Featured Friend Friday! Casey's Elegant Musings

Having the opportunity to interview Casey of Casey's Elegant Musings is such a gushing fan moment for me.  I stumbled upon her blog over a year ago when I was surfing YouTube for some new, vintage inspired hair styles.  Casey's video was one of the first I found which then led me to her website.  I was in awe over her gorgeous vintage styling, sewing projects, and finds.  I was hooked and my first blog was officially 'followed'.

Once I started regularly following Casey, I became more and more envious of the clothing she was making.  My basic machine knowledge had only ever made a quilt and some pajama pants, but soon, she had me convinced that I could do more.  And thus my sewing journey, and this blog started...

I hope you enjoy the interview!  If you haven't already heard of Casey (what?!), go check out her blog, pronto!



What inspires you?

Where to begin?! I have always been a visual person, so scenes and images have served as my greatest source of inspiration. Blogs have been a great place to gather ideas over the past few years--I have so many favorites ranging from well-established craft blogs to just-started personal style ones in my reader. Tumblr is something I started using in the past year that has served as a great spot to gather and catalog all sorts of images virtually. I also can't fail to mention my love of fashion history books and classic movies--and music too! Certain music never fails to put me in a creative mood and inspire me to make things.





What is your craft space like?

I'm fortunate to have about half of a spare room right now as my craft/sewing space. Along one wall is a table that holds my sewing machine and serger, and a few storage units to hold odds and ends. The wall next to that has a window, but also houses my rotating display of vintage clothing that I hang on the wall (as "art"!) to inspire me. The next wall has a couple of shelving units that I use to hold the majority of my crafty supplies (although I do have a bit stashed in the closet as well--yarn and scraps mostly!). I try to keep it neat and tidy, but that isn't always easy! One thing I also use my creative space for is to hang and display things that are inspiring me at the moment. I have a large cork board with all sorts of odds and ends tacked to it, a little clip-mobile hanging over my sewing machine, and a few "inspiration wires". It's a great way to keep the current ideas easily visible!



Let us in on your stash... what's coming, what's in progress, what are you stumped with?

Let's start with the "stumped" part... I have more than a couple UFO's lurking in various corners and stuffed in bags. Mostly of the knitting sort; although I love knitting, it's a craft that tends to go through fits and starts with me; I'm much  more consistent with other crafts. Right now there are a couple half-finished sweaters waiting for me to be re-inspired to knit! Right now I'm working on a dress for a sew-along that I'm running on my blog around a reproduction 40s dress pattern. It's my main project right now--I'm trying to focus on completing the sew-along and not get too distracted. But things that have been grabbing my attention for projects in the next couple months: a 1910s inspired blouse, working on some home decor projects, and finishing a little menagerie of crocheted sea critters I started last December.






What is your favorite craft to work with?

Definitely sewing--if I could, I'd eat, sleep and breathe sewing! It captured my interest when I was a little girl, and it still never ceases to fascinate and inspire me. I do enjoy other handcrafts--knitting vintage sweater (I discovered I just don't like knitting other things like socks; although hats and mittens are okay. But sweaters are what I adore!), crocheting (recently re-taught myself late last year!), embroidery and the occasional paper-craft. I've also been dabbling in millinery, which is a lot of fun but I tend to take forever to complete a project! But the one I always come back to again and again is sewing. Partly it's because I love fashion (especially fashions inspired by looks of eras past), but the puzzle of figuring out construction means that each new project can present a challenge to be solved. If you visited my house you could tell I am a big sewing-addict; half the books I own revolve around sewing! lol.




What is your favorite thing that you've created so far?

Tough one! I usually say that every new project is my favorite, and maybe that is because I always learn something new with each project and feel like the newest is always my best up to this point. I would have to say that a project that really caught my fancy is the 30s inspired blouse I created with the Sewaholic "Pendrell" blouse pattern recently. I just love the soft, vintage inspired femininity of the piece--and the fabric is a lovely piece of lawn I picked up last year and had been hoarding. It's the perfect spring piece!



Where can I read more?

I blog most often at Elegant Musings and write about all sorts of things: from sewing (of course!) to vintage fashion to cooking. I also post a lot on my Tumblr, Flickr and Facebook.