Hello, My Name is Jenny (around the web I usually go by Jenny J Kerr) and I am a vintage lover and avid sewer. I've been a reader of Sew Retro for years and never had the courage to apply to join, but I decided to go for it and now here I am. I sew all sorts of things, from ren faire costumes to speaker covers, lol, but my favorite thing to make is what I call "Vintage Stitchery" Clothes made from vintage patterns with vintage materials. I collect old patterns, fabric and sewing odds and ends as many of you do I am sure. I used to make clothes for myself, but I got a little too round to pull off most vintage styles, so now I play around at children's clothes or clothes for people other than myself.
(my pattern case that I bought at an antiques auction)
My favorite periods are the late 1930's through the early 1960's. I also love Elizabethan, Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian. I like to live my life with a vintage twist. Almost everything hubby and I own was bought from Estate sales, thrift stores or antique auctions. We watch a lot of the living history shows on BBC and we love places like colonial Williamsburg for inspiration on how to do things in an authentically historic manner. I have a blog (
KERRFECT!) where I try to share our life and some of the more interesting things I come across on the web, not all of it vintage, but much of it has a hint of the past about it. I post regularly so there is always something new to see! We try traditional recipes, decor, I share my thrift shopping finds and right now I have a series of posts that are scans from a WWII Victory Garden booklet. I post about my crafting and sewing and I also post "Inspirational" screen captures from films, I call them my "
Frocks on Film" posts. The latest was
Far From Heaven which is set in the 50's and had tons of great clothes, including a hat that was almost identical to one that I myself own!
As I said above, I like to sew with vintage materials, which often times means I need to reuse objects that already exist. Some of my favorite things to reuse are sheets! I know I always kick the top sheet off the bed as soon as I'm in it, lol so I always try to look for those. I must not be the only one because whenever I find a set, the flat sheet has almost no wear to it! LOL. I used sheets for the top two dresses and thrifted items for the bottom dress and the hat. I recently won 3rd place in the NBC/Etsy Art of ReUse contest and my upcycling efforts were featured in Altered Couture magazine last year. I don't consider myself to be a great seamstress or designer, I just really, really enjoy it.
If you'd like to read more about anything mentioned above or about myself, you can visit my blog.