Happy Halloween!

 

Happy Halloween, witches and ghouls! Halloween is by far one of my favorite holidays. Especially now that I have children of my own. My 4 year old son decided last night that he wanted to go trick or treating tonight, and he hasn't shown any interest in the holiday up until this point. So, of course, we went out late last night to let him pick out a costume. He decided on a vampire, so I'm excited to see him all dressed up. My little one is only 8 months old so she will be wearing her pink skeleton sleeper with a pink beanie to keep her head warm as it will be very chilly tonight.

 

I decided to look into some vintage costume patterns while working this morning and came up with a few to spark your creativity.

 

Advance 709

A fantastic Disney Peter Pan costume from 1953. You can get this pattern here!

 

 

Simplicity 4069

 

A Colonial dress costume from 1952. Full gathered skirt with hip pannier and other accessories. You can find this pattern for sale here!

 

Butterick 6596

 

Angel and Clown costumes and Choir Robes pattern from 1953. You can find the 1959-1960 reprint of this pattern for sale here!

 

Simplicity 4073

 

I adore this pattern. This is a pattern from 1952, for a child's bunny, cat and penguin costume. How freaking cute are they? You can find this pattern here!

 

Well, I wish you all a very happy halloween. I hope that you get more treats than tricks and I hope that you see lots of little ghouls and goblins tonight and make them smile.

 





Vintage Patterns and Inspiration

So while wandering around on the net today I stumbled across the Vintage Pattern Wikia... Do you know of this? The Wikia is a collection of patterns 25 years old or older. According to the Wikia they "are working to create one location online where people can go to browse through vintage patterns from the 1980s and older and share information about them."

 

I have not yet sewn anything from a vintage pattern, but am amassing quite a collection of vintage reproductions from The Big Four. I'd love to get my hands on some of the vintage patterns and hopefully will one day. For now I can just dream about them, right? 

 

As I was searching through the Wikia today, I came across several that sparked my imagination and got me planning some future projects.

 

Simplicity 1153

I adore this pattern for several reasons. The first being that it would be possible to create a large part of one's wardrobe with only this pattern, because of the seperates. The second thing I love about this pattern is the neckline on the top. I love the look of the crossover top. As a nursing mother to an 8 month old baby girl, wearing vintage can be difficult because it's not really breastfeeding friendly, but this would make it possible to nurse during my lunch break and pump while at work, without having to undress down to my knickers. You can find this pattern for sale here!

 

McCalls 3602

 

Another great set of seperates. This one even includes shorts and a pencil skirt! What a great wardrobe starter! You can find this pattern for sale here!

 

Simplicity 3512

 

This is a very nice pattern. I love the button front on the dress, again nursing friendly, always a plus. I love the sweetheart neckline and princess seams on the dress. The coordinating bolero in both short sleeve and 3/4 length, and sash really complete the emsemble! This would be perfect for a night out or for the office (with the bolero of course). You can find this pattern for sale here!

 

Butterick 6119A

 

Oh My Golly, look at this one. I'm so in love with the buttons on the back! How totally adorable. I don't even know how much I love this pattern. It's going on my wish list. You can find it for sale here!

 

So there's a bit of inspiration for you today. Get out there and make something fabulous!



Sew Retro Rose Swirl Sew-Along!

Yep, I'm going to be participating in this sew-along starting October 29th!

 

Sew Retro Rose Swirl Sew-Along

 

We'll be making this dress!

 

Beccie from Sew Retro Rose has been kind enough to grade this pattern for all sizes and for a small charge of $6 you can get a PDF copy of the pattern in your size and sew-along with us also!

 

This is the fabric I'll be using for this project, I got it on sale at JoAnn's for $2.49 a yard!! I'm so excited to be involved in this. There is a huge group of lovely ladies from all over the world working on this project together. This will be my 3rd vintage project, and I need to get the red and navy dress finished before the 29th gets here!

 

So I know it's not much of an update but it's exciting all the same.

Bloglovin' and a Sneak Peek!

I'm currently working on a new dress project. New Look 6457. I'm making view A. I decided I really like the piping that is called for in view B and I've added a lovely navy piping to the bodice as well.

I did a muslin this time and I'm so glad I did. I started with a 16 to match my measurements and as you can see, it was way too big. I was practically swimming in the bust. After quite a few adjustments, I started over and made the 14 and that was just about perfect with a few tweaks in the front princess seams.

 I ended up going with size 14 for the bodice (should have based things on my high bust measurement) and a 16 for the skirt.

 

It is just about finished at this point, I only need to insert the zipper, which I think I will be handpicking this time, and stich the hem. I'm in love with this fabric. I think it has a nautical feel in the colors without the typical nautical design elements. I should have this complete in the next few days! More to come soon.

 

In the meantime <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/13009043/?claim=vq8beqffadz">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

 

It's finally finished!

So I've been struggling with the Cherry Dress, McCall's 6503, that I discussed a little in my first post. Well it's finally finished!! WOOT!

So this is not the best picture of me, but that's what you get. I added a black knit shrug to cover my arms for work. I much prefer it that way just because it's A LOT of cherry print. It really needs a wide belt in the middle to break it up a little. I think.

You can see the arms here. Simple black single fold bias tape around the edge.

This is how I spent most of the time working on this dress. My seam ripper and I became great friends. I inserted the zipper at least 4 times... I am not a fan of zippers, needless to say. Hopefully I'll get better with practice. I did have to take this bodice in quite a bit. I started with an 18 based on the pattern measurements, but ended up with something smaller. Yay on the smaller front, but boo for the work involved in bringing it down, and it's still a bit too big. It would do well with taking it in more in the sides, but I am afraid that too much more will mess up the bust shape. Next pattern I do, I will definitely start at a 16 to see what happens.

This is just a picture of me looking sassy in my new dress! I really love the collar and the ruffled edging on this bodice. It really stands out great!

The First...

In what hopes to be, a very long line of vintage-esque sewing projects!

I'm currently working on McCall's 6503!

I chose this pattern for a few reasons. A: it was a work-friendly dress with what I felt was a strong vintage feel, B: it was an easier pattern, much more suited to someone who hasn't done much garment sewing in a very, very long time, and C: it was on SALE for $1.99 baby!!

So I grabbed this pattern and a few others to get the most out of the sale, and went over to the fabric section to pick something suited to the dress and my winning personality. After much debate with my darling fiance; I settled on this gingham and cherry print cotton. It had a fun feel to it and I hoped it would look decent on me.

I've been working on this dress on and off now for about a week now. It takes a bit longer than it would take the normal sewist because I'm a nursing mom to a 6 month old baby girl and also have a 4 year old son at home. Both of which need my undivided attention... all. the. time.

At this stage I've managed to get everything put together and have even gotten the zipper installed (which took at least 4 tries to get it right). Then I tried it on... and disaster struck. I swear I stared at this dress in the mirror for 30 minutes trying to figure out why I hated it. And boy did I hate it. I was so mad that I had wasted so much of my spare moments putting it together and the fit was awful. Then I lifted the shoulders and put the chest gathers where they were supposed to go. Suddenly, I was in love with the fit of the dress. It looked exactly like I felt it should. It was flattering in all the right places and the angels were singing Hallelulah.

So now the task at hand is to take the dress apart again and reshape the bodice so that it fits in that angel singing flattering way. This is the time when having a dress dummy would certainly come in handy.

To be continued...