spring break sewing

May I introduce you to the most slowly, continuously sewn project, ever?

Look at that beautiful picture. Eyes closed and everything. I'm even in my pajama shirt. 

This, my friends is Simplicity 1732, from circa 1957. It came out of a box of retro patterns, dating all the way back to the mid-1950s, from when my grandmother was sewing teenage clothes for herself, and going forward through my mother's patterns from the 80s and 90s and a smattering of patterns from the 2000s. (My contemporary patterns are kept elsewhere).  

(Sidenote: 35 cents for a pattern. Can't help but be a little jealous. According to this website, that's still only $2.81 in today's dollars. Even with the new, multi-sized tissue and something like six or seven different views in a pattern, Simplicity can't really be justified in charging over ten dollars per pattern, can they? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I'd prefer knowing that if I were to actually buy a pattern at full price that it would be worth it. Rather than the overwhelming guilt at the $14.99 price tag that makes me wait for the 99 cent sale day.)

I started this project late last July, with the intention of finishing it in time to stick in my suitcase for college. Needless to say, it's almost spring break, and I still don't have it finished. This is as close as I've gotten.

(I don't actually have an orange room in my house. Somehow, flash plus incandescent lighting plus late night equals walls the color of a beautiful, fiery sunset. Makes perfect sense, no?)

One thing that slowed me up is my newfound love for couture detailing according to a book my mother checked out of the library, Couture Sewing Techniques, by Claire Schaeffer (found here, if you want to have a look see), such as loads of hand-sewing and basting and marking darts carefully instead of slapdash. Still. I have dragged my feet about this every step of the way.

It's my spring break sewing project, for when I finally get to spend some quality time with the beloved sewing machine. Regardless of the seasonal appropriateness of a brown corduroy retro jumper, this will be done by the time classes start up again. All that's left to do now is to set in the zipper, hem it, and finish every seam, because I know to do that now. Pretty skirt guts!

Do you have any sewing projects you're planning on doing over an upcoming vacation/time away from school or work?