Monday, April 9, 2012

And the winner is...

Hello lovely readers. Today is Monday, and you know what that means. It's time to announce the winner of the giveaway for my new sewing pattern!


And the lucky winner is: JacieKakes! You can email me afewthreadsloose@gmail.com and I'll send you your pattern! Jacie also happens to have started writing a blog recently and I found myself giggling at the clever way she describes things. You should really check it out! Jacie also commented that the next pattern she would like to see from Mrs. Depew Vintage would be a Geisha style robe like the one in this picture:


And I have to say, you're totally right! This is gorgeous and I've been wanting to do a robe pattern for the longest time! Wow, Lana turner... what a babe.

On my last visit home I recently acquired a beautiful cream silk charmeuse robe almost exactly like this. The lovely thing was coming apart at the seams and I spent most of the last two days carefully hand stitching it back together. Now it's soaking in my laundry room sink and I'm hoping some old stains will work their way out (any tips?)

I'm thinking about starting with a pattern from one of my old German pattern magazines and working my way out from there. What do you think of this one? (robe/ nightgown on the left)


Which leads me to a very important question that I would really like your input on. A robe pattern would be a great deal larger to print out as a digital pattern than what I've done thus far. To save paper and ink for the seamstress using it, I could overlap pattern pieces onto the same sheet (much like a Burda pattern sheet, only with one pattern). My question is, if you've already gone to the trouble of printing it out, is too inconvenient to also have to trace a few pattern pieces off? Or is the right pattern worth all the trouble?

And in other news, here's a quick sneak peak at what I'm working on right now:


If you didn't win the bathing suit pattern and would still like a copy, you can download it directly from my Craftsy shop, (yay instant download!) or you can find it in my Artfire shop, and my Etsy shop.

And don't forget to stop by Ohhh Lulu... to enter the giveaway to win her beautiful new Betty High Waist Panties pattern (yay Sarah!). I've already got my pattern and I'm off to the fabric shop (I've nickname the place, 'the mess') tomorrow to get supplies!

How about you? What are you working on this week?

7 comments:

  1. I'd take that nightgown/robe pattern. As for the question on the saving of paper, I think it would work best if different pattern pieces have different colors to trace. Of course this would require a color printer to transfer the pdf to paper and perhaps this is more trouble than helpful.

    BTW: I used your 1950's Cloche Hat PDF to make an 'Easter bonnet' for my mother. She loves it! Thanks for the pattern.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That nightgown pattern is beautiful! I have no issues with overlapping pattern lines like Burda do. I so often have to make alterations, particularly with single-size vintage patterns that are often smaller sizes (I'm a 40" bust) so nearly always trace off anyway, and I suspect a lot of other people do too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd hate tracing off, but I don't plan on making the robe. I hope you'll continue to not overlap for your smaller patterns. I have a question about your bathing suit pattern: it says that you may add boning for support: how much would you need and what type?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kay, I have used plastic boning so far with this pattern and have been pretty happy with it. I just used about 4 inches at the bust side seams.

      Delete
  4. I admit that I am lazy when it comes to cutting out patterns, so if I don't have to trace it I don't. This means that even after taping together several pieces of paper for a printable pattern, I don't bother to trace on larger paper - I just go ahead and use as is, even if this means printing out several copies due to overlap. So, in my laziness I can make either format work (overlap/no overlap) - but I do prefer when I can just print one copy and start cutting.

    If you are considering this robe, does that open up the possibility of converting some gorgeous dress patterns as well?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Personally I always trace so the less paper the better for me. Also, are you familiar with farbemix kid's patterns at all? they overlap and they're in black & white -- they use a different pattern line for each size since they don't have color. I've never known anyone to have trouble with it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gosh the dresses on the robe page are lovely! I would trace to save printing costs.

    ReplyDelete