Putting My Phone Down

I decided that I needed to put my phone down.

What I mean is I realized I was just posting to try to get "attention".

I am not particularly a self centered person.
But I was getting sucked into the trap of needing to make my meals look pretty, my makeup look pretty, my work look pretty, my life look pretty......just so people would look at it.

I realized that it was not working and it felt.... wrong.

The same 10 people would like, comment, share......
No one calls me. No one messages me. No one "talks" to me...

They only have anything to say to me when they are asking me about my work, and then they may end with, "Let's get together soon."  But they never actually try to get together with me.

But what I realized was that I was wasting so much of my own time trying to get people's attention, and not getting the things done I wanted to do.

Things that might actually draw more people to me that I wanted to be hanging out with and wanted to hang out with me.

So I decided to do #30daydown   reduce my "statusing" for 30 days.  Focus on time management and the things I wanted to be doing.

And one of those things was blogging and vlogging.

Don't get blood on the dresses.....

So, yeah, I have not been doing so well on blogging....
But here I am again...back to working on vintage 1950's dresses.
They say that you will keep going back to the things you truly love. So, this makes a whole lot of sense.

At the end of this month I am going to be doing a photo shoot in an abandoned bowling ally with a whole bunch of people dressed in 1950's clothing.
I saw the Tumbler post where it was talking about "what if?"

What if the zombie Apocalypse happened in the 1950's and it only took hold of men?
Most people are thinking of the women in beautiful dresses hacking away at zombies.
I started thinking about women, killing their boyfriends, their sons, their husbands...
Would YOU be able to kill someone you loved?

The idea what at some point in the future there will be an elite group of us fighting for our lives against a huge adversary is an age old story.  The idea that the family unit must be protected is nothing new.   The idea that women are stronger then they are given credit for is pretty universal also.

So I decided I would embrace this idea for a shoot and make it happen.

Now, I really have to start making the dresses....and then make sure they don't get too bloody.

So, here we are with a whole year to fill, full, of sewing. Which, surprisingly, is something I literally do every single day. It is just something I seem to struggle writing about. I don't want to talk about sewing, I just want to sew.
It just seems appropriate to start with the 2 sewing questions that I get asked the most.
#1. Do you NEED a pattern to sew?
      Well, the answer is, no....I don't.
Which leads to the second question....
#2. Then why do you have so many?
      The answer to that question is the key, I like them.  No, I LOVE them.

Ever since I was a little girl I have been swimming in sewing patterns. My Grandmother owned a fabric store called The Honey Bee.  After she closed the fabric store my family just kept everything. They kept, well, EVERYTHING.
To this day I still have almost all of the patterns. I also have many patterns from my other Grandmother's sewing room. I have inherited patterns from several seamstresses and dressmakers over the years and that has resulted in a HUGE collection.
Then comes in my love of them. I have loved reading them, handling them, studying them.
It is like a silent, hands on education that spans over years, generations, wars, stories, and forgotten things no one talks about anymore.
I have found old recipes, hand written notes, and old advertisements shoved into their envelopes.
It is like a trip back in time, and sometimes it only cost $.25 at a garage sale.

Well, that brings us here, to my blog.
We will sew our way through some of my favorite patterns.
I will share my decisions on fabrics, trims, and sewing techniques.
I will address things like missing sewing pieces, hard to read instructions, and blank pattern pieces.

I will also share some of my triumphs and set backs of having a house full of family, a heart full of love, and a creative mind that never sleeps.

Please feel free to share your thoughts, ask me any questions you have, and let others you know who may be interested in my blog know what I am up to.

You can check out my business on Facebook, follow the fun stuff I do and the cool people I meet on YouTube, and of course purchase my creations on Etsy. And please.....show me what YOU sew!



XOXO, CaseyJuly


Today I am sharing with you one of my past projects with a vintage pattern. It was an Advance pattern that came with blank pattern pieces and had no instructions in the envelope.
I took a picture of what it looked like as I was getting started.  I often make my dresses with more modern techniques and finish the inside edges and line my dresses. It just makes them wear better. Often in the 1930's through the late 1950's women worn loads of underthings and were not as worried about the outside dress being made as solid.

 Here is the dress! I was so lucky to get to have it shot by one of my favorite models and a great supporter of The July Studio, Angela Graham.
The dress is shown with a petticoat, which would have been worn underneath for most occasions. It fit well and was pretty easy to make.
I loved the square collar and would have to say that the square points were probably the hardest part of the project.
Tell me, what kinds of collars do YOU like?

     

So, for the past couple of years I have had a several people express to me that I needed to start blogging and vlogging.
Honestly, my brain just starts tumbling into a huge mess of, "What the hell would I write about?"
It is not that I have nothing to say.
It is actually the exact opposite.
I have so much going on in my heart, my mind, and my day that I have no idea where I would start if I were to share everything that goes on in my studio, my family, or in my crazy, creative brain.

So I took some time, well, a year....and I sat down and I thought about what I could write about. That turned into me watching YouTube for research and then me watching YouTube because I liked it...
Boogie2988, Good Mythical Morning, and Miranda Sings sucked me in, and I got lost for about 6 months.

Then, well, then I watched the movie Julie and Julia again.
It sparked something in me.
I am no spring chicken, but I feel better in my skin then when I was younger.
I have a wonderful, supportive fiance that adores me.
I have everything I need (like Julia getting her cook book and her kitchen).

And I have sewing patterns....like thousands, and thousands of sewing patterns.
I collect them because I like them. I have them from different eras, and different styles of clothing, and different countries....

So it struck me....
I will pick the hardest, oldest, and most interesting patterns and we will sew through them together.

So here is the plan.....
I will share with you all of MY TRUTHS of sewing for the next year.
I will tell you some of my hopes and fears. I will share tidbits of my family life AND
I will show you what happens when you sew with patterns that can have missing pieces, blank pieces, different languages (like using the metric system) and sometimes all I have is the empty envelopes....

So join me on this journey. Feel free to comment and share what YOU are working on this year.
You can also follow me on my Facebook page and my YouTube channel for exciting other stuff that I am doing this year like photo shoots and the amazing people I get to work with.....


Take care of yourself and remember....YOU are not an Empty Envelope, you have everything you need inside of you to be something amazing!

XOXO, CaseyJuly