Snip snip

I opened up Amanda's Weigel 1949 vintage pattern, and discovered all pieces perfectly there. Neatly folded, and perhaps never used, as there were no pin marks anywhere. But perhaps used with special care whilst cutting.

Lately I've stuffed all my vintage buttons into various bottles from the kitchen, they're as colour coded as can be (or as much as I had time for last year, 'beige or yellow?' same diff for now!) and make for very useful weights.

My Built By Wendy Books (Sew U and Sew You Stretch) talked about using cans of tomatos or cans of chickpeas for weighing down your pattern pieces, and I thought since I'm using vintage patterns for the great "Amanda's Vintage Pattern Challenge" (they're Amanda's) I'll not risk using pins as I go about cutting the pattern pieces out. These pieces were already cut, as I think was the trend back then, so just needed a bit of flattening overnight on the ironing board and today I used my button bottles to weigh down the bits for easy and preserving snip snip snips.

The only change I made so far was to cut the hem of the skirts (3 skirt pieces in total) to 19 inches from the waistline. I'm sure I've told you many times that I am a short arse petite size so this skirt would sit right around my ankles in it's current size. Because I used the weights instead of pins, I couldn't really judge my material, but luckily it turned out perfect because I'd shortened the skirt the right amount. I do wear my skirts a little shorter than most anyways, so I think will look cute (hopefully) a bit shorter round the bottom because of the formal collaring around the top.

Oh, and one of the collar pieces (there's 2 of the same piece required) I had to cut differently (ie, using the opposite grain) because I ran out of material on the fold as well, but luckily there was enough bits left over ... I want to say 'upstairs' because I was putting the leftover fabric on the table, and then cut the skirt pieces out on the floor.

Ha ha!

More soon!