Home sewing clothing photos
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| This red dress is a remake of my favorite red dress, the first dress I sewed all by myself, the Marie Osmond peasant dress, with the bolero. I couldn't find the same kind of pattern, so this one had a waist, with the bodice & skirt cut separately, instead as one piece, and while this pattern called for one strip of elastic sewn into the waist, I opted to sew 3 or 4 strips of 1/4" elastic, at the waist, so it looks kind of smocked, even when I don't wear a belt. I wanted to make the bolero again, too, but didn't get it done. I wore this one in a church fashion show, & made a matching style peasant dress for my daughter, Jamie, but hers was in a pretty green cotton print. She enjoyed wearing hers in the fashion show, too. |
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| My first dress sewn all by myself, on doubleknit red fabric, that didn't stretch. I LOVED this dress, my mom sewed the bolero, because it was double layered, & had bias taped edges. I was in seventh grade. This is my first pair of new high heel sandals, my grandpa bought me at Payless Shoes Store. |
I grew up in a large family, where new clothing was very rare, unless you made it, or it was a hand me down. We grew up without TV, in the country in Idaho, and although it was the 70s & 80s, until I was 14 or 15, we only were able to watch tv at someone else’s home! Probably because of that, I didn’t realize how fashionably we were dressed until recently, when “The Brady Bunch” reruns were on, and I happened to notice that the Brady girls were wearing the same styles I had worn in gradeschool & jr. high! I had even worn my hair long like the Brady girls until the most popular girl in my grade told me that “the other girls and I got together & decided we think you’re stuck up, because you think you have the longest hair.” Being the new kid in school at the beginning of 6th grade, I wanted to make friends, so I went home & had my mom cut my waist length hair to just below my shoulders, & with short bangs. Did this make the girls more friendly? Nope! Of course not!
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| My first sewn blouse & full circle skirt, sewn all by myself, even the zipper insertion! I was in seventh grade, wearing my first new high heel sandals from Payless Shoes. |
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| My green muumuu I made before I got married, thank goodness, so I had something to wear when I was pregnant, this is the week I had David, in 1989! On the right, I'm wearing my blue muumuu, in 2001. |
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| My daughter, Jamie, wearing a Pioneer skirt I made in just a couple of hours, using my Babylock Evolve serger, using the differential feed, & the special ruffler presser foot, that allows me to both gather the ruffle, & sew it to the skirt, at the same time. I sewed rolled hems, for all edges, as well as for the waistband, & the large bow, tied in the back. No pattern used. |
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| My daughter Jamie wearing a red Tshirt dress I made for me, but it looked better on her, so I gave it to her! |
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| My daughter wearing another quickie skirt, sewn with my Babylock Serger Evolve, for her to wear to the Renaissance Fair |
Oh well, I didn’t need to be popular anyway! My Mom sewed most of our clothing with fabric our Grandma mailed to us here & there. My favorite outfit Mom made for me was a three piece suit out of a perma press knit that looked very classy, in navy blue, with tiny red lines that almost made a plaid design, but they were so tiny & far apart, that they would be in style anytime! The vest, skirt & pants looked good no matter what, & I literally wore them until I couldn’t fit in them anymore!
By fourth grade, I had been begging my Mom to teach me to sew for several years, and while she did let me sew things with hand needles, I could not sew an even line of stitches if my life depended on it, so I wanted to use the sewing machine. Luckily, Mom let my older sister Debi & I join 4H, & actually managed to afford a half a yard of 1/4 inch gingham for each of us to make the required apron sewing project. Mrs. Fisher, our 4H leader, lived on a small Dairy Farm, in a tiny white farm house with a pump organ, a wood cook stove that you could load sticks of wood by lifting out the burner, & taught us to sew with her treadle sewing machine. I was THRILLED!
I would have won a first place blue ribbon, and $7, if I had ignored my sister Debi, & sewed the apron the way I saw Mrs. Fisher sew hers, when she was teaching us. Debi hadn’t noticed that we were supposed to turn all of the edges to the inside twice, so it wouldn’t fray, & you couldn’t see any raw edges. She made me unpick my properly closed seam, and I believed her, because she was older! She really didn’t do it on purpose, she sewed hers that way too, so we both ended up with silver ribbons & only $4 apiece!
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| Victorian style dress I sewed for myself, when my kids were young. I used to wear long johns or sweats underneath it, to church, in very cold weather, lol! |
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| Muumuu dress with navy blue lace on yoke |
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| Muumuu dress of cream colored crinkle polyester |
That was the beginning of my lifetime of sewing, & I love it more now than I did back then! Probably because I know a lot more than I did back then! I have since become a fabric a holic, a sewing machine fixer upper/collector, a sewing machine attachment nut, & have managed to acquire an enormous stash of fabric, zippers, bias tape, elastic, sewing scissors & tools & notions of all sorts!
I have a very difficult to fit body, and the bigger it gets, the harder it is to fit, because instead of wanting to show off my figure by sewing sexy clothing, I strive to sew comfortable clothing that at least tries to hide the extra weight, so I have to do a lot of extra fitting & adjusting to make things look as good as I want them to! LOL!
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| I'm on the right, playing like Vanna White, I'm wearing one of my favorite turquoise crinkled poly/cotton muumuu dresses, my youngest sister, Jessica, is my helper |
Mom & I love to use the Lutterloh sewing system to make patterns that fit our measurements, but we do still have to make some adjustments to make them fit us the way we want them to, but ANY pattern has to be adjusted to fit us right, & we have learned so much more about how to sew better, ever since we went to our first Lutterloh course & purchased our first system & tools! I do use other patterns a little too, but we have discovered it is just easier to make a pattern to fit our figures than it is to try to alter each new McCalls, Simplicity, Vogue or Butterick pattern we want!
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| My wedding dress, I took photos wearing it in October, 2005. It is also from my favorite muumuu pattern, but mom & I added long puffed sleeves, with the double layer of lace cuffs, & crystal buttons, to close the cuffs. I have pockets, & a removable lace belt, so I can wear it loose, or with the belt. |
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| Another muumuu dress, in rayon, which really wrinkles badly, & didn't wash well. If I had known about iron on knit interfacing, and how it can make a fabric stay looking pressed, even when it normally would wrinkle, I would have used it for this fabric. I loved the print, just not the quality of the fabric, itself. |
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| One of my favorite muumuu dresses, in a Daisy Kingdom print, this is the long sleeved version, with elastic cuffs. I wore this until it was so thin, it was sheer! |
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Daisy Kingdom 100% cotton long sleeve muumuu dress
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I currently have something like 22 sewing machines in my living room, & since I’m having trouble getting around my tiny house, due to how many machines I have, & the fact that I have NF2 (Neurofibromatosis 2- genetic disease that causes brain tumors, spinal & nerve tumors), & it is getting harder & harder to walk, I am having to sell some of my sewing machines on Ebay. Before I sell them all though, I want to take time on my blog to explain all of the wonderful things about each sewing machine, & what special attachments or special stitches they sew, so other people will learn about these fabulous vintage sewing machines too!
Here is a list of some of these great sewing machines!
Bernina 530-2
Bernina 730 or 731
Bernina 830
Bernina 930
Singer 101
Singer 201
Singer Featherweight 221
Singer Featherweight 222
Elna Supermatic
Pfaff 230
Pfaff 260
Sears Kenmore’s older sewing machines, particularly the 158 series!
158.960
158.1560
158.960
158.1560
Necchi
Montgomery Ward
Baby Lock Eclipse DX
Baby Lock Imagine Wave
Baby Lock Evolve
Baby Lock Blind Hemmer
& many more!
There is more to come!
Becky
