Boredom leads to giveaways...

I'm bored. My husband left at 3:00 this morning to catch a ferry to Denmark as the first leg of a two day motorcycle trip to the UK. So naturally I'll be anxious and incapable of concentrating until I get the phone call tomorrow that he's safe at his hotel.
So I'm doing a nice little giveaway to get my mind off of things.
I'll be giving away one free pattern PDF of your choice from my etsy shop to one lucky winner.
I'm a huge fan of pdf's because sometimes you just don't want to wait for the mail, you want to sew it NOW!
I especially like patterns that are short and sweet. I'm an instant gratification kind of girl, and I don't want to use up all of my printer ink on 60 pages, which is why I chose to make these into PDFs for my shop.

Many of you are already familiar with the beach bra pattern. I love sewing this one and I recently discovered it looks great with a nice vintage pair of overalls.

Then there's the flight cap pattern you might have seen as well. I was lucky enough to get my husband to model it for me, after receiving a nice lecture from him on how to wear it at the proper angle.

And my newest pattern that I just finished is a 1940's mitt or fingerless glove pattern. This one is super cute and I'm trying to figure out just how to incorporate it onto my every-day wardrobe. The pattern suggests lace but I can't stop thinking black suede... we'll see.

To enter the giveaway, you don't have to go through the usual hoops of checking out my shop (unless you want to, that is).
All you need to do is become a follower (if you're not already) and leave me a comment telling me what your favorite thing is to sew.
You can also leave a comment to let me know if you became a follower for an extra entry.
For a third entry, you can like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook

What's my favorite thing to sew? I love sewing bras. I don't know why, but I can't seem to resist a vintage bra pattern.

Good luck! I'll announce the winner on Saturday the 14th.

Bad Anna

I'm bad, I know, I'm sorry. It's been a while since my last post. I'm swamped with custom sewing projects and keeping house. Who knew working from home could keep you so busy?!

I realized today that I've been three years today since I first started sewing. I got my machine as a graduation from college gift. I know, that's a bit counter productive but it's what I wanted, and the family all pitched in to get me a wonderful machine that I never could have afforded on my own.
I made my very first garment shortly after my dress form arrived in the mail. I had a lovely piece of vintage printed cotton, and I just started draping it on the form to make a really simple sihouete. I threw in some gathers, a couple of darts to fit it to my waist, and added my first zipper, and an invisible one, to boot. That was that.
And here's how it turned out:

 I was able to line the patterns up almost exactly at the sides, not quite perfectly at the zipper though. The fabric also had a lovely border at the bottom that needed no hemming or seam finishing, top or bottom.
This was of course back in Illinois. I haven't worn it since we moved to Norway, given that it's cold here nearly year round.

 

Damn, I haven't had a tan like that since we moved either. I need to visit home just to get some sun!

So that's my throw back to the past. As far as first projects go, I was pretty darn proud of myself, and still am, I think. My mother said something wonderful to me the other day. She told me that she and I were now equals in sewing skill. I was flummoxed. My mother, who has sewn since she was a little girl, who has restored antique gowns hand needling lace herself, made beautiful wedding gowns from scratch, and who has the answer to EVERY sewing question, considered my skill equal to hers. It was an amazing compliment.
I love my Mommy.

On Beauty

Casey from Casey's Elegant Musings posted a great piece on beauty throughout history today. The post included some videos that I found very fascinating, that outline a bit of the history of women and their cosmetics.
I have to say that I enjoy my morning makeup session as much as the next girl, but I had never thought about how trends had changed over the last 100 years and how cosmetics were affected by wars, liberation, the vote, and many other things. I highly recommend checking out Casey's fascinating post.

The only makeup I wore before I was 20 was a bit of concealer to cover up the random blemish and eye shadow on special occasions. Then I was engaged and my darling mother-in-law to-be introduced me to bare minerals and from then on I was hooked. Now I can barely step out of doors without my face perfectly powdered into submission. Why is that? I was perfectly confident in my appearance until I started using makeup, and now, without it, that confidence is greatly diminished. I'm sure that's just what cosmetic companies depend on. Makeup has become a sort of armor, and without it some of us hesitate to go out in public.

Well, I won't think about that today. I'll think about that tomorrow.
Instead of dwelling on my own insecurities, I'm going to deflect, and show you some beauty advertisements from my own collection that I thought you might enjoy.
France, 1950's:

 Always sure to be in style: with one of the new colors of Gemey powder.

Pattern of the Day

This lovely little pattern for a vestee, purse, and hat all encrusted in sequins just makes me swoon.

It's McCall 1293 and is well worth the having. I would love to try sewing sequins soon, as sort of the icing on the cake of my sewing skills.

There's a copy here on etsy that is in sad shape and has only the vestee and transfers, but I would snap it up in a heartbeat for just the vestee.

Happy Tuesday. I'm off to restock the fridge after a whole week of EVERYTHING being closed here in Norway for Easter. We were surviving on soup near the end so I'll have to plan better next year.

And the winner is...

Well, I would say that my very first giveaway could be deemed a success. I loved reading all of your comments, and some of you even pointed out item's in Erika's Shop that I hadn't seen (and immediately started wanting.
There was some gorgeous vintage polka dot fabric that sold before I could get my hot little hands on it, but I still have my eye on the adorable Women's pajama pattern from the 1940s:

But enough about what I want. I know what you want. You want to know who won the lovely prize package offered by the very generous Erik with a K:

And the winner is... Sara E.K.! Congratulations, Sara! Your comment was number 60, chosen by the random number generator:

Thanks to all of you who entered! I've found that I like hosting giveaways as much as I like shopping and sewing put together, so there will be many more to come.
A special thanks to Erika for offering such a great prize package, and for being such a snazzy vintage girl.

Free.............!

I love the weekend. You know what I love almost as much as the weekend? Giveaways. Free stuff. They just make me smile. So my very first giveaway sponsored by the lovely ErikawithaK ends tonight and I'll be announcing the winner on Sunday, instead of Saturday. Why? To give people all of Saturday to enter, and because I live in Norway, 7 hours or so ahead of many of you, and that would cut it short.

On another note, here are some other great giveaway's that I've scouted out for you to look at, and perhaps win.

Handmade Jane is offering a free pattern by Collete Patterns to one lucky winner over at her beautiful blog.

And Sew Darn Tired is offering a great giveaway package including a pair of vintage sunglasses and a great sewing pattern in honor of her Blogiversary.

(Source)

And it's not a giveaway, but it's certainly a great discount. FinickyFinds is offering 20% off in her shop just for today to celebrate two years of selling on etsy. Just use the coupon code TWOYEARS20 at checkout.
I did, and I got the most adorable pattern. I'm going to use it in an attempt to make my own cami knickers of sorts.

 

Happy weekend, and good luck on the giveaways!

Thursday Treats

I just thought I'd share a bit of the newest jewel in my collection, from the December 1950 Modes et Travaux Magazine.

I've been busy working on a custom dress for a client (Yay, I have clients now!) so most of my creative juices have gone towards making that project perfect. That, and before the fabric arrived to work on the aforementioned, I was putting the finishing touches on my overalls from Anne Adams 4536. More to come on that later when I can wrangle my photographer (husband) to lend his assistance.

Most of this magazine is about chistmas gifts, perfume, and sewing and knitting projects. In French. Heaven.