Pattern Palooza

I adore vintage sewing patterns! Aren't they just so cute! Too bad I really only enjoy sewing them up once or twice before moving on to other patterns. Since I have too many, I'm going to be selling some this week. Click the link to see some of these patterns made up. Enjoy!

1. Simplicity 1659 Waist 24 Hips 33 $5 plus shipping

 A basic 1940s bias cut skirt with great drape and and option for cute pockets or a shaped waistband.

2. Simplicity 3895 Size 16 Bust 34 $10 plus shipping ***sold

 A super cute early 40s dress with cool pockets. Jazz this dress up with embroidery or topstitching.

3. Simplicity 3517 Size 16 Bust 34 $10 plus shipping ***sold

 A great early 40s shirtwaist dress. It sews up smartly in both solids and prints. Note: this is an unprinted pattern.

4. McCall 9242 Size 14 Bust 32 $25 + shipping ***sold

 This smart, sporty 1930s pattern is in amazing condition! It definitely hasn't been sitting in an attic or basement somewhere. I particularly love the fluttery sleeves of view A.

5. Simplicity 4366 Size 14 Bust 32 $10 plus shipping ***sold

This pattern includes the jacket and pleated skirt patterns. It just screams 1940s college gal to me.

6. Simplicity 4413 Size 16 Bust 34 $10 + shipping ***sold

 This smart dress gives the look of a suit without the hassle of all of that tailoring! It would be equally yummy in wool for fall or linen for summer.

7. Simplicity 1983 Size 15 Bust 33 $20 plus shipping

 This pattern circa 1947 is perfect for all of your special occasion needs! I particularly like view 1 with the bustle which is inspired by late 19th century styles. I even used this pattern to make up a wedding dress!

8. Simplicity 2502 Size 16 Bust 34 $10 plus shipping

 This post-war 1940s patterns is a perfect sun dress pattern! View 1 is perfect for prints while view 2 has fun hip accents.

9. Simplicity 1541 Size 14 Bust 32 $10 plus shipping

 Party dress anyone? This pattern features a fabulously full skirt and the option for a wrap or boatneck top.

10. Advance 8511 Size 12 Bust 30 $5 plus shipping

I don't know about you, but I love sleeveless tops for summer! Beat the heat with this 1950s blouse pattern or stick with a more classic look with short sleeves.

If you are interested in a pattern or two, email me at girlwiththestarspangledheart[at]gmail[dot]com. If you have been eyeing any of the hats from last week, let me know because I will be listing them for sale elsewhere soon! Thanks!

Konmari Round 2: CDs and DVDs

I'm digging right into Konmari round 2 with my CDs and DVDs. This category is a hard one for us because we love movies! See how many we parted with in the second round of culling.

Prayer Changes Things

My church has been going through the book of Daniel on Sundays. I knew there would be a lot of visions and prophecies but I never noticed how much this book talks about prayer. Daniel was such a prayer warrior!

In chapter 10 we see Daniel prays and fasts for 21 days but doesn't get an answer until day 24. The messenger who visits Daniel lets him know that God heard his prayers on the very first day even though the response was delayed. What a comfort to know that our prayers have power!

My head pastor has a saying about prayer-Prayer changes things. I've heard it many times, but this weekend it really hit home in Daniel's story. Prayer changes things but we have to be persistent because sometimes the answer gets delayed.

 I love using my acrylic stamping blocks to help me layout my stickers. Sometimes I have to get a bit creative to fit all of the letters on the page but this really helps me decide if I can squeeze it in.

 And then I outlined because outlining just makes things really pop! I really felt like this page ended up with a bit of an old school comic book feel so I doug out a speech bubble to add to the page.

Tada! It's easy to get bogged down in trying to figure out all of the nitty gritty in deep passages of prophecy but I always like to bring it back to the simple, obvious things in the Word. They are always areas in my life that I still need to work on!

Just remember this week that your prayers are powerful because we have a great God who answers them.

 P.S. I though you guys would like a sneak peak of what my workspace looks like when I'm creating. So crazy! I always tidy up afterwords though so my space can be open for other crafting endeavors like sewing.

Komanri Round 2: Plans and Strategy

I can't believe that we are halfway through June already! The hubby and I and our 3 birds will be moving in just two months so that means it's time to do round 2 of Konmari! I have decided to chronicle this second round but I'm going to be handling it a bit differently than round 1.

I went into the whole Konmari process originally knowing that we would be downsizing late summer 2016. I knew that downsizing would really give me an extra push to let go of more things but I went ahead and did one round of Konmari because I really wanted to start simplifying. Also, after finishing this process, I still kept finding more things to let go of so I knew a second round of Konmari was in order.

Now that we have selected a new apartment and have a move in date, I'm feeling very motivated to continue to declutter! We're going from a 3 bed 2 bath condo with a 1 car garage to a 2 bed 2 bath apartment with no garage. We're losing about 300 sq. ft. of living space plus the garage and cutting our patio by 2/3 so it's going to take some reorganizing of our belongings! The hardest part is that we'll lose a bedroom closet, a walk in closet in the master and a coat closet so storage is key.

Instead of following the order Mari recommends in her book, I'll be going in which ever order I feel is best. Mari has picked out her order by starting with less sentimental things and working your way up to more sentimental things and doing things in this order helps build your decision making skills. I've already been through this process and feel like my decision skills are already great. Plus, I know which areas I'll really need to downsize and which areas have already been decluttered pretty thoroughly.

I'm not going to be documenting this round in quite as much detail because that was a huge project and this round I'm on a deadline and will have to get stuff done pretty quickly. But watch this space for more decluttering! Please let me know if there is a particular category you'd like to see get Konmari'd in round 2 and I'll try to work it into my filming schedule.

IRCC6: Update 2

I can't believe it's been another month of the Italian Renaissance Costuming Challenge already! I had grand plans for progress this month but some things came up so I didn't have as much sewing time as I wanted. But I still did complete some things for this challenge.

My first goal for this segment of the challenge was to hand sew all of my eyelets. I actually did them at an event so they went pretty fast! And I got to talk to some of the other ladies about how I make my costumes so win win.

One of the things that put a bump in my sewing plans is the fact that our moving date got shifted from late September to mid August which is right at the end of this challenge. So in addition to extra moving related activities this month, I'll be loosing quite a bit of time at the end of the challenge too. So I decided to do a bit more machine sewing than originally planned. I did handsew together the panels of the skirt together but I assembled the facing and attached it by machine. The skirt is just two 60" widths of linen sewn together. I used the selvages as the edges so no need for any sort of seam finishing.

 I ran one row of running stitch across the top of the skirt and gathered to make tiny cartridge pleats. Then I hand stitched the skirt to the bodice and hemmed the skirt to finish the dress.

So far, I'm very happy with how the dress is turning out. I still have to get a lacing for the bodice and make sleeves but so far it looks really nice.

I also finished my petticoat which needed a hem and a hook and eye closure at the waist. I'm very proud of the fact that I hand sewed this piece 100%. I don't do that very often, but when I have time, it is very fun.

Next up, I started my pocket from a bit of grey wool I had left over from another project. I love my pocket pattern because the pocket ends up being large enough to hold all of my mundane things like cell phone, keys and money.

I've sewn up most of the pocket by machine but will be hand applying trim once I decide on which trim I like best. I always have such a hard time deciding on trim options! It's too hard for me to visualize the finished project.

 I also purchased the linen for my camica. I'm glad I ended up waiting because I got some on sale. Due to my new moving date, I'll probably do most of my camica by machine but I hope to have it and my pocket done before the next update.

If you missed update 1, you can find it here.

The Purpose of Friendship

I am absolutely loving the Illustrated Faith June Devotional kit! It is just so gorgeous plus the devotional is amazing. I wanted to share an entry I did reflecting on the friends in my life who have shaped who I am.

Growing up, I was painfully shy, a late bloomer and had a really hard time making friends. Add to that the fact that I (still) don't enjoy a lot of things that are universally popular and I like things that are not mainstream and you get a perfect recipe for a very lonely girl. But thanks to the internet which has let me meet people who are my own flavor of weird and growing up and learning how to communicate better, I now have some really awesome friends!

The inspiration for this page is from Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." The kit came with this cute little banner that gave my a color palette but I ended up not using it on this page. What God spoke to me in this verse was not about being grateful for my awesome friends (even though I am!) but that to be a good friend, I need to love at all times.

Being a good friend is hard. It takes a lot of time, effort and energy to build that relationship with someone and then be there for them. Jesus has to suffer and die just to be friends with us and that's the ultimate example of friendship. "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13 That's probably why most of us have a small group of really good friends within our larger group of more casual friends.

The real purpose of friendship is not having someone to talk to or hang with or any other benefits I might get from it. The purpose of friendship is to be a blessing in someone else's life.

5 Months Post Konmari: Minimalism & What's Next

I can't believe it's been five months since I finished Konmari! Like I said in my wrap up video, I don't really miss anything. In fact, I can hardly remember most of what I got rid of. (Or where I would have stored it.) I'm really enjoying being a minimalist and I don't think I'll ever go back to being a mindless consumer.

In today's video, I'm talking a bit about how minimalism is going for me, whether or not I'll do another Konmari and what else is up next on my minimalism radar.



Books:
Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson
The More of Less by Joshua Becker

The Simple Year blog:
http://thesimpleyear.com/

Reusable shopping bag pattern and tutorial:
http://www.stitchedbycrystal.com/2011/09/tutorial-fat-quarter-reusable-grocery.html