#anAWWyear - August 1947: Make your own "Vagabond Bag and Beret " and more

Vintage issues of magazines such as the Australian Women's Weekly contain great free instructions and patterns for all kinds of crafts, usually homewares or items of clothing and accessories. Each month I'll be showing a few that are available and also making one or more - preferably ones which can also use up stash, as that is a goal of mine for 2017.  

August 1947 contains only a few craft projects.  For knitters, there is a Knitted Box Coat  which is "made with a firm stitch which gives it tailored lines and makes it suitable for sports wear, for the office, or home". It is written to fit a 34-35" bust. 

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 9 1947  p51.

There is also a rather neat convertible sewing apron/bag - wear it while you craft, and then it becomes a project bag. The subhead suggests it would make a lovely gift. The fabric is all cut as sized rectangles, and as the different sections - inside pocket, waistband, etc - could easily be made from contrast fabric it might be a useful way to use up some fat quarters and scraps.

Australian Women's Weekly, Aug 23 1947, p53. 

The craft project I chose to make this month was this cute beret and bag set. 

Why yes, my spring wardrobe does need some variety.
Australian Women's Weekly,  Aug 9 1947, p49.

The picture illustrating the instructions wasn't very clear but the vibe was enough to make me want to try.  The copy was full of how fresh and wonderful this pair was, and promised me that the bag would leave me with a hand free.  The instructions said they could be made in felt or fabric, and as I had a length of green felt in the stash I went with that. I am still not sure what makes this a 'Vagabond' bag, as sadly my online search results were made difficult by the bag brand of that name. 

The bag is made from a long rectangle, with pleats added in the short sides. 

My pleat pinned, waiting to be tacked down.

In order to actually get this done (and as the felt wouldn't fray) I decided to hand sew it all so I could do it during times when I was at the park/watching TV/etc and wouldn't need to rely on my increasingly rare time on the sewing machine. 

Once the pleats are in place, the rectangle is folded so the pleated sides are together at the top, and you sew 9 ½ inches up each side. I would recommend slightly less, as Miss 1947 may have had a more slender arm. At that measurement I couldn't easily push the bag all the way to my elbow. It also would restrict the size of what you can put in the bag, as unless I am very much misinterpreting the instructions the only way in and out are through the side holes. 

Sewing up the side seams.

The top is finished with another strip of felt with studs added. I had a minor crisis here, as while attaching one stud the die decided to get so stuck to the stud it would not come off. I had to cut it away and sew together two pieces each with two studs. As a result it looks slightly unbalanced, but I don't mind too much. Much better than it would look with a big silver die base in the centre. 

The finished vagabond bag.

The beret instructions are typical of patterns of this era when they aren't just rectangles - a basic labelled diagram that is not at all in scale. The beret is a high halo style designed to be worn back on the head, and has two felt bows decorating the side. The instructions, once the pieces are cut out, are very simple. It suggested adding a stiffening, but as my felt was solid I decided that applied if one was using other fabric, and ignored it. Perhaps my halo would be crisper if I had not.

The finished beret. 

The inside of the beret's band is finished with petersham ribbon to stop it stetching out. 

Interior view showing petersham ribbon (and a close up of one of the bows)

And in action: 

The bag is designed to hang off your forearm, as shown here.

The beret sits at the back of the head. 

Ready to step out. 

Me Made May 2017: first 11 days and meeting Gertie!

I decided to try participating in #memademay17 this year, not because I think I can actually do a new piece of me made every day, but because I wanted the kick to do more selfish sewing and create more of the clothes that I've been planning in my head for ages.

The first eleven days have been a mix of clothing items and accessories. I'm starting with day 11, yesterday, first, because it was incredibly exciting. I left the boy with a friend, and headed out to Castle Hill Spotlight with a sewing friend to see Gertie and get my copy of Gertie Sews Vintage Casual signed.

Me with the glamourous Gertie, She is so poised. 

Day 11: My blue snood.

Day 10: A coat made long long ago!

Day 8 - a shirt in a cool blue/green print from Spoonflower.

Day 7: My burgundy jersey tunic dress with self fabric sash, 

Day 6: My bright cherry print tote bag

Day 5: This cool teal asymmetric top.

Day 4: My garnet bracelet.

Day 3: This vibrant fruit skirt, 

Day 2: Satin and lace kimono style dressing gown

 Day 1 and day 9's photos have disappeared already. Oh well. There are more details for each day on my Instagram account ( user name parlour_duck) if you aren't already following me there.

It has been quite a reminder that I've been sewing and making a lot for gifts and for my son but not enough for me!  I've almost run out of clothing items for me and have only a few accessories to go - and then I'll have to start repeating.

A busy making time

I have been so slack about blogging, but like many others I've been busy making things.  I blame the New Year and resolutions involving using up my stash and increasing my sewn wardrobe. I have even joined a Facebook stashbusting group to keep track of how much fabric I use during the year. (So far: sewn 9 metres and bought 2.5 metres)

This post is really going to be a round up of selected makes from the last few months

A baby sunhat in cute spotted cotton

 This adorable sunhat was a gift for a friend with a young baby. I'd forgotten (even in the scant few years since my boy was that small) just how little fabric you need for baby items. The hat was made entirely from a single fat quarter. And that is with a fully lined crowned.

Zinnia hat, from a 1962 Australian Women's Weekly pattern

I've been crocheting some 1960s hats from patterns from the Australian Women's Weekly. Above is a 'zinnia hat' - the original was yellow with red flowers and I've made it in a slightly more subdued fawn and burgundy colour scheme. Below is the charmingly quirky 'field flower hat' which I've made in very close to the colours suggested in the original. I may redo the pompoms on this one, as I think I'd like them to be fuller. Both of these hats will be listed in my etsy shop soon. 

Field flower hat

Close up of the field flower hat 

 Several years ago, I treated myself to a 'I've finally finished the PhD present' and went to a ten day embroidery convention run by Koala Conventions. One of the two-day courses I did was on Mountmellick work and I did a beautiful design. Well I have finally made it up into the bolster cushion it was designed to be!

The finished Mountmellick bolster. 

I also, as part of both stashbusting and increasing my 'me made' wardrobe, made a kimono style dressing gown, decorated with lace I got for a ridiculously low sum at a garage sale. The pattern isn't a true kimono, although the sleeves are very close, and it is from a BurdaStyle magazine Plus Size special (E030, for anyone who might want to look, although I've checked and this isn't available online). It really needs an iron, but what doesn't?

Dressing gown. 

Close up of sleeve under construction - and the amazing lace!

 A lot of my crafting and blogging time has been curtailed by actual paid work now that my son is at preschool two days a week. Still, actual paid work has funded the purchase of some clothing patterns that I really, really wanted, so I hope to be blogging about those makes soon.  I'm also having some bad days on my medications, which eats into the time I have too.

New dresses!

When going through my wardrobe in the #konMari process, I realised I wanted more dresses. Today, I present three new additions to my closet!

The first two were ones which were living in my mother-in-law's warehouse and I was gifted them when we were cleaning up.

The first is a basic loose shape (so it is helped by a belt) but I find the pattern charming and the fabric is comfortable. Incredibly easy to wear. I've dressed it up here with a lovely frangipani head piece made by my talented sister of Tanith Rowan Designs.

Free is the best price.

The second is this striking metallic dress. It is sadly a little bit scratchy around the neck and sleeve hems but I'm willing to put up with that for the awesome retro vibe. I have not worn this out yet and am still pondering how best to style it.

I try not to laugh as the toddler creates behind the scenes havoc

The third dress joining my wardrobe is one I've made myself.  It is my first try making a garment from stretch fabric, using specialty stitches on the sewing machine. For many years I avoided knits "until I got an overlocker" but lately I've been willing to experiment. I'm very happy that I pushed myself, because the machine did better than I expected and it opens up lots of new options for me.

It is an incredibly basic caftan dress sewn from two rectangles of fabric, as explained in this online tutorial. I used stash burgundy jersey, sewing the seams by machine, but doing the neck, sleeve and bottom hems by hand. Dame Esmerelda helped with that process.

Using my dress form to sew the neckline.

You end up with a straight, shapeless dress (with quite nice drapey short "sleeves"), and I personally wouldn't wear it without a belt.

I also made a long belt of the same fabric from the leftovers.  As a change, I added a cloche and a pansy brooch for a 1920s vibe.

I don't usually take outfit photos for the blog and the little boy was very interested in the process. We have quite a few photographs featuring a short photobomber.

Just like this. 

Meet "Dame Esmeralda" - Duct Tape Dress Form party

I'm doing a Craftsy class that includes a lesson on making a duct tape dress form. As you cannot do it yourself, the instructor suggested "have a party!" 

And so I did.

Four wonderful friends came around one Saturday afternoon last month (I packed the small boy off with my husband) and they wrapped me in duct tape.

Starting off. 

At this stage I was getting woozy.

Doing the sleeves.

Not long after we did the sleeves they cut it off me and we seem to have neglected pictures in favour of stuffing. While we did, we had a lively discussion about what to name my dress form and somehow we decided on Dame Esmeralda. I cannot quite recall all the conversational ramblings we took to get there. 

Done! 

Dressing her up in one of my shirts. Very happy with the fit.

Face off. 

There is something very confronting about seeing your body in a three dimensional likeness, especially when you are plus sized and not 100% happy with your body all the time. 

Esmeralda is going to help me fit clothes that I'm sewing but also help me design a crocheted cardigan. I've never actually had a dress form before so I'm looking forward to it. If I was going to do this again I might wait til Winter (it did get uncomfortable) and I might consider a less shiny silver armour duct tape. But these are minor issues. Overall, a very successful afternoon's work and at least one of the others is pondering making her own.

My first "pretty"

I planned to use cloth nappies on N. before he was born. Going to various pregnancy expos, we found a prefolds plus covers system that we liked and invested in that. It wasn't until N was about six months old that I joined a cloth nappy community on Facebook.

That one quickly led me to a Buy/Swap/Sell group. Then some more. And so began my obsession with pretties. A "pretty" is a nappy with embroidery, custom tie dye, ruffles, or any other embellishments rather than a "workhorse" nappy which refers to a more plain everyday nappy (although with the amazing minky fabrics out there, they can still look pretty but not be a "pretty").

I bought one pretty for N that I couldn't resist - there's a hippopotamus on my roof eating cake - as I adored that book!

It isn't easy to photograph N from behind; he recognises the camera sound. 

It it hard to resist really cute or apt pretties. I'm currently resolutely NOT buying this awesome Lego Superman pretty. Or this Marvin the Martian kaboom! nappy.

I quickly decided that I was going to have to try making my own. In fact, I decided I'd make a pretty cover for my fitteds and prefolds. It has turned into quite an investment. The search for a pattern. Deciding to buy a snap press. Buying an embroidered nappy cut of minky, and some PUL (the waterproof layer). But here it is! One of my Finish It Friday projects from last week (two hours of time ALONE in the house was amazingly productive. Who would have thought.)

Back view, with spider embroidery. 

The front view. You can see the inside layer of darker PUL.

Closer view of the snaps. I'm enjoying the snap press.

I ended up buying the MBJM Sunbeam nappy pattern, as I've bought and liked other patterns from her. It is however a trim nappy pattern, and so unfortunately while the nappy fits N well, it didn't work over the fitteds. I'm planning on making an insert for this to use it as a nappy, and investigate some other options for cover patterns. One option is to make the crotch on this pattern wider, another is to look for a pattern specifically designed to be a cover.  

Assuming I get some more sewing machine time, I'm going to make others. As I won't be investing in a machine embroidery machine, I'll either buy some nappy cuts pre-embroidered or experiment with hand embroidery. I'm worried hand embroidery won't stand up to the rigours of washing that the nappies need though.

What do you think would look cute on a nappy? Spoonflower now prints on minky, so it opens up some options...

Recent baby makes

I've actually managed to get some sewing done over the last month!  Mostly items for the little guy, because they work up relatively quickly. It is starting to get easier to do some craft than blog while he's awake, so some of these items have been finished for over a month.

Bibs - I was given a few handmade bibs as a leaving/baby present from one of the customers at work. I didn't really use bibs at first - I just let N. drool and spew over clothes. I had way more clothes for him than bibs.  When he started solids I knew I'd need more but was very time crunched so just decided to buy some.
And I hated them.
About the same time, my sister gave me a lovely Poppy and Belle bib which reinvigorated me to make some of my own. I bought a metre of terry towelling at Lincraft and went to work. My first three are backed with some lovely tales of Beatrix Potter fabric, and unfortunately they turned out a bit wonky. The next three have some cottons from my stash that are less interesting and turned out much more even. Possibly better this way, as the cute print distracts you from the flaws, whereas the plainer fabrics are more unforgiving!

The bibs draped over his high chair - vintage, as it used to be his father's!

Then I used some of the extra terry towelling to make some simple square face/hand cloths for post-meal clean up.


Jackets - many months ago I wrote about UFOs in our old blog, Jupiter Hollow. (And by "many months", I mean "back in 2012".) Listed as 'still want to complete' was a child's cardigan. Finally finished that! I needed to get some extra wool for the collar and while it isn't an exact match I think it is barely noticeable and blends well.

Finally, finally finished!

I made Nate another jacket from a falling-apart dressing gown (handed down to me from my grandmother) consisting of gorgeous narrow woven panels of fabric, Japanese I think.

The lovely fabric I reused for the jacket. 

The pattern I used, from Making Baby Clothes by Robert Merrett (a long ago present from my sister) used a zipper, but I wanted buttons. I ended up using wooden toggle buttons and created buttonhole loops with detached buttonhole over a magic ring.

A close up so you can see the detail of the buttonhole loop. 

The sleeves are too long, but they show the dark lining when rolled up, and this way the jacket should take him all through this winter.

N models his new jacket. 

I have also made a pair of fleece pants (just visible at the bottom of this photograph) but the pattern needs a lot of tweaking - the pants are wearable but I'm not sure I want them to be 'outside' pants yet and I definitely don't want to blog about them yet.  The jacket however I'm very pleased with. He's fascinated by the drawstrings for the hood, and I hope my grandmother will be very happy with the new life of the dressing gown. I've got a small amount of that fabric left, and I'm trying to think of something else to make with it. Any suggestions? I had thought a little clutch purse, but then remembered that I am not a clutch purse type person!