I have been having an emotionally shitty year, but now I think I am finally able to turn things and time back into my favour. No more poopy times for me anymore - no way Jose! 

I know this because I feel actually quite excited to sew again and have been carefully squeezing time to do wee little sewing jobs here are there in between regular life stuff. (The ironing pile is even looking less daunting) Sadly, my winter sewing plans (as blogged here) kind of went out the window so I didn't get around to them, and McCall's 8939 is still sitting on the chair half done, but don't worry I won't let them become UFO's!

So what have I been sewing?  

Choosing, storing and using vintage patterns

Hi everyone! How's your week going? 

I was having a little ponder the other day when shopping for patterns about challenges that new sewers might have when it comes to picking out vintage patterns to work on for the first time.

When I started using original vintage patterns, my main concern was the sizing as well as what pattern would suit me best. 

So hopefully in this post, I can give you some tips about how to choose vintage patterns, how to use them and finally how to store them so they are yours for many more years. 

Vogue Sewing book 1964

Its time to get a little sophisticated around here! 

You maybe remember earlier this year I showed you some photos from the Simplicity Sewing book of 1969. Well I also happen to own the Vogue sewing book from 1964 - which is completely different to the Simplicity book. 

Everything is way more couture focused and speaks a lot more of Paris and the classic sewing techniques you can learn. Very fancy!

So while one of these books is fun, colourful and the models are all dancing around. This book is beautifully  photographed and includes lots of lovely illustrations, not unlike the kind you might find inside Pierre Balmain's sketch book.

So lets have a look!

Its give-away announcement time!

Well hello! How was your weekend? 

Mine was well spent getting started on a new weaving project, shopping for dreamy vintage dresses at Retrospectrum and learning about Filipino food but not actually getting to eat any!

Isn't this dress fab!? It matches my blog theme!
Photo taken by Dann @ Retrospectrum

But I know you don't want to hear about all that! I know you just want to know who the winner of the give-away is!!!

Miss Catherine's Pattern Mysteries

I do love it when I can pick up any vintage item and see traces of the previous owner, like second hand clothing that has been altered or handbags with small notes left inside the pockets. But my favourite things to find are the tiny notes on sewing patterns from a hopeful seamstress or from a fashion loving daughter to a mother.

When this pattern - Simplicity 5670 arrived the other day, the notes written so many years ago were quite interesting!  

My Pattern collection and a giveaway!

Hello there lovely people! 

I have two rather exciting things to tell you about!

The first thing is that I have put my organising skills to good use and created a new page listing all of my sewing pattern collection. It was a bit of a pain trying to get blogger to line the pictures up just as I liked them but managed to find some coding tips over here which did the trick.

I really wanted a way to be able to look up my own patterns easily while out shopping and also somewhere for you the reader to see them as well. So I had looked at apps for organising patterns and thought of using flickr as a portal but in the end I decided it might be good to have them all on the blog where it would make sense to have them and then include links to all the projects where I have used them before

Pop over to the page to have a look! There is a button to the right of this page and there is also the link below;

sewingthe60s.blogspot.com.au/p/my-patterns

They're all sorted by company name and pattern number so they're easy to find and if you ever need a hand with finding a missing piece, let me know!

Taking Stock - Mid year

Well its almost half way through the year and I think I can safely say that this is going to be a pretty cruddy year. Various little issues in my non-blogging life are making being my normal happy self a little harder to be and I've not spent anywhere near as much time sewing as I'd like. 

I guess I can be upset about my situation for as long as I like, but in reality I'm the only person who can get me out of this funk. So I decided that I will need to start being responsible in taking charge for my life, my productivity at work and how I spend my spare time!

Pip over at Meet me at Mikes regularly likes to 'take stock' so I thought I'd try it out. I've tried to be positive and you can have a try too if you like! It's fun!