Simplicity 6103

Another little something something from my 60's pattern collection. I purchased this pattern late last year mainly for the the blouse.  I certainly wasn't disappointed with the pattern.  The pattern was very simple and easy to follow and absolutely no unpicking was needed during the sewing process. Hooray.

I can't remember where I purchased the material, but I suspect it was quilting cotton. It is the perfect material for a vintage top.  I couldn't find enough buttons in my collection so I did covered buttons. The only alteration I should have done was lengthen the body as it's quite short. Also there was no guide for the button holes but that's not exactly rocket science to work out where to place your buttons.  

I love this top and will definitely make it again.  

Alice, Working Hard for the Money

I haven't been doing a whole heap of sewing in the last few weeks.  I made a vintage peasant top and cut out a few things.  I decided I needed a nice fast project for a work pinafore. Come on down the Alice by Tessuti.   This is my second dress in the Alice pattern and I've done 3 tops.  I wanted something quick and easy and that patterns is great for such a project. 

The fabric which is 100% synthetic has the look of a wool blend.  I'm quite optimistic it might not be a crusher.  I have way too many of those in my work dresses repertoire.  Even fabrics I'm not expecting to crush do.  I even took it old school and bought some fabric starch spray.  That didn't seem to work on the fabric I needed to de-crease. It just left a nice film of starch on my iron which flaked off on the next thing I ironed. 

Back to Alice.  This is a very simple make and a versatile colour for work. It is actually a blue background but looks grey in most lights.  As I don't have an overlocker I had to zig zag my seems twice because this fabric freys like the Dickens. 

I used some buttons for a bit of embellishment.

Drawer of Horrors

I was quite confident that I had my sewing/spare room in some sort of order.  Alas my patterns are stored in various locales due to lack of storage.  I started out my Wednesday morning trying to find one of my vintage patterns, which by rights, should have been in a particular place that I keep my pre-used vintage patterns.  A peruse of the 2 storage bags did not yield the pattern in question.  Then I went to the next 2 or 3 locations it could have been in.  No luck.  Of course this venture of looking through all my patterns, drawers, baskets, storage containers is all very interesting, with forgotten patterns giving me pause to think about when I might actually use them.  

 

Finally, I came across my bits and bobs sewing drawer.  Like the drawer most of us have the kitchen for all things that have no place elsewhere, I have my sewing drawer with various odds and ends, interfacing, zips, tube turner etc.  However, after starting to unload the drawer I found many many things that maybe should not have been in there.  Behold........

 

Firstly, the patterns. What was I thinking discarding so many patterns in this drawer. I even had loose pattern pieces all belong to one pattern marked 6020. There was no 6020 pattern in the drawer. There were even some other pattern pieces pined to material.  2 lots of large material off cuts, enough to use again. And partially made dress which I had helpfully put in a bag with material and pattern. There was string, there was ribbon, some felt. Junky material offcuts which I assume I was keeping to do covered brooches. Other random fat quarter material pieces. Covered button kits. A PDF pattern for a bag. The good news is that I found the only pants pattern that I’ve had success with and recently assumed was at my parent's house. I certainly wouldn’t have been looking in that drawer for one of my much loved patterns. 

 

I was grateful to google for helping me to locate what pattern 6020 belonged to. It was hard to find the actual pattern company on any of the pieces initially but once I did I found the missing pattern. I'd actually wanted to use the pattern late last year for a sewing project and found pieces missing.  

 

In the end I did find my vintage pattern. Where you may ask? Well in one of the original places I looked. I just didn't look hard enough.  A wasted morning with my drawer of horrors, but I guess a good excuse for a clean out and clean up.