By Brienne

Vintage May

Hi there, thanks for being here! I'm joining the Vintage May tour today alongside A Jennuine Life . 

My early kids clothes were all made from recycled fabrics from the thrift shop. For awhile, I was making some cool stuff out of the gift bags that Patagonia makes from their mill ends.They're super cheap and they're lined. A couple of bags actually adds up to a fair amount of yardage, plus the prints are to die for! 

These days, I still make most of my kids' clothes and I still do a fair amount of upcycling but nothing like I used to. Vintage May feels like an effort to put the soul back into the sewing and I loved having the opportunity to make the old new again. 

This is the Marina Romper from Cali Faye. The drape of this good stuff from Cotton and Steel was the perfect match for the over-the-top flounce of this leggy romper.

The thing was MADE to be bounced in:)

Or to scowl in?

The romper was easy to construct for someone with a little bit of experience. The toughest part of the process was actually finding room to cut out the wide legs. The pattern is written simply with no cutting diagram or finishing instructions.

These days I can't be sure that what I make will be worn so I have to do it for the joy of it. And this was truly a joyful make. 

What do you make for the love of it?

Be sure to check out Kristin's tutorial for a Hudson Bay Quilt - too cool! Thanks for having me Kristin and Jess!

Twisted Trousers

Salutations! Thanks for finding me here. Today I'm joining the Twisted Trousers tour being hosted by Laura of Titchy Threads.

The Twisted Trousers feature a clever, curved shape that has the appearance of a slim fitting pant but are actually relaxed enough to accommodate the big movements of little folks and the limitations of woven fabrics that have very little stretch. I've made several pairs of Laura's Small Fry Skinnies in the past, which are designed to be made using stretch wovens. It's my favorite pants pattern shown here in a harlequin stretch twill, here in knit denim and here where I re-drafted the lines to include ease for wovens. I have a hard time sourcing stretch wovens so even though I adore that pattern, I was pleased to see that the Twisted Trousers are designed for regular woven fabrics.

My little guy has been begging me for pink trousers for a couple of years and I've got some great canvas in the hopper for that purpose but it's nice stuff and I didn't want to hack into it until I had succeeded with a muslin. These here are made using sheets from Target and some lime green piping that I made using bias tape from Purl Soho and some narrow rope that I got from the hardware store. The advantage to making these pants out of the sheets is that they are "easy care" (which probably means that there's some polyester in there, eep) so I don't have to iron them when I wash them, which is something that bums me out about sewing garments with quilting fabrics.

I made a Rowan Tee to complement the pants in this Heather Ross strawberry print that I've been hoarding. I'm sure that you can grab some on Etsy if you're interested. It's from her Briar Rose collection. That little pocket is made from some fresh Alison Glass Handcrafted fabric, which will be debuted this weekend at Quilt Market in Minneapolis. I so, so want to go! But we've got some family obligations and no way to squeeze the ten hour round-trip in betwixt them. Sigh...

About that little pocket, though; it's just one example of the careful attention that Laura gives to each detail of her patterns. The Rowan Tee pattern offers more than 100 combinations to create your own unique top and shows you a cool little trick for getting a professional looking pocket hem every time. This is the sherpa-lined hoodie that I made using this pattern last fall.

The hat that he's wearing is one that I made for Stylo last spring:)

Laura's patterns make you a better sewer. They are cleverly, carefully written and chock-full of technical details and descriptive photos.

Be sure to check out the other folks on the tour this week and throughout the month! Thanks for stopping by, dear friends. I have missed our chats. Hey, are you on Instagram? If so, consider dropping me a line over there. The link is in the sidebar.