…Sewing for My Little Motor Boy

My son sees what I do when it comes to creating and sewing.  Happily for me, he seems to pretty well understand and appreciate it…especially when he becomes the recipient!  He is enthralled and absolutely fascinated by anything that “goes” – planes, trains, and automobiles – so that it gets naturally chosen for him, as if on default.  But not any old print will do.  He likes emergency vehicles especially well and fast sports cars…this second one makes him more like a mini me!  Thus, every so often we come across a printed fabric that makes him particularly happy.  Sometimes he finds the fabrics and sometimes I find them…he does enjoy fabric stores!  Then, it is fun to pair me and my 5 year old up to find what to make with it!  Here’s some of what I have made from the most recent fabric finds which have tickled my son’s fancy.

Now that he is a bit older and no longer a baby, life with him includes more customizing to his age and paying attention to his individuality.  This includes updating his room, too!  So I’ve made him some novelty print ‘race car pets’ curtains that make him giggle and a Disney “Cars” movie flannel pillow cover which he uses every night.  Lastly, I’ve sewed a “Things that go” print shirt which he just loves wearing.  I am mostly proud of the shirt, for several reasons I’ll expound on later, although I did find the curtains to be an interesting learning experience, as I have not made any real home decorating items before.  The best part?  I think I get ‘awesome mama points’ from him for making this stuff – score!

THE FACTS:

FABRIC:  all are 100% cotton – the curtains and his shirt are quilting prints and the pillow cover is a brushed flannel.

PATTERNS:  The pillow cover and the curtains were self-drafted, but the shirt comes from a year 1975 McCall’s #4741

NOTIONS:  I needed lots of thread for all of this (of course), but I also used scraps of interfacing from on hand and some specialty buttons.

TIME TO COMPLETE:  The curtains and the pillow cover was made in several hours’ time awhile back for my son’s previous birthday.  The shirt was made in 4 hours and finished on July 27, 2017.

THE INSIDES:  The little guy’s shirt has fun, random colors of bias tape finishing the inside.  A few seams are merely edge stitched, but the grown-up style facing makes this a very nice shirt.

TOTAL COST:  The curtain Fabric is a M’Liss brand “Traveling with Pets” series, bought from the now defunct Hancock Fabrics back in 2015.  I think I paid no more than $25 for the curtain fabrics, including the contrast remnant.  The pillow cover fabric was bought at Jo Ann’s fabric for a few dollars.  The shirt fabric was a recent ¾ of a yard remnant bought from Jo Ann’s, too, for about $5 and the buttons were on clearance for only 94 cents.

The mathematics I used to draft the curtains became a bit more challenging than drafting garments or purses and belts because it was on such a big scale, but also because I barely had enough fabric to make work.  The same “close call” happened for my son’s shirt – I was literally cutting the front, back, and sleeve with the pieces butting up against one another.  I don’t know why that always seems to happen – every time hubby or our son find a fabric that they really like, there is such a discrepancy of amount left for me to work with it makes my efforts at making something of it a bit more challenging.  The way this happens almost every time I’ve made a project for a family member is so odd!  Anyway, at least I’m putting to good use the last of what is left of these fabrics.

I have no idea if there is a “proper” way to make curtains, but the wide tabs to hang from the rod were relatively easy to make and have a bold yet relaxed, fun look to us.  The tabs and the curtain pulls might look like they are a basic yellow but they have a sneaky fun star print on them!  Nothing, however, can beat the hilarious cuteness of the print to the curtains themselves.  The “newness” of the curtains have worn off on our son by now, but for the first several weeks they were up he could be “caught” staring at them with a look that belies the proof of an inspired imagination and a smile which is between laughing and just plain happy.  After all, we are a family that loves animals, especially dachshunds (look at the giant stuffed “Gertie the dachsie” on the sill), as well as fast cars, so even if I didn’t want to sew this fabric into curtains, I pretty much had to because these are perfectly catered to us!

For my son’s pillow cover, I made it very basic, practically because it was whipped overnight for my son’s birthday.  I probably should have, or at least could have put a zipper into one end, but the pillow cover ended up fitting so snugly over the pillow itself that I didn’t want to take it off so I just hand stitched the opening closed.  I figured correctly that the cover wouldn’t need to come off for it to survive a trip through the washer and dryer.  He sleeps either with this pillow or on it every night (so excuse the worn appearance), and even likes it enough to want to bring it sometimes for sleepovers at the grandparents. Many people asked him what Mommy gave him for his birthday, and many of those who do not sew had a weirdly disappointed reaction when he would excitedly tell them I made something, as if I didn’t give him anything at all.  It’s a shame to see this misunderstanding.  A handmade personally-catered gift can mean so much between the recipient and the maker!

Now to get on to the best part – the shirt!  This is very special for me to sew for him mostly because of the family connections which bring things full circle.  The pattern I used is one that I had given to me by my mother-in law when we were first married.  It is one that she had from her stash.  She herself used this very pattern to make my husband a shirt when he was 5 years old, just like our son is now.  She even had the body measurements written on the pattern for when my hubby was our son’s age, and amazingly the body measurements are all too similar.  Thus, I happily knew it was finally high time to whip up a second generation version of this family pattern.  We explained the connection to our son, but he seems to rather focus on the fun print and details.  Like father, like son…they are both very engineering, detailed oriented persons – our little tyke now has his own version of his dad’s McCall #4741 shirt.

I know the pattern is for nightwear.  However, this pattern deserved to be used (because of the family ties), it was going to fit him without any alterations, and it was dated to a year I’ve never sewn anything from before.  Besides all this, a shirt is relatively classic for a boy of any age.  Even a nightshirt, in vintage terms, can pass as street wear easily and a novelty print can make it too fun to just restrain it to indoor-only wear.

One of the most entertaining aspects to a fabric store is definitely the button section.  My son certainly agrees!  He frequently wants to pick out buttons, and although I have such a generous stash of vintage notions, every so often the need for a store bought item arises and our son happily rises to the occasion.  I will say he does do very, very well for a 5 year old when it comes to finding the perfect button for both some of my own projects as well as his own.  In other words, yes…he picked out his own buttons for this shirt.  They are large planes in his favorite color red.  They don’t exactly match with the ‘theme’ of the shirt, but those buttons give him a special sense of personal pride in the making of this shirt.  He himself had a part in it, and he hovered over my shoulder watching me sew the shirt, so yes he did have a big part in making this.  He likes to brag about this fact, too.  No store bought shirt could have such a bonding, empowering influence!

My title is partly borrowed from a series of 1910 to 1920’s era books which were popular with the youth back when motor vehicles were the newest and most exciting ‘thing’.  There was the earliest and most popular “Motor Boy” series, as well as the “Motor Rangers” and (for the young ladies) the “Motor Maids” which came a bit later.  These are two books currently in our collection and date to 1911.  I cannot think of a better attribute for my son at this point in his life than calling him a “motor boy”, too.  Even in our modern age, the fascination with things that carry us, transport us, and help us travel faster than our basic human capabilities still never fails to captivate.

I do have plans for some fabric on hand to make our son the matching robe, as well as those amazingly dated bell bottom pants which are also part of the pattern for his shirt.  Between his growing so fast, the amount of clothing for him we receive from the grandparents, and the low cost of many kids’ clothes, the greater percentage of his closet is store bought, unlike my own wardrobe I must admit.  I can only sew so much!!! However, the handful of items I do sew for our little man gives me a reason to make sure and keep up sewing items for him and getting him involved with what I do in a large part of my life.  Sewing for the younger crowd is its own wonderful inspiration.  We need the next generation to continue stitching, creating, and imaging in terms of fabric!

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Halloween 2015 – Me and My Cowboy

Halloween is a bigger deal than it used to be in my life now that our little one is actually old enough to realize what it is about and enjoy it.  I’ve also realized it does give me a very good reason to sew something for my half-pint and not just myself.  In 2015, I didn’t do that much sewing for Halloween, but enough to be proud of and count as projects to share.

My outfit wasn’t much, just something I put together at the last minute.  I dressed as some sort of punk, dark, vintage-style housewife, in an original 50’s blouse, a pencil skirt, platform heels, and a handmade apron with dachshund featured print.  Yes, that is purple hair I sported for the night.  However, my son’s outfit received most of my attention.  He went as a 1940’s cowboy, with part vintage, part handmade, and the rest being items from my childhood for a special kind of outfit.

THE FACTS:

FABRIC:  For the cowboy: ½ yard of super clearance polyester suede with a metallic printed wrong side; For my apron: a 100% cotton M’Liss print, exclusive to the now-defunct Hancock Fabrics store.

NOTIONS:  I had all I needed for the cowboy vest and chaps, and for my apron I bought skinny bright orange single fold bias tape.

PATTERN:  A vintage original Butterick 2744, year 1943, was used as the basis for the cowboy chaps, and the apron used the “Cosmopolitan” pattern from the book “A is for Apron” by Nathalie Mornu, published 2008.  (See this post to see my last apron from this book – I’m a big fan of it!)

TIME TO COMPLETE:  The cowboy outfit parts only took me about 3 hours hours in one evening on October 29, 2015.  My apron was finished on Halloween, October 31, 2015, made in 3 hours, too.

THE INSIDES:  The cowboy outfit is a costume so I didn’t do anything fancy inside, my apron is all clean finished bias bound.

TOTAL COST:  $2.00 for the suede fabric, and maybe $10.00 for my apron

His hat and six shooter set is mine from when I was his age, the sheriff’s badge on the vest is also mine from a visit to Silver Dollar City.  The shirt was given to us by a dear acquaintance – it a true 1940’s original with embroidery of swirls and hobby horses, fancy pockets, and special buttons.

For the sewn part, I basically took a simple button front vest from my tykes’ wardrobe and traced it out and remade it into the faux suede.  This was easy as pie (which isn’t as easy as some sewing) – just two small side seams and even smaller shoulder seams.  Next the vest was cut and re-shaped slightly to be more open and curved so the front so his shirt can be seen.

My original plans were to only make him a vest, but my hubby said some passing comment sounding surprised as to the lack matching chaps.  I took this as a sort of challenge even though this was not at all what he meant – he just didn’t know what I had in mind.  There wasn’t much fabric to start with and even less after the vest was made…but chaps aren’t a full pants leg, anyway.  So I pulled out a vintage 1940’s children’s pattern from my stash as the basis to cut by – this way I also was testing out the fit of a pattern I wanted to make anyway.  I didn’t have a length of fabric long enough to go all the way up his leg so I merely made a large loop to add on for the top of the chaps’ legs.  The loop is perfect for the chaps to hang, or float, over his jeans.  A length of elastic is tied around his waist with the chaps’ top loops going through, and the rest hanging from that.

A rectangular strip of fabric was sewn all the way up into the side seams, then it was cut into little strips to turn it into fringe.  I love how the metallic “wrong side” makes the fringe look quite neat, bestowing just enough ‘bling’ for a little boy’s Halloween outfit.

Our little “cowboy” was so tickled by his outfit and so proud of himself.  “Mommy made it!” he would tell others on me, but that’s o.k.  Being a cowboy must run in the family.  My Grandma has a picture of her husband, my Grandpa, in a handmade cowboy outfit when he was little, so I’ve been told.  My dad loved playing cowboy himself – his room (when he was my son’s age) had a western theme to it, as I can still see in the cute printed paper lining of his old dresser set.  One of my dad’s favorite Christmases growing up was the one when he was given a western set, and he still remembers the bright red velvet hat that came with the set.  In the old pictures from then my 5 or 6 year old “cowboy” dad looks so much like my son did for Halloween – very cute to see.

My apron is something I’ve been wanting to make for a long time.  The fabric had been bought a while back (maybe a year or two) and the apron pattern has also been on my radar of things to make ever since I bought the book in year 2011.  Now I could combine both into one!  Besides, how could I go wrong with something that combines my favorite things – a dachshund dog printed fabric (I own a dachsie, by the way), an apron, and a design named after one of my favorite mixed drinks, the Cosmopolitan.

This was super easy to make.  I like how the pockets are right over the hips – this way they can’t catch stray food like aprons with center front pockets often do.  I like the slightly vintage “café waitress” aura to it, as well, though this is not as strong with my version compared to the original in the book.  Look at how cute is that fashion themed fabric on the one in the book!  My fabric is pretty darling, nevertheless.  I mean there are cute wiener dogs dressed as a ladybug, police officer, witch, princess, and butterfly!

This is not the best apron for coverage against spills and messy cooking, but it is mostly decorative anyway.  I did slightly change the pattern by both making the inner dip of the U-neckline smaller and having the center back neck closure be Velcro hook-and-look tape rather than a button and button hole.  I also had to shorten the neck straps so the waist ties would be where they should be rather than on my hips.

I went through just over 2 packs of bias tape to go around and around all the edges.  Honestly – that is the hardest and only step that takes up all my time spent to make this apron.  I thought the amount of edging I had to sew would never stop.  This sounds like a Halloween “Twilight Zone” nightmare… the “different sewing dimension where the edges to finish never stops and keeps going…with no end…you can’t take your foot off of the pedal, and the bias tape keeps coming, never lessening…”  Oh, I could have too much fun with this!  Happy Halloween everyone!

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What’s Red and Black and Ruffled All Over?

Why my new “Parisian Dachshund” apron, of course! I’ll bet you would have never guessed that one coming, he he 😉

No really, with all its miss-matching of cultures and objects, this apron has a rocking vintage flair, fun prints, and feminine attitude. I can never get enough of aprons, but this newest one tempts me the most to wear it out for more than just cooking or entertaining. Should I wear this one as a fashion statement, what do you think? I personally think the apron looks best going overboard in matching and accessorizing in the spirit of fun, like I did in my photos…flowers, feathers, large bright earrings, tight black knit-wear underneath, deep red heels, and a big hairstyle! This wild combination shows the outgoing fearless side of me.

Just like for my “Tea for Two” aprons, my “Parisian Dachshund” apron was made into a carbon copy duo: one for me and one for a gift for a family member. I had small doses of both my fabrics and used my high efficiency cutting practices to make two of these highly dramatic frilly versions of a kitchen clothing cover.

As is normal for me, my best aprons are created when I don’t use a pattern. The starting ‘blank’ for this “Parisian Dachshund” apron was to outline an existing rectangular “cobbler’s” style apron which I own already. Then my supplemental fabric, the one with the layers of Fleur-de-lis, roses, dachshund silhouettes, and scroll work, was cut into long wide strips, to be ruffled. All four of the edges were finished on the strips before I ran two rows of loose straight stitches to gather the top about ¼ inch away from the edge.

I’ve always wanted a supper frilly, ruffle apron in forever. I was totally tempted to add two layers of ruffles to my “Parisian Dachshund” aprons, and I cut out two rectangles for a gathered duo, whether I used them or not. After sewing on one layer to the apron ‘blank’ bottom half, two ruffled layers seemed to make it way over the top. Thus, for each apron, I ended up with an extra not-yet-gathered rectangle, and it went towards making the back ties. I made sure to be precise and center two layers of print for the width of each tie. See how nicely the layers of dachshunds, Fleur-de-lis, and roses can be seen so much better on the ties than on the ruffle? By the way, I hate doing ties…but somehow or another I always seem to suck up my disgust and make them well 🙂

Cutting out the two apron ‘blanks’ out of only one yard left me with nothing more than a small triangle of scrap fabric left. This small triangle was slightly adapted and cut into more of a crescent shape and made into a neck band for my version of the apron set. I really enjoy the way that this crescent shape fits nicely around my neck. The two skinny ends come to join into the apron top corners, while the flared middle lays over the back of my neck like a collar. For the gift apron, I used two leftover ties of the ruffle fabric to make ties for neckline to make it easier to get around and over the head and face of the recipient.

Pockets are a must in my book for an apron! I took a liking to a decent sized scrap of black denim, and used it to make pockets for the aprons. Inspired by the interestingly placed decorative, but useful, pockets on many vintage patterns and garment originals, I added a “mother and daughter” type of pocket style to the “Parisian Dachshund” aprons. There is a normal hand sized pocket, monogrammed for a special touch with the wearer’s initial (a “K” for me, and a “B” for the gift apron) in bright red thread. There is a mini, but still useable (for change maybe), pocket hanging over the edge of the bigger one and slightly a step off and above. Both pockets are top stitched down in two rows of the same bright red contrast thread. I love to add little details and fine work to my projects!

This apron is perfectly blended with everything that I love and enjoy: dachshunds, anything French themed, Fleur-de-lis, and aprons. My mom’s side of the family has always had a dachshund in the household – my Grandparents had several, as well as my dad and mom, her sisters (my Aunts), and myself and my family currently own one. These long and short dogs are sweetest companions I know. Our own dachsie is good to everyone, but he is especially close to me, his dog-mommy. Anything French is hard to resist for me, after the wonderful time I had in that country years ago. I can never get enough Fleur-de-lis stuff because it is very symbolic to me in many ways, but especially since it is the symbol of our town’s patron, King Saint Louis IX.

Aprons are very meaningful and special to me, as well as easy but an incredible amount of enjoyment to create. I try to make each apron different and uniquely individual, especially when it comes to giving them as presents, which is my favorite thing to do with aprons! My aprons are not at all something to ‘save’ in fear of ruining them – they get displayed by being worn on a daily basis and getting loved by enjoying using them. The neatest old vintage aprons are always the ones that are stained and torn or threadbare because I can’t help but think of the times they saw and the work they helped out with – in other words an apron can be a tangible memory! Besides, I seem to think of aprons as the best friend of someone who sews or works with fabric – an aprons protects garments while decorating your style for the day, all the while expressing your personality. What an odd but special combination!

THE FACTS:

FABRIC:  Both fabrics are 100% cotton “M’Liss” brand prints, from the “In Paris” line of designs sold at Hancock Fabrics. I only had 1 yard of the red and black scroll fabric used to make the basic apron ‘blank’. The “layered with lines of designs” fabric was used for the ruffles and ties – and I only had ½ yard of it! Scraps from on hand went towards the apron pockets.

NOTIONS:  Thread was the only notion needed and that was on hand in plenty.

PATTERN:  None – I just winged it!

TIME TO COMPLETE:  Quick and wonderful – each apron took about 2 1/2 hours each, and both were done on December 10, 2014.

TOTAL COST:  Should I really address price when it comes to a gift? Anyway, with such a small amount of fabric used to make the two aprons and scraps for the pockets, the price was a very reasonable total.

Three Piece 1940’s Pajama Set for My Hubby

Comfy cozy night wear and lounging attire are oftentimes, for one reason or another, neglected from the sewn projects of busy seamstresses like myself.  Sewing such items in vintage…especially for men…is a whole other unexplored area in the sewing world.  Speaking from my own previous ideas, night and lounging wear are over-looked too often because the final item doesn’t get worn out and about to be seen in public (unless you write a blog post about them!) and thus forgotten amidst so many other tantalizing patterns for dresses, suits, tops, and the like.  However, I have set myself to fill in this gap by sewing a set of tailored, personalized night wear for my hubby using an old vintage 1940’s pattern from my stash.  His pajama set consists of two pants, one matching and one matching/contrasting, and a button-down collared shirt.  Now he can get his rest in soft and vintage handmade style!

THE FACTS:

FABRIC:  Since the pajama set was for him, I let him pick out what he wanted, and he chose a luxurious “M’Liss” brand 100% cotton from Hancock Fabric store.  The fabric design is part of her “Route 66” series, including the plaid.  No doubt the fact that we own a little dachshund of our own influenced his pick of fabric…M’Liss always has the cutest dachsie prints.  This  “Route 66” theme has a definite retro flair which even includes the Gateway Arch from our home town of St. Louis, Missouri!

NOTIONS:  I had all the supplies I needed on hand, except for one extra length of elastic for the second pair of pants.  Being pajamas, it is no wonder they have few requirements and need nothing special to be made.  The shirt’s green buttons came from my stash, the interfacing was here already, as well as the thread, bias tapes and elastic.  

PATTERN:  Simplicity #1635, dating (from the research I have done) to the year 1946.  It a half and half printed/unprinted pattern, meaning it has the punched out dots to mark seam allowances, dart, and fold lines, but it also has printed numbers and assembly instructions directly on the pattern pieces.

TIME TO COMPLETE:  Each of the lounging pants took only 3 hours from cutting to finish – great, right!?  The shirt, or “front-buttoning pajama coat” as the pattern calls it, took a total of 8 hours.  The coat was finished on September 8, 2014; the plaid pair of pants were done on March 8, 2014; and the first pair of pants (not pictured) which match the shirt were made on December 6, 2013, as a St. Nicholas day present for hubby.

THE INSIDES:  The bottom hems on all pieces are finished off with single fold bias tape, but all other seams are either self-covered or double stitched along the raw edge, for a traditional 1940’s finish.  As long as he’s happy with it (and he is), I am!

TOTAL COST:  Let me think…each pair of pants needs just a tad over 2 yards, and the shirt needed just under 2 yards, thus with one yard of fabric on sale at $4.50, the total cost for his sleeping ensemble comes to a total of about $27.00.

The pattern has simplistic instructions but I am very happy with its wonderful design and fit.  It took just a tad bit of fitting time to get his pajama pieces fitting his tall and skinny body type.  I have found that (so far) men’s vintage patterns seem to run generous, so I sort of assembled the pattern pieces around him body and figured out ahead of time where to adjust and take in extra space.  Doing this step of adjusting and fitting the pattern was very enjoyable for me.  I feel that the ability to do this step is the big advantage of sewing for others, with the best part being the pleasure of seeing how well your creation looks on someone else.

     I used the tiny ‘satin’ pins to fold in the fitting darts on the pants pattern.  There is no side seam to the pants (as you see in the bottom left corner of the pattern back, at left) and just two pieces to make the pants, so there is one giant pattern piece which needs fitting.  This giant pants piece ends up fitting smaller than you’d think.  Even still, I took out a vertical dart of about 3 inches, starting at the waist and tapered down to nothing and the pants leg bottom.  Next, I had to take a few inches out of the hip horizontally – the pants had a very high waist.  Hubby needed a few extra inches on the pants leg bottom, otherwise they would have been high-water.  Just be careful with the layout when working with directional prints.  For the first pair of pants, I made the mistake of merely folding over my entire length of fabric, and I ended up with one leg’s print going up, and the other going down -so embarrassing but, luckily, taking nothing away from their wearablity.  For the shirt, I left the girth and length alone, and so I didn’t need to do any pinning in of darts.  The only adjustment here was to slant in the shoulder length 1 inch, thus avoiding what would have been some very droopy sleeves.  I did this similar shoulder/sleeve adjustment in this dress project for myself.  Two inches were added to the hem length of the sleeves to accommodate hubby’s taste and style.

To make the pants, you first sew together the two pants pieces by connecting them at the small, two inch section which is under the front fly opening.  Then you sew together the back crouch before you next join the inner leg seam.  Voila!  This entire step takes me a whole of only 10 or 15 minutes.  Now, the rectangular fly facing piece gets sewn onto the right side of the pant’s fly extension, while the left side gets hemmed and turned in as a sort of self-facing.  The right side fly facing gets turned wrong sides in, top stitched around, and lapped over the left facing.  Both fly facings are tacked down together for 1 1/2 inches from the bottom and 3 inches down from the top waist is you’re doing an elastic finish (which is what my hubby picked out), but the drawstring version calls for an open waistband.  On the first pair of pajama pants which I made for him, I happened to get the proper fly flap closure mixed up, and mistakenly did it opposite sides.  The pants still turned out perfectly wearable, but it made me remember my mistake and realize the layout for next time.  I guess I’m so used to the ladies’ way of right-over-left, instead of a man’s left-over-right!  Between messing up on the fly flap and the direction of the print for pants #1, I made extra sure to get everything just perfect for pants #2.  Look carefully and notice how well the plaid is aligned (see picture).  Now can understand why I never had the heart to take any pictures of pants #1.

     There is a slightly difficult corner to deal with inside the pants where the crouch seam and the fly front meet.  I found it necessary to clip as extremely close to the stitching as possible, then stabilize the spot with a small strip of bias tape.  “A stitch in time saves nine”, so I wanted to do things well now to possibly avoid spending time repairing a ripped crouch seam later.

The shirt has a very basic and easy assembly.  I doesn’t even have the customary back shoulder panel.  However, I did find that the sleeves, and especially the collar and its facings, matched up beautifully.  Not all of the collars I have done fit so well – sometimes (like on this blouse) I have to stretch the collar, shirt, and facings for dear life just to get all the layers to match.  Besides the balance marks matching, I also matched the print for the collars so the two pet driven cars would be lined up on either side.  Another difference with this shirt is the way the sleeves were set into the body.  The instructions had showed to sew in the sleeve before doing the side seam.  I have seen this before on a few other patterns of mine, but never tried it until now, and it was fun to do something different.  Hubby didn’t want, or really didn’t need the pockets (they would just mean more places to check before doing the laundry), so they were left out.  I also eliminated the cuff bands for the sleeves in lieu of a regular hem.  It was strange to see pajamas with sleeve cuff facing pieces…this is usually reserved for suit jackets or clothing which gets lined.  Anyone have any good reasons for sleeve cuffs on pj’s?

       Last, but not least came time for doing the five buttonholes down the shirt front, and, for once, I was really excited to do this step.  Usually for me, making buttonholes is a dreaded event, and they never have turned out that great using a machine which has the A, B, C, D step method.  Not anymore!   A birthday gift from my parents of a pristine late 1930’s Kenmore sewing machine has changed all of my perceptions about buttonholes.  This is because my Kenmore came with a buttonholer machine, an automated attachment that moves the fabric for you – so easy!   All you have to figure out is what size cam you need (such as 3/8, 5/8, or 1 inch) to match your buttons, and drop the right cam in the bottom of the buttonholer.  The feed dogs get covered by a face plate so the buttonholer can clamp the fabric, and, once the foot and needle are taken off, the attachment itself affixes to the machine presser bar.  Then the magic begins.  In 60 seconds or less I was able to have perfect, uniformly sized buttonholes in exactly where I wanted them to be made.  Unless you have used a buttonholer, you might think I am a bit over-talking this attachment, but it really is “the 7th wonder” of the sewing world for those using older non-electronic sewing machines.  All sorts of opportunities for patterns with button features now can easily be made by me with no stress, little work time, and loads of fun!  Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed that hubby’s pajama shirt only need five button holes for his five bright green buttons.  Oh well!  I am chomping at the bit to dive right into some more great blouses, dresses and more needing plenty of buttonholes.  Look for these projects soon.

     Hubby’s pajama set is yet another 1946 project.  This makes a total of 4 makes from patterns of the year 1946.  I suspect that there was a post-WWII boom of both sewing pattern releases and new design ideas.  However, this men’s nightwear pattern is not that unusual, even if it wasn’t from the year 1946.  Vintage/retro men’s nightwear patterns are out there to find if you look for them without spending too much effort.  You don’t even have to spend too much in money, either, because there doesn’t seem to be much of a demand or market for men’s vintage/retro patterns.  Therefore the prices stay (so far, knock on wood) reasonable, unless I happen to start a new trend here!