I'm Dreaming of a 1914 Dress

Several years ago my parents bought me Anne Shirley's Wedding Dress pattern, and just this spring I've pulled it out with some fabric and started dreaming. I've had the gold silk duponi in my stash for a year or so now (shh...I only paid $2 for the yardage, thanks to one of my wonderful thrift stores!), the vintage buttons, and very recently picked up the lace fabric (also from the thrift store).

I'm thinking of making the underskirt with the silk, and then the whole dress out of the lace, but line the bodice with the silk also so it would be underneath the lace. Make sense? I'm not going to make the sleeves like the pattern, but I haven't come up with any other ideas yet.

After I publish this post, I'm going to look up what those buttons are saying. Here's hoping it's not anything to crazy! ;) Am I the only one who finds vintage metal buttons fascinating?

Do I have an occasion for this dress? no...

Why am I making it? um...for fun?

Maybe it's because of Downton Abbey? maybe...

Perhaps you like the Edwardian era? oh yes...

Or you grew up with Anne of Green Gables and always longed for a kindred spirit? most definitely...

The Loveliness of Toile

According to Wikipedia: Toile is the name of a fabric that entered the English language around the 16th century from a French word meaning "linen cloth" or "canvas" — particularly cloth or canvas for painting on. The word toile can refer to the fabric itself, a test garment (generally) sewn from the same material, or a type of surface decoration (traditionally) printed on the same fabric.

Mom likes to decorate with toile by using it in accents around our home, as you can see in this picture of the lampshade and clock on the antique end table in our living room. But there are other things that we have in toile prints. Mom has me looking for a toile settee when I'm out thrifting. :)

So as I mentioned in my post earlier today, I'd have a couple items in the shop that were toile, though I'm quite tardy in listing them. One looses the time quite easily when moseying around in antique shops.

I was originally going to sell them as a set, but at the last mintue decided to list them separately. If you'd like to purchase both, send me a note via etsy, and I'll send you a $2 off coupon code to use when checking out.

Dress It Up - Wear a Belt!

For a long time I've always associated wearing belts jeans or dress slacks. But then over the last couple of years, I've seen more and more pictures pop up of women wearing belts with their outfits.

Like these two pictures, you could wear it over the waistband of a skirt with a tucked in tank top, or a pretty blouse. Or, wear it over a loose shirt or tunic like my friend Laura did below. It could be skinny or wide, black or brown or any color that might add some "pop" to your outfit.

I opted to wear it over my shirt since it is longer in length, and being an hourglass-shape who still needs to lose a few extra pounds, things don't look to classy tucked into anything around my waist!

I'm wearing a thrifted white shirt (Jones New York brand), a thrifted red toile circle skirt (no brand), and a thrifted skinny black belt (Kohl's). What's odd is that up until the day I wore this, I never paired either of these together even though all of them have been in my closet for 4+ years!

PS. Later this morning, look for a couple things in the shop that are inspired by today's Dress It Up outfit.

Patterns GALORE for sale!

Major sewing room cleaning and this week it's my pattern bins being sorted through.

There are newborn to ladies sizes. Dresses, jumpers, blouses, shirts, skirts, aprons, accessories, historical reproductions, and vintage.

10 patterns listed. 70 more to go. Yes, I'm serious. They are being sold here.

EDITED to ADD: Ooops! Ebay only allows 50 free listings per month, so I'll have to list the 30 more on the first of April. Take a look what I do have though before they all go!

Dress It Up - With a Scarf

A week has already past, and it is time for the 2nd installment of "Dress It Up"? Time flies. :)

Today's "tip" to dress up an outfit is from the below picture that I found on Pinterest. A simple black cardigan (maybe over a silver-white button up blouse?) can sometimes be just that: plain and simple. Which of course there is nothing wrong with such, but seeing how another "plain and simple" color, ie. gray, in the form of a scarf can really make boring = classy. 

So with that in mind: this is me a couple Sunday's ago before going to church. I was wearing a pencil skirt in plaid (The Limited) paired with a plain black sweater-shirt (Covington - thrifted), gray tights (The Limited) and black tall boots (Covington). And of course the gray scarf (Macy's) to complete the look.

Have a lovely weekend, ladies!

Busy Hands

"Can't we turn off the light?!" asked my sister numerous times when watching Downton Abbey in the evenings. Not all of the time, but usually I like to keep my hands busy when I'm sitting down for several hours watching movies.

Over six years ago a friend taught me the lost art of tatting and within an evening or so I completed my first tatted bookmark in the shape of a heart. If one does knitting, crocheting, or anything else that requires two hands, she assured me that tatting will often come easily to a new tatter.

Ever since I've been tatting more than knitting and crocheting. It's very portable, requires very little space, and not to mention quite fun. I haven't made lace or doilies yet due to time constraints, but I'm content with making bookmarks.



I have four collections in the shop this evening, but wanted to let you know that I take private custom requests as well, so please ask if you're interested!

New Life

Shadows and signs of spring by the porch this morning.

Edwardian Inspired Heels

Over the weekend, I brought home some Edwardian looking heels made in early 1990s (?) from the thrift store and as soon as my youngest sister saw them, she looked at me seriously and said, "I think we're watching to much of Downton Abbey."



But shes loves Downton Abbey AND the shoes as much as I do. I'll have to keep her from stealing them. ::winks::

Having grown up on Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Road to Avonlea series, I found myself quite at home watching Downton Abbey (other than those dreadful scenes to fast-forward). Being predominately English,I have been glued to it and find the culture very appealing. My father has been to England on many occasions because of his job, and he tells us that it is like a home away from home for him. Of course we girls beg him to take us one of these days. ("Daddy, it would be a perfect summer vacation!")

Finishing the 2nd season just last night, I'm full of inspiring ideas to go through my patterns and fabric stash to make up something from the 1912-1918 time period. Having patterns from Sense & Sensibility as well as Hint of History I'm trying to decide what to make. No worries, you'll hear about it all when I get to it. :)

Post-script: A blog reader kindly notified that she couldn't post any comments, and after looking into it, it was a dreadful error on my part and the issue has been resolved. I am now gladly welcoming comments. :)

Dress It Up - A Pop of Color

Does anyone else find Pinterest helpful, fun, inspirational, and yes I'll say it: addicting? :) I thought I'd do a weekly post on Saturday's called "Dress It Up" by sharing inspiration that I get from Pinterest and how it effects my wardrobe but without having to spend an arm and a leg to do it.

Today's inspiration is either called "A Pop of Color" or "Colors Mix-matched."

This outfit not only grabbed me because I have a canary-yellow purse in the same shade as this one, but I never would have thought of pairing it with a grass green coat. It looks fabulous though, and the yellow adds such a happy tone to an otherwise dreary winter setting.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to be bold and put together something that I never would have considered wearing together. Wearing a slate blue turtleneck, a jean skirt, and a black & white weave sweater, I paired it with a mustard orange scarf.

Pop of color? Check.

While out doing errands that day (as you can see my royal blue purse on my shoulder and finishing a cup of tea as I was heading out) I received at least one compliment on the ensemble so it must not have been a hideous choice.

Would you ever put blue and mustard together? Go try it! :)

Panjandrum of Duck

[photo credit]

Just this morning I operated on my second duck. A week or so ago Daddy approached me about a duck whose head was barely on to its body. Definitely "hanging on by a thread" you could say. I was able to fix it, and the duck is as good as new. This morning's patient had suffered from a gaping wound in its back, though thankfully quite mendable.

Now lest you all think we have a duck farm or I've been a quiet veterinarian for some time, I should mention that the aforementioned ducks are stuffed and feathered toys that our family dog Sadie has enjoyed playing with. She still has one more duck that she hasn't injured, but probably because it's her most prized possession.

Fresh Beginnings

As my friend Mrs. Smith would say, "Happy New Month!" The beginning of a new month is almost as exciting as a new year. There can be new beginnings, fresh resolves, and renewed vigor. As some of you may have seen, I have freshened  up the graphics on my blog and one of my shops in the attempts of uniforming them to a small degree, but I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with them quite yet.


Thankyou for your kind understanding in allowing me to take a month off of blogging and less social networking. Little did I know that it was Providential! Truly, "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord" (Ps. 37:23) even when His leading doesn't always make sense. That simple trust is something that I've been having to learn all over again. Or maybe it's just in a deeper way.


Almost two weeks ago, I found myself lying helpless on the floor audibly crying out for God's help. As I described the incident to a friend: my body was shaking uncontrollably, all sense of feeling leaving my feet, hands and fingers as they grew nearly unmovable, my skin turning an ash-gray color, and seriously thinking that this is what it's like to die. Such an event found me in the ER with the doctors uncertain as to what was wrong with me. They did suggest some things, and while I'm resting and drinking lots of fluids, I've chosen to explore some natural help for this health problem.

[If any of you would know of family and friends who like vintage styled aprons, tote bags, skirts, etc, would you consider telling them about my etsy shops? Please don't feel obligated, but I'd be eternally grateful for any word of recommendation you could pass on to others! Receiving hospital bills with the monetary sums of four didgits look overwhelmingly impossible to pay off. Back to trusting in God...]

Speaking of health, it was such a fun challenge to stay away from sugar last month! I made all sorts of treats with using honey like apple crisp, cinnamon rolls, and other delights. Of course around Valentines Day, we brought out the cookie cutters, real sugar, and frostings to decorate cookies. And no, I didn't eat a single one! ::wink::

A friend of mine flew out to visit an actor friend of her's at local university and she stayed with our family in between theatrical productions. It was great fun to visit with her, talk and laugh late into the night, watch movies she had never seen such as Lantern Hill, Somewhere In Time, Little Dorrit, and Jane Eyre. We also did some exploring in the snow, which she is not accustomed to with living in the south.

 It was as if we had entered Narnia that day where the tall evergreens stood staunchly against the winds, but across the lake the wind and sun played a musical fairytale-like dance with its rays and swirling snow.

But company has left and so has good health since the ER visit, but little things like crocus' in the south-facing bed beginning to bloom and many friends having babies or news of wedding bells keep me in good spirits. I've ventured out a few times to help a friend with some estate sales she and her husband are having (and I've come away with a few treasures from there myself!). 


My sewing machines will be put to good use this next month with Mother-dear needing a few garments, a friend's daughter in need of a few jumpers, and other odds and ends. Just yesterday I was given several lengths of cream colored cotton lace in various designs and widths, large piping for home decor use (like pillows), and three wooden handles for tote bags. Just last night I excitedly went through my stash of fabrics and found enough fabric to make some totes for the shop. 

The first one is in the shop this morning with the other two to follow sometime this weekend. I forgot how much fun it was to make totes, and these, with wooden handles make it all the more fun.

Well dear readers, this probably gave you more than what you wanted or expected to read, so until next time, have a lovely week in March!

To Much of a Good Thing, Starting Today

Sometimes to much of a good thing isn't really all that wonderful.

Like sugar. I confess. I love baking in the kitchen, whipping up a batter full of goodness, planning cookie decorating parties. Over the last couple of years developed a taste for chocolove bars. I've always liked chocolate in things (ice cream, cookies, cakes, frosting's, you name it) but when it comes to a chocolate bar from the store, I'd rather pass. Unless of course, it's chocolove. ;) Obviouly, I try to limit what and how much sugary things I consume, but even still, to much sugar isn't a good thing. That is why for a month I'm going to go off artificial sugars. Just to make me aware of how much I actually intake. Starting today.

Internet is another wonderful too, resource, and help (like Pinterest to categorize all of your favorite things in the forms of pictures!) but to much of it is not wise. A friend once told me something that a friend passed on to her "You know, you don't have to post everything." Sometimes for bloggers, facebook-ers, and any other form of social networkers we need to be reminded every now and again that there is life beyond the screen. There are families to love and cherish, friendships to cultivate, people to reach out to right where we are at that (at least for me!) and it becomes easy to push the truly good things away for the excitement of a new blog post, an updated facebook status, or a new pin on pinterest. That is why I'll be taking a sabbatical from blogging for a little bit. Starting today.

I'll still be sewing up more things in the next couple of weeks (I've got some delectable fabrics that are begging to be made into aprons!) so do pop in the shop every now and then.

Blessings to each and every one!

Film Featured Apron: Jane of Lantern Hill

Right along with Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Road to Avonlea (the seven-season TV series), Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell movies, and all the other wonderful old-fashioned ones I failed to mention, one of our family favorites is another Sullivan produced film: Jane of Lantern Hill.

Not wanting to spoil the story, although the preview at the above website gives it away, it is a sweet story set in the 1930s of 12 year old Jane (Mairon Bennett) living with her ill mother always believing that her father (Sam Waterston) was dead. She learns that her dad is alive and living on the beautiful Prince Edward Island. The much beloved Colleen Dewhurst has a role on this film as well. If you haven't seen it, go watch it!

The fashions in general are so lovely if you like the 1930s era. It's full of darling hairstyles, silk gowns, and the whole works while Jane is living in Toronto. When she visits her dad, she wears a less "dolled-up" wardrobe. The apron, however, was what I was going to talk about. :) How can an apron-fanatic not notice an apron?!

It is obviously a blue cotton fabric with navy bias.

The angles in which it was filmed make it hard to distinguish if the apron has pockets on it.

It has the traditional "H" styled back with fabric ties. In the close up below, it appears that they used some rick rack on it, too. ♥

In a brief film shot outside at dusk, you can see that the back hem is rounded and not squared off like some aprons. Am I crazy for noticing all these things? Please tell me someone else does this! ;)

The style reminded me very much of a vintage pattern that I've seen on ebay dozens of times. The pockets may have been left off of Jane's (?) and the neckline cut into a delicate "v." However if I was going to make one like her's, like I've been wanting to for who-knows-how-long, I was not about to spend $20 on an original pattern; that I did know. :)

I decided that with a little nip in the neckline to my own original 1930s apron pattern, I could pull off a very similar reproduction of it. One of my sisters wanted a "Jane apron" and made the Ginnie style a couple years ago using some blue calico cotton and navy bias, and the result was very pleasing. If one didn't may attention to nit-picky details, one might think it was Jane's.

Earlier last week I came across a lovely piece of blue cotton that caught my eye. On the selvage, like most quality fabrics, the maker of the fabric and the title of it held my gaze. It was called "Art Deco." Couldn't be more fitting, and the fabric looked nearly identical to Jane's!

So without further ado, Peasant Cottage's version of this sweet, late 30s apron is right this way!

If all else fails...

...open up the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

No, nothing failed except my plans on using a delicious recipe that came from a nearby Christian school when they handed the recipe to us several years ago and asked us to use it, and provide four dozen chocolate cookies for their upcoming graduation ceremonies.

My dilemma? It called for instant vanilla pudding, and we had none. I grabbed the first cookbook my eyes saw in our antique kitchen desk (with an enclosed bookshelf on top) and opened it up to the cookie section. Many chocolate cookie recipes and all of them called for instant vanilla pudding.

I grabbed the stained and tattered red and white plaid book and opened it up to their cookie section. Ahhh. A sigh of relief. Something that resembles an actual cookie recipe. It also was the only cookie recipe that called for less than a cup of sugar! Those old-fashioned cookbooks that your mother or grandmother may have in their kitchens may not be quite so unhealthy after all. ;)

Using the recipe, I made three different kinds. Standard chocolate chip, some walnut chocolate chip, and some with crushed Chocolove's dark chocolate raspberry bars in place of the chocolate chips.

I did make my cookies into tablespoon sizes when putting them in the oven instead of using the recommended teaspoon. I also added some half 'n half to the batter since it seemed like there was to much flour. It could have been the kind of flour I used, too, which was a new-to-us Hungarian white flour.

The result? Well, they are all gone, so that should be proof. ;)

Half a Dozen in the Shop!

Calico's, peonies & roses, circular pockets and so much more will be found in the way of a half a dozen aprons in the shop this afternoon!

Yes, my sewing machine has been flying at full speed over the last several days, and I've been so anxious to share these goodies with you after each one has been completed but I decided to put them up all at once. There are a few stashed fabrics that I need to pull out and make up a few more, but I'm going to let the sewing machines cool down and give my sore hands a break for a couple of days.

Speaking of "dozen" today, Daddy has a hankering for chocolate chip cookies and I need to go mix up a batch for him. I'll share the recipe soon!

Winter Gathering

It's always a sad time to pull down Christmas decorations (we did so a couple weeks ago lest you think we finally got around to it just now!) but we still like to keep up or display wintery things in our home. A wreath made of pine cones on the front porch, a balsam-ceder candle burning in the evening, thick down blankets to curl under on the couch, and electric candles "burning" in the front windows.

Cool weather is headed this way again (it likes to arrive and then leave quite frequently in our neck of the woods!) and I've been wanting to dress in my woolens again to have a little fun outside.

This afternoon I had fun inside sewing up a Tasha Tudor-inspired apron for gathering such little wintery things like pine branches or petite pine cones.

This evening it found its way into the SHOP with the anticipation of being used by a grateful recipient.

From the Archives

Very much like my paper journals, I like to go back to the archives of my sewing blog to see what I sewed years ago. In some cases my response was "I sewed that?" with a twinge of disgust, and other things brought back a wistful nostalgia when I remembered hand sewed Regency gowns of silk or learning how to create a circular flounce on the hem of a skirt.

All of the entries on aprons that I posted were full of smiles and joys of "I remember using vintage rick rack for the first time on that one" or "I went to three different stores trying to find a color corresponding bias tape for this fabric." Each one was a special creation that contained much thought and concern as to what color of bias should be used, if lace or a vintage button should adorn a pocket, or if whether this fabric would look good in a different apron pattern or not.

Posted nearly three years ago, I asked a few questions about aprons and if I truly have over 70 blog readers like blogger says I do, perhaps you (yes, you!) :) wouldn't mind dropping a note?

What do you look for in an apron?

What kind(s) do you like to see being produced?

What details do you especially like?

Do you prefer buying one ready-made, or making one from a designed pattern?

Do you have a favorite pattern, vintage or modern, to recommend?

Just because aprons are making me smile this week, perhaps you'll smile too to learn that all of the aprons in Peasant Cottage will be shipped for only a dollar through Friday. :)

Vintage Book Collection FOR SALE!

The time has come for me to sell my vintage book collection. Over 30 titles with books ranging from dates of 1840s to 1940s. Authors such as Wetherell, Goudge, and Dickens are in there.

Click here to see the album!

Ps. If you want to share this with your friends, I wouldn't mind one bit. It really is crucial for me to get these into happy hands.

PeasantCottage has been Featured!

What a delightful surprise it was for me to be online to find that my Country English Cottage apron in Peasant Cottage is featured in a treasury on etsy. Being featured has happened once or twice before, but this one I have to say is one of the sweetest collections of pretty tea things.

You still have time to boil some water and fix yourself a cup of tea before times runs out to visit the treasury here!

A Skirt for Cheri

This is a copy of a copy of a skirt. My friend Laura made a skirt early this summer off of a friend's skirt. Since she was a copy-cat, I was hoping she wouldn't mind if I was a copy-cat too. ;) She didn't mind, and I wrote about the story more in detail several months ago if there are any new readers to my blog.

For Christmas my parents kindly bought me some neutral tan linen fabric so I could make a skirt for myself. Another linen skirt of a similar shade was worn until it was literally thread bare, so I was extremely grateful for it and I knew exactly which pattern I'd make it in.

Laura, I had to steal your look by wearing an Anthro blouse and belt with it. :)

Most everyone knows that I've made three other skirts using this pattern, and they are all for sale in my online shop: Tally Skirts.