Killer Kitsch Vintage

Cricut and Vintage Reproduction

I’ve been dreaming of owning a Cricut machine for many, many moons! I’ve been very intrigued by all of the magical things it can do. Guess what my husband bought me for my birthday? If you guessed a Cricut Explore Air 2 {not sponsored — I wish}, you’d be correct!!! {I have some bday money from my parents and will be buying an Easy Press} If you are unfamiliar with what a Cricut is, it’s the…

Haslam System of Dresscutting: Part 2b – Drafting a Sloper Front Piece

Welcome to Part 2b of our adventure. In this part we will draft the sloper front piece. Now that you have had practice with just the bodice sloper for the back piece, this will be a lot easier to understand! Ok? Ready? Yeah! Let’s get to making that dress sloper! The Steps: Front of Foundation Place the Chart on the paper with the long straight edge toward you, and the right-hand edge on the…

Haslam System of Dresscutting: Part 2a – Drafting Your Sloper

Welcome to Part 2 of our adventure. If you have read Part 1, you will have your tools assembled and ready to go. If you haven’t read it, please go ahead and do that before reading the rest of this post. There are several tools that you will need in order to make your sloper. Ok? Ready? Yeah! Let’s get to making that sloper! Taking Measurements As mentioned in Part 1, you will need the…

Haslam System of Dresscutting: Part 1 – Getting Started and Resources

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in draft-at-home systems and mostly intrigued with the Haslam System of Dresscutting. Each and every time I go into a vintage store or thrift shop, I’m always on the outlook for books. A few years ago, I bought the ruler, foundation document and a booklet with patterns, with the plan to try to figure out how the Haslam system works. After…

Spring Dress Sew-a-long Step by Step

Now that we are deep into Spring, I thought it was time to share the dress I made for the Spring Dress Sew-a-long we are hosting over in our Killer Kitsch Discord Community. Please join us! Our sew-a-longs have no end date and we are doing several a year, plus, it’s a great group of sewists and knitters. I decided last year that I am going to move away from my base colours of blacks/reds and…

Two New Vintage/Vintage Reproduction Sew-a-longs!

We are adding two new sew-a-longs to our Discord Community!!! Details are below. (you can join the Killer Kitsch Discord Community by clicking here!)Starting May 1st – Vintage Spring Dresses!!! Starting June 1st Vintage Playsuits!!! As with all of our sew-a-longs in our Discord Community, you don’t have to start the SAL on the first of the month as the SALs will be open-ended after they begin.…

2021 has definitely become the year of blouses and trousers for me. I’m focused and determined to fill my closet with them. I have plenty of dresses and skirts, but not enough blouses and at this point a wearable toile for trousers. I’m on a mission, oh yes I am! Along with blouses for myself, I am also working on men’s shirts. This is two-fold. #1 is to make shirts for my husband. #2 is top…

The Miss Bow Collection launch and a CONTEST!

Exciting NEWS! Not only does Killer Kitsch Designs have a new collection, but we are also having a contest and it’s in collaboration with Heather Babcock, the author of the novel Filthy Sugar! You can win both a copy of the novel and the one of a kind beret & scarf set inspired by the main character Wanda Wiggles! The new collection is called The Miss Bow Collection and is inspired by Clara Bow!…

The Miss Bow Collection!

Introducing the Miss Bow Collection, inspired by that sassy beret wearing Clara Bow! Clara Bow was an actress of the pre-code and silent film era and known for her very sexy style. Clara was also a huge fan of berets and ascot style scarves! This is why The Miss Bow Collection is named after her.  Both the beret and ascot scarf are hand knit from original 1930s patterns and are made from the…

The Nicest Bad Girl Cropped Cardigan

I now have two versions of The Nicest Bad Girl Cropped Cardigan for sale in my Etsy store! I will have a few more colour combinations coming, but I wanted to get these ones up now, as they will be perfect for your Valentine’s outfit! The Nicest Bad Girl Cropped Cardigan name was inspired by my friend Heather aka Blue Suede Sue (you will find her over on Instagram) and the nicest bad girls from…

Recently, I took an inventory of all of my hand knits. Rather than knit everything I see, I decided it might be a good idea to fill wardrobe holes. You see, the cubbies I use for my knits is bursting and I need to be a lot more selective about what I make. There are two types of garments I am lacking at the moment, summer tops and cardigans. Since winter is approaching, I thought I would get a…

1940s Trousers And The Journey To Get The Right Fit: Toile #2, the wearable version

How much fiddling can a sewist fiddle… before she LOSES HER MIND! I have come to realize that I’m someone who visualizes how something should look in her head and when the thing I’m making doesn’t look exactly like it… I will fiddle with it, until I’m ready to scream. This has been the last two weeks of my trouser adventure. Why, oh why do I do this to myself. I know I’m not alone here. Raise…

1940s Trousers And The Journey To Get The Right Fit: Toile #1

Trousers, Pants, Slacks or what ever you wish to call them, have been my nemesis in my later adult years. I haven’t owned a pair in 10+ years and to be honest I swore I was never going to own a pair again. As per my previous post, there are a lot of things I hate about modern pants, including the fit and how short the rise is. I’m a high waisted, curvy girl! That just isn’t going to do. As I have…

We are doing another pop-up sew-a-long over in our Killer Kitsch Vintage WIPs Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/killerkitschvintagewips/  This time around we are doing pants/trousers! We will be starting on August 24th, 2020. There is no deadline to finish, so join us when you can. Please click on the above link to join our group!

The pattern will need to be 1970s and before.…

Every year on my birthday I put together a new sewing plan for that year (my birthday is July 31st — the sewing plan is from August 1st to July 31st each year) Last year it was the dress challenge. (which is still ongoing as I created a sew a vintage dress a month challenge with two other lovely ladies. We now have a large group on Facebook and Instagram also participating with us.) The year…

To Knit or Not to Knit

Well, that is the question. Today I took a long hard look at all of my handmade sweaters. Which ones I wear often and which ones I don’t. (usually the don’ts are ones I’m not happy with) For the longest time I would knit to keep my hands busy and as a way of mediation and stress relief. Due to this, the sweater cubby is bursting. The problem is, I still want to, need to knit!!! What’s a girl to…

Denise Patons 323 Pop-up KAL

We are starting to do some pop-up KALs/CALs/SALs over in our WIPs Facebook group. I know it is really hard for many to buy fabric or yarn right now, so we are trying to make them stash busters. These are also very loose in their deadline. Start and end when you can. Once we are out of Pandemic Jail we will go back to regular KALs/CALs/SALs.

A few of us are doing the Denise Patons 323 jumper…