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. 

 

 

New Look 6187

I've been trying to branch out and make more tops recently. I bought a  couple of patterns last time when Spotlight had their $5 sale on patterns. Whenever these sales are on I go through the draws with my list of patterns and mostly they aren't there. Then I just start trawling through the drawers at random to see if anything takes my fancy.  This is where I found the New Look 6187.  I liked the looked of the mandarin collar version. 

  

Alas I was not happy with the end result.  Perfectly easy little top to make, but I didn't make the top long enough and also the sleeves are very boxy.  At first I thought I wouldn't wear it, but I guess it is wearable I'm just not l-o-v-ing it. 

As the basic style of the top is nice I might give one of the other versions a go in the longer sleeve and add a couple of inches to the length. 

Material was a quilting cotton that I've had for about 12 months.  Funny how it matches the diagram on the front of the pattern. 

Laptop Case

I've had my laptop for a couple of years now and for some reason only recently thought to make a cover for it.  I try to put it away in a cupboard when I'm not using it but it often lives under my coffee table.  Given I have a poo-load of fabric lingering around the joint I decided to use this vintage 70's floral print.  Yellow isn't really my shade but it looks quite good in an accessory.  

My first design I tried was an envelope. Unfortunately it didn't sit very well I think because I put wadding in the lining.  I just thought some padding was a good idea. 

  

Here I re-jigged the design and put straps with button holes and some covered buttons in the same fabric.  I also couldn't find any plain white material for the lining. I have white material somewhere, but alas I couldn't locate it.  I had a white pillow case that had gone a bit off colour so I decided to use that instead.  It was just the right width.

 Far from perfect, but it should do the job.

Lucky Cat Frock

Here is another of my much used patterns, Simplicity 2215.  Though I've only made the dress/pinafore once before and it was not too fab.  So I'm out one day having lunch with my friend Cat and we walk into a little Japanese crafty gift store and they had some lovely linen type fabrics and one which screamed out to me, naturally featured pusscats. I'm not sure if I've actually seen the lucky cats on fabric before but here it is. The fabric was a dream to work with.   

 

So overall this Simplicity pattern has been pretty good to me and I had seen some lovely versions of the dress on blogs. Certainly the type of material you use is the key ingredient and I am very happy to have another kitty frock in my collection. 

I found some nice reddish coloured buttons at Spotlight which were a fairly good match the red tones in the material.  

And finally, I have the perfect outfit for my kitty bag.  I bought this bag last year and was initially put off by the horrid smell that kept emanating from it.  It was one of those strong chemical smells. Fortunately after airing it for about 6 months the aroma has now passed and I can wear my crazy cat lady ensemble with pride.  



And on the subject of "lucky cats", I would like to introduce a new family member to the FrocknStuff household, Salem.  He was my first and last foster cat.  I thought I'd do a good turn and become a feline foster carer.  But a 5 week foster, turned into 7 months and well I couldn't imagine not having him around. So Polly-Jean now has a little brother. 



McCalls 6794

I'm on a mission to make some more tops. Pretty sure I have enough dresses for the time being, or do I. I've had this material for quite some time. I didn't know what exactly I wanted to do with it. I thought it would be good for a dress. But with a most sewing projects I tend to pull certain materials out and contemplate whether they are worthy of the specific pattern I want to make. It's a super light weight cotton so it would have needed lining so that kind of makes up your mind. It was perfect for this top.     

 

Such an easy pattern to work with. This is definitely a top you could make in one day.  I actually love these type of sleeves. So much simpler than adding sleeves separately and you just turn over the seam instead of using binding or facing.  By just adding length this would a perfect dress also.  

Simply a great top that would go with pants or skirts.  I think now the weather is finally cooling down I might try the longer sleeve top.