A Vintage Sew-a-Long

I found a perfect de-stash project!!!  It combines 2 of my favorite things--cotton fabric and vintage patterns. 

I've been following Lucille's blog for a couple months now.  She makes & wears vintage style clothes.  I didn't realize how many people loved vintage patterns until I accidentally ran across them on etsy 2 years ago.  It's so nice to know that there are others floating around out there with the same interests.  I adore dresses & skirts from the mid-1930s thru the mid-1950s.

Ok, so anyhow, today Lucille announced a sew-a-long using only cotton fabrics and picking an era from 1920s-1970s.  It's a fun challenge, but one I'm excited about.  I can use up a few yards of cotton fabric and I have a dozen or so vintage patterns I could use. 

It didn't take me long to figure out what pattern to use for this challenge.  I've had it for a few months, but haven't sewn it yet.  It's from Decades of Style on etsy.

I know I've bought at least 2 pieces of fabric to make this dress, so I'll probably just sew 2 dresses when I do it.  

I'm off to the Columbia on Saturday for the Quilting & Knitting Expo.  I haven't touched yarn (in a store) in almost a year.  I need to get my fix!  I also need to drop my quilting machine off to have it repaired (the timing is out).

September Social

I've had a love-hate relationship with the spouse's clubs wherever we've been stationed.  I loved it at Fort Polk when we were first married up through our son hitting 6 months.  At that age babies were no longer welcome (and understandably so).  At Fort Lee I joined, but didn't participate much.  Then came our unplanned year in Indiana during a deployment, followed by Germany.  I joined the Community Spouse's Club in Dexheim, which was for both officer & enlisted spouses.  It was fun and a headache.  I ended up being president of the club and I've never been so happy to be done with that.  We lived on the north side of Colorado Springs for the next tour, which made attending luncheons at Fort Carson, impossible with a preschooler and Kindergartner who needed picked up/dropped off at midday.  Once at Fort Hood I had 3 kids in school, and luncheons once a month became a possibility--except I got called out on a birth either the night before or the morning of 7 out of 9 months!  Now, here at Shaw, we meet in the evenings.  I didn't join when we arrived due to a self-imposed hiatus on jumping into every activity right off.

Ok, so where is all that rambling headed?  I just got the invitation for the first social of the year.  We're supposed to dress in our favorite decade from the 1900s through the 1990s.  Of course I'm taking it one step further and sewing my outfit.  In 2010 I went to an Alice in Wonderland themed-luncheon and made my outfit.  My friend Julie went as the Mad Hatter.  We had the 2 best costumes and the only ones who made ours, but were totally overlooked when voting happened.

Again, I'm breaking the sewing from my stash plan.  I don't have any super drape-y fabric to use, so I'm ordering a lovely silk or georgette from Mood.  The patterns I plan to use are from an etsy seller who reproduces vintage patterns.  I've chosen these two patterns for my outfit:

I'm trying to stay true to the decade, but when it comes to hats, this is the one I really love:

I'm still looking though!  Suggestions would be most welcome!