Clear, sunny skies, 70 degrees means perfect weather for being outside and no sweating all over my vintage clothes. Today the Americans "liberated" the town of Nouveu Oxford (New Oxford is a tiny PA town between Hanover and Gettysburg).

German officer talking to the "mayor" Bob Buker organizes the convoy and works with New Oxford to allow the convoy to come in and "liberate" the town. I was pleased that I could still fit into something at almost 20 weeks pregnant!

Surprises all around

Two Sundays ago I found out I was pregnant. I did not one but three home pregnancy tests because I didn't want to believe it. The first thing I thought afterwards was that I wanted a drink but figured that it would be irresponsible to down a fifth of vodka when I knew that I was pregnant. My second thought was that I was glad I bought some vintage maternity patterns a few months back. And my third thought was that I had no idea where we were going to put a baby. Sure we have a two bedroom apartment but the 2nd bedroom consists of the following:

• All of Brian's army gear
  
• All of my reenacting stuff - hats, clothes, shoes, suitcases, purses, accessories....all of it
• All of my sewing and knitting stuff - patterns, fabric, pins, needles, yarn, sewing machine, buttons, zippers, EVERYTHING
• Books galore
• Random electronics like our printer, modem, etc
• Seasonal clothes

Considering that nine months goes by really fast, I decided to start cleaning out the closet yesterday. I figure that I don't really need an armoir for the baby. Does the baby care? No. Do I care? No, it's just one more thing I would have to spend non-existant money on. Just get me a slew of baby hangers and I can keep all the clothes in the closet. I'll probably get some of that modular organization stuff to store shoes, blankets, bedding, etc. On my trek through the closet I found FOUR - count them FOUR- pairs of vintage shoes that I don't remember buying. How pathetic is that? They all fit too!

Black slingbacks. Sorry for the blurry photo. Brown Wedges, sold in Philadelphia.

Black suede Red Cross shoes, though there is a disclaimer that they have nothing to do with the Internaional Red Cross.

Not sure if these are really lizard or embossed leather. Probably embossed but that's fine. I really like them. And they fit.

I felt a bit foolish when I found all these shoes.

Project updates: Simplicity 4431 and 3371

Another shirt dress...typical. Wide waistband with gathers at the waist in front and back and at the shoulder. There are two pleats at either side of center. It just needs buttons, which I somehow don't have in my stash, hemmed, and all the basting threads pulled out. The pattern was missing the sleeve but I just substituted another one.

Ths is one hot mess. I soaked the fabric which refused to come clean but there was enough that I could cut around most of the brown spots. There is one brown line on the back of the shirt but I can live with it if it doesn't come out. I wasn't sure about matching the stripes on the darts. I sorta kinda tried. It still needs a belt to cinch in the waist. As you can see it's more of a tunic. I also have to hem the left sleeve, which is why it is sticking out further than the right. There will also be a ribbon at the neck so it won't be as cleavage-tastic as it is right now. It's really easy to construct but I have a feeling that it won't look so good on me.

Green

I had a serious green fetish about two summers ago. I suppose it's never really gone away because I still find myself attracted to predominately green things. So, despite my assertions that I love red, I find that my closet is seriously lacking in anything remotely red. Here are some of my favorites on Etsy:

Ostrich and green velvet wedges. $85 from Thrush. According to the measurements on the seller's site, they seem to be a fairly wide vintage size 5. You have no idea how tempted I am to pick these up. 1. A wide size 5; 2. two tone green and tan; 3. love the way the straps cross in the front.

Celluloid palm tree pin. $15 from vintageclothiers. I've had a real thing for tropical themes leading into summer.

Glass bangles. $29.99 from BleuFleur. I adore these shades of jade green all marbled together. There's something very art deco about these shades.

Minty green apple earrings from pastelpetals. $12. Sweet and feminine.

Watercolor mesh scarf from editionbw. $60.

Edit to post below + woe is me

My favorite of my husband's shirts is nothing special. It's a semi transluscent long sleeve white cotton button down shirt with white and pale blue plaid....on the diagonal. I never consciously noticed this before. Here is the woe is me part to this whole thing - I am reminded how uncreative I am. I am an excellent (imo) technical writer. You want me to expound on the rise and fall of the roman empire? I'll research the shit out of it and write a great technical paper. Will it be boring? Yep, but it'll have really good grammar, punctuation, and footnotes. I'm extremely visual and sensory oriented in general. I like looking at things, seeing colors, smelling books, turning my music way way up until the speakers blow. But it's hard for me to visualize my projects. I can like a fabric and like a pattern but I will struggle to see the finished product in my mind. It makes me very indecisive and I hate that. I know I'll be the same when we buy a house and I want to paint every room in the place. I'll be frozen with indecision, wondering if I'll like a color when it covers an entire room. Can I learn to be creative? I have no idea.

Simplicity 3173

I picked up this patttern on ebay a bit ago. It's a junior's pattern but, aside from the cutesy heart shaped pockets on style 2, I don't think it's inappropriate age-wise. And I'm a sucker for puffed sleeves. (Note: I think some people could rock the heart pockets, but it's not my style. Plus, I tend to wear vintage only to reenactments, which besides equalling nerd city, also means going for accuracy.)

In this case, however, I'm going for Style 3:

I like the casual look and I can imagine wearing it on a hot summer day and being cool and comfortable. It's also one of the few blouse patterns I own that isn't a button down shirt. Which means, I can finally put this fabric to use:

When I bought this fabric, I didn't realize that the stripes were on the bias. I didn't think the drape would be quite right for a skirt so I was at a loss. I'm still not entirely sure about how it will look on this blouse but I'm willing to give it a go. There are dirt lines on the fabric so hopefully tonight I'll put it in the tub to soak over night and then pull it out tomorrow morning to dry.

Butterick 2611 Progress

I had every intention of doing the drawstrings but it was an epic fail. They were tiny and I couldn't pull them right side out no matter what I tried. I tried the instructions' way and then I tried to just pick and pull it through millimeter by painful millimeter. I was willing to do that! But then a little hole was created that became a big hole and it pulled out through the side. That was the last straw.
Ripping out stitches to remove the casings for the drawstring. Pain in my ass.
Setting in sleeves....another pain in my ass.
Zipper is in! Yea! Hmm...not the best, but it's in and it's staying. I bought a huge lot of metal zippers on ebay once and this is from that stash. The pull seem kinda big, but the zipper itself looks like it's the right size for dresses and skirts.

To do list: hem sleeves, tidy up miscellaneous threads, belt.