Gatsby deadline extended

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The deadline for The Great Gatsby Sewing Challenge was originally scheduled for the end of this month, but I think some of us (myself included!) could use the weekend to finish things up. The new deadline is Tuesday, June 4.

When you are finished with your garment be sure to upload photos to the Flickr group  so we can all take a peek. Have you guys checked it out lately? There are some truly stunning dresses!

The Great Gatsby
Bethany's  dress is one of my favorites so far!

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Laurel Number One

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I've been in a sewing funk lately, which explains my lack of completed projects. The Laurel pattern is what got me out of that funk. It took a couple of muslins before I was able to cut into my final fabric, but I am so happy I took the time to get the fit right because I know I will be making this dress again and again. In fact, I've already planned two other versions!

For this version I used a woven burgundy fabric from Mood. It's kind of a "Joan" color, don't you think? On a side note, sometimes when I find things in Joan's color I think to myself, "what would Joan wear?" (WWJW) and try to find a pattern to work with it. Seriously!


It's amazing how nice it is to sew with a high quality fabric! It even makes my dress feel more fancy (if that's possible!). I took some of your fitting advice and went down a size from my last muslin and did an FBA which solved most of my fitting problems, hurray. Longer length dresses are a little more my style, so I used the length from size 18 and hand stitched it.


My husband and his friend went on a motorcycle ride, so I headed over to my friend Krista's house and she was sweet enough to take photos for me. Unfortunately, it was super windy, so we only got a couple of photos. Bummer!

Cat hair is my most commonly worn accessory

Bias tape is far from being my favorite thing to make, but I just love the finished look when it matches the garment. The way Sarai recommends attaching it leaves such a flawless and clean finish. I don't hate making it as much now.


I LOVE these sleeves! My first version of the dress is pretty simple, but I think the sleeves jazz it up. My future versions won't have the same sleeve finish, but I'm really loving the look with this color.

What about you guys, do you ever think WWJW? How many Laurels do you have hanging in your closet?

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Meet up with Busy Lizzie

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Two sewing blogger meet ups in a week = an awesome week! My second meet up was with Liz aka Busy Lizzie. She e-mailed me to ask about fabric shops in the area and I suggested we get together for drinks! Unfortunately, the wine bar was closed, but luckily the ice cream shop across the street was open. We chatted over ice cream (Me, Motoroil. Liz, Strawberry Chocolate) for about an hour discussing sewing, knitting, and traveling. I had a blast and made a new friend! :)

On another note, I love the fact that I live between San Francisco and Los Angeles because it's perfect for meet ups. If you are doing any summer road trips and plan on being in the San Luis Obispo area let me know! We can get wine or ice cream!

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Guest post by Lady Eve Millinery

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One of the most important accessories for a lady in the 1920s was her hat. Luckily for us, Aimee, has an Etsy shop where she makes and sells AMAZING recreations of hats from the 1920s through the 1950s. The hats she makes are so beautiful and I highly recommend visiting her shop to see all of her stunning pieces. Thanks so much for sharing with us, Aimee!
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With the 1920s came a new breed of independent women. The Flapper. She wore her skirts short and her hair bobbed. She painted her lips, drove a car, danced, and listened to jazz. Her millinery needed to express that spirit and live up to her spontaneous lifestyle.
The cloche hat is said to have been invented by milliner Caroline Reboux in 1908, became especially popular during the 1920s, and continued to be commonly seen until the early 1930's.  Its name is derived from cloche, the French word for "bell".  Whoever is responsible for its development, the couture houses of Paris like Lanvin and Molyneux made it a staple, opening ateliers to produce cloche hats designed to matched their clothing designs.  The cloche even inspired hairstyles such as the Eton crop the short, slick cut made famous by Josephine Baker as it was ideal to showcase the hats' shape.
Cloche hats were generally made of wool or fur felt and shaped over hat blocks to conform closely to the head.  They were worn low on the forehead, displaying the wearer's eyes seductively just below the brim.  Cloche hats of straw were also shaped on blocks in a similar manner.  For the home sewer, flat patterns were introduced to allow cloches to be constructed at home and outside the atelier out of silk or velvet to match their dresses like the couture houses of Paris.  Cloches could also be made of beads or lace for evening wear.
The cloche was often worn plain or simply trimmed.  More flamboyantly, the Art Deco style seen in architecture and décor translated into millinery in the 1920s. A cloche could be decorated with deco themed appliques, pleated and structured ribbon, jeweled pins or structure fans of feathers.  The cloche could also be femininely interpreted with soft silk ribbon work or millinery flowers. Ribbon style could be used as a manner of conveying not only style, but marital status.  An arrow pleated ribbon indicated a girl was single but had already given her heart, a knot conveyed marriage whereas a flamboyant bow displayed single and interested!
The same sense of drama and independence played out in evening headdress as well.  Inspiration came from Egypt with the archeological discoveries of King Tut's tomb in 1922.  Inspiration was also drawn from the exotic orient as well as Russia.  Headdresses including turbans, toques and tiaras were all reinterpreted for the 1920s woman. 
For bridal wear, cloches of metal work were seen, but the traditional orange blossom continued as a wedding staple.  Orange Blossoms figured from wax were generally used as real orange blossoms were in short supply or faded quickly.  The wax replica allowed for decadent headdresses to be created for the bride that could survive to become cherished heirlooms. 
I invite you to stop by my shop. There you will find hats created from vintage hat blocks in the same manner as the 1920 couture ateliers.  Custom requests can be made and the options for trim and color can combine into a truly one-of-a-kind piece.  My shop also has evening inspired pieces as well as reproduced bridal orange blossom crowns finished with yards of lush silk satin.  Do stop by!

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Veronica Darling and Gatsby

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 My Sunday was pretty awesome. Late afternoon I was lucky enough to meet up with Veronica Darling while she was in San Luis Obispo. She stayed at Madonna Inn with her family and I got to meet them all!

Veronica is just what you would expect, she is bubbly, friendly, and beautiful! As cliche as it sounds, when I met her I felt like I had known her a long time. She has a certain warmth about her and you can't help but want to be her best friend. Seriously! I am trying to convince them to move to California!

Her husband is equally as friendly and was sweet enough to take some photos of the two of us on Veronica's camera and a couple on my iPhone. Hopefully she will post one of the two of us with her adorable baby. He's just the happiest little guy with the cutest smile. I was really sad to say goodbye, but hopefully I will have the opportunity to see them here again. If not, I'm going to Australia! ;)

After meeting Veronica I raced home to try and vacuum up the cat hair all over my house before my good friends Jessi and Curtis came over for a double date to see The Great Gatsby. I have heard a lot of negative reviews about the movie, but in the end I really liked it! It was not authentic 20s, but I didn't go in expecting it to be. Come on, if Jay Z is on the soundtrack do you really think that it's going to be 100% authentic? The actors were great, the story stayed fairly true to the book (of course there were some movie adaptations), and the costumes, colors, and backgrounds were all so beautiful. A true feast for the eyes! I would like to see it again in 3D!

Have any of you seen the movie? What did you think?

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Five Tips for Better Beading

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Beading was a popular way of embellishing clothing in the 1920s. When The Great Gatsby Sewing Challenge first started I knew that beading was a topic I wanted to cover, but didn't know the first thing about. I immediately thought of Lizz and the beautiful tank top she made a few months ago. When she agreed to do a guest post on my blog I was beyond excited! Thanks for sharing with us, Lizz!
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Five Tips for Better Beading 

Hi! I'm Lizz and I blog over at A Good Wardrobe [agoodwardrobe.com]. I'm so happy to be here today to talk with you about beading. Last fall I was able to take an internship at a couture bridal atelier where I learned how to bead garments. It was such a great experience and I've been beading in my own work ever since. Since beading was extensively used in women's clothing during the 1920's, Erin asked me to come by and talk about the craft. Here are my five tips for better beading. 

1. Find Your Needle
The type of needle you use will vary depending on the fabrics, beads, and threads that you choose for your project. My favorite types are size 9 straw needles and size 13 beading needles. The beading needles are very fine, long needles with small eyes. The needles will flex easily and over time curve to your fingers. I reach for these when I'm beading delicate fabrics like lace. If I'm working with a thick thread that won't fit into the eye of my beading needles, I love a straw needle! The eye of a straw needle is punched into the shank making a consistent diameter throughout the body so you'll never feel resistance from the eye when pulling the needle through the fabric. The size 9 is still small enough to flow through a twelve-aught seed bead. As with anything, your personal preference may differ and I encourage you to buy several sizes and types of needles to experiment.  

2. Cut Your Thread Short
The length of your thread will affect your tension dramatically! When you first begin beading fabric, it's easier to get the feel for correct tension when your thread is cut to a shorter length. Also, working with shorter lengths will help to prevent tangling and no one wants to place a bunch of beads only to have their thread tangle up on them! I like to cut my thread no longer than the length of my arm span for a double threaded needle. 

 3. Always Wax Your Thread
Each time your pull your thread through fabric it breaks down causing the thread to fray. Waxing your thread helps strengthen it against this constant abuse. You can find beeswax at any haberdashery. To wax your thread, pass the thread through the beeswax.  Press the thread with a hot iron using a press cloth to protect the iron's faceplate. If you're like me and don't bead near your iron, you might be interested in a product called Thread Heaven [www.threadheaven.com].  You treat your thread with it just like beeswax but it doesn't require the added step of ironing to seal in the product. 

4. Watch Your Float Lengths
The length of thread between two beads is called a "float". Tension can be tricky with longer floats and the thread can snag on jewelry or other objects once the garment is finished. I try to keep my floats no longer than a half an inch. If two beads must be placed further than a 1/2" and you don't want to tie off and start a new thread, take a small, invisible stitch on the inside of the garment between the two beads to prevent the unwanted long float.  

5. Secure Often
Beading is time consuming and you want to make sure that the garment you make can hold up to wear and tear. However, beads can catch and break off, threads can snag and break, and knots can work their way free. To protect my work, I always secure my thread with a double knot every three beads or so. That way, if the thread fails, I'll only loose a few beads and I can easily go back and replace them. 

If you've beaded a piece of clothing before, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. If you've been curious about beading, I encourage you to give it a try! Although beading takes time, I find the slow and steady process to be very satisfying. I hope that you'll enjoy it as much as I do and that these tips will help you along the way. 

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Gatsby Inspiration on Pinterest

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One of my favorite ways to gather inspiration is by searching Pinterest. Almost everything imaginable can be found and it's so easy to keep clicking and pinning. Without the Internet it would be much more difficult to research the 20s and see the fashions (almost) firsthand.

I know some of you have created Gatsby Pinterest boards (myself included) and I thought I would share because there are some amazing finds!
Tiffany
Lauren
Qui
Rochelle


Oh, if you are still looking for a pattern then be sure to check out this awesome list that Anna put together. She has an Etsy shop and website with pdf patterns and made a post showing all the dresses, lingerie, and hats patterns available. There are some really cute ones!

Do you have a 20s style Pinterest board? Please share it below in the comments!

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