When I tried to revive this blog a few years ago after drifting away from it (an attempt that didn’t last, as I then went on hiatus for three years), I thought I would expand the subjects I wrote about to give myself an easier time coming up with post topics. Though I planned to continue mostly sharing recipes and kitchen adventures, I also planned to share some of my crafts and some of my travel experiences.
Since coming back to this blog while in corona-quarantine, I did write one post on travel, but I have yet to share any more of my craft projects.
It seems like a lot of people are picking up new hobbies while stuck at home, but as I’m still working 40 hours a week and trying to be active even without going to the gym, I don’t actually feel like I have that much more free time than usual. In the six months before coronavirus hit, I had been taking silversmithing classes, so coronavirus actually took my newest hobby away, as I don’t have any of the equipment at home to play around with while the school is closed.
Over the past month I have been sewing with a bit more fervor and enthusiasm than usual, though. I think in part it’s because, well, I am home by myself a little more than usual, and in part because the spring and summer always make me want to sew. I believe this stems from two things–firstly, my love of making and wearing sundresses, and secondly the longer days which mean more natural light and more daylight hours.
I’ve played around with self-drafted patterns, but what I do most often is start with a pattern and follow the instructions mostly but not completely. For this dress, I pulled a vintage Vogue pattern from my mom’s collection and, knowing I didn’t have enough fabric for the full skirt it required, scrapped the skirt pattern for a basic gathered skirt.
This was the first time I attempted sleeves or buttonholes in a long time. I know my buttonholes aren’t all that neat, but I did them by hand and are happy that they don’t look terrible. While sewing them, I was reminded of a scene from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town on the Prairie, where young teen Laura gets hired to help sew shirts for all the bachelor railroad workers in town, and on her first day has to put buttonholes on all the shirts. She says that she hated doing buttonholes so much she learned to do them quickly and neatly to get them over with. When Pa asks Laura how her first day of work went, she responds something like “Mrs. White [the employer] spoke well of my buttonholes.” I’m not sure if Mrs. White would be so pleased with mine.
I’m relatively pleased with the end results. I’m happy that I pushed myself a little out of my comfort zone–sleeves, buttonholes, double-fold bias tape, plackets. I probably could’ve fit the top a little better, but overall the size is right (something I always have issues with when working with vintage patterns), and can’t wait for it to be warm enough to wear this for more than 10 minutes in my backyard.
Oh, and I made a matching mask, in case mask-wearing regulations are still in effect when the warmer weather comes!
The Wordy Baker 