Verity Vintage Studio

Country Kitchen Accessories - Prairie Sisters Homestead Blog Tour for Poppie Cotton

Fabric speaks to me. 

When I received my sample bundle of Prairie Sisters Homestead fabric by Poppie Cotton, I put it on my shelf with a plan to make a couple of woven pot holders out of it at least. More recently I had an idea for an apron made from 2.5" strip precuts. But when I went to cut out my projects last week, I ended up suddenly needing to also make a patchwork apron and some patchy potholders too!

 

So I went to town with all the cute kitchen items, as you can see. 

We are in the process of moving house this month, and one of the things I wanted to do is upgrade all my disliked or yucky potholders. I bake a lot, and am a big proponent of things being both pretty AND practical - so why give drawer space to pot holders I don't like when I can replace them with cute ones? They may eventually also get yucky and need to be tossed, but they are so easy and fun to make, and will be fun to use in the meantime.

 

I made two basic 16 patch potholders with 2" squares, following color schemes instead of going all scrappy like I originally thought. The yellow I arranged a little; the blue I just did random. 

And does it ever match to perfection the vintage tablecloth I just got my mom for her birthday!

 

The 3rd potholder in the mint color way I decided on impulse to do a fussy cut square in the center - some of these prints are PERFECT for fussy cutting! - and do the smaller mint patches around the edge.

 

I layered them all with a double layer of cotton quilt batting so they would be extra thick, and quilted them all differently. I love each of them, and enjoy seeing them side by side so you can see what a difference a little arrangement and quilting can do to a basic design. 

 

Also you have to love the coordinating chicken backings, and gingham bindings!

 

I did in fact do a woven hot pad too, though! I had seen a tutorial ages ago from Art Gallery Fabrics and have been wanting to try it ever since. Finally did it, and it's super cute! Also very little actual sewing.

 

I want to make another now and play around more with the color placement. But this one I'm very pleased with. Reminds me of apple pie. 

 

The pink apron was my "jelly roll apron" idea, made with 2.5" strips where the end was sewn like a Dresden plate to make points, and all of them joined side by side. I originally got the idea from a photo of a 1940s pattern for an apron with lots of flared gores and pointed ends, so this was my non-pattern version. 

 

I tapered the tops to make it a little more fitted and shaped, and chose the strawberry fabric for a waistband and ties. 

 

For my yellow apron, I did something quite different. I cut 4 yellow FQ in half and sewed a half of each into a large patchwork rectangle, which I then gathered into a waistband. (Yellow just seemed to be the right color for August sewing - but now I kind of wish I'd made a blue one too.)

 

Add a fussy cut pocket and ties, and a little bit of lace trim - and it's just the cutest! My mom and sister just about swiped this one from me. :-) 

 

Incidentally, it matches my mom's gorgeous yellow 1950s stove like a dream. 

 

I really enjoy working with fat quarter cuts. While they are intended for quilts, and certainly handy for that, it's also fun to work within the constraints of an 18 x 22" piece of fabric to see what all I can come up with, without extra yardage. And all of these pretty new kitchen things make me so happy as I prepare for upgrading to a new kitchen soon!

 

Check out the other bloggers on this tour to see all their makes with this sweet new fabric line:

Monday, August 7	theredfeedsack.blogspot.com
Wednesday, August 9	Vanessa Ward
Friday, August 11	Website: http://blueribbondesigns.com
Monday, August 14	www.cardinalcreekquilting.com
Wednesday, August 16	https://amerooniedesigns.com/
Friday August 18	http://prettybyhand.com/
Monday, August 21	https://verityvintagestudio.typepad.com/my-blog/
Wednesday, August 23	@elliebugmakes
Friday, August 25	http://neverlandstitches.blogspot.com/

 

1950s Birthday Girl Dress

The week my oldest daughter was turning 4, I pulled out some girl size patterns and asked her which one she would like for a birthday dress. She picked the one with pockets, of course! And when I let her choose some fabric, she gravitated instantly towards the purple floral - which did not surprise me. :-)

 

This floral is one of my very favorite prints from the recent Bee Vintage line by Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs. The good news is that it is one of their basics, which means that it will be available for a much longer period of time than usual, and they will keep it in stock!

 

This is a pretty standard 1950s girl dress, with a basic shirt-dress style made interesting by a yoke and those cute pockets. I cut down on the skirt width a bit, believe it or not. There were 4 entire widths of fabric in that tiny skirt!

 

Some lavender rickrack was the perfect edge for the contrast yoke, which I had the ideal fabric for in my stash. 

 

The little gathered pockets are the cutest. And she loves them so much, I will probably have to put pockets on all the dresses I make for her in the future!

 

I altered it to button the whole way down the back, and omitted the ties since this will be an everyday dress. Otherwise I followed the pattern. It was pretty quick and easy to put together.

 

The bodice pattern pieces were slashed and spread to make a bigger size, so this is actually a tad long-waisted for her. But that just means it will fit her longer, and she is growing so fast that is a definite plus!

 

The fun thing is that I have some of this fabric set aside for a 1950s house dress for me, so once I get around to sewing it, we will have matching dresses! I'll have to take more photos then. 

 

She was super pleased with her dress, and took interest in all the fittings and progress I made. She will be sewing her own as soon as she can, I'm sure. Meanwhile I can hardly believe she is 4 already!

Another 1950s Rose Dress

Everything's coming up roses, apparently! Actually, since I was pregnant all spring I didn't get any of my dress ideas for my spring-ish fabric made, so now I'm hurrying to stitch some of them before fall arrives. As a result, you get the 2nd large rose print dress in a row.

 

This one was sewn with fabric and vintage glass buttons from The Timely Tailor, and I have to say it probably is my favorite sewing project so far for the year. I was so pleased with the fit (important since most of my Sunday dresses don't fit me again yet!) and the style. 

 

This is the first time I've made this 1950s pattern, and I usually shy away from something with a lot of fullness in the front. This time, though, I decided to risk it, and top stitched the pleats down for a few inches, which really helps keep the waist looking trim.

 

It has double slanted side darts to add some pretty detail, and my favorite kind of fold back collar. 

 

Funny story though - I was having a bit of a day when I cut this out. Everything was going wrong. And when I went to cut out this dress, I found that the front bodice piece was missing. That was a bit of a poser, since it's harder to swap out a bodice piece, especially when I wanted the details of this particular one. I ended up going through my patterns, finding one similar, kind of cobbling together a front piece that I HOPED would work out like the original, and cutting it out. It added quite a bit of hassle and time to the cutting out process.

I carried the stack of pieces to the sewing room, turned around - and there on the floor was the missing bodice piece. :-) 

 

Thankfully the rest of the process went a lot more smoothly! But because of the substitution and my size adjustments, the collar piece ended up too short to overlap in the back like it was supposed to. It didn't even meet - there was 1-2 inches of gap that just didn't look right. So I had the idea to make a separate tab to cover it, and actually love how it turned out. It makes a petal collar that fits with the fabric very well.

 

Narrow white cotton lace trims the sleeves, and I went with classic white glass buttons. 

 

The skirt is super full and swishy - even though I took out quite a bit of width to fit it on my fabric! - especially with a small crinoline, but I really like how it adds that feminine silhouette while still being trim and flattering.

 

I will definitely make this pattern again...THIS time with the right bodice piece!