Making an ironing board cover : No sew method

My finished cover

I found a great wooden ironing board at my favorite local vintage shop. I sew in my dining room and usually leave my machine and ironing board out and I don't like the way metal ironing boards look. Not to mention the new ones are really lightweight and tip over so easily. With a one year old always exploring the house I needed an ironing board that wouldn't tip over easily and of course I didn't want to spend a fortune on one from a store like Restoration Hardware. As much as I love Restoration Hardware. So I found this wooden one for thirty dollars and  loved it. The only problem was whoever owned it before just tacked a new covering on when the old one got gross. It must have had over ten layers of fabric and batting on it. So this wooden ironing board sat in my dining room for a good six months with its' stained, torn, and strangely puffy cover. Isn't it funny how you notice somethings' flaws when you first buy it but after living with it for a little while you kind of get used to it? Like relationships I guess. Well, the other day I decided " This is the day I am going to do something about this ironing board. " And so I did. And here is how.

First you need a wooden ironing board. They are to be found mostly at flea markets. This is what mine looked like for six months. This i-phone photo actually makes it look better. Trust me it was GROSS!

Turn it over and pry off the tacks.

Do you see how many layers of fabric foam and batting there are? Some of the batting was actually great quality and pure quilted cotton so I put it aside for future use.

Cut out a piece of your chosen fabric this way: Lay the ironing board on top of the fabric and cut the fabric with about a six inch allowance.

Now hammer the fabric down with upholsterers tacks, being careful of any little feet nearby!

Done!

vintage toys: wooden kitchen

Vintage and thrifted toys look better than most new ones unless you spend a small fortune ; they are cheaper than new ones and they are good for the environment as well as your decor. I lived in an upwardly mobile area of Los Angeles after my third child was born and I learned from other mothers in the area about all the terrible hidden dangers of modern motherhood. Some of the mothers were close to hysteria but some had a point. What were some of the dangers? Let's see.. vaccinating your child could cause potential bodily harm , bit if you decided to go on a spiritual retreat to India with your yoga instructor and should decide to bring your nanny and baby because your husband had to actually go to work, well than maybe it was OK. Letting your fourth grader ride his bike a few blocks to school  was an invitation to child molesters and you were risking him being run over by a car, letting your child walk a few doors away alone to visit a friend  was also questionable , not buying organic throw away diapers from Whole Foods was a sign that you didn't understand the danger of dioxins, but actually using cloth diapers was well, a little TOO granola, unless you hired a diaper service. Not buying all organic baby food was a sign you didn't care about your baby, but actually making and freezing your own was considered a quaint but old fashioned and labor intensive notion.  And buying plastic toys was out of the question : didn't everyone know about the dangers of BPA's ? 

Well fast forward eight years and one large recession later and maybe some of those women have come down to earth a little . I won't know because I moved away . And here I am washing cloth diapers in my washing machine but still wanting beautiful wooden toys for my current baby but not wanting to spend two hundred dollars or so to buy one from a chic and ecologically friendly website or catalog.  Healthy living and a pretty environment shouldn't be only for the rich. I started looking for toys at thrift shops and flea markets because  I don't like the way a house full of plastic toys looks.  With a little foot work there are lots of great children's toys to be found at thrift shops, yard sales, Craigslist and the more expensive flea markets. I spent 25 dollars on the little wooden kitchen below and my baby and I both love it! And to be honest I do buy the occasional plastic toy once in awhile. Barbie will forever be a fixture in a house were four daughters have lived! Oh yeah, and it's fun to make Barbie clothes too.

What would you rather have in your living room, a toy kitchen like this Fisher Price one above or a nice wooden kitchen? Seriously. this piece of plastic is about eighty dollars. 

This red wooden stove from Pottery Barn is adorable but for 250$ it had better be!

Simplicity 2618 knit blouse

I love posting reviews and reading reviews for the website paternreview.com. Whenever I'm going to sew a commercial pattern I like to look up the finished products on this site to see what they look like on regular people since most anything looks good on the models on the pattern. Originally I made the dress in the third picture above with this Missoni like rayon fabric I bought last year . I envisioned a really fashionable dress with a slight seventies feel. Well, the dress looked pretty horrible with a drop waist and it was extremely unflattering in the tummy area so I ended up chopping off the skirt to make it back into the top shown in the first picture on the pattern.  I then realized the top was too short so I added a double layer band to the bottom. This project ended up being a real headache but the end result is pretty cute.

  

Stitched down tucks at the neckline

The double sided band I added at the waistline to make it longer.

European Grain Sacks

A chair upholstered with an antique grain sack

Some details from my grain sacks above.

Well, my daughter broke my camera over the weekend so I haven't been able to take photos of my current projects. I await my new Canon G-12 in the mail, a splurge but a worthwhile one I hope. So the past few days I have been thinking about my blog and my original concept for it which is sewing, country living, French vintage, and parenting. I have been focusing only on the sewing lately which I've enjoyed but I feel it's time to focus on some of my other interests. I'll still be blogging about sewing but you will start to find a smattering of other subjects here and there which bring me to something I have been into for awhile, European grain sacks. I know they have gotten trendy lately and you can even find fake grainsack pillow cases at Pottery Barn,  but I  still love them. There is something about their rough texture and simple embroideries which brings to mind the kind of life people lived long ago. The care which these sacks are made is extraordinary to me, each sack is like a work of art. I have two and haven't yet brought myself to cut them up and make pillows out of them. Can you imagine someone taking the time to hand embroider their initials on something so utilitarian as a sack used to store flour in ? Farmers individualized these sacks so they could be identified when they were transporting grain, flour, or sugar to the market or from the mill. This was a time when nothing was wasted and things had to be made to last . Some of the sacks date back to the early 1800's. Most have stripes in blue or red on them and many are initialed with monograms. The colors of the linens range in shades from greys, to creams, to sun bleached whites. Ten years ago when I had my place in the South of France, they were easy to come by and were quite inexpensive. Not so anymore. Last year I was at the Rose Bowl Flea Market and some sellers from Idaho were there. It seemed they must have gone to every flea market in Europe because they had hundreds of grain sacks and were selling them for as much as sixty dollars apiece! Handwoven or homespun from strong hemp or linen,  they have stood the test of time.

1920's Blouse

My husbands' friend came over on New Years Day to go duck hunting with him . He brought me a large box of vintage hats someone had given to his daughters . His daughters had picked out their favorites and he thought I might like to use the rest at the theatre for costumes. The hats are from the fifties and sixties and I was grateful for this kind gesture . I was going through the box when I found a wrinkled piece of silk at the bottom,  which didn't look like much, maybe a scrap of fabric from one of the hats. As I unfolded it, my pulse started to quicken as it always does when I think I might be finding something interesting. I realized it was some sort of shirt and after carefully ironing it this was how it looked below. 

It is a navy silk blouse with a striped colar and cuffs and a lace inset with silk buttons. I did some research on it and I believe it's from the 1920's. Sadly the sleeves are in shreds so I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe I will reuse the collar and cuffs somehow.

          Above is an ad from a 1920's magazine. The blouses are a similar style to the one I found. That was a pretty good sale !

Above is a photo of a ladies tennis club in the 1920's. How did women run around in those outfits? They also wore long woolen dresses to swim in which would have gotten extremely heavy when wet.

This is a detail of the collar and lace inset. The quality of workmanship in antique garments always astounds me. I love the detail of the sewn on silk buttons at the center front, collar, and cuffs.

The mock cuff.

Making Alencon lace seams McCall's 6221 Baptism dress

One of my friends was looking for a baptism gown for her baby and was having trouble finding one. This is the same friend who lives in Paris and I was surprised she couldn't find one she liked there so I offered to make her one and send it to her by Express mail. She wanted the dress to look like the Empress Josephine's dress at her coronation but without the gold. That was a tall order but here is what my finished dress looks like above. It is Alencon lace with a silk charmeuse underdress which is underlined with light pink cotton flannel. The pink underlining gives a slight pinkish hue which I like. It was the first time I worked with lace and I would like to share some tips I learned from working with lace.

Empress Josephine

This was the pattern drawing for McCalls 6221, the pattern I adapted. I had to ignore the directions since I was making a lace overskirt that requires a totally different technique which I will now try to explain. I also had to shorten the dress since my friends' baby is one and walking and would trip on a long gown.

This is the Alencon lace I chose. You have to lay the pattern crosswise on the fabric when you cut. I wanted the border to be at the waist and and at the hem . The measurements of the babies length has to be perfect because you can't hem it if it's too long or you will ruin the border. I hope it fits her!

You have to use an applique seam method when working with thick lace. If you make a normal side or shoulder seam it will be too bulky. Applique seams are overlapped and fell stitched by hand. The motifs are matched up and then the overlapped part is folded over to the other pattern piece, on top of the matching design and hand stitched over it. The overlapping lace excess is then cut away from underneath. Above is the overlap on the front bodice I am explaining. When it is folded over the back bodice and sewn down and trimmed from underneath, the seam will be invisible. 

 You have to hand baste the seam lines with a colored thread so you can know how to lay out the pattern because you won't be sewing it at the seam line but around the edges of the raised flowers. Don't use red thread for the seam lines because it leaves lint behind. The net around the edge of the motif also needs to be neatly trimmed.

Lining up the two blue thread seem lines. You can pin it so it doesn't shift when you sew it.

Sewing the motif down with a fell stitch.

I also sewed the lace down from behind to make the seam stronger. This is after I trimmed away the excess from behind on the wrong side of the lace.

This is the finished bodice shoulder seams .The seams are not noticeable

Pinning the lace bodice to the silk charmeuse dress underneath. The neckline will have a silk bias binding and it will have a flannel hand stitched lining inside to make it warmer for the Paris winter.

Above is how you cut the skirt. Insted of one front and two backs like the pattern says I sewed one continuous piece to avoid seams.

The one seam in the skirt has to be overlapped the way I overlapped the lace at the bodice. Do you see how the seam need to be overlapped?

The flannel hand sewn lining with snaps. I was afraid to sew buttonholes on the lace. I sewed silk buttons as decoration on the outside. I think it turned out pretty nice. I hope I have done a good job explaining lace seams .

Thoughts for the new year from Sewcountrychick

Put your best foot forward in the city

or in the country

Love

Dance

Make yourself at home.. wherever you are

Don't forget to clown around!

Give thanks for the simple things

Pray

Stop to notice the roses

Don't hold grudges like Barbie