McCalls 3884

Ah my old friend 70's fashion.  Terrific pattern, easy to make.  I'm quite taken with the square neck lines in recent times. They are pretty straightfoward to do and look just a bit different.  The fabric is from The Fabric Store.  I think it is a cotton blend of some sort. I just loved the colours, so different.  Perhaps a little more 80's with the fabric. 

Retro McCalls 8135

Such an adorable little pre-loved pattern.  There were no pattern instructions included, but as you can see the style is pretty simple.  My version is quite a bit longer in the skirt, which I prefer especially as this is part of my summer work wardrobe.  I already had the lovely vintage floral fabric which I bought on line.  I think the brown material may have come from The Fabric Store.  The circle skirt is such a nice easy style to use and the drape is always nice. 

I think apart from the colours it has a whiff of the 80's about it with the drop waist skirt.  Boy I wish I had some photos of those little numbers from my teenage years.  I remember my mum made me a linen look drop waist dress, with box pleats, in white for work, which was actually very nice.  And I would definitely have had to wear a load of makeup to pull off that colour. But hey it was the 80's you only used a minimum of 3 eye colours at a time, along with a load of blush and bright lipstick.  I do recall a rather hideous blue and orange vertical stripe drop waist with sailor collar that I did love at the time (a shop bought one). I even had the cobalt blue pointy shoes to match it.  The shoes were excellent.  I wish I still had those, but the dress was just one big trip to Wrongtown.   

Retro Simplicity 7966

More from my 70's catalogue.  A girl at work kindly gave me some of her mother's old patterns. And incredibly they were also the right size for me - yay. This is a nice difference from working with something that is 2 sizes too big.  I even had the perfect type of material to get the triangular effect that was happening on the front of the pattern. The only downside about this typd of design is cutting pattern pieces out on the bias you certainly use a lot more fabric. Completely chuffed with the result.  However, I've folded the collar down on the first version. It wasn't very flattering the way it was sticking up, even though I think the collar looks terrific on the pattern. This is definitely one of my favourite ensembles thus far. 



There is even a price sticker still on it. I wonder if it was the original price 20c, imagine!!



I think if you look too closely at the pattern you start to go a wee bit cross eyed.

Sooo, I made a little error with the skirt. The lines should have met up to form an arrow not a consecutive line.
I was pretty confident there would not be too many people that would notice it

I did a second version of the top, sans collar. I love the colour of this fabric.
You just don't see enough peppermint about these days.

Simplicity 2472

This Cynthia Rowley design is just lovely and easy to make. Can be knocked out in one afternoon. You don't even have to cut out separate sleeves which is just awesome.  I got the material from Skafs Fabrics and it has a cheesecloth texture to it but is much heavier. Being such a plain top, I was initially going to make a long necklace in turquoise to jazzy it up, but then decided on a belt instead.  This was my Saturday project.  I had quite a bit of leftover fabric from a dress I made 2 years ago where I had an epic fail  when I cut one of the skirt pieces the wrong way around, which made the fabric pattern upside down.  I didn't use the belt design from the pattern and used my trusty regular template I've used numerous times before.  I also already had some blue fabric lying around for the back and straps. 

Version C

My go to belt design.

Simplicity 5919



I love love loved this pattern when I saw it on line. So excited about making it up. I was pretty sure I wouldn't find the right fabric any time soon but kept an eye out for something in a plain fabric but nought was found. On a trip to the Fabric Store a few months back, I found this interesting stripe fabric. It is a cotton, but it like a corduroy in texture.  So all in all very interesting.  Even though I wanted to make the version with the bow, I had to forgo that look and have used a brooch instead as the feature. I am quite happy with the finished product.  However, while erring on the side of caution I made the pattern to it's original size 14.  And voila what do you know it's a tad too big again.  Also for some reason the skirt is quite long.  Now I do tend to prefer a longer skirt, but somehow without trying, this is probably a few inches too long. I will look at rectifying this when I'm feeling motivated.  The top was also way too big and I've taken it in as far as I can.  I probably should be doing a bit more measuring before I finish off my clothes, but I get a bit impatient, and frankly a bit bored part the way through sewing some projects. 

The whole thing came together quite well. Though the pattern instructions weren't overly clear with regard to the pleats in the skirt. I haven't done those type of pleats before and I had to work out what the fudge was going on through some logical deduction.  I wore the outfit to work this week. The fabric is quite disappointing I must say. It is a heavier fabric but managed to crush really easily without me doing too much to it apart from sitting on the train and sitting at my desk at work.  Bit of a drag. Anyways the weather is heating up so I probably won't pull this out of the wardrobe again until mid next year.

Vogue 8613

Here is a pattern I was really taken with when I was going through the Vogue pattern catalogue a few years back.  I was not however sold on the featured photograph of version E.  It really is quite a bad version. I was optimistic that versions A and B had some potential. This is probably the dress I receive the most compliments on. I love this dress and am very proud of how it turned out. 

This pattern is not for the novices out there.  There is quite a lot to it including buttons and a zip.  If I remember correctly, I didn't have to make any adjustments to it and it came together quite easily, even though there were quite a few steps. I'm not sure why but sometimes the more complicated patterns work out the best.  The pattern companies may be put details into the instructions in the more complicated ones.  I had the material stashed away. A perfect vintage style cotton sateen. I have always wanted to remake this one with some contrasts for the collar and sleeves, but with so many other patterns out there to get through it's hard to return to the harder patterns.  

Butterick 5640

This is one of those super comfy outfits.  The material has a nice shimmer so I can wear it for night or day. The only problem is the usal issue with too much material around the bust. It's particularly noticeable when you sit down, as the middle band seems to push up the top section making it appear quite baggy in that region.  It's not a bad pattern but may benefit from a more structured fabric.  I also used an embroidery stritch, in black, around the sleeves and hem to hide the fact that this material did pucker. I hadn't used that application for a very long time. My Janaome is about 20 years old and I would assume that today's machines have even more of a selection in embroidery stiches to finish off (or rather hide) some flaws in a finished product.  I wouldn't list this as one of my best creations but it does get nice comments whenever I wear it. The necklace is one of my own creations also.

Vintage Butterick

This is one of my early vintage patterns.  Another from a bulk lot I won on ebay.  The mostly size 16 patterns adjusted down a few sizes.  This dress came together so easily. The most interesting thing I learnt while whipping up this little number was that the pattern actually had you insert the zip before attaching the front section to the back.  What a revelation and how much easier to do when you just heave to deal with 2 flat pieces rather than running up a long zip on a full constructed garment.  This only works obviously where you have the 2 back sections rather than a gathered skirt attaching to a bodice.  I use this technique where I can now because it is so much easier.  I had intended for this fabric to originally be a maxi skirt and I was going to make a cobalt blue top to go with it. Fortunately it was the right amount of fabric for this delightful shift dress.  It is surprising that it takes more than 2 metres of fabric to make most vintage shift dresses. 

Butterick 5086

I hope to make the middle version at some point too.  Just need to find the right fabric.

 

New patterns, well maybe not new

I have been spending a bit too much time lately searching the ebay pages for vintage patterns.  Oh what a lovely way to pass the time on a boring day at work.  Here are my last purchases all won at auction and quite reasonably priced.  A couple o 60's and some more 70's. 



As my least favourite of seasons, summer, is now approaching it's time to start thinking about some nice floaty frocks.  Even though I love the sleeves on the two 70's dresses I may have to do sleevless for just one. Not suprising amongst my large stockpile of fabric I am almost certain I probably don't have the right quantity of an individual fabric for most of these patterns.  The only exception is the lovely fitted 60's number which I'm sure I would have the right fabric for. 

Ah my pattern draw it runneth over, and over.