Mary Van Notes

Mary Van DAAAMNers!  I’m sorry to be away from you for so long.  Sadly the day before the Lyres & Lace show I got a massive sore throat that became a head flu/cold dreadful thing.   I had to cancel several things I was looking forward to doing like hosting that Lyres & Lace show, being with my granddad on his 91st birthday, and selling my crafty zine wares at the Haight Street Fair.

My brave and sweet boyfriend came down to care for me.  I was a lucky girl having such a fine man force me to eat vegetables and fruit.  I felt immediately better the next day — which was a good thing since I was auditioning for Comedy Central that night.  I did well despite not being 100%.  The only bummer was realizing after my performance that I completely forgot an extra punchline on one of my bits.  BAH!

Before I got sick, I took a 4 day sewing class where I sewed my first complete garment!  It’s a dress from a modern pattern (which I mistakenly bought in my wrong size) and it didn’t come out exactly how I hoped, so it’s still a work-in-progress.  I was a bit hesitant to use this vintage fabric I found at The East Bay Depot for Creative Re-use (my absolute favorite place to buy fabric) because I loved it so much.  But I’m pretty happy with the way it came out, especially after adding some vintage lace I thrifted at the collar and on the hem.

You can also see some sewing goodies I found at a thrift store in Arnold, CA like a wooden thread organizer and a sewing book from 1941 filled with tutorials and “right” and “wrong” ways to dress according to your body type.  It’s got some great sewing tips on the kind of details from 1940s apparel that I love and hope to replicate in my own sewing projects.   My hope is to get good enough at sewing to sew dresses from the 30s, 40s and 50s from original patterns.  I already have a small collection of vintage patterns waiting for me.