Little Houses Retro Frock

This is one of the patterns I got from a bulk lot of patterns from a friend's mum's collection.  I don't know the story behind the "Woman" patterns.  I'm not sure if they were associated with any particular pattern house. I liked the look of this basic 50's style frock which I thought would be perfect with my little houses fabric. This was a super easy dress to make.  I did learn a new thing, the shoulder pleat. Which you insert at the front. Not sure what the idea is behind this. I think it's another one of those things that works for women of a larger bust size. As for me it leaves quite a lot of room in that department.

 

Just loved this material when I saw it in the soft furnishing section of Spotlight.  It's a nice stiff cotton and will hopefully wear well.  I bought this along with my olive fabric I used for my Alice dress.  I thought this would be an easy pattern matching exercise given that the house pattern seems to run in lines.  I was pretty careful to match things but somehow the skirt in particular didn't match up with the side seams and the pattern.  No biggy I guess but I did try.  I also had been watching some tutorials for lap zips as I thought I'd give one a go.  I did think the size was running to a large but once I did darts and ran up one side seam it was pretty much just enough room for a regular zip.  Perhaps next time I'll venture out of my zip comfort zone. 

The pattern didn't have any facing pieces. The instructions said to create your own. I made some bias for the neckline, but when It came to the sleeves I decided to draft facing pieces from the bodice pattern.  The sleeve line had a bit of shaping to it and when I tried to add some bias it looked a bit poo. I also did a hand stitched hem.  I'm quite happy doing my hand sewing while I'm sitting around watching some telly.

I think all in all this dress was probably only $12 all up.  The material was only $5 a metre and the pattern probably worked out to $2.  So overall pretty awesome on the price front. 

....Because I needed some more patterns

In recent weeks I have revisited one of my addictions, shopping for retro patterns on line. It seems like a harmless enough pastime.  That is until you decided you really really need to buy one pattern and then it doesn't stop there, oh no. There's another one that looks promising and no-one has made a bid on it yet. I probably shouldn't, but why not. If I don't win the bid then so be it.  I do have a certain limit.  I am mostly looking for a good bargain.  Recently all the patterns I bought were under $5, then plus some postage in some cases.  I'm guessing other shoppers are more selective and will pay a whole lot more for say a single special pattern.

Isn't it just amazing how much time you can waist on the interweb looking at patterns. And I'm guessing a lot of other sewers do the same thing, building a larger and larger cache of patterns.  Sometimes I'm really good and use the pattern almost as soon as I get it. Then there are the other patterns that get forgotten in a pile somewhere because I'm distracted by the newly arrived goodies.    So here are some of my purchases in the last fortnight.

 

 

  

 

Then this weekend just gone, I was a bit sick with a cold and heavy dose of the hayfever to boot and found myself on the interweb again and bought more more more.

 

I bought these 2 patterns thinking I may make adjustments to the design.  For the first frock I think I'd make it with shorter sleeves for the summer months. I wouldn't really get as much wear out of a long sleeve dress I fear here in the tropics. Certainly looks real nice and comfy and easy to make. The second pattern I was taken with the bodice and tie. Though rather than the A-line skirt maybe doing a gathered skirt. Obviously that would change the 70's look, but I think the bodice would suit a 50's style too.

Pretty much bought this bargain because of the blouse which I thought looked really cute. I could however see myself making up the pinafore in the cooler months. Looks rather smart.