#vintagepledge Year End Wrap-Up

my favorite #vintagepledge make of the year.

Congratulations on another successful year of Vintage Pledging, friends! In my case, I was much more successful this year than last. Since basically all of the patterns I use are vintage (well, or retro/repro) this is doubling as my year-end round up as well, although I'm not including everything I've made!

A Needlepoint Belt

Do y'all remember literally one million years (well, over a year) ago when I mentioned working on a needlepoint project? I finally finished it!

Absolutely ages ago, I ordered a needlepoint kit from Needlepoint by Laura on etsy. She worked with me to design a belt canvas with the campus of my husband and my alma mater. We added on our school's initials, its logo (the trident) and my husband's initials and she sent me a kit with the canvas, the thread, and even a needle! I believe it was $70. I watched lots of youtube tutorials (oh my god, the southern accents) and taught myself (sort of) how to needlepoint. It actually didn't take thaaaat long to finish the canvas. It did, however, take me forever to send the thing off for "finishing."

I was very impressed by how professional it looked after I got it back from Hill Top Leather, it looks like a store-bought belt. Overall, it was a fun experience--I tried something new, learned a bit about needlepoint, and in the end, had a nice final result. And he likes it!

I think you could finish a belt on your own if you had the tools and the patience, but I found it much easier--and honestly, probably more cost efficient for someone only making one belt--to just send it off to a needlepoint finisher. I used Hill Top Leather and it cost me $50, bringing the total cost of the belt to $120. The Smathers & Branson belts in the ShopStyle widget down at the bottom are all $165 so it's not that much of a money-saver, but if you enjoy needlepointing, it's a nice, slightly cheaper alternative.

He's also wearing my other Christmas present to him: a vintage (although I don't know the era) Barbour jacket. It's a Bedale, and it was also purchased from etsy! Brown and Williams Clothiers specialize in British menswear and are located in DC but have an etsy shop too. His new jacket was in perfect condition and should last him for ages--just like his needlepoint belt!

xoxo,

allie

ps: he's also trendy, apparently--in the latest edition of the washington post there was an article about needlepoint belts (specifically the smathers & branson brand). who knew!

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Share your 70s Sewing! Simplicity 8013

When Emily of Mai Attique and I decided to sew 1970s inspired dresses, I knew I wanted to make Simplicity 8013. What a beauty! I think the 70s get a bad reputation--polyester leisure suits, right?--but this is the era of DVF's wrap dress. Come on. That's glamour.

Durham Distillery

Alex and I visited a cool new spot downtown this weekend: Durham Distillery.

Autumn in Asheville

I've been a bit slack on my Wednesday series, What I Wore and Work in Progress. Some weeks I'm wearing repeat outfits and the sewing room is a disaster zone and I simply don't have anything particularly pretty to share!

Short Cuts to Fitting

No sewing today--I've been feeling sick this week. I do have some ephemera to share though!

Check out Alfred Bach: "The Pied Piper of Sewing." What does that mean?

My coworker passed this on to me from his mother. It is part of a series of sewing pamphlets that also includes "Short Cuts to Professional Dressmaking" and "Short Cuts to Professional Tailoring."

There's a funny article about him which you can read here, including such gems as "it doesn't take an academic genius to make a beautiful gown" and "they called me the Julia Child of the sewing set." As far as I can make out with my little bit of research, he was in the garment industry and eventually made his mark teaching home sewers industrial "short cuts."

Here's some snippets from the interior!

Maker of the Week!

Just a quick post to let y'all know that I'm maker of the week over on Kollabora! Pop over and check it out here.

While you're there, lets be friends; if you have a Kollabora account, add me! I'm always looking for new inspiration in my feed. Big thanks to Kollabora for putting my face on their lovely blog.

xoxo,

allie

ps: perhaps you found this blog via Kollabora and not the other way round! if you like what you see you can also follow me on instagram and facebook. 

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