Going Gaga for Gertie

Oh I did the most horrible thing this summer! It started way back when I needed more fabric for my Hawaiian pleated skirt made during my retro binge. The local Joann's closest to me was sold out so we traveled down to another location that had the fabric. Lo and behold! This Joann's had WAAAY more apparel fabric than my local one, including the Gertie Collection.

I knew nothing about Gretchen Hirsch (the designer) apart from I loved all the fabrics (think border prints, bright tropicals, and quirky retro designs) and after leafing through the accompanying patterns, found them to be pretty easy for putting together.

Several sales, endless coupons, and multiple trips later, I accumulated this:

My horrible math skills tell me there is about 41 yards of material in here.

And this doesn't include ALL the patterns. Just ones I wanted.

Retro is quickly becoming a quick part of my everyday life because it's a fun way to jazz up my black wardrobe for work, and it's super comfy because in all honesty, I could live in skirts and dresses.

As I dug into Gertie Hirsch some more, I found out about her books and blog. Like any person who has a great library as part of their resources, I borrowed the books and started leafing through them.

I like big books and I cannot lie! (especially sewing related ones)

The neat thing is there's a "how-to" in each book for those who just might be starting out on sewing, with guides for fabric choices, fitting techniques, seam techniques, etc. Okay yes, I know about some of this stuff already, but I did just learn about how to fit pants (something I've never made, so I've never delved into it) and how to work with knit fabrics (something I'm interested in).

The best part is the patterns in the back. Each book has pattern pieces to go with the different garments in the accompanying book. I'll admit, some of them look like the Butterick patterns I had already picked up, but I kind of found out about everything backwards. Yeah...oh well.

The knitwear in Vintage Casual really got me excited though so I found a used copy (but it's practically new!) on Amazon and purchased it. In the midst of my thumbing through books on 1890s material, I did pause long enough a couple weeks ago to put together a skirt using one of the Gertie fabrics.

More on that tomorrow!