Vintage Inspired Sewing Shopping

I should have put more thought into my blog title. That banner up there should actually read Vintage Inspired Shopping since that is all I seem to do. Last weekend I hit up the International Quilt Festival in Houston, Texas and as usual it did not disappoint. One half of the convention center is a quilt show, which I would tell you about if I had seen it. I didn't because the other half is an ENORMOUS vendors market which I would tell you about but the video below explains it better than I ever could.

I don't quilt. I don't want to quilt. I wouldn't even quilt if you paid me. Well, maybe if you paid me. So why in the cat-hair was I at the International Quilt Festival? I've got two words- Old. Stuff. I'd guesstimate that 75% of the vendors are quilt shops, 15% beads and random junk, and the other 10% are antique stores that cater to the sewing/quilting crowd (e.g. ME).

This is the majority of my purchases. I saw a lot more I wanted but nobody wanted to give me anything. They all wanted money in return. People can be so petty. 

1920's Stamped Embroidery Kit (obviously I can't think of a catchy title.)

Long time no post. No anything really. I haven't touched a needle and thread in ages mainly because it's FOOTBALL SEASON! I stay fairly busy Monday thru Friday and football season means my Saturdays are devoted solely to going to games and screaming my guts out. But I can always make a little time to hit up estate sales and peruse ebay. So, since empty blogs are sad, I'm going to share one of my latest finds. :)

I've been collecting stamped embroidery packages from the 1920-30s for several years now. I have kits for everything from toys, to dresses, to curtains, and throw pillows. I just love them! They come with the pattern and embroidery design stamped right on the fabric. Most of them come finished to some degree, but I have never found one that was completed and still with its envelope until today.

The fabric is lovely. It reminds me a lot of geiger Swiss batiste. 

The neck is finished with buttonhole scallops and trimmed with a slightly gathered french lace and embroidery. Buttonholes have been worked along the neckline and sleeve so ribbon can be woven through and tied in bows. I love the coral/seafoam color combo. 

The hem is finished with hemstitching and scalloped lace.

These are some of my other antique kits. I'll have to share another one sometime. 

Finished!

The sunnysuit is finally finished. I'm the slowest sewer ever. It was started before Christmas! It's not perfect, but not terrible for my first try at sewing something bigger than a dress for a 5'' doll. The buttonholes were traumatic for me. On the bib you can see that one buttonhole is slightly higher than the other. I briefly thought about ripping one out and repositioning it, but after studying the dense, minuscule stitches I realized ain't nobody got time for that. So it stayed put. And it drives me NUTS.

This is the base pattern. I added the Madeira appliqué and the embroidery. Hopefull I'll have some time to finish my version of the pattern soon so I can post it here (for free of course!).

*The base pattern was printed in 1936 and was never filed with the US copyright office. It is in the public domain.