Manic Pop

Surprise! I chopped all my hair off. I also have a new favorite pair of PANTS! I actually can't remember the last time I made a pair of pants. Really, it's been probably since college if I remember correctly, so that means my last sewing a pair of pants was.... at least 8 years ago? Yikes! Sometime last month I decided I wanted a pair of high-waist wide leg pants. Originally, I was going to just make my own sewing pattern for a pair of pants (because yes, I know how to do all that!). But instead of reinventing the wheel, I decided that there probably was a retro pattern out there that existed for exactly what I wanted, and I was right. It's Butterick 3014! My pattern packet doesn't have a publishing date, but I can guess it's 1970s. (Not the best photo, but hey. It's the pattern packet.) I bought my pattern in a size 26 1/2 via Etsy and the only adjustment I did was the suggested rise measurement. I sat there in my sewing room, going ...

So last weekend I had the chance to head out to Chicago for a bit.... and it truly was visiting home. I know I'm on a creative sabbatical right now which is a luxury in and of itself but I can't wait to go home to the city I lived in for a decade. While there I couldn't pass up a book that was at Shangri-La Vintage in Roscoe Village. It's one of my personal favorite vintage boutiques in Chicago and it stocks some of my favorite things like retro interior decorating books and a fairly large corner of vintage fabric. (Of course I would like the fabric!) So that got me thinking about my (fictional) new place once I head back...My old house was super-retro and I'm sure an apartment will look similar for me. Enjoy some photos from a 1975 home decorating book I found for inspiration!  Dream living room.   But I'll take this too. Or this!   You know eventually I need to make one of these as a couch cover, right?  The red/yellow/...

There were lots of things in Chicago I am more than glad to leave behind.... but I still occasionally miss the house I lived in for 5 out of 10 years. Located in the Portage Park neighborhood in Chicago (a heavily populated Polish neighborhood!) it was quiet, tree-lined and had rows of bungalow houses. Bonus: I had an international market just blocks away that I shopped for all my groceries. I was super-spoiled. Ok, so I stole this photo from the internet. This is what my neighborhood looked like though! My neighborhood was even named one of the top 12 neighborhoods to live in Chicago last year. So here we are - step into my little retro bungalow, just for old time's sake. Everyone knows I love orange. These photos aren't 100% spectacular but they are all I have that are this comprehensive and recent of the house. Taken in February 2014. Living room looking to the road.  That couch got so destroyed by the cats!  Archway ...

So this top took me FAR too long to make - and there is good reason for that. This perhaps was the easiest pattern of all to make for me (albeit a slight bit more technical due to the button placement, button extension, etc.) But life got in the way for me. I was sick with some ridiculous throat thing with a cough for about 2 week which is completely unheard of for me. I usually am only sick for about 3-4 days but this thing just lingered. I was miserable and slept a lot. I also interviewed for and got a new job in the process as well as have been shopping for Christmas gifts, Thanksgiving happened, so... there's all that.  Onward! Max actually helped me pick fabric/helped design this one with me. The tunic top is based off of a photo of a near-exact tunic top from 1967 in an old  McCall's catalog. I didn't want to spend time searching for that specific pattern online so I went up to the sewing room and BAM banged out the pattern. Alas, the pattern is also self-d...

While a small departure from my normal 60s/70s  retro fashion posts, I couldn't help but want to share some images in a book I found in my basement recently. It's a Butterick sewing book from 1927! Yep, you read that correctly - in my basement! I went to go do laundry and it was just lying on the floor. No rhyme or reason, it was just there. I live in a house where old people's belongings still exist but the people don't any longer (we've moved a lot of stuff around, gotten rid of a ton) but this book must have been in a box near the steps in the basement that I overlooked. I'm assuming the cats knocked something over as we have a pile of stuff headed to a thrift store. While this book is not filled with a ton of amazing photos (it's a very solid how-to book) there are a few cute illustrations that are definitely worthy of sharing! Come take a look with me! Cover. Title page Roman numerals! I had no id...