Tag Archives: vintage

I used a 1924 Singer to sew a skirt

Completed project, Vintage style June 26, 2015 Leave a comment

I was gifted a 1924 Singer 99 electric several years ago and recently had it serviced to be sure it was in good enough shape for me to sew a garment with it.

Here’s the machine:

This is a Singer 99 sewing machine, built in February 1924 with a ton of accessories!

The Singer 99 is a smaller and lighter version of the Singer 66.

The skirt is complete, and it was a delightful experience to create it using only a vintage machine and hand-stitching.

What I liked about using the Singer:

  • The moving parts just glide, particularly the hand wheel. When people say “like a well-oiled machine,” this is what they’re talking about. It has a wonderfully smooth motion.
  • It’s gorgeous. It has a shiny black body with elaborate gold detailing and an embossed faceplate. It’s a pleasure to sew with something so pretty.
  • I was able to connect to history in a real way. Although there are many bells and whistles available on new sewing machines to make sewing a little easier, the actual process of creating a garment isn’t really any different now than it was 91 years ago. I enjoyed experiencing sewing just the way people did back in the 1920s.

Here’s a video of the Singer in action:

What I missed about my Fancy Damn Viking:

  • The foot pedal. It was really hard to get used to operating the machine with a knee lever (really, a thigh lever). Ergonomically, I think it would take a while for using it to become truly comfortable, let alone second nature. When I put the Singer on my sewing desk, I unplugged the foot pedal from the Viking but left it in place, so I kept trying to use it out of habit!
  • The reverse button. The Singer is just a few years too old to have a reverse lever on it. Starting and ending a line of stitches was a little cumbersome because at first I opted to flip the entire garment around in order to stitch backward then forward. After a while, I decided to sew forward about a half-inch, then raise the needle, move the fabric without cutting the thread, and restart the seam from the beginning.
  • The presser foot button. I’m now accustomed to using a button to raise and lower the presser foot on my Viking. (There are three different heights I can raise it to!) Using a traditional back lever was not a problem except for its proximity to the exposed light bulb with metal shield on the back of the machine. Ouch, that’s hot!

What seemed to be a drawback but wasn’t:

No zipper foot. At first I was dismayed to see that the Singer did not have a zipper foot among its accessories. Zippers were not yet used in clothing in the 1920s (according to Wikipedia anyway), which explains why it didn’t have one originally. (I could probably buy one that would work.) So, I sewed the zipper in by hand. This is my first time hand picking a lapped application; but in general, I’ve found that hand-sewn zippers are more successful for me than sewing them in by machine. The zipper slider isn’t in the way of a hand needle, so it’s easy to maintain a straight stitching line. I’m not particularly eager to sew another garment zipper in by machine.

Now that the project is complete, the Viking is back on my sewing desk, but I have no doubt I’ll be using the Singer again. I’m thinking it would be wonderful to make a quilt with it.

Next time, I’ll share the project that I sewed with the Singer.

Vintage 1940s hair pins

Vintage goodness July 22, 2014 1 Comment

After seeing a sweet little vintage card of hair pins in a roundup post of fun Etsy finds on the Swing Fashionista blog, I fell in love.

I tried not to buy it. Really I did.

Oh well.

Here it is:

I think you can see why I couldn't resist them. The image on the card is gorgeous!

I think you can see why I couldn’t resist it. The image on the card is gorgeous 1940s goodness.

Now it lives on the dressing table-like area of my bathroom, with a couple of other vintage goodies.

Apparently, I now have a collection of vintage dressing table items. The talc on the left is empty. The one on the right is full be sealed shut by rust.

Apparently, I now have a collection of vintage dressing table items. The talc container on the left is empty. The one on the right is full but sealed shut by rust. The hair pins have some rust, so I consider everything you see here purely decorative.

I got the card from the Covetable Curiosities shop on Etsy. Mine was listed as “1 available,” but the store has another one up for sale, also listed as “1 available.” With a quick Google search, a few more show up on eBay as ended or current. It doesn’t seem to be terribly rare, but it is awfully pretty.

 

The “unwearable” muslin is saved!

Vintage Separates Project July 17, 2012 Comments: 6

As recounted in my previous post, I attempted to make a wearable muslin of Simplicity 2151. I fell in love with the neckline, so it was supposed to be the first blouse I would perfect the fit of in my Vintage Separates Project. And when it was complete, it did fit beautifully; but unfortunately, with the fabric I chose, I was just NOT willing to wear it. It was an “unwearable muslin,” if you will.

Well, two of my delightful readers came to my rescue with suggestions on how to save it.

They identified the two main problems with the blouse: the sleeves and the lack of contrast. And although I did not fix the blouse with their exact suggestions, I did address the problems they noted. And now my “unwearable” muslin is wearable!

First, a refresher on the sad state of affairs before the fix:

Here’s the finished blouse. Dowdy! The sleeves are all wrong, and there’s no contrast.

The dowdiness is only exacerbated when the blouse is paired with the matching skirt. So sad!

And here is the new version!

This has much more of the 1940s vibe I was going for. I still LOVE the neckline.

Here’s the whole outfit:

So much better, isn’t it? It would be really snappy in rayon.

Let me share how this transformation came to be.

After my readers weighed in, I went searching for inspiration on my Vintage Style Pinterest board. Then I went about tucking and pinning my sad blouse until I had something I thought would work. Then I began to sew.

The changes I made:

  • Sleeves: The sleeves looked too full at the top (more so on me than on the dress form) and more suited to the prairie than the vintage look I had in mind. Part of the problem was that the shoulders were too wide. I took those in by ripping the armhole seam from dot to dot, trimming the bodice from dot to dot, then reattaching the sleeves. I also hacked off the sleeves and hemmed them.
  • Contrast: The blouse suffered from a serious lack of contrast, so I changed out the clear buttons from my stash for some vintage blue buttons that were recently acquired. They came from an intact button card with great graphics of a man’s suit. It killed me to use them, but that’s what they’re for.
  • Hem: I changed the hem to a V-shape (to echo the neckline) so the blouse would look like it was supposed to be worn with the hem outside.
  • Pockets: I added some fun pocket details. Since the button card had two sizes of buttons, I used the larger ones on the pockets.

The change I didn’t make:

I had also planned to shorten the 30-inch skirt to 28 or 26 inches (just below knee length on me) to be more in line with the mid-1940s, but I had done so much work redoing the blouse that I was out of gas when it came to redoing the skirt and lining hems!

The change I still need to make:

I still want to change the two buttons that close the skirt to the same buttons on the blouse (I have four left), but that’s for another evening.

This disappointing project turned out to be a good exercise in transforming a garment. It turned out to be really fun to change a top that I wouldn’t wear into one that I will. It feels pretty powerful to have those kinds of skills.

Since I have perfected the fit of this princess-seamed blouse, it has many future possibilities (a sweetheart neckline comes to mind), but I’m not sure how I’d style the sleeves in a nicer fabric. Meanwhile, I just received Sense & Sensibility Patterns’ Romantic Blouse pattern. The short sleeve version looks like a great 1940s blouse, as shown by Katrina of Edelweiss Patterns. So that will become a (hopefully) wearable muslin some time soon.

Next up: I think it’s time to move on from wearable muslins to my first quality garment for my Vintage Separates Project: a simple navy poly-wool blend version of the A-line skirt. But first I think I need to take in the waistband an inch. It’s always something.

Vintage shopping therapy

Inspiration, Notions, Vintage sewing books June 16, 2012 Comments: 3

I needed a little vintage shopping therapy, and since I missed the most recent Sacramento Antique Faire, off to the antique mall I went. I don’t go often, so I’m very thorough when I do. I carefully examine every stall in my quest for hidden treasure. And I got quite a lucky haul this time:

This is the majority of the goodies I found.

The gloves were the first things I spied. I’ve been obsessed with finding a pair of crochet lace gloves since seeing a vintage-styled photo of Amy Adams wearing a pair.

I’ve had no luck tracking down any gloves on the Internet, so once I determined they fit (being 5 foot 9½ comes with long fingers), I knew they had to be mine. As for the buttons, two sets are for using, while the third is all about the button card. Here’s the title page of the book since you can’t tell anything from the outside:

This gem is copyright 1943 and was less than $6. I found it in the very last stall.

Here’s a peek inside:

How dreamy are these pages?

I also found these three patterns:

The Advance pattern looks like I just pulled it out of the drawer at the fabric store.

I love the collar and neck pleats of the Advance pattern (not so much the puff sleeves). The middle pattern has a belt that is sewn on most of the way around. I would love to use a vintage buckle on it. The one on the right turned out to be a maternity pattern! But it looks easy to take out the special features that make it adjustable, and I LOVE the neckline. It could make a great blouse.

But I think the find of the day was this book:

A 1951 Girl Scout Brownie Handbook.

And inside were these:

Girl Scout membership cards from 1954 through 1957. How awesome is that?

If you’ve read my “About me” page, you’ve seen that I’m a Girl Scout volunteer. To be a volunteer, you must register, which means I’m a Girl Scout. That’s not something I had the opportunity to be when I was a kid, so I appreciate being involved now. My daughter has been a Girl Scout for nine years, and I’ve been one for about six. Did you know Girl Scouts USA turns 100 this year? I’m going to a 100th Anniversary Gala at the California Museum in Sacramento on Friday.

Obviously, today’s shopping excursion was meant to be. I’ll be curling up with the 1943 sewing book in bed tonight, to help inspire my next project. The skirt is almost finished, and it’s time to start thinking about a blouse.

Gemini note (because sewing isn’t everything): I’m a Giants baseball fan by marriage, so my husband pulled me away from my computer Wednesday night to watch the ninth inning of Matt Cain’s perfect game, one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen in baseball!

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