1 year Blogiversary & New Plans for 2014!

Yesterday marked exactly a year since I started the blog!  No party or big hoopla mostly because all of the holiday plans in real life mean that I have been so crazy busy.

This little blog of mine has grown so far beyond my expectations and I would love to take this time to reflect on what is in store for the blog this upcoming year, and some new posts that I hope to put into effect soon!  I'd like to think of this post as my public New Year's Resolution for Vintage Zest.  :)

Some Blogiversary Tres Leches cake from Picca!  Yum!

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I will share some of my ideas for the upcoming year, but first here are...

My Current Weekly Posts

Monday - Recipe Day!

Possibly my favorite posts of the week, so they're staying put on Mondays.  :)

Tuesday - Do Tell Tuesday link party

Remember to link up every week and have the chance to be featured by any four of our blogs!

Wednesday & Thursday - Original content

You may see sewing, organization, DIY, or tutorial posts 

Friday - Weekly Wrap-ups!

All of the fun adventures, food, and fun from the week.  :)

Saturday - Shop Small Saturday Showcase

Following up on my 25 Days of Handmade Gifts series, we will be having lots of great small businesses with beautiful local, handmade goods and interviews with their fabulous makers!

Sunday - Sunday Synopsis & Stumped on Sundays

Saturday Synopsis posts will now be on Sundays, and they will be exactly the same as before.  Now, what is Stumped on Sundays?

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Top 10 Posts of 2013!

Since I'm new to blogging, this will be my first Top 10 round-up post and it's all due to you lovely readers!  Technically, since this blog is just under a year old, this will be my Top 10 of all time, too.

Now, let's get started before it's 2014!  :)

I am going to so this the old-fashioned way and count down from number 10 to 1, just like New Years Eve!

10.  Sweet Potato Soufflé for Thanksgiving

This was a really popular recipe thanks to my Thanksgiving Menu Ideas post and Pinterest of course!

9.   Favorite Breakfast #2: Egg & Veggie Muffins

Each of my Favorite Breakfast posts were really close to the top 10, but these were the ones with the most pageviews.  They're pretty AND delicious!  Check out the other three here, here, and here!

8.   Non-sewing Rewind: Sewing Basket edition #2

I can see why this post was so popular.  It had pictures and links to tutorials for pattern weights, a super-size ironing board, and a dress form.  Three in one!

7.  Healthy Banana Muffins (For the Lazy Person!)

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Tools For Tracing Sewing Patterns

*Update: The tutorial on how trace a sewing pattern is here*

It's less than a week to our deadline for the Refashioning the 1960's Challenge!  Today, I'm most likely going to spend some time doing some pattern tracing since I'm not totally ready to cut my size out of the pattern yet.  There's nothing worse than destroying a pattern only to realize that you needed a different size.

Do any of you trace your sewing patterns?

Since I don't have the finished project to share with you yet, I thought that I would share the tools that make it easy to trace all of those pattern pieces!

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My Complete Fabric Stash!

I have been awaiting this post for what seems like forever!  And of course, I spent a ton of time adding in all of my pictures only to press Ctrl+Z and undo everything...  TECHNOLOGY!!!

Anyways, after taking a few deep breaths and reconstructing the entire thing, here is my ENTIRE fabric stash!  Like My Complete Pattern Collection and My Big Fat Sewing To-Do List, I will be updating this as items change.  :)

You may have seen on my Instagram that I took the time to photograph every fabric that I own with my handy ruler (which I realized is not perfectly straight...) and my guy's camera.  Of course, it took a few days!


For each fabric, I included a few tidbits of information:

1. Type: Well, as much as I could determine...  I'm a fabric newbie!
2. Description: My guy actually helped me with this, so they may be a bit of a rough description...
3. Width
4. Yardage: or "Inchage" considering a bunch of them are scraps
5. Place bought & cost

Lastly, I tried to categorize everything into general categories, which will make it easier to pick a suggested fabric in the future.  Enjoy perusing my stash!

Jersey

White T-shirt material 60" Width - 1/2 yds. M & L ($1.99/yd.)	Pink T-shirt material 58" Width - 1/2 yd. Unknown	Magenta T-shirt material 58" Width - 3/4 yds. M & L ($1.99/yd.)
Purple T-shirt material 60" Width - 1 1/3 yds. M & L ($1.99/yd.)	Gray T-shirt material 58" Width - 1/2 yd. M & L ($1.99/yd.)	Navy blue & white graduated stripes 60" Width - 1 1/3 yds. Garment District ($1-2/yd.)
Red & white, thick stripes 60" Width - 4 yds. GW Swap Meet (<$1/yd.)	Cranberry with small scattered white polka dots 58" Width - 1 3/4 yds. GW Swap Meet (<$1/yd.)	Navy blue with turquoise oval 60" Width - 1 yd. GW Swap Meet (<$1/yd.)
Navy with Beige & Turquoise Half moon print 58" Width - 2 1/3 yds. GW Swap Meet (<$1/yd.)	Brown with Beige & Orange Half moon print 60" Width - 1 yd. GW Swap Meet (<$1/yd.)

Heavier Knits to Sweatshirt Weight Knits

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My Big Fat Sewing To-Do List!

Being the busy and organized person that I am, I need to make lists.  Just check out my planner and all of those tabs!

Since I've been so busy lately, it has left very little time for sewing.  :(  That means when I have a bit of free time, I definitely want to maximize my productivity.  What better way to do that than a big, fat list of projects!  I've prioritized them into 3 categories, since I'm a nut about my lists.  :)

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By the way, about 2 months ago, I published a post with my entire sewing pattern collection.  Although I received a bunch of patterns for free or bought a few with certain design elements to be modified in mind, I would love to sew most of them and make a dent in this list!  I'm going to make sure to check off each pattern as I finish it.  It's a double list!

My Top 3 Projects!

1. Simple Dress Challenge garment
2. Peplum tanks
3. Colette - Hazel (pieces cut)

Soon

1. Fused plastic tote
2. Rice bag tote #2
3. Packing cube tutorial
4. Draped top #2 + tutorial
5. Doll shoes (I know it sounds weird!)
6. Mom's eyeglasses cases (like the one at the bottom of this post)
7. Color-blocked sweater

Someday/Next Season

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My Complete Sewing Pattern Collection!

On Friday, I mentioned that I needed to make a webpage of all of my sewing patterns for simplicity's sake when it came to sharing my collection with friends and family.  Well here it is!

I didn't realize how many patterns that I had until I had to organize them all!  Some were gifts and some were free, which definitely bulked up my collection!

Anyways, I organized it by garment type and just left it in numerical order for easier reference.  It will definitely be updated when I get more patterns, but hopefully not too soon.  I need to sew these up before I buy any more new ones for the stash!

Dresses

Colette - Ceylon	Colette - Chantilly	Colette - Eclair
Colette - Hazel	Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing - The Sultry Sheath	Gertie - The Sweetheart Sundress
Gertie - The Wiggle Dress	Gertie - The Shirtwaist Dress	Simplicity 1606
Simplicity 1612	Simplicity 1687	Simplicity 1688
Simplicity 1699	Simplicity 1755	Simplicity 1777
Simplicity 1797	Simplicity 1798	Simplicity 1799
Simplicity 1802	Simplicity 1804	Simplicity 1810
Simplicity 1876	Simplicity 1882	Simplicity 2178
Simplicity 2217	Simplicity 2219	Simplicity 2246
Simplicity 2250	Simplicity 2281	Simplicity 2305
Simplicity 2337	Simplicity 2442	Simplicity 2443
Simplicity 2444	Simplicity 2497	Simplicity 2580
Simplicity 2648	Simplicity 3503	Vogue 1253
Vogue 1287	Vogue 1289	Vogue 1304
Vogue 8813	Butterick 5520	Butterick 5599
Butterick 5601	Butterick 5749	Butterick 5750
Butterick 5813	Butterick 5885	McCall's 6281
McCall's 6319	McCall's 6394	McCall's 6460
McCall's 6505	McCall's 6561

Skirts

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