My New Look 6913 and New Look Summer Pattern Picks

New Look 6913 View C.

I bought this hankie print fabric on my Tokyo trip and am working on a matching dress with gingham trim for Gigi. I love this hankie print voile fabric. This top will be cute with my khaki skinny cargos and my brown gladiator sandals for everyday wear.

Read below for my patterns picks and tips on working with New look patterns. New Look patterns are the budget spin off from Simplicity patterns.

New Look Patterns are usually pretty simple and straightforward. I find a lot of their patterns to be the the simple wearable types that you grab for everyday wear.

If you live near a US Joann fabric store, these patterns are all on sale this weekend, 5 for 5 dollars !

I made  View C for my top and think it's a great basic summer blouse.

When shopping for any of the commercial patterns, I would suggest you always look at the LINE DRAWINGS on the envelope. It is hard to see past the terrible fabrics on the envelopes if you don't, and you might pass up a great pattern!

My next suggestion for working with commercial patterns is always to make the pattern at least one size, or maybe even two sizes smaller than the patterns specified on the envelope for your measurements!

According to my measurements I should be wearing a size 14 in this pattern but I made it in a size 10 and it fits perfect.

Read below to see my summer pattern picks by New look:

My pick for this New Look 6122  knit dress pattern above is view A. I have to have bra friendly styles or the dress will just sit in my closet. I would make it in a tiny stripe since I am crazy about stripes. Or perhaps make my own print with some Balinese fabric stamps I bought recently? Hmmm......

For New Look 6648 I love the sleeveless version D. It is another knit pattern which is perfect for summer. View D reminds me of a top I bought at Urban Outfitters in a pretty pinkish taupe color. I wore that top to death!

I love the vintage feel of these New Look 6100 shorts. View B would be great is a drapey fabric like rayon challis. That would be very forties. View A would be cute in a light blue chambray.

I would make view E+ J+ L in New Look 6774 above in a cute blue or red seersucker for summer. I love the pockets! I would sew some cute buttons to the pockets.

I think New Look 6950 View A above would look great in a navy and blue knit stripes, giving it a fun nautical look. I would make the matching pants in navy linen.

You could sew some buttons on one shoulder and down the edges of the pockets to give it a sailor vibe.

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Mod Podge a Birdhouse! Spring Crafts With Kids:

My Birdhouse

Decorated and decoupaged bird houses are an easy and fun craft to do with my kids in springtime. We have lots of birds in the yard and they often use the birdhouses. 

I made my birdhouse by cutting little strips of fabric and gluing them down with Mod Podge. When they dried we painted a couple of coats of the Mod Podge on to seal the birdhouses.

You could also paint some polyurethane on the houses to make them really weather resistant.

I want to be a bird so I can live in one!

Lily's birdhouse

Lily made her house from some Amy Butler scrapbook paper we bought for 3.99$ at TJMAXX.

Hers looks very modern! 

Gigi's birdhouse

Gigi went freestyle on her little birdhouse. After meticulously painting it over and over she tore up some pieces of the paper and glued them down. She was very happy with the result!

If you don't want to hang up the birdhouses they make a cute outdoor table decoration.

These birdhouses were 3.99$ at the craft store.

Yikes, those are my Japanese tailor shears!

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Early 20th Century Circus Costumes: Research For A Play

Source: chicagohistorymuseum.tumblr.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

I work sporadically for a local theatre which has been in operation for many years. We have some very talented people invloved and the actors ( at least the ones I have spoken to,) don't mind the hour plus drive to Santa Paula from Los Angeles because our little theatre here puts on quality shows.

Source: littleredfox.typepad.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

I haven't blogged about my job as a costume designer at the theatre before and I thought some of you readers might be interested in what goes into putting up a show. I will be working hard for the next month on this project so if you are interested stick around to see my progress.
The play is called
The Elephant's Graveyard.
The tragic tale of a struggling circus in a small town in Tennessee in 1916.

Source: terrificnewtheatre.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

I am sharing some of my photos from research I have done from my Circus History Pinterest board.

Source: travelphotobase.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Enjoy these historic photos!

Source: shutterstock.com via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

Source: retronaut.co via Justine@sewcountrychick on Pinterest

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Les Petites Souers: My Signature Look? Vintage, French and Refashioned

I love creative challenges because they sometimes make you dig deep to figure out who you are creatively. Of course, as creative beings we are always changing but for me, there is one influence which often guides me.

I have been deeply influenced by France. When my older kids were little we bought a small 16th century village house in a town called Pezenas in the south of France in the Languedoc departement  and restored it. I was lucky enough to spend six summers there. They are some of the best memories for me.

I loved to sit in cafes and I loved the style of the French. Yes, they do really wear these striped tops ! I brought back some for the family and we have worn them out.

This dress I made for Gigi was inspired by the French Mariniere top originally made for French sailors.

It was made from a plain white adult t shirt I refashioned. I hand painted the stripes and added the small wooden anchor buttons.

The bistro chairs and table are from a real Parisian bistro and they are very old. I bought them in a little village called Isle Sur La Sorgue, which has a big outdoor antique show every August. 

The Ricard Pastis bottles were also brought back in my suitcase years ago. I used to love sitting at the Cafe Moliere in Pezenas to have a glass of the cloudy milky colored Pastis in the heat of summer.it was clear in the bottle but when mixed with water, it turned white. The licorice taste is such a specific one. It's so refreshing, mais tres forte!

This little dress was very time consuming! Painting the stripes took awhile but I love it!

Lily's ensemble is sewn from a 1943 sewing pattern. The shorts are made from vintage denim I bought at an estate sale . The fabric is a Japanese knit. I loved the hand painted look of the stripes. That and a post about hand painting stripes on fabric from one of my favorite children's wear bloggers You and Mie, inspired me to try hand painting the stripes on Gigi's t shirt dress .

Une belle jour chez nous!

P.S.

If you are stopping by to post on Sew & Tell saturday, sorry I didn't get the post up. This project took me until the last minute!

Have a bon week- end!

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1940's Romper For Me And Springtime In The Garden

The past few weeks I haven't made much for myself and I felt like making something fun for spring.

I have always wanted to make myself a romper so I did.

I have been working away on projects for Gigi and Lily's spring collection, entering them in The Project Run And Play Flickr pool and I have yet to win a challenge over there! It's good fun, anyway. This is the last week so hop by and check it out! I will be posting my project on Friday.

 I also have some guest post tutorials I am working which I am pretty excited about!

The weather has been gorgeous and we have been spending a lot of time outdoors with Gigi, our almost three year old, trying to savor the brief time of her early childhood while her siblings are at school. It goes so fast...

I have to show you one of Richard's roses. He is an amazing gardener.

Fun in the garden this week....

watercolor fun...

learning to catch the ball...

watering the tomatoes..... or is it tomatos?

Back to sewing now....

I quite like how my romper way turned out, as you can see from my pleased expression above.

Yes, I am over forty and  and no I don't give a hoot if people think over 40 is too old for a romper!

The description on the pattern from the 1940's describes this outfit as a "playsuit". Somehow those two words, playsuit and romper do feel a bit too, juvenile perhaps?

How about short suit ?

It was sheer luck it happened to fit almost perfectly as I cut it straight from the pattern and didn't fit it first. I wear a size 16 in 1940's patterns. After getting over the initial shock of wearing a size 16 in anything, I have realized that any size 16 patterns from the 40's always fit me pretty much perfectly and I rarely have to adjust them or make a muslin. 

Love that!

I usually have to adjust modern patterns a lot.

There is a tiny gap below my waist. I'll have to add a hook and eye or cut down on the bread!

I love how 40's patterns fit with the high waistline. And I love the sleeves from the forties!

I will have to wear this "playsuit" on my confident day as it is very LOUD!

The fabric is a vintage madras I had in my stash that I bought for around two dollars.

Once again, I was lucky as I didn't lay out my pattern on the fabric to see if I had enough. As it was, I had to piece together the scraps left to make the undercollar. I had literally NO FABRIC left after I cut all the pieces.

This is our dog Milo. We call him Smilo as you can see from his cheeky grin!

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