Sharon Sews

Birthdays. I love birthdays. I love birthday parties and birthday cake. Especially when the party is for a child and there will be the best home-made birthday cake ever, made by their mother. Which is one reason I'm so sad that we had to miss a little sweetie-pie's birthday party today celebrating her third birthday. We can thank one of our cars since it started making scary noises the other day and today was the only chance we had to get it into service to be looked at. So I won't know until we see them tonight if the little sweetie will like her new wraparound dress or not. I betting Mom will like it even if the little one gravitates towards the toy that will also be in the birthday bag. The dress was sewn using a vintage 1970s pattern I picked up the other day at a thrift store. You know, there was a time not so long ago that I would rarely see sewing patterns in thrift stores. Now, almost every one I stop at as a rather large selection of sewing patterns for sale. I

I know I do. While I think the woman's clothing in that show is gorgeous, and the office-attire incredibly put together, I certainly would not want to wear those restrictive outfits for my work day. I remember entering the work force in the 80s when office attire was tailored and fitted, dresses or skirt suits were preferred over pants and no bare leg or foot could be visible (pantyhose with dresses and skirts and trouser socks with slacks), which meant if you wore open toe shoes you needed sheer-toed pantyhose. Believe me, it was as uncomfortable as it sounds. But I digress. The reason I asked if you love Mad Men fashions (and being designers and sewers I already know that you do) is to put a bug in your ear about the upcoming casting call contest that begins July 21. If you think you've got a Mad Men style worthy of an appearance on the show, this contest is for you. Hop on over here for the full details. Coming up with your winning look should keep you preoccupied u

As I was writing a post on sewing Barbie doll clothes for TheCircle.org , I began to think about all the doll clothes patterns I had purchased through out the years. One thing led to another and before long I had pulled out the big storage container that houses all of the fashion doll sewing patterns I own. The covers of those doll patterns are a snapshot of the pop culture of the time capturing for all time the current clothing styles, hair trends and even celebrities. Check this out. Simplicity offered patterns to clothe the popular Cher and Farrah dolls with the dolls drawn on the front looking eerily like cartoon versions of each celebrity. Simplicity also gave you the ability to sew your own king of pop outfit. McCall's offerings including Donny and Marie as well as Brooke Shields. Did anyone happen to notice how current some of the fashions from these 70s and 80s patterns look? By the way, you can read my post on sewing doll clothing-part one here .