A Mish-Mash of Delightful Things

Hello lovely readers, today for you I have a bit of this and a bit of that, all hopefully of some interest to you.
Firstly, a quick reminder that entries for the Lingerie Sewing Competition sponsored by Ohhh Lulu and myself will need to be submitted to Craftsy by Friday, February 8th. (If you're desperate for more sewing time before the deadline, let me know and we might consider moving the deadline back a bit).

A few of you have already added your submissions and let me just say, they are all so beautiful and voting is going to be close!

In other news, the clever and talented writers behind two really amazing vintage blogs, Brittany of Va-Voom Vintage and Bunny of Bunny's Victory have released the first issue of their new magazine, "Hey Doll!" This free digital magazine is an absolute treasure trove of vintage goodies, outfits, tutorials, tips and everything else that you could want!

Photo courtesy of Hey Doll! Magazine.

You can read it online using a computer or any mobile device. I pulled it up on my iPad and read it over my morning coffee. I can't recommend this magazine enough!

Also, the talented Maddie of Madalynne.com (one of my favorite blogs) just posted some lovely pictures of her most recent lingerie sewing designs and they're really a must-see.

And to end today's post here are some lovely sketches of lingerie designs from a French 1948 lingerie sewing pattern catalog in my collection. They have really inspired me this weekend.

I hope that your Monday is as lovely and peaceful as mine has been!

Sew French: 6 November 1949

I'm back from vacation with epic jet lag and a head cold, but I've hit the ground running anyways. With my first post back from vacation I'd like to start with a new segment I'll be doing here on A Few Threads Loose called "Sew French".

I have an amazing collection of vintage French sewing magazines and patterns and since I get so much enjoyment from them, I thought I would share bits of pieces of them with you.

Today I would like to share some lovely images and sewing patterns from "Le Petit Echo de la Mode." This edition was printed November 6, 1949.

It has lovely fall fashions and focuses mostly on really beautiful coats (and dresses) like these:

Sewing patterns for all of these fashions were available to order by mail. They are harder to find but I just love French patterns from this era; the styles are so timeless.

My favorite image from this edition is below, showing the latest style of accessories in suede.

Translation: "Suede in your adornment."

And of course, I have for you the two patterns included in the issue which I have given a "digital bath" as I like to call it.

 The first below is "Paniers et Corbeilles" or "Baskets and Trays." The measurements given for these are in centimeters.  If you don't read French and need the instructions, you can use Google Translate to make some sense of it.

This second pattern translates as "The baby area" and includes a "sleeping sack," "bags for hot water bottle and bottle" "a mat" and most interesting of all, a "walking belt" to keep the wee one from wandering too far on your daily promenade. Essentially it's a toddler leash.

Are these as fascinating to you as they are to me? Would you make any of these things? I would love to know! I have so much fun digging these things up.

I hope you have a lovely weekend.
~Anna~

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?

Modes et Travaux

From my collection.

Most of you have probably seen this beautiful copy of Modes et Travaux here on A Few Threads Loose before.

From my collection.

The covers of these magazines starting with the 1920's going through the 1950's are so beautiful, I just had to share a few more of them.