Tag Archives: vintage patterns

Finished Project: The Dust Bowl Dress

Posted on by

The project for the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge this time was “Peasants & Pioneers.”

From the event page on Facebook:

“As wonderful as making pretty, pretty princess dresses is, the vast majority of people have always been poor commoners, whether they were peasants working the land, servants in big houses, or (later), pioneers carving their own space in new lands. This fortnight let’s make something that celebrates the common man.”

This automatically made me think of the dust bowl and the great depression.  The incredible hard times that people of my grandparent and great grandparent’s generation had to endure.  I want to celebrate something in our more recent history, within the memory of many of those still alive today.  The great depression, of course, hit across our nation (and internationally as well), but the dust bowl hit only part of the country, causing incredible hard time among those in the path of the dust storms, and forcing many to “pioneer” out to places for a new start, like California, in order to pick crops or use their farming skills where the soil was still fertile.

The dress I made is from all vintage materials.  I was fortunate to find a long length of vintage cotton print that I found reminiscent to the feed sack prints the ladies of the dust bowl would have used to make their clothing.  These were actually flour or feed sacks, and a housewife would collect them to make clothing for her family, or sew items for the home.  The buttons, buckle, and the bias tape are all vintage as well.  This is finished on the inside with rayon seam binding.

Very contrary to the dust bowl, today is a very cloudy and rainy day.  I was hoping to take pictures next to some old west style historic buildings, but it was not meant to be!  Since it’s a dark day, it is very hard to capture the colors correctly.

Without the belt, the dress looks rather 1920s.

A closer shot of the detail, which is more true to actual color:

This was made from a  mail order pattern from the earlier part of the 1930s, similar to what farming ladies would have used to make their clothing.  I have a copy, as I sent my original to a friend in England.  Although the dress in the illustration looks rather sporty, I wanted to take inspiration from vintage farm dresses and aprons, so added the bias tape to make this look more like a house dress.

Some inspiration images for this project that were found online:

{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

{Source}

Required info for this challenge

The Challenge: Peasants & Pioneers

Fabric: Vintage cotton print

Pattern: Mail Order 1918

Year: First half of the 1930s (about circa 1932-1934)

Notions: Vintage bias tape, vintage buttons, vintage buckle

How historically accurate is it? Very.  Without finished seams it would be more period, but I wanted to protect from fraying when washing.  The thread is poly, which is not period, but otherwise it’s totally dead on.  I found prints almost identical in a 1934 Sears catalog.

Hours to complete: Around 5-6.

First worn: Not yet!

Total cost: About $25 (not including pattern)

An Unusual Find in a Pattern Envelope

Posted on by

 This evening I started the mad task of organizing my personal sewing supplies as well as things to be listed on Etsy.  I came across this pattern in a bin of patterns to sell and thought, “hmm… this seems awfully thick for such a slim dress.”  I wasn’t sure what I was going to find… wads of newspaper pieces?  A mystery pattern inside this one?  I had seen both before, as well as scraps of fabric, bits of thread, notes, but this was a new one!

A whole mock up of the dress bodice, complete with hand basted seams and darts!

Maybe the maker was paying attention in Home Economics during the “Patterns for Smartness” film.  I swear, I learned more from this clip than I did in fashion school about assembling patterns and making mock ups!

Have you had any unusual finds in pattern envelopes lately?

And did you learn anything new from the video? It’s one of my favorites :)

Finished Project: A Wrap Top from 1946

Posted on by

I finished up a super quick little sewing project and wanted to share!   This top is from Simplicity 1867, from 1946.  I made style 5.  This blouse was meant to be made with a single fabric with a lace edgeing for the ruffles, but I had both of these yardages in my stash, and both of them were not enough to be something on their own, but together they worked!  I didn’t have enough fabric to do this project properly.  The blouse should have been larger and the sleeve ruffles and bottom ruffle were not supposed to be hemmed- but it somehow worked! I admit I did a little cheating with cutting- some pieces cut on the grain, some on cross grain- and the back was cut from two pieces instead of one on the fold- but hey! It kind of works! The ruffles of the sleeve were supposed to have about four inches more of gathers on each side, and the bottom ruffle was pieced, but it was kind of fun to squeak this out of my fabric.  Of course, rick rack makes everything better ;)

I think it’s funny that this blouse is called a “poncho blouse” on the envelope, but the description is rather accurate.  It pulls on over the head and two ties come around the front and tie at the waist to cinch in the back, then the two long ties tie at the back to make a bow.

I’m shortwaisted so shortened the pattern pieces of the front and back one inch each, but in reality they could do with at least another half inch to an inch of length taken out of them- it does fit a bit more blousey on me than on the dress form!

It’s a fun little pattern, and it’s kind of kooky.  I probably will make more of these if I end up having more yardage I love but don’t have much of!

Finished Project: The “Is it Spring Yet?” Dress

Posted on by

I just finished up my first vintage sewing project of the year! Hooray!

I’m not sure how the weather is by you, but here in the San Diego area it’s been quite warm for this time of year!  It gets my sewing inspiration all messed up- I go back and forth between wanting 1910s costumes and pretty coats to craving 1930′s and 40′s cheerful dresses and beachwear.  Since I needed to order grommets for my 1910s corset was in the process of waiting for them in the mail, I took the excuse to delve into a little vintage project.

I made this dress from a vintage pattern, Hollywood 1558, from 1938.  I even found the pattern pictured in a 1938 Ladies Home Journal magazine!  This was an instance of fabric first, pattern second, however.  I found this wild print in the Los Angeles garment district and KNEW I had to make a very loud dress, similar to those I posted about quite a while ago as shown in a 1938 catalog.  The fabric is a lightweight cotton and but collar and belt are made of white cotton pique.

This dress was very cleverly designed to have fabric cut on the straight of grain, crossgrain, and bias in order to play with the direction of stripes.  I actually cut the back piece on crossgrain instead of grain because I wanted my pattern to line up with the sleeve.  I think this was one of the instances where cutting the dress out took almost as much time as sewing, but for a print like this I knew it would be ideal!

I used vintage buttons that are little novelty ones that look like hats and a vintage buckle.

My shoes were by Farylrobin (purchased on Amazon) and my bracelet was bought many years ago from Forever 21, but I was excited to be able to wear these vintage novelty screw back earrings I just picked up at an estate sale.  They remind me so much of one of Adrian’s designs for a bathing suit in The Women!  Actually, I’m not sure why my hair looks so dark and red in the other photos (though it does make me want to dye it!).  My actual hair color is just a little darker than the picture above!

I’ve got about a yard or a little more of the fabric left, so am already daydreaming of a little shirtwaist dress using this as the blouse and making a matching jacket. Hmm… I just picked up some navy gaberdine at the same estate sale…

Finished Project: 1940′s Jerkin

Posted on by

I’ve heard it said that as sewing types we tend to fall into two categories: those who begin a project with a pattern or those who begin a project with a fabric.  I tend to do both- sometimes it’s the pattern, sometimes it’s the fabric.  Most of the time I like to “shop the stash.”  But this project began with the fabric!

I was meandering the local fabric store looking for something completely unrelated to this project when I saw a lovely mustard colored fine corduroy laying on the remnant tables.  I have an absolute weakness for this color- it just screams “make me into something vintage!” So, being the obedient seamstress that I am, I bought it.  There was only a tad over a yard and not even a full width.  So a the cutting table it said “Make me into a 1940′s jerkin!”  and I agreed.  A few weeks prior I had found a great wide wale corduroy in deep forest green that said “Make me into a 1930′s skirt!”, so I thought if I combined the two I might *just* have enough to squeak out a jerkin with pockets AND the skirt.  And believe me, I barely, barely made it. See, cordoroy has something which I always forget it has… the dreaded nap.  Fabrics with a nap tend to take more fabric than called for initially because you must cut the pattern with all pieces going in the same direction. But I barely, BARELY made it!  Here’s the two patterns with their buttons and fabric laying on the table, waiting to be made up.

Do you ever have a pattern in your stash for years, and when you finally get around to making it, you find out it’s missing a bunch of pieces? That was the way with my copy of Simplicity 3742.  Who knows where I found it, but I was totally bummed to open it up and find that most of the jerkin pieces were missing.  The big bits were there, but it was unfortunately missing most of the other pieces.  The construction was not at all what I was expecting, either. In my brain more smaller pieces meant more ways to wiggle out the pieces on my fabric, but this jerkin, regardless of having an attached belt, was cut full fronts and backs and then the belt was sewn on AFTER construction.  In my brain I thought it would have separate peplums, belt pieces, and front and backs.  Anyways, this ended out working in my favor, as I decided to make the belt separate so it could be removable.  This way, the jerkin can be worn both with skirts and buttoned up the front, or left open and casual a la Miss Kate Hepburn (and McCall 4583 which was also a contender for this project, but unfortunately it would not fit on my fabric).  For the missing pieces I drafted up a belt and based the pockets on those from another pattern and drafted a smaller one for upper pocket.

 

Continue reading →

Not Quite Finished Project: The Almost Thanksgiving Dress

Posted on by

While at the fabric store we saw it and were drawn to it, like moth to flame. No, not a super nice wool, not a basic cotton, not a linen or similar… it was one of those fabrics that nearly always spells sewing failure for me- an oversize novelty cotton print.

“But,” thought I, “it has everything I love.  Trees, leaves, autumn colors.  Thanksgiving will be here in a few weeks, but surely I can whip together in that time.  I even have the perfect buttons to match.”  And my husband, who was with me, encouraged the fabric purchase by saying it looked “So 1950′s.”

I get the fabric home and search to the stash.  I wanted a dress more “vintage inspired” than dead spot on authentic 1950s that I could wear often with a retro vibe but a shorter hemline (just at the knee).  Thinking of a basic shirtwaist along the lines of the ones Debi has been making up, with classic and timeless lines, I was shocked to find that I had not-a-one basic shirtwaist late 50′s/early 60′s pattern in the stash.  Not one! I suppose when I culled the herd I thought they were basic and “there will always be more…” but I’m experienced a near drought when looking for pre mid 1960′s vintage patterns locally within the past year!

So… obnoxious fabric. Check.  Obnoxious button. Check.  Basic pattern to attempt to tone down the obnobious effect… I pulled out a few options and thought on it for a week before I selected this pattern, McCall 3316 (my copy of which just so happens to be on sale now in my Etsy store).

First thought was that it’s cute and looks like a nice fit.  It’s got a shirtwaist, it’s got waist definition.  Only qualm was the way the big pattern would line up with the cummerbund waist.  Oh, and look! The one in the center is shown in a wild fabric!

I don’t generally sew much from the 1950s and most projects I have made without making a muslin have come out unsuccessfully, to say the least.  I knew that I would need to make up a muslin, not only because the pattern was a size smaller than those I normally wear, but also because I wanted to counteract any foul play on 1950s shape + my figure.  It’s a darn good thing I did!  I didn’t think to take any photos, but when I tried on the muslin it was NOT going to fit my figure.  The shoulders were too wide, the empire seam hit higher on my bust (and I generally make things with a bit higher bust point), and the fit was just not right for me.  Just goes to show ya… gotta make a muslin up.

I decided the changes I wanted to make and the muslins required to make said changes would far outweigh the time span I had given myself to sew, so I raided the stash again and came up with McCall 3229.  This was one of the few vintage patterns I had found locally within the last year, and I just happened to pick it up a few days before the pattern switch-a-roo was needed.

 Another image with a large print, and I could just picture this one made up with a bit of a shorter hemline to carry me into more retro wear.  Thinking of what happened last time, I made up a muslin of this one.  This one was one size larger than I usually wear, so I knew it also would need some fiddling.  I made it up and it was very big on me, more than a size larger.  I don’t nearly have the idea 1950′s figure, so large tucks were needed here and there, and I made all of my changes on my pattern tracing so I could reference them later.  It looked ok.. and with a few days left before Thanksgiving I just decided to was “good enough”, and set out to cut out my fabric.

It was a good thing I bought extra! This pattern took a lot of fabric, even after I shortened the skirt a good three inches.  It was pretty quick to sew, except where crazy me decided to do piping and bound buttonholes from piping (which are not quite as good as they could be).  There’s a few other things I don’t like about my sewing or quick construction on this dress, but I won’t bore you with details ;)

Sewing finished, I tried it on, and… ICK! It looked HORRIBLE on me!  The cut was not at all flattering to my figure! I took in the waist a bit more, even tried it on with an *ahem* better bra… it just didn’t look good!  WOE!  So my sewing rush was for nothing, and I didn’t wear it on Thanksgiving after all.  It looks so much better on my dress form (which has a larger bust to waist ratio than I do) so I’ll show pictures.  Shame it doesn’t look the same on me!

So… it’s shelved for now, and my backup plan, since I still think the buttons and fabric are fun and I REALLY like the way it buttons up on the side like that, is to make this a sleeveless dress. I think the fit on me will look a lot better, and I can just pair it with a pumpkin colored cardigan I have in my closet.

So, my moral of my story is (as I tell this to myself)… don’t sew things in a rush.  Even if you are determined to get it done in time, chances are you’ll get it done but you might not like it.  And just because that cute crazy print cotton is calling your name doesn’t always mean you need to wear it on your body because no matter how much you love it, it might overpower you.  Cause no matter how cute it looks on my dress form, if I don’t wear it chances are it was a waste of time and money.  And don’t forget to make your mock ups, kiddies, especially when dealing with a different era than you normally sew.

That’s all.

Finished Project- 1950s Petticoat

Posted on by

I don’t know what it is about Autumn, but for the past few years it’s caused me to catch 1950s fever… as in, I picture myself lounging about in stunningly tailored frocks and suits made of silks and wools.  The only unfortunate side of said fashion day-dreams is my complete inability to have a figure that even remotely resembles the 1950s ideal. Enter Audrey Hepburn, my heroine of 1950s style, that proves there is hope for girls like me who don’t have a chance on earth of Marilyn-like curves.  But, thought I, there is also hope for the 1950s shape in period undergarments- and so I set about to try to make sure I had a proper base to build on for my future creations.  I found a very nice vintage bra/shaper on Etsy and while I wait in anticipation for it’s arrival I thought I’d re-visit the territory of petticoats.

Perhaps, if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember this:

See, Autumn=1950s for me.  I made this with distinctly Halloween inspiration.  However, it met a sad and untimely demise at the hand (or paw, or mouth) of…

these two seemingly cute and innocent culprits.  Sure, they look cute and fuzzy, but the petticoat didn’t have a chance.  I didn’t see them coming.  And even if it had, it was unsurprisingly confused by their similar markings and adorable faces.  The one on the left is the main instigator… not that you couldn’t tell, as he’s blurry in this photo for a reason.  Moves quickly, has a decided appetite for tulle, and nothing gives his little heart as much glee as the sharp sound of tearing netting.  The one on the right is somewhat more innocent in approach. He’ll simply hide underneath his super cloak of invisibility (shh.. don’t tell him tulle is see-through), and sit… and sit, until something makes a sudden movement and in a flury of whiskers and claws, the tulle with leap and run across the room- encasing the cat.  But I digress… short version- the petticoat died at the hands of felines.

You may also remember this:

My 1950s skirt made over from a 1980s prom dress found at a thrift store. I have never really worn it because I was not happy with the shape.  So… it made a perfect candidate to be chopped up and turned into a new petticoat!  It has the tulle netting still underneath from the prom dress, so everything was ripped apart, re-cut, and some taffeta I had left over from my mourning dress project was added, and TA DA! New petticoat all from fabrics in the stash.

The pattern I used for this project was Simplicity 4137, a vintage pattern from 1953.  Mine is missing a front cover, but here’s the illustration image from the instructions:

I made view 1.  This pattern was EASY and was pretty fast to sew! It probably took me under 4 hours to sew, and I wasn’t moving fast.  Also, I must say, hurrah for having my serger back! I have been serger-less for many, many months after breaking a nigh-unbreakable part, having it special ordered, having the company change the part number, reordering… yes, I was not a happy camper. I am so sick of vintage style and bias-bound seam finishes that I could scream. Give me convenience and speed, thank you very much.

I have to add, since I hadn’t sewn anything in well over a month, I broke in my sewing project in the appropriate way- by completely messing up the waistband.  So excuse the underlap on the wrong side of the waistband, but it’s underwear so I’m not re-doing it ;)   I have a slew of these zippers that I got when the costume shop I worked for was cleaning house, and it just so happened to match the gold tone in the polka dots perfectly. How fun is that?

I also have to add, in case any of you are thinking of making up this pattern, that the tulle underlay was NOT originally included in the pattern or instructions.  I just wanted extra fluff, so this is the piece that was cut straight out of that 80′s prom dress, just trimmed down at the top and added at the bottom of the petticoat yoke.  I think it does the job really well, and I’m also quite pleased at the extra body given by the taffeta! Someday someone may curse my name for cutting up “vintage” 80′s prom dresses, but heck- there was no way I was leaving this gold dot and black moire goodness behind at the thrift store. See, it’s already on life #3.

Here’s an inside-out shot in case any of you are interested in attempting a similar project:

So I guess that’s it!  I hope you are all having a fabulous week and finding some fun inspiration for this Autumn!

Another Vintage Pattern Find

Posted on by

It’s been really interesting reading your responses to the last post and seeing the results of the poll. I’ll post the results probably next  so you all can see, too. Just shows there’s lots of different ways to incorporate an interest into your life or style, and I’m thankful for the variety. So fun!

I was going through more patterns today and found another surprise find you might get a kick out of seeing, too. This one is a facing piece cut from the original fabric. Isn’t this fabric fun? It’s like confetti for autumn. Now, if I could only purchase a few yards of it to make a dress for myself… not that I need any more fabric ;)

This pattern is listed in my Etsy store now, along with the fun fabric find, if anyone’s interested.

Hope you’re having a lovely week!  There is the promise of rain on the horizon here.  Can’t wait! We don’t get much rain so it’s always a treat.

Surprise Find in a Vintage Pattern

Posted on by

One of the reasons I just love vintage patterns is because of the random unexpected finds tucked inside.  Usually it’s the normal rusty (or non-rusty) pins for alterations but every once in a while I love finding something special.

I was peeking inside this pattern today (that I now probably won’t sew up until next summer) and found this fun surprise.  The original seamstress cut this out of wanted ads in a newspaper, and there’s a few fun reminders of  the time the pattern was new.  I love the ad that says “Housewives and Really Active Middle Aged Women for Light Defense Work,” and “Stenographers, Permanent Position with Post-War Future.”  Just a fun reminder of the past lives of this pattern and the time it was new, and why I decided on the name I did for my blog and shop :)

Do you have any favorite finds you’ve found tucked inside of your old patterns?