For a while now, I’ve been hearing about some super secret button store which is stocked with all manner of vintage buttons. I never understood why it was a secret, because I’m sure such a tiny little business could use the support and customers!

Anyway, I finally found it. Exclusive Buttons in El Cerrito is a teeny tiny little shop run by an incredibly helpful older lady, and stocked to the brim with vintage buttons still on their cards, along with buckles, closures, etc. The owner told me that they stock no plastic. I’m still confused about that because a lot of them seemed like plastic, and some things were clearly marked “bakelite,” which was the first manufactured synthetic plastic.

I bought several cards of beautiful buttons, but seriously had to restrain myself. Beautiful buttons can transform the plainest piece of clothing, but it’s really hard to find full sets of nice vintage ones.

But I think my favorite purchase was the vintage belt buckle kits for making fabric-covered belts! Remember when I was just recently pining for such a thing when I posted about this beautiful yellow Lorick dress?

And just look at those red and white flowery things. They look like christmas cookies. And the ones below are my favorite.

I always thought Tender Buttons in NYC’s garment district was the be all and end all in buttons. And it still wins for selection. But Exclusive Buttons is so much more charming, magical, old fashioned, and helpful.

Lately, I’ve been working on designing a new dress. I’d love to get your thoughts.

This is the muslin, still needing some tweaks. It’s designed to be made in two coordinating fabrics, because I love two-tone anything. There are so many possibilities when you make things in two coordinating fabrics. The next couple of designs I have in mind are more slinky, but I wanted to do one with a bit of structure that could be made with standard easy-to-find cotton prints, which come in such a huge array of fun prints.

And here’s the first prototype.

Now. I expected it would still need some changes after finishing one prototype, and I was right. I thought the design lines were great on the muslin, but once I made it up in two different fabrics, it was quite different.

My main issue is the curve of that front seam. I think it’s cut far too high, especially at the arms. It doesn’t look too bad on the dress form, but on a person, it’s not so great. So I am happily making it up again, but prototype number 2 will be in a very different colorway.

I’m happy with the rest of the dress though, it looks great and is really really flattering. And it has design details I love, like an inset midriff and pockets.

See those front pleats? There are pockets hidden in the outer pleats. I believe most dresses should have pockets. Not all, but most.

The sleeve hems echo the lines of the bodice. (ugh, ignore the cat hair please).

A side view. The top yoke (the black part) will extend much farther down on the next one.

Here I am wearing it the other day.

In this shot, you can see why that curve looks weird. Because it doesn’t curve under the arms, when an actual human with arms wears it, you get the illusion of points instead of a gentle curve. It’s just the way arms hang from the shoulder. Thus the importance of trying designs on real people, not just dress forms.

So now on to version two! I would LOVE to know your opinions on this dress overall. Like it? Hate it? Is it something you’d wear? Something you’d want to sew? etc.

I bought this odd 80s sun dress for a few bucks recently. I thought it was really dowdy in that sort of horrible laura ashley way, but at the same time, the bodice is really beautifully cut. It has a very fitted princess cut, elastic shirring in panels at the back, and I like the crazy pockets. And recently I’ve had a bit of a textile crush on these kind of faded flowery large scale grandma patterns.

So I chopped a good foot off the hem and it’s really a new dress. The perfect thing to wear to the nursery this weekend and bake a cherry tart.

It even sort of matches the flowers we bought at the farmer’s market this week.

I’ve been meaning to post about these books forever: Pattern Magic Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, which I purchased from the always wonderful Kinokuniya in San Francisco.

I’ve been working a lot on pattern making lately, and I can’t tell you how inspiring these books are. They’re laid out like many other Japanese mooks, with large clear shots of the finished garments and a section of detailed, heavily illustrated instructions. The designs are complex and sculputral and very very Japanese. Looking at the photos, it’s sometimes difficult to imagine how a piece of two dimensional fabric was used to create such three dimensional sculpture.

Then you come to the layouts and instructions, which you can study to understand the process. It really tests your spatial abilities, but more than that, it’s a great lesson in constructing 3D shapes from fabric.

Ok, it’s a bit intimidating at first, but the copious illustrations mean you really don’t need to understand Japanese to figure out what’s going on. It’s not for the novice, but if you want to dig into pattern construction, these books are an incredible resource. I really enjoyed studying the images, trying to figure out how it was done, then examining the diagrams. But maybe I’m just nerdy like that.

Long ago, someone sent me this pattern for Folkwear #249, 1930s Day Dress. I bought the fabric, cut the pattern, and for one reason or another, it languished in my sewing box for many months after.

Well, I finally finished it, and it’s quite nice! I used a gorgeous blue toile cotton for the self fabric and a deep indigo silk charmeuse for the flounces. I often steer clear of printed cottons for dresses, but this one seemed lighter and softer than most, and I couldn’t resist those giant birds.

I made some small modifications to the pattern, such as taking in the shoulders (I didn’t include shoulder pads), transforming the shoulder pleats into tucks to get rid of some fullness there, and shortening the hem quite a bit.

I love the back of this dress. The bodice comes to a low point in back, and the skirt is gathered below. This creates a really nice profile that emphasizes the curve of the lower back and fullness of the booty without puffing out at the hips.

I have so many books I’ve acquired or discovered recently and want to share. I’m going to start with Vionnet by Betty Kirke, a fantastic book well worth the hefty cover price (mine came from the library, but I do plan to purchase it now).

If you don’t know of Madeleine Vionnet, she was a revolutionary French fashion designer who created complex forms that followed and accentuated the natural curves of a woman’s body, rather than trying to control it with corsets and crinolines. She is best known for her use of the bias cut, a cut that is near and dear to me.

I’d commit crimes for that dress with the deco deer buckle.

The fantastic thing about this book, and what makes it worth the price, is the inclusion of patterns for many of Vionnet’s original designs. I haven’t actually attempted to recreate any of the designs, but the instructions are somewhat lacking, I must say. Kathleen at Fashion Incubator has recently acquired the Japanese version of the Vionnet book, and recommends it as far superior in instruction and usability. If you can find it.

Or you can order the domestic version right here.

Here are some step-by-step instructions on how I turned a boxy vintage cashmere cardigan into a much more fitted and flattering sweater.

My grandmother gave me this gorgeous rose pink vintage cashmere sweater a couple years back and though I’ve worn it from time to time, it was really too big for me and felt really frumpy. I finally took action and could not be happier with the result. It’s very quick and simple. I will no longer sadly put those oversized vintage sweaters back on the rack at Thrift Town.

First, turn the sweater inside out and try it on.

Next, pinch off the extra fabric at the side seams, up through the underarm. You’ll want to gently grade the seam toward the wrist so that there are no sharp angles in your seam.

Baste these seams in place and try the sweater on again to insure a good fit. Look for any gaping at the bust, and raise your arms to make sure the sweater is comfortable.

Machine stitch over the basting and trim, leaving a wide allowance of at least 3/4 inch. Now, if your sweater is old and somewhat felted already (as mine is), you don’t need any special finishing, though you can zigzag stitch the selvedge if you like. Otherwise, I recommend serging to prevent fraying.

Here is my new and improved fitted sweater:

With the scraps that are left over from trimming your seams, you can fashion a fabric rose and sew or pin it to the lapel.

Et voila! I may still change the buttons, as I find them a bit stark. But overall, this is much more wearable.

I have a bit of an addiction to vintage sewing patterns. I find that the cuts are just totally unlike anything you would find in modern commercial patterns and much closer to the amazing garments you might see walking down runways. I love the illustrations, I love looking at them, I love collecting them, and I love sewing them.

If you share my illness, take a look at this directory of vintage sewing pattern sources I’ve put together. I started putting this together to keep my own links organized and realized that it would probably be helpful for others.

And if you have stores you love (or stores you own) that you’d like to see included, please do contact me!

Update: I’ve received several emails for new resources, and I’ve added them. Keep ‘em coming!

I’ve started using some of that wonderful craft treasure I wrote about. I bought this plain navy blue cotton-modal sweater at a thrift store in japantown recently, with the idea that I would fancify it with a bit of vintage trim. I love navy blue with white/cream. To me, they’re very wintery colors, but they’ll also look good with bright cherry red or pale yellow in the summer.

I also like the way the stark trim accentuates the V of the neckline.

I sort of want to learn to crochet (beyond the basics) so I can make intricate doilies and things. There seem to be so many good japanese crochet books out there that I can’t even begin to interpret.

And I still have quite a bit of this trim left! I think I make take some of the white crochet trims and dye them interesting colors. Hot pink doilies. Or scarlet red. Or bright violet.

It’s been about five months since I first signed up for the Wardrobe Refashion challenge. As someone who loves clothes and takes great pleasure in finding the right clothes, I thought this would be really challenging for me. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could commit to four months, but hey, aggressive goals are a good thing.

It’s now five months later and I am not ready to call it quits. Changing my behavioral patterns has altered my perspective on clothing and the way I dress to a degree that I certainly had not anticipated, and I am even more deeply interested in fashion and dressing than before.

First, it’s given me the motivation to spend much more time sewing and creating. That itself is a great thing, and always welcome in my life.

It’s given me a new set of criteria with which to judge potential additions to my closet. When I see something pretty, instead of just asking myself, “Do I like this enough to spend X dollars on it?”, I have to think, “Do I love this enough to invest the time and energy to make it?”

With that has come a better understanding of my own tastes. There are a whole lot of beautiful clothes in the world. When you can’t actually buy any of them, you have to ask yourself, “What is it I love about this? What are the design elements I am drawn to? How can I incorporate those elements into the things that I make?”

I also feel a deeper connection to the clothing I wear. I recently listened to an interview with
Amy Karol in which she was talking about the way people just feel different and move differently in clothing they’ve made, and that couldn’t be more true for me. Each piece I’ve made feels so special, and I don’t get bored with it the way I do purchased clothing. Maybe that’s because I’ve thought harder about it and have more of an understanding of what attracted me to it enough to make it in the first place.

From all of this, I find myself being much happier with the way I dress and express myself through clothing. I no longer feel guilty or discouraged by the “filler” in my wardrobe, because there is no filler. Everything feels chosen with care. I actually feel satisfied going through my closet and getting dressed in the morning.

This experience has inspired me to such an extent that I am in the planning phase of a big project I’m hoping to launch this coming year, to build on this feeling, spend more of my time on creative work, and hopefully inspire other people.

Oh, and I’ve also signed up for another 4 month challenge!