My friend Rebecca emailed me a while back to point to this beautiful dress from Darling Dexter. I am loving these beautiful fall colors, and of course she looks gorgeous in it.

Read more aboutthe Macaron dress on Darling Dexter.

Happy Halloween to everyone that’s celebrating! Good luck on those final costume touches!

They don’t make things like this anymore, do they? This little kit of mending thread, hair pins, and safety pins in a gorgeous deco “handy pack” is just so cute. And the colors are pretty festive for this time of year.

{image: deco haberdashery by ticking stripes on Flickr}

I love Halloween, but every year I run into the same problem. I always think, this year I will make myself a cool, elaborate costume. I will put my sewing skills to their intended use, making absurd outfits that you cannot buy for love or money, and I will celebrate my favorite holiday with style.

But every year October rolls around and I am insanely busy and costumes just sort of fall by the wayside. This year, I am going as an Edward Gorey character, so most of my costume bits are vintage (or cheap reproductions).

What about you, do you make your costumes? Any good Halloween sewing projects this year?

{images: from carbonated and rhiannonmars}

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who recommended a shop that they thought would be a great fit for us. We had hundreds of responses, and with the tremendous help of my wonderful new wholesale manager, we’re chatting with many of them!

Three winners have been picked at random using random.org, and they’ve all been contacted. But if you didn’t win, don’t worry: there will be future giveaways soon!

{pictured above: one of my first and favorite stockists, the delightful Home Ec in Los Angeles}

I am so amazed by what Johanna of The Last Stitch created from Parfait. She used a rayon crepe, and I just love the colors and pattern of her fabric. Here’s what she said when she emailed me:

My name is Johanna and I just want to give you a big thumps up for the Parfait dress. I finished it last week and I am totally in love. I’m a pretty picky sewer and usually have to tweak the patterns so that they fit my aesthetic and fit requirements, but I did Parfait as is (except that I omitted the pocket) and it turned out incredibly well. Also instead of doing a small bust alteration I graded the bodice down two sizes (from 4-0) and I got a great fit from that method. Not sure if it works for all small busts of course, but it was nevertheless a very quick alteration method that might be worth trying for others too.

Check out her blog post about Parfait for more review and photos.

I can’t stop looking at this rainbow of buttons from the always inspiring kitschen pink.

I have a great deal of mismatched and one-off bakelite buttons. I’m not so much into button jewelry, but one day I’ll find a use for them!

I have lots of dreams, and one of them is to evolve this blog into one of the most awesome, useful sewing/making/creating blogs out there. Do you want to help me?

I really love posting things that are beautiful and helpful, and I just know there’s lots more some of you other creative geniuses could contribute. So I’m looking for someone (or multiple someones!) who might like to be a regular guest blogger over here. You’d get a chance to promote your own blog, an audience of awesome sewists here, and of course you’d be working with one of your favorite indie businesses. ;)

Some ideas for what would make this blog shine:

• Tutorials for your favorite sewing techniques
• How-tos and patterns for accessories and other pretty little bits and bobs
• Insightful discussions about sewing, creating, and DIY
• Inspiration from the past
• Interviews with creative people who sew
• Book reviews, for modern and vintage sewing and craft books (imagine reviews for older books on embellishment, millinery, glove making, sewing…. wouldn’t that be wonderful?)
• Your favorite sewing tools
• Musings on fabric, color, and prints
• History of sewing
• Any other fascinating subjects you can think of!

Are you interested? Drop me a line and let’s scheme together!

Or if you just have ideas about what you would want to read in your own ideal sewing blog, feel free to leave a comment here!

{photo above: Typewriter by hooraydesign}

I love the details that you find in vintage clothing. With some notable exceptions, it seems most of these details have disappeared from mainstream off-the-rack clothing, and are now only echoed in very expensive designer garments.

That is, unless you can sew. There are a million ways to be inspired by beautiful vintage clothing and incorporate those details into the projects you work on. True, some of those details are a structural part of the pattern, like the pleats in the gorgeous pink taffeta dress pictured here from ladyday0_5. But many others can be easily incorporated into anything you sew: hemline details, collars, applique, ruffles, insertions, piping, the list goes on and on. I hope to bring you some of these ideas, inspired by real vintage garments, in the future.

I don’t usually go in for fluffy taffeta prettiness in my own wardrobe, but this skirt is quite amazing, isn’t it? It does look like it would be trouble to iron, though.