Giveaway Winner...

Hello lovely readers! I hope that you're having a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I know I am. Before I announce the winner of this week's giveaway, I'd like to touch on a few things first.

I just read a wonderful article over on Va-Voom Vintage about Amelia Earhart. Brittany always writes the most well researched posts in her regular "Friday Fashionista" post and this one was no exception.

Also, thanks to Katherine of We Sew Retro for posting a link to the most amazing blog post full of 1940's lounge fashion photos from Life Magazine. The blog is written by Johanna Öst of Sweden and I highly recommend checking it out.

Also, here in the U.S. it is Memorial Day weekend. This typically means spending time with family, an extra day off work, and lots and lots of grilling and picnicking. I would just like to take a quick moment to remember that this holiday is to memorialize the sacrifices of fallen U.S.soldiers from all wars and conflicts.

And now for the winner of this week's giveaway.Thanks to everyone who participated; I always love reading your comments. Today's winner as chosen by the random number generator is Tina!
Congratulations! You win your choice of any two pdf patterns or booklets from Mrs. Depew Vintage! But wait, there's more! Tina also recently won the Ooh la la Pin-Up Sew-Along Giveaway (What are the odds!?) so I thought I would pick two winners this time! The second winner is Megan, of Megan and the (sewing) machine.
I'll email you both to find out which two patterns you would like to win.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I'm on vacation, but that doesn't mean we can't have a little fun!

Hello from sunny, beautiful Virginia! That's right, I'm in the U.S.! Hurrah! My wonderful in-laws were going to come visit us in Norway this summer and then decided it was just as fun to fly us to them as it was to fly out and see us, so here we are! I have the greatest family! I even got to go to some garage sales today for the first time in 3 years, though the only thing I wanted to take home with me was the box full of free kittens I found. I think I died a little inside when I walked away from that one.


Anyway, I'm currently on an unfamiliar computer and blogging is a bit weird when you have no way to upload photos. So what can I do? Well, I though just to have a bit of extra fun, I would have a giveaway!


Since the only thing I have access to for the next 2 weeks is my portable hard-drive (full of the gold mine that is Mrs. Depew Digital) I'll go with that. How about winning your choice of any two digital patterns or ebooks? It's not a box full of kittens, but it'll do, wont it?

To enter the giveaway you can do one or all of the following, just leave a comment for each entry to get your name in the proverbial hat.

1. Tell me which  Mrs. Depew Vintage Pattern is your favorite. You can find them all here.

2. Become a follower of A Few Threads Loose on Twitter, Google, or Bloglovin'.

3. Like A Few Threads Loose on Facebook.

4. Like Mrs. Depew Vintage on Facebook.

5. Mention this giveaway on your blog.

I'll announce the winner this Saturday the 26th.
Good luck!  

1930's Evening Gowns

Recently on the Sew Weekly there was a wonderful post with photos of two truly amazing 1930's evening gowns.

Image courtesy of the Sew Weekly.

The post went live just as I was wrapping up the editing of my own 1930's French evening gown patterns and I was so re-inspired that I just had to share.

I have a major case of what I'm starting to call "Side effect salad bar", which is basically little bit of everything from the long list of fun things that go along with the steroids I'm on to treat a chronic pain condition. So I'm not going to write much, just post pretty pictures for us all to enjoy.

#1121

Sadly sold, but was available here.

#1123

This dress look like it would be worth every penny. Courtesy of Tovas Vintage on Etsy

#1125

#1120

This amazing gown os for sale on etsy here.

#1122

Image courtesy of Decades INC.

#1124

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
~Moi~

What the heck is a PDF and why you might like them...

Today I'd like to talk a little about PDF patterns and e-books. With the digital world quickly catching up to the world of print, the term PDF comes up more and more often.

For those of you not familiar, a "PDF" is just a type of file, (like jpeg, tiff, or png ) and stands for "Portable Document Format." It's essentially a file like any other you might encounter and usually requires Adobe Reader to open, (which I might add, is on just about every computer these days).

Underwear and Lingerie E-book.

The great thing is, wonderful, beautiful, rare things are being digitized and protected from decay and disappearance and made available at the click of a button for research, education, or just pure pleasure. E-books in pdf form may be read on your computer desktop, kindle, iPad and even most new cell phones! They can also be printed out and enjoyed away from a digital device.

1920s Tunic Dress - an instant download, print at home sewing pattern.

PDF sewing patterns can be downloaded with the click of a button and printed out at home. No need to pay shipping costs to get a pattern from anywhere in the world. Just download, print and get to work!

Fashion Dos and Donts for the Plump E-book.

Many of you have used PDF patterns by now but I still often get questions like, "How does a download pattern work?

Most "digital (PDF) sewing patterns, new or vintage, are just images of parts of a pattern that, when printed and taped together, make a full-sized pattern ready to cut out and sew.

The quality of the pattern that prints out depends on the skill and experience level of the person creating the pattern, and perhaps how good their design software is. I have downloaded patterns that were simply scans of an original, and some that have been designed with professional pattern drafting software. One is not necessarily better than the other, though the price and image quality are usually quite different.

A Print-at-Home instant download pattern taped together.

Any pattern from Mrs. Depew Vintage described as an instant download, print-at-home pattern will look like the above when you print it out and tape the pages together. They are designed to print on your home printer to A4 or US letter-sized paper. Once put together, they are full-sized, ready to cut and sew patterns.

Other digital patterns can be drafting instructions or diagrams that you can print at home and draft your own patterns from. Take for instance this pattern:

Depew 1123

The above is a Draft-at-Home pattern from Mrs. Depew Vintage.
To get a full-sized pattern you first print out the measuring band and miniature pattern, then use them to draft the pieces scaled to your measurements, much like the Lutterloh system.

You can read all about the different types of patterns available for download from Mrs. Depew Vintage on our pattern types FAQ page.

Panties, Panties, Panties!

I have been waiting ages for some lovely stretchy satin to arrive in the mail and finally, right before the weekend, it arrived! It was followed a day later by my elastic (not in the color I thought, but ok) and I was FINALLY able to sew the Betty High Waist Panties I've been so looking forward to.

Image courtesy of Ohhh Lulu...

And then I proceeded to FAIL at said panties twice. Yup, twice.

Allow me to expound. The pattern is perfect. Flawless. I'm an idiot.
Way back in my muslin sewing stage of the pattern, the panties fit perfectly and I though no more of muslins and testing. Well, that was stupid. When the fabric finally arrived I failed to notice that the "stretch satin" that I ordered had almost no stretch to it whatsoever compared to the jersey that I had sewn my muslin with. How did I miss this? I blame the Chardonnay. I got everything but the elastic sewn in before I tried them on and realized that they wouldn't fit over my hips. FAIL.
So I tossed them and started over.

The second time I made them I got everything right up until the FOE, (fold over elastic.)  I had never sewn FOE before but I read Sarah's instructions, everything made sense, and I proceeded to sew the elastic on completely WRONG. So I threw those away too.
Has this every happened to you? Have you completely messed up the simplest thing in the world for no foreseeable reason?

At this point, I was pretty nonplussed. I got online and looked up the side effects of the higher dose steroids the doc has me on to fix some crazy painful nerve damage and sure enough, "Trouble focusing, nervousness, dizziness and complete stupidity" were right there on the side effect list. We're going to just blame the roids, o.k.?

Today after a double latte, a couple of hugs, and some Franck Sinatra, I gave it another try and was able to sew a proper pair of Betty High Waist Panties! Hurrah! The growing pile of misbegotten panties in my trash was really starting to worry me!

I love how they came out and now I can't wait to give Sarah's Signature Ruffle Bloomer pattern a go. But I'm going to have to wait because last night I found out I'll be flying to the U.S. in week and I have a lot to do to get ready!

In the meantime, have any of you finished your bra and corset from the Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along? How about the Betty High Waist Panties? I've seen a little from a few of you but I'm getting ready to do a round up post so you can all show off your work! More on that soon...

What Mrs. Depew has been up to...

This month when I haven't been substitute teaching at my local school or staking out my mail box in anticipation of the fabric I need for finishing my Betty High Waist Panties, I've been in my studio madly working away at pattern after pattern. Here's a little of what I've been up to.

Today I woke up very early (gotta love the sun coming up bright and early at 6 am... soon it won't even bother to set and I'll have to sew new blackout drapes for the bedroom.) and put the finishing touches on a new pattern.

Many of you have asked for dresses before and I've been working off and on with this one for a looooong time. Now I can finally show it off!

Depew 3005

This dress pattern was so fun to work with. It's based off of a vintage French pattern from 1959 and features tons of bias binding, bias trimmings and a faux front closure. It's my first pattern that prints out as a pattern sheet with the pieces laid out over each other (much like the Burda Fashion patterns) and prints as only 9 pages (my printer just heaved a huge sigh of relief, the poor thing).

Aside from working on the above, I seem to have been stuck on the 1920's. I don't know how it happened but I released 4 new 1920's digital reproductions. I'm beginning to think that here in the land of baggy non-fashion I could totally get away with the flapper look. I think I'll test my theory with a cloche:

Depew 1020

When I got my hands on the original of this pattern, I was absolutely delighted to find that it included a fold out booklet advertising the newest patterns from Pictorial for 1925. I included a digital copy of it with the pattern because it was just too good to keep to myself. Here's just one page of many.

We were recently discussing robes, and I know many of you are still hoping for a glamorous 1940's style robe pattern (don't worry, it's in the works!) but I'm personally a really big fan of the 1920's style kimono robe, then known as a negligé (and may have 2 or 3 silk ones tucked away in my closet).

Depew 3004

And then there's the little step-in/ teddy that one must wear underneath one's gorgeous kimono robe.

Depew 3003

And the dress one would wear outside when not prancing about the house in lingerie:
(I work from home so unless I go out, I'm almost always decked out in some kind of vintage slip and silk robe ensemble. Why not, right?)

Depew 3001

Whew! I HAVE been busy! I'm exhausted just looking at the list of things I've gotten done. I think I'll go check the mail one last time and then curl up with a good book and a glass of rosé.

Ooh La La Pin-Up Sew-Along Super Fancy Extended Edition!... Sewing your Muslin

Wow it's been over a week since I've posted, I'm sorry! I've been overwhelmed with work and lots of substitute teaching and have hardly stopped running, running running for days!
Bad Anna...
But I'm back, and while I'm still waiting for my lovely fabric to arrive so I can complete my Betty High Waist Panties, I have gotten my muslin whipped up.

When my fabric gets here I'll be making my center and back panel from my woven satin (the same fabric I made my bra and corset from) with lovely cream stretch panels on the sides. So for my muslin I used a woven fabric (cotton voile) for the front and back and some jersey for the sides.

I cut my front and back panels on the bias as the pattern recommended and the side panels with the grain.

The muslin went together in minutes, literally! I think it maybe took me 1/2 hour to whip the whole thing together after cutting and sewing... I love it when that happens.

When I saw the finished product my first impression was, "Oooh, these look rather big. Will I look funny in these pretty Easter pastel pants?

And then I tried them on and I have to tell you, even as a muslin, in a very silly pastel combination of whatever I had laying around in my stash, these panties looked DEAD SEXY on me.

And that's with all of my latest prescription side effects having me a good 10 lbs over my limit and all the major mirror insecurities that go along with it. DEAD SEXY, I tell you.

I can't wait to make these in every color under the sun. Sarah, my dear friend, you have designed an AWESOME pattern.

For Sarah's complete instructions walking you through the muslin process and all the rest of the High Waist Pantie Sew-Along posts check out Ohhh Lulu...