By the hair of my chinny, chin,chin...

I have been a stranger here. I have been sewing like a mad woman, but the self sewing has not been fulfilling. At 49 years young, my body is going though a new dimension. Patterns that fit no longer do so and I can not seem to decipher my new body type, size, dimension, etc... Anyway I tried to make B4790 for myself and it turned out too big for this dimension, oh well (I have my daughter's dimension down). Here are the pic's sans the model... Repro fabric, bias and ric-rac from my stash, vintage buttons.



I am looking forward to next month...

An everyday kind of dress

I made a 1950's Vogue pattern for my first dress. Everything went rather smooth, and I had so much fun! Except that I discovered I'm not a big fan of gathering, but I'm sure that I'll get better in time.

Just in time -- Folkwear 223, by itself and with my red silk kimono. Pretty fetching.

Details yesterday at my blog. I hope that this link is now fixed. Apologies for the initial bad link.

The August Project

The clear winner and project for August will be:

A back to school / next season wardrobe staple. Look through your wardrobe and come up with a project that would build on what you have for the coming season.

Interestingly we have 60 members and 63 votes! This project will run for the entire month of August.

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with!

Anna

ps if you have any projects you'd like to suggest please email them to me at sewretro at gmail dot com as I am keeping a list and will pull a few from it each month to vote on.

The August Vote Is On!

Here is the poll for the August project which will run from the 1st to the 31st August. I will take the result on Friday and post the winner so you can have the weekend to prepare and shop!

What should the project for August be?
	A back to school / fall wardrobe staple. Look through your wardrobe and come up with a project that would build on what you have for fall.
	An unusual pattern, ie something not considered 'fashionable' today.
	A modern pattern with a retro feel.
	A project using retro/vintage fabric.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

I will be putting together a Flickr album of the July projects soon as well with whatever pattern and fabric details you noted in your entry, hopefully if we have one for each month it will give everyone a good resource to re-find projects they wanted to have a go at!

It's not too late to post your July entry so get sewing it so it can leave the WIP pile and be free!

Anna

1957 Halter

Here is the newest addition to my now-overflowing dress wardrobe! It is a Butterick reissue of a halter dress from 1957. It was pretty easy - all I added were some darts in the bust area. Oh and I skipped the circle skirt. Don't you ever just get tired of hemming those damned things? I had a full-but-not-quite-circle pattern lying around for another dress I cut out and so I just slapped it onto the bodice. Worked just fine and so much less hemming. Phew.





I will have another venture to post sometime soon, I hope. My mom and I are making dresses from matching (yummy Amy Butler) fabric and I found a couple of vintage wrap dress patterns on ebay. The hard part is choosing which one to use...

Ciao for now!

Villain

Some suggestions please ladies!

Hello ladies,

I'm in Spain on holidays - ole! Logging on to the net to try to find out what Sleazyjet have done with my luggage, as after six days it still hasn't arrived (I've been pushed off the Wardrobe Refashion wagon, which I'm not so happy about...)

When we get back I have a week to find a pattern for a dress to make to wear to a wedding on the 5th August. I have some fabulous material, which is quite gauzy, grey background with multicoloured diagonals, don't know the name of it - can anyone suggest a suitable pattern? Think it will have to be used for an overdress over a silk slip or something. The other thing is, it needs to be as easy as possible and the pattern size needs to go up to 16 UK or ideally 18 to be on the safe side!

Just thought you lovely girlies might have some ideas....

Adios!
Flib x

Thanks to Marji for her suggestion - looks great - but yes it is an obvious diagonal. Overall it's saying 1980s to me... does that count as retro? Ye gods, I think it does...

Nifty Fifties aquatic dress

For my project, I made this dress. I saw the aqua reef dot on reprodepot, and it seemed perfect for this dress

Day Late, Dollar Short

I have spent the past 3 weeks procrastinating and trying to decide which of my patterns to use. It finally hit me this morning and I am going to make a wrap around skirt from a 1977 pattern with some crazy fabric. I have had this fabric for a while and after I bought it I really didn't know what in the world I would REALLY make out of it. I almost regretted buying 4 yards (I know 4 yards! Good grief Rachel!) until I saw this skirt. Its perfect and I don't mind wearing a crazy fabric. All of the projects look great and I love this blog!!

New (Old) Dress

Needing to do a bit of creative stuff, I decided to make this dress from a vintage 1963 pattern that I picked up for $0.25 at the local Goodwill a while back (I think I bought about 40 in one fell swoop).



With it, I wound up making this:



The front.



The back.

It's a wrap dress that crosses over in the back and ties in the front. It's made from a vintage sheet that I bought at a different local Goodwill awhile ago for $2. Although it looks a little wonky on Emma (my dummy, also from a Goodwill for a whole $5), it fits really well, and I love how soft the material is. It was relatively simple to make. I'll try to post a picture soon of me wearing the dress with my vintage thrifted sandals and clutch that work really well with those colours.

It Must Be The Day For It!

Here's my finished shirt as well!



The pattern is Simplicity 7148 from 1975. I like the shirt but I'm not impressed with the job I did with the collar, there was no real way to make it any better though so I had to leave it in the end. I also think I should have used an invisible zip but you live and learn!

The fabric was from my cheap local fabric shop and is a gauzey flowery lightweight mixed fibre fabric, the zip is vintage from Freecycle and the button is vintage from my Aunt's button box!

I'm not sure how I'll wear this, the pattern shows it with a belt but I don't really have the figure for that kind of thing, or the belt! I'm sure I will wear it at some point though, it is a nice weight and I love the fabric pattern so I am glad that I made it!

Anna

Ze Blouse, She is Finis

Wow, I need some bangs.

Hey, I finished the blouse. I overcompensated a little on the sizing. Oops. But still a wearable learning experience.

More info here.

My projects

Good grief! Is it July 21st already?? Well, I've had these projects in mind and even had the patterns & fabrics for weeks. I just need to get a move on, don't you think??

I've got the pieces cut for this apron. I'm doing View A (the one with what seems like a mile of hand-made bias tape. lol) It's not a vintage pattern or fabric, but in 2006 aren't aprons, by default, retro? I think so. I chose the fabric because it made me smile. And since I hate to cook, I may as well have some reason to smile while I'm doing it.

I've had this pattern for ages. Again, not a vintage pattern per se, but it definitely has a "mod" feel to it. I used to have a sleeveless dress made out of a similar fabric that I LOVED. I'm not sure what happened to it. I think I'm going to make view on the bottom right, with sleeves and the notched neckline. Even though this project will go more quickly, I'm going to do the apron first. I need another dress that I can't nurse in like I need another piercing....

And one other thing. Has anyone seen Brocante Home? What a great site! I need to peruse it some more, but there is so much vintage you'll explode! And her writing is really wonderful. Her latest post has me in tears.

late in the game

Hello – well better late than never! My name is Marietta and though I sew for a living, I don’t sew for me. So I figured, that this blog might help motivate me to do some fabulous things for me – such as, make a ball gown for my theatre’s upcoming gala - something that I can also wear to a Viennese Ball here in Washington DC next February. As a costumer, I love to collect vintage patterns (reissued or found) as well as old fashioned “how to books.” I am hoping to get an early 60’s dress in before the end of the month; otherwise, I will definitely get in on the next challenge. Love what I have seen from you all so far!

I hate having to come up with a witty and short title for an introductory post so I completely gave up

Hi, everyone! I'm Sarah. What a fun group. Now I have an excuse to hoard vintage patterns. "But Honey, I need it for the Sew Retro group!" I don't think I'll manage to make anything new before the end of the month (though you never really know this far in advance), but here's a skirt I made my daughter earlier this month. I used some vintage fabric I found at a yard sale. I can't remember if I paid 25 cents or 50 cents for about 3 yards of it. It had a paperboard tag stapled to the selvedge. I can't remember what that tag said, but the price indicated the fabric was way old. I got several other cuts of vintage fabric, which I'm looking forward to using and wearing.

Au revoir mes amis !

polka-dot pea coat

Hello everyone! I'm Nava, a 24-year-old linguistics undergrad at UCSC, married for 7 months, and I have a room full of fabric and patterns (vintage and new) that I have to get through (for my own sanity). Most is from my grandmother, who was quite the seamstress and brought all of her stash with her from Puerto Rico to California, but about a 1/3 is the result of my own fabric-store weakness. I put off introducing myself until I finished my challenge (by the time I realised that wasn't neccesary I was already halfway through!) I used a pattern from (at least) 1970 that my grandmother used to make a coat for my Mom. I used a vintage green fabric and a new polka-dot cotton, and had to make a few alterations, but here it is! You can read a little more about it (and me) in my blog.

Question on bias tape

Is it necessary to prewash it or is it safe to assume it won't shrink? The kind I bought is 50/50 polyester and cotton.

Finally Finished!

Whew!

I finally got around to making my Duro dress. I had procrastinated long enough and whip it up just yesterday. It was pretty easy to make (no zippers, even!) and I will surely be making another. I was considering dark, Asian florals or other Asian prints, to bring out the kimono side of things. I do have at least three others in the works, so I'll just have to add it to the queue.





In the end, I think the fabric turned out well. I don't feel too much like I got run over by an Easter parade!

more pix here!

Better late than never

Hi, I am so glad to find this group. Too bad it's so late in the month. I have exams for a summer Spanish class and the day of the final, July 28, I leave for vacation in Miami. But I will try hard to complete something appropriately retro for this month. I would really love to have the time to tackle this project:

I picked up this tablecloth two months ago at Target because I loved the pattern from their almost-gone Ipanema line. But now that I have it at home, I can't make up my mind. I want to make a dress from it and these are my options:

• I have one vintage dress pattern suitable for this fabric, the "answer dress," seen above. I made one in college (years ago) but I would have to resize the pattern first,
• or to save time I could make this
• or New Look 6586
  
• or this, with the cap sleeves.

What would you suggest?

What I do know is that if I need/want more of the fabric I have to get it soon because that collection has been in the store for months now and probably won't be for much longer. So, wish me luck!

Tardy, Chiming In

Greetings!

I am another one late with an intro (I don't seem to have much computer time, lately). I am Anjo (aka the CraftyModster-my tiny blog), 30-somethingorother, Seattle-area mum of two crafty-type. I adore all things mod & retro so I was super giddy when I heard about the new group. I am honored to be part of all this, and I am looking forward to finally having a super-cool reason to partake in my vintage fabric stash, the vintage patterns I seem to hoard, & the newer, yet retro patterns I've been seeing lately.

I am well into my first project for Sew-Retro. In fact, I just have to install the zipper into this little frock for my gurl:


It's basically an old thrifted sheet my daughter picked out on a thrifting day, using a new pattern:


I am sort of dreading the zipper (It's been a long time!), but I mean to finish this by the deadline. I'll post once it's complete, hopefully being modeled by a certain wee person.

I am truly excited to see all the objects everyone creates (wow! There's already some utterably cool stuff here!), and all our future assignments!

Cheerio!

C'est fait!

I'm not quite sure why a French (badly punctuated) title seemed appropriate - maybe because with the right pillbox hat and white gloves, black blocky heels, I could imagine myself wandering through the Parisian streets in 1951... it looks terribly ordinary on the hanger but is actually very flattering - I'm really happy with it, who-hoo!

This is sort of a cheat as it isn't quite finished - zip is basted but not sewn in - but we go on holidays tomorrow and I think I might need to redo some of the seams to get the zip in better (improved sewing, poor grammar - what's up with me today?) so I'm posting this (a) in order to cheekily fulfil the first challenge, and (b) I know that some of you will be more than willing to remind me to get it sorted out!

The pattern is New Look 6375, view D and it really was easy, compared to some of the others I've tried lately. Confidence giving!

My fashionably late introduction

Hello! My name is Monti, I'm married with 3 children. I love sewing, but never have enough time. This sew along has really gotten me motivated.

For my dress I'm going to use Butterick 6582. View C is my favorite, it's the yellow dress.

Happy sewing to all!!

July project

ok, I just wrote a post and uploaded all sorts of pics to my blog, then I get here and blogger won't take any more pics. ARGH. edit: it just took pics - yeah! for the story see my blog
I've decided what I'm doing for July, and made up the muslin today.
I'm making a vintage 1950's fitted dress with kimono sleeves and underarm gussets, out of a silk shantung jacquard. Pics and story on my blog here. Sorry I couldn't post it here.

Sorry for the late intro but...

I was busy giving birth! I'm just now at a point where I can think of something other than my perfect little bundle.

You can find me over at economical baby where it's daily musings, projects, & accounting of a mom-to-be harried but happy new mom. I'm so glad to be part of this group and I so wanted to participate in this first challenge that I decided to start with an easier pattern that I can finish up before the end of July since I have a late start.



I'm hoping to alter this somewhat to turn it from a dress to a chic apron/smock of sorts. I'm finding a new baby destroys your clothing if you're not under cover ;)

Wish me luck!

First Post!

Greetings, Sewalongers!

I am Christine, a 37 year old retro-afficionado living in Northern California.
Like many of us I am simply mad for all things retro inspired!
I've been sewing from about age 7, and I am fortunate to have a decent sized collection of vintage patterns, fabrics, books and sewing machines (yes, machines...plural.. it's an addiction!)

My current, beloved machine is a 1950's Singer 301, the big sister to the Featherweight. I do most of my sewing on this old girl.

I lovelovelove the idea of this sewalong because it will finally get some of my stash out into the daylight, and back in to use. I am really trying to make more of my own clothes these days and hopefully this will be the kick in the pants that I need.

I do have more vintage patterns than I can use, The picture above is about half of what I have. A lot of my patterns are plus size (It's often difficult to find good retro patterns for us larger girls!) I also have a lot of adorable children's patterns and some maternity patterns which I am, thankfully, past the stage of needing! (My BLOG has a larger, clickable version of that image if anyone is interested)

I'm perfectly willing to swap, trade, loan, or sell some of my patterns if any of you folks are interested! Drop me a line or leave a comment. (hope that's okay to offer in this group... if not, I'm sure I'll hear from a Mod!)

Now... i just need to decide what my first project will be for this group!
Cheers and happy sewing!

THRILLED

Thrilled to bits with the finished product. The vintage fabric and the little bit of lace look good together. I would have modeled it but it is winter here in Australia at the moment, and my legs are as hairy as a bears. I'm rearing to go onto the next project.


The very easy pattern is from Spotlight , a huge craft (the term is used loosely) store here in Australia. Strictly speaking not a vintage pattern but is retro inspired.

Hello!

Since this is my first post on Sew Retro, I thought I would show you what I made recently.

I inherited eight placemats in various degrees of disarray from my Mother's linen collection. I don't know how she came by these. Each placemat was made of little handstitched "yo yo's"...what I remember as a circle of fabric, hemmed and stitched on the outside circumference and then pulled up, usually with a cardboard circle to stabilize the yo yo when you pulled up the stitches. It is then tacked down to keep the stitches from loosening. The cardboard piece is removed somewhere in this process.

There were eight placemats...with randomly placed fabric patterns. Some fabric is repeated and some is not. I counted 72 yo yo's per placemat. I could never see using the placemats; just not practical. The fabrics I guess are probably from the 60's. I've had these for sometime now and one day I took them out and sewed them together. I love this placemat/wallhanging! Everytime I go by, I see a different fabric...a different story as to where it might have come from.

So, this is my introduction to the Sew Retro group. I have been sewing for many, many years and I am glad to be welcomed in to the Sew Retro party! I have bought fabric for my dress and am currently waiting for the pattern to arrive in the mail.

You can find me at http://www.loftyperches.blogspot.com/ 

Progress

We leave for Paris in 11 days. I have finished the bodice and hope to have the skirt done this friday.

Hello, good people!

I’m Stacie and am a painter from middle Tennessee who can barely sew. Lately it seems that I have this impulse to commit myself to things that are ever so slightly over my head, and that’s where my excitement to be a part of Sew Retro comes in! I have a love of all things vintage with a modern twist. I also love the thought of being able to create all of my own clothes and am aspiring to be less of a consumer.

I’m going to try Vogue Pattern No. 5723 for my first project because it says “Easy-to-Make.” We’ll see about that.

Flickr Sew Retro Swaps Group

I have finally set this up, sorry it took me so long!

It is a private group which means that you can only join or view pictures if you are invited, so if you'd like to join please leave a comment and I will send you an email.

When you list your items please put full details of what they are, ie sizes of patterns, yardage of trims or fabric, whether there is any damange or pieces missing etc. Please also give an idea of what you would like to swap for.

Alissa and I can not be held responsible for swaps going wrong so please everyone play nice and lets swap some fun stuff!

Anna (who needs to take photos and check patterns so they can be listed!)

Pattern Enabling!

I don't know how many of you read A Dress A Day but it's a must on my bloglines.

Today Erin posted about Lanetz Living offering a discount of 10% off all patterns if you use the code 'dressaday'.

There seems to be a good selection of patterns on the site, they're not as cheap as my beloved Macojero's (linked to in the sidebar) but they're not extortionate like some sites I've seen.

Don't shoot the messenger! :o)

Anna

Decisions, decisions

Hi girls! I was wondering if y'all could maybe help me out with a wee little opinion? I finally managed to rustle up some old German pattern magazines and am now trying to decide what dress to make. These are the two I'm choosing between:

I'm thinking the one on the right is more summer, but I'm not sure I want to deal with all the fiddling that I will probably need to do to make the buttons work. Being a busty gal, I have trouble getting button up garments to fit nicely, because I find the ease required to keep the buttons from gaping tends to make me look chunkier than I really am (which is really not the look I'm going for). But the shaping on the dress is quite nice, and looks like it just might accomodate some boobage. Oh, I don't know! Any opinions on which dress you like better are welcome!

Finished

This material is so hard to photograph,and iron and sew.But I am pleased with the results,and Im keen for the next project.Can anyone point me in the direction of a square neck,empire line frock pattern?

Hello!

Hi everyone, I'm Jessica! I live in Brooklyn, NY, and am an avid knitter and reader. I like to dye my own yarn, and spin a little bit, and now sewing is working its way onto my crafting table as well--cause I really needed more hobbies, right?
I think I would call myself a fledgling sewer. I've made a few bags and an apron, and just recently finished my first skirt:
It was made with this great vintage fabric I found here in Brooklyn, and I used a New Look pattern (#6496, D). The zipper was... a struggle... but overall I was really pleased with how it turned out.
I think for the first sew-along, I'm going to try to tackle this:
A 1960's housedress pattern. It's more complex than anything I've made before, but I think I can make it happen. I'm thinking it would look cute in a really light, soft print, over a tank top and some old jeans.
Now time to shop for fabric!

shopping bag

Early this spring, I was looking forward to the opening of the local Farmers' Market. I even signed up for a share from one of the farms (I pay a flat fee in advance and then can take what I want from their farmstand each week). So I started crocheting this shopping bag from a 1933 pattern, when paper to wrap up your groceries was in short supply.

It was my first crochet project ever, but I learned to read the pattern and do the stitches. I worked and worked on it. I ran out of thread and bought more. I kept working on it. I began to wonder about the statement that "even a child could make one in a very short time". Maybe people crocheted faster in the '30s.

Well, I finished it tonight, and finally realized my mistake: after increasing at the beginning, I was supposed to have 36 loops in each row. Somehow I ended up with 52. My bag is 44% larger than called for.

I loaded up the bag with the groceries I'd bought earlier today. It still wasn't full. I added a tote bag full of yarn. And a big envelope full of yarn that I'd just gotten in the mail. And a pair of shoes. And my gym bag. And a jacket. At that point, I got bored with stuffing things in the bag and took the picture.