Isn't Sunday Supposed to be the "Day of Rest"?

So, I'm a bit of a masochist. I like to punish myself knowing that it will cause more stress later. But--I do it for the good of my students, knowing it will benefit them more in the end. So, as you recall, last semester the 7th grade Project Runway kids tackled the infamous boxers. This semester, I REALLY wanted the girls to be able to do skirts. But, there are boys in the class too, don't forget--so they should get to do a boys' project. And some girls might not want to all do the same skirt. Or any skirt at all. So, that's when I had the bright idea to allow back sacks, simple skirts, and high-waist elastic skirts to all be constructed under one roof in one class at the same time. Crazy? Beyond.

So, things kind of caught up with me pretty quickly as I was out sick ALL of the last week in February and then I came back and realized, oh CRAP, I have not made ANY of the samples or student-friendly directions and they are starting on the projects like, NOW. So, today I spent my Sunday doing exactly that. I did get a wearable skirt of my own out of it, though. Five hours and three Power Points later, we have:


The Nylon Back Sack


The Regular Ol' Skirt...do forgive the strings I forgot to trim...


The High-Waist Elastic Skirt

While I admit that I was dreading spending all day at school when I'm normally alternating between sleeping and, well, SLEEPING on Sundays, I was very excited when I finished. The kids will be so proud of themselves when they finish these projects. All practical, all things they can use. A far cry from the useless drawstring bag I made in 7th grade Home Ec.

The Nylon Back Sack is waterproof and available from Haan Crafts. They've been around forever serving schools--my 6th grade Home Ec pillow was a Haan creation.

The first skirt is a simple, elastic-waisted (also non-vomit-inducing) and very easy skirt for beginning sewers. It can be purchased from Lama Sewing Kits, which is a great local business here in Maryland that serves its schools well.

The Elastic Waist Skirt came from another cool blog by a lady who does really great tutorials on a wide variety of sewing and crafty things; you can find it here.

Hopefully you won't see any "I'M GOING INSANE!" posts over the next few weeks... let's hope that my dear children actually use and READ the student-friendly instructions that I took my sweet Sunday to make for them and build their independence along the way!

Vintage Simplicity 5745- Wide-Leg Pants, Circa 1973

So, my hunt for the perfect pair of wide-leg pants continues. I've scoured the internet for quite a while in search of the perfect pair, and a few months ago, I found them--or so I thought. Behold:


Looking at this, I was too excited by the prospect of such an awesome fit and possibly making another pair of standard-crushing plaid pants to add to the collection. Click, add to cart, ship, receive...disappoint. Those dreaded words at the bottom, I did not notice before: "Sized for STRETCH KNITS only." NoooOOOooo. WHY? Oh, AND there's an ELASTIC WAIST? Ew. Okay, don't panic. This can work. Suggested fabrics include stretch wool/double-knit wool. Cool. Got it.

Hey, lady at Hancock, do you have knit wool? No? Oh. Off to JoAnn's. Hey, lady at JoAnn's, do you have any knit wool? No? It doesn't exist? What?! WHAT???!!!

So, apparently, many of the fabrics that these vintage patterns suggest don't really exist anymore unless you go to very highly specialized places that most certainly do not exist in any reasonable radius of my town. Sigh. No knit plaids. Nothing. I had to settle for the least sweatpants-like fabric I could find (which was a stretch...no pun intended) and I picked solid brown. It wasn't a difficult pattern. The elastic waistband isn't too vomit-inducing. But, like a dummy, I still lengthened them too much, had to do more hemming than I should, and threw off the proportion of the pants. I'm not too happy with them:


By the way, taking blog pics of garments is REALLY hard not to get a weird, unflatteringly gross angle.

I don't know. There's just something about them. They just don't lay right, I guess. And they still kind of feel like pajamas. Sigh. We'll see what I end up doing with them.

Garment Features:

Elastic Waistband
Hip-Hugger Waistline
Wide Leg Bell

Heinously Overdue

Oh, dear. It's March. I've been meaning to write since December. But, between school/work, grad school, and just plain ol' being BUSY AS CRAP, I haven't had a spare moment. Because I go to bed at 8 after doing all of these things...like the true decade displaced old lady that I am.

While I haven't had much time to sew for myself, I've received quite-a-many vintage-related gifts from Christmas until now that deserve just as much a spot on the blog as any handmade threads.

Gift #1: Christmas
The first (and the sweetest) came on Christmas. Mike and I were both admittedly strapped this year--both for ideas and for money--but he always manages to come up with the most thoughtful gifts, no matter what. Behold:



Can you say "Deadstock"?! Oh my goodness. I cried out loud for joy when I opened the ORIGINAL BOX...


...to find those. How cool are those? Too cool. How did he know what to get, you ask? Well, I had shown them to him on ebay, and he took it upon himself to get them for me. That was one sweet Christmas.

Gift(s) #2: From Ms. K, Queen Antiquer

Ms. K is my former English teacher and very good friend who so sweetly sends me random odds and ends with letters in our county basket mail every now and then. This year, she has bestowed upon me a variety of beyond-awesome vintage finds:




From the 40s and completely useful!




She knows me TOO well.



Amazing Valentine's Postcard, 1909



Vintage Buttons. I would love to know exactly how old they are!


Ms. K's vintage finds for me are always a hit. So personal and they REALLY make my day when I get them in the mail! The last batch came on one of the worst days of my teaching career. It was SO needed!

Gift #3- "Decades of Don'ts"...Hilarity Ensues


(Sorry for the rotated-ness. Blogger does that sometimes and I don't know how to fix it.)

Thanks to one of my friends at work, I had a day of gut-busting laughter simply from reading this book--which I HIGHLY recommend--which chronicles vintage mostly crocheted and knitted garments and the ridiculousness of them and the intentions behind them. You will pee yourself laughing as you read this, guaranteed.

So, I am thankful for those who were so kind to give these extremely personal and thoughtful gifts to me. They have my name written all over them, no doubt about that!