BECKY'S SEWING WAREHOUSE

OK, it is a silly name, but my house has become a sewing warehouse, & my last name is Ware, so it's Becky's Sewing Warehouse!

I am incredibly grateful for a mother who was blessed to stay home with us kids, & cook, clean, garden, sew, & care for all 15 of we Rice kids! Mom made sacrifices of time, as well as sometimes giving up fabric she needed for herself, to make clothes for we Rice kids! Grandma O'Connor (worked at GE until retirement, to raise her 3 boys, & send us fabric) would send us packages of fabric, with a bag of candy for us kids, hidden underneath, & that became clothing for the entire family, as well as the candy quickly disappearing! Here are some photos of us kids, wearing Mom's (& Grandma's) hard work!

I was so excited in 1978, when my sister, Michelle & I went together & purchased a Sears Kenmore Sewing machine, 158. 1560, or 148.1560, we shared it, until I married, & Michelle refused to sell her half of the machine, instead giving me $35, for a machine that we paid $179 for, when new.

This red dress is almost identical to my very first dress I made by myself, but it had a bolero, in red white & blue, with navy blue braid trim around the arm holes & the hem, neck & front. I'll try & find a photo sometime. I made this red one, because I missed the one I made as a 12 or 13 year old. 

This blue ribbed knit tank dress, has the coverstitch around the neckline & armholes, & hems. It helps to glue baste (washable gluestick) hems before hemstitching them. I have made this dress with short sleeves, long sleeves, & tank top form, some fit me, some fit my daughter Jamie, & my mom used the same pattern to make bridesmaid dresses for my sister Anna's wedding, when she married her first hubby, J.T. Waters! It is a great pattern, but it is important to use stretchy enough fabric, or you will need to make it in a larger size. It has a center seam down the back, which is important to getting a good fit.

These knit tank tops are ones I made using a Kenmore 158.18033, and my Babylock Evolve serger. I cut spandex ribbing for the neck and armholes, making the neckline and armholes smaller, and coverstitching the binding down.

 This black spandex rib knit tank has bias cut sheer crepe chiffon, coverstitched down.

This white cuff & collar bigshirt, is a Lutterloh pattern, I made it around 2002 or 2003. It actually has a belt for the waist, but I prefer to wear it loose. I made this when I was slimmer, as a big shirt, when I lived in Idaho. I have discovered that the tightly woven polyester rich fabric, which was great for Idaho winters, does not breathe, so here in North Carolina, I can only bear to wear it in the winter, over a tank top, with the front open! Not because it's too tight, it is very loose, but just because it doesn't allow air circulation, an important factor, in warm humid weather, like North Carolina has 75% of the time, I need to use looser weaves of fabric, that allow air flow. 

Another blue Lutterloh Pattern System shirt, this one isn't a bigshirt, & doesn't have the side slits. The beige floral shirt is the same Lutterloh big shirt pattern as the blue with white collar & cuffs, again, but in a polyester/cotton, with gold buttons, with a pearl center.

My alltime FAVORITE pattern in the world, is my MUUMUU dress pattern!

I have sewn this dress more than 30 times, most likely more, beginning with a couple of tops, a 2 layer pink dress with white lace, ( I'm holding flowers, sitting in the rocking chair, wearing a white, ruffled high necked blouse under it, on Valentines Day, 1988, while pregnant with my daughter Jamie.) I also made a green dress,  a black one, with a modern print, as well as my 3 tier ruffled wedding dress, made of 100% cotton, a good choice for southern California!








The nice thing about a muumuu wedding dress, is you can gain a hundred pounds, & still wear it! LOL! The top photos in the collage, are my actual wedding day in 1987, but after I had my daughter, when I was expecting David, in 1988, my wedding dress was the warmest dress I had to wear in that very cold winter in Idaho! Rick took a photo of me holding Jamie, before we left for church.

Not many wedding dresses get as much use as mine has, I still use it as a temple dress. We made a button up, lace covered belt to go with the dress, as you can see in these, my only wedding photos, but I would have to add many inches to button it around my waist these days! LOL!
BTW, isn't my hubby a cutie?! He looks so YOUNG, like I was robbing the cradle, but he is 5 years older than me!

The lower photos are in 2005, I am wearing my wedding dress (without the belt), you can see the lace detail. For modesty, we did put fabric under the lace yoke, which has probably helped the lace wear better, because the weight of the long, ruffled cotton skirt, would probably have torn the lace, had it been the sole fabric used in the yoke. 

My wedding dress 100% cotton, with flat lace, clear crystal buttons on cuffs, and lace covered belt. Pockets in side seams. This photo taken October 28, 2005, I was married in this dress, September 11, 1987, to my sweet hubby, Rick Ware

Muumuu dress in 100% cotton Daisy Kingdom print. I made several of these dresses, one with short sleeves, one with long sleeves, I tend to wear them until they are see through, or have holes worn through them.

Muumuu dress in a very wrinkly rayon fabric. It was a pretty print, and very soft, but I hated how wrinkly it was, so I gave it away. This was before I had French Fuse knit interfacing/lining available, if I had it then, I could have steam pressed the French Fuse onto the back of this fabric, and it would have changed it from a wrinkly fabric, to a permapress fabric, which would look much better after being laundered.

Muumuu dress in a faux crinkle cotton, that is probably polyester. It washes great, is lightweight, and breathes very well.

The black cotton Daisy Kingdom print muumuu dress was one of my favorites, after my wedding dress. I literally wore the Daisy Kingdom dresses, until there were sheer areas down the front! I made a long sleeved version & a short sleeve version. The cream colored muumuu is a polyester, "crinkled cotton" look, I didn't keep the black rayon with red roses very long, it was too limp, & wrinkled too easily.

Blouse bought at garage sale, I created blue & black piping, filled in with white Tshirt fabric, & appliqued some starts on it, to make a patriotic, colorful blouse, modest enough I was able to wear it anywhere.

Tamara Kenney, Anna Waters, Elizabeth Turpening, Becky Rice Ware (The day of Ray & Courtney's wedding,  I'm in my black velvet muumuu dress, with colorful butterfly scarf, Loneta Rice, Debi Mortensen, Michelle Higginson, Martha Hill, Cathy Korby, Jessica Rice Beevers , the feminine part of the Ben & Loneta Rice family!
SEWING NOTE- black velour, especially stretchy velour is gorgeous, and feels fabulous, but, is a BEAR to sew into this type of a design. I was only able to sew this by using a roller foot, on a Kenmore zigzag sewing machine. Gathers are very tough, you really need to zigzag over a heavy string, to gather this thick of fabric, it cannot be ruffled with a ruffler, or shirring foot, or even the differential feed of most home sergers. It looks beautiful, and warm, but actually was too hot in summer, too cold in winter. 

Jessica Rice Beevers, as a teenager, at Becky's home in Kuna, showing off the blue glass that matched my homemade muumuu dress. 

I bought blouse at garage sale, filled in gaping neckline with sheer fabric.

Homemade skirt

Lutterloh jeans

Black cotton Tshirt dress, I made one in emerald green Tshirt fabric, another in light blue, the shimmering brown floral velvet with long sleeves, I gave to Jamie, I made a red knit dress for Jamie from this pattern, as well as mom made Cathy a bridesmaid dress with this pattern, for Anna's wedding to J.T. Waters. The neckline is pretty deep, when I remembered, I filled it in more, love to wear scarves with this style, & long sleeve shirt open in front, keeps me from sunburning my arms in summertime. I LOVE tshirt dresses!

Black & white elastic waist skirt, with rolled hems, is actually a reversible skirt, one layer is white, with black floral, almost exactly the opposite as this black side, with white floral. I gave it to  my sister Cathy, who is wearing it at church, because I was too fat to look good in it.

Showing homemade Lutterloh Pattern systems jeans. My tilted pelvis is very noticeable, here, this was at my heaviest. I've lost 20 lbs. since then. I learned not to use regular interfacing on stretch fabrics, this denim has elastic as a component of the fabric, nice & stretchy, but the non woven interfacing I used on the inside of the back pockets, to allow me to embroider them, caused the fabric to stretch out, & not be able to regain it's shape!

I am serging baby quilts for church, wearing a homemade muu muu dress.

My "pioneer dress" I made when my kids were small, when we lived in Veneta Oregon. Next, a blue dress my mom made for herself, for a church "road show" Dad was part of a barber shop quartet, they sang "I want a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad". Next is a 100% cotton slip, in the Edwardian style.

Black t-shirt dress, light blue t-shirt dress, and long sleeve teal blue t-shirt dress, all from the same pattern

This knit crushed velour or velvet brown and gold t-shirt dress looks much better on my daughter, I didn't like how much fatter it made me lok, due to the shine.

Lutterloh bigshirt with French cuffs

Lutterloh bigshirt with a French cuff that has a slanted angle, fitting the wrist more snugly, instead of a 90 degree right angle, that fits more loosely.