Patt-O-Rama va-va-va-voom!

Strange assortment of pictures of my latest project, finished in the nick of time for the Pattern Review vintage pattern contest... full details are at my review here... make sure you vote to support your retro-sewin' partners in crime!

There are some splendid things in this round of battle. My vote's going to this one which is just stunning.

Nice work, Kellie R!

Simplicity Top

Hello,

I found some time to make a simple top, but I don't know which era it is from. I'm thinking perhaps late 60s or early 70s. What do you think?
Here's the pattern:

It is Simplicity 3936.
And here's the top that I made:

It's a really comfortable top, and I'm quite happy with it.
Next up on the block for vintage patterns are a dress and another top.
Happy Sewing!

Su

Hi All!

I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Marlou and I am new to the sewing world and vintage patterns. When I started to learn how to sew (which was just a month ago), I started to look for patterns which I can start praticing on and although there were many to choose from of current fashions, nothing really caught my eye until I stumbled on this vintage pattern below -- McCall's 3206 (c) 1955, Nightgown and Bloomers. You can find more info here at my blog. I think I fell in love with the artwork of the pattern, then found there were only 4 pieces and then found there were no zippers or buttons which I have not yet learned to do. This is perfect for a newbie. This is my first project and will post more pictures when I'm done.




I now have a growing collection of vintage patterns all of which I have not yet done. (Obsessions are a sad thing but it is fun!) But with the grace of God, I have a lifetime to do them all.

I wanted to thank you all for your posts because I really enjoying reading and looking at your projects. As a newbie, your posts really inspires me and helps me learn along the way.

Happy Sewing!

Marlou

Sewing machine woes!

So my machine s broken. Totally crazy. Cleaned it, had it in pieces & still, it will nt work properly, so it's being returned. Which will leave me sans sewing machine. GAH!

On a brighter note, I am attending a couple of 40s weekends & ordered these patterns to complete my outfit

I'm a sucker for hats so I can't wait to get that one! Perhaps B's mama will let me borrow her machine...

xdollydaydreamx

The Kerr Family Blog award...

Jenny recently gave us a 'best loved blog' award and wrote this about us on The Kerr Family Blog:

"Sew Retro

I happened across this blog two days ago while reading the archives of another blog. I love the concept! I like to see handmade stuff, and I like to see retro stuff and I like to learn about different vintage patterns, etc. Sew Retro lets me do all of those things! Sew retro has an extensive team of contributors who construct items of clothing using vintage patterns and materials. Some of the dresses are stunning. The workmanship is amazing as well. If you have some extra time I would urge you to take a little trip through their archives and see what they have to offer! I am completely in love with the reversible bolero in the Dec. '07 archives!"

Thanks Jenny!

Check out the Free Vintage Sewing Machine

Come over to TheFadedStitch and email me if you're interested.

1920s Sewing Booklet Giveaway

Something different for this week's Free Pattern Friday Giveaway!

This original sewing booklet from the 1920s!

27 pages of adorable projects with instructions.

Visit The Hem Line to enter your name!

Drawing will be held this Sunday night.

Plank you very much Costco

Hello Retro sewers,
Although this hasn't much to do with retro sewing it could help preserve any that you've done so far. So I thought I'd share my brainstorm for packing away winter clothing. While washing and air tight packing up my winter woolies I dropped everything and ran out to my local Costco, why you may ask? To purchase unbelievably cheap cedar wood planks! they are around $8.00 for a pack of six and fit perfectly into my air tight bags. And because we seem to be having an influx of moths this year I got more- one for each dresser drawer. I hope this little tip is helpful to you all!

Mine have little fish on them but you get the gist.

Kerrie

Summer Time!!

I have been dying to get my hands on a playsuit pattern for a long time now. I often trawl the likes of Ebay & Etsy looking for such things that will fit into my budget, plust with Ebay, there seems to be a lot of competition for playsuit patterns, so imagine my utter joy when I found this;

With no other bidders & at a great price, I finally got my playsuit pattern! I was sat at work wondering when it might appear & lo & behold, it was in my mailbox when I arrived home this evening!

I am looking forward to the summer so much! I have my pile of patterns to make, and I started with this little beauty yesterday;

Hoping to get it finished tomorrow - I will keep you posted!

xdollydaydreamx

that 70's skirt

I love love love wrap skirts! This pattern doesn't have a date on it, but I'm assuming it's from sometime in the 70's. What I like most about this is 1.) it' a "back wrap" so the flap is in the back not the front 2.) the giant slanty pocket in the front (sorry it's kind of hard to see in it in the pic) and 3.) that it wraps high around the waist and not low on the hips. The fabric is an old tablecloth my sister passed on to me- not sure how old it actually is, but I thought it had a 70's vibe going. A cinch to make!

Giveway Winner

The giveaway winner was announced today.  Congrats to Sewducky from here on SewRetro!  Thanks to everyone who came over to The Faded Stitch to play!  Keep an eye out for another giveaway soon.

Last Call

Today is the last day to enter in the drawing for free patterns at The Faded Stitch.  Don't forget to stop by and enter yourself in the drawing.

simple girls nightgown

was from a pattern in Enid Gilchrist's 'Toddler Clothes' book. It's a simple enough pattern to draft, although I hadn't figured on my Miss 2 having wider wrists than the finished nightgown. Improvising, I undid the french seams on the sleeves to make more room for her wrists. The fit and length are great. It's a typical 50's styled child's nightgown with a simple round yoke and a lovely 'vintage' styled ribbon at the neck. I used wincyette fabric remanants, ricrac and some leftover pink satin ribbon which makes for a lot of different pinks thrown together. I'm now working on a dressing gown and some play clothes for Miss 2, based on Enid's patterns, and hope to post pics very soon. You can follow my progress at
my blog.

Introduction

Hello, everyone! My name is Amanda, I'm 21 years old, and I blog at The Year 2050. I love to sew, pretty much exclusively retro designs but I've only recently been using real retro patterns. My first and one of my favorite patterns is Vogue 2267, but I'm constantly looking for more interesting and daring patterns.
I love watching this community and I hope to be an interesting contributor here! I'll be sure to post all of my new projects and watch for yours, too!

Hello!

Oh dear, so I have to introduce myself. I always panic at the thought of doing such a thing, after all, how do I know what you want to know about me?!

Anyway, enough of that, hello everyone! I've been sewing since I was about 12, making various bits & bobs, and in the last couple of years have started collecting vintage sewing patterns from the 40s & 50s. This started as I have a love of vintage & strive to 'dress vintage' every day, but unfortunately lack the funds to go shopping as often as i would like, making my own pieces seemed like a good solution.

I now have dozens of patterns, a huge stash of fabric and no time or space to get my sewing machine out! I have, however recently begun the vintage wardrobe project, which hopefully is going to kit me out with plenty of outfits for the approaching summer. I am currently working on Simplicity 2848, a simple day dress from 1949;

I also collect vintage knitting patterns, and have around 2 - 300 at the moment, a collection that is growing all the time! I blog about knitting on a not-so-regular-these-days-basis too

And thats about it from me right now I guess!

xdddx

VINTAGE SIMPLICITY

I had this Vintage Simplicity 3446 in my stash and spotted this lovely 1950's inspired fabric, and just had to combine them! I made this last year and have worn it a couple of times, I get a lot of compliments when I wear it and the fabric is so soft and floaty! More photos and details are on my blog.

Easter Dots

Remember the Polka Dot Paradise post?

Well, here's the final product:

And here's the blog post. I'm thinking I need to lengthen the older one's dress by about two inches. Hopefully I have enough of the turquoise fabric to make do... Who knew my 6 year old shorty would be taller than a 1930s 6 year old?

Hello!

Hello and Thanks for allowing me to be a part of this great blog!!! I am not new to sewing however I am new to blogging. I started a blog two weeks ago where I will journal my sewing projects for a trip to Bermuda as well as blow off some steam and rave about the things I like. I named my blog LOVE's Sewing which can be found here http://www.lovessewing.blogspot.com.

I recently purchased some vintage patterns and am looking forward to posting the finished results here. See the pics below.

There are more on the way!!!

I look forward to all expertise, constructive criticisms, and comments! By the way...love...love the blog!!

Toodles!

Old-Fashioned Easter Dress

This year's Easter Dress was special. I attempted and accomplished some new sewing hurdles and with some of my most treasured fabric finds.

We'll start with the slip. I melded view 1 with view 3. A girl must have maximum puff in the skirt.

Yes, there is a seam down the center front because I forgot to cut the piece on the fold. I had used my best pima cotton for the slip for the softest touch against SweetPea's skin and didn't want to waste any so I just stitched the two pieces together - after all, it wouldn't be seen anyway.

I used my vintage Singer Ruffler Attachment for the crinolin (which I found last summer at the annual Antique Festival) - that was a lot of gathering and using the Ruffler made it a 1000 times easier. The gathers turned out beautifully. For the lower part of the hem I adjusted the attachment for plaiting.

I decided on a variation between view 1 and view 2 for the actual dress. Fabric is vintage and came from an old, original SINGER Sewing Center - probably 1950's. It has tiny flocked florals and fruit. The coordinate is vintage as well - a flocked dotted organdy.

I was very pleased with how the back turned out, too... especially the big bow!

The pattern called for just a narrow hem on the tie sides and ends - I didn't like the idea for that particular look, so I doubled the pattern cutting and stitched two pieces for each tie together then turned each one right side out. A much cleaner look, don't you think?

I added some crinolin on the underside of the top part of the sleeve, so that each one would puff upward. All hems were blind-stitched by hand - a bit tricky with sheer fabric.

Fully blogged here.

Recently Completed Items

I started (and finished) these back in February and March. Simplicity 7218 was purchased from Mom's Patterns primarily because it offered a Tissue Lesson in How To Set In Sleeves. WOW! I can actually do it now. My first attempt at set in sleeves was actually with a modern reproduction pattern - Simplicity 3833. I had beginner's luck and my first attempt came out OK, but I struggled for a while until I got this beginner pattern.




The top is great, except it's about 2 sizes too small in the bust. The skirt was a perfect fit, although it required a bit of shortening (being under 5' tall means EVERYTHING requires shortening, even size 10s Subteen patterns.
More on my blog:

Howdy All!

This is my first post to Sew Retro and I look forward to many more. (Long-time reader, first-time poster.) I love checking in here to see what everyone is up to. I have a growing collection of vintage patterns from the 40's-70's that's in constant flux and always threatening to take over my sewing room. My go-to patterns are definately sundress patterns from the 70's. I've been prepping my summer wardrobe and hopefully by the time the sunshine hits us here on the east coast, I'll have plenty of new skirts and dresses ready to go!

I found this many-hued cotton on sale and it was the last bit on the bolt. I snatched it up because it was so crazy cheerful and it sat for quite a while before I found the perfect pattern to match. The pattern is dated 1977 and the buttons are recycled from an old shirt. It was a cinch to make and I'm sure I'll use it again before summer's out.

I'm hosting a pattern giveaway

To introduce myself and my blog I'm hosting a pattern giveaway.  Swing by and check it out!

I must be crazy...

To attempt all this in just a few short months...



Some of it is retro. Some isn't. You'll recognize the Vintage Vogue and Butterick patterns from my "What Should Be Next" post.



I have until August 30th to get them all done and packed for my cruise to the Bahamas/Key West. I'm so excited! This will be the first "real" vacation the hub and I have had without kids since 2001. So of course it needs a whole new wardrobe. Right? Right???

Here's the complete blog post on the madness...

Intro

Hello! My name is Emily and I am so pleased to be participating in this blog. The many talented seamstresses here on Sew Retro have been an inspiration to me for a long time.

I am finally fed up with shopping. My last 5 years of trips to clothing stores have yielded less than a handful of purchases and nothing I actually love. Clothes these days don’t fit me, they are expensive, and they are poorly made. I just don’t like them.

This, on the other hand:

Besides the fact that I just can’t relate to most modern clothing styles, I’m 5’1” tall, pear-shaped, and very short-waisted. And I’m 30-something. So, nothing fits and nothing looks right.

But this might change things:

All this fruitless shopping has brought me great inspiration to sew my own clothing. I’ve been sewing on and off since an early age, but consider myself no more than intermediate in terms of skill level. I’m finally getting the hang of fitting, but I’ve never lined a garment. I have installed zippers somewhat successfully. But I try and avoid them at all costs. I’m still learning which styles look good on me.

This, I’m thinking:

I’ve been sewing clothes from vintage patterns for the last few years. Because I’ve only more recently been learning fitting techniques, I’ve especially enjoyed making sleepwear, which doesn’t require such a precise fit. My favorite pajamas ever:

And, the last thing I made from a vintage pattern, a nightgown from the 40’s:

I have quite a large collection of vintage patterns and I am obsessed with vintage sewing machines and their attachments. Currently, I’m working on sewing a 1940’s dress pattern. I look forward to sharing the results with you soon.

Current project:

Thanks to the founders here for allowing me to participate. I look forward to sharing the new wardrobe that I’m planning on making for myself. Many, many dresses. Oh, and if you’d like, you can see more of my sewing and craft projects on my blog here.

More soon!

Emily

Life on Mars

Darn Cheap Fabrics have deluxe quilting cotton for $7.50 rather than $25 a metre. Sure, you have to sift through some ghastly prints, but this art nouveau paisley set my heart a-racing. Good thing I bought nearly 3 metres because this shirt - in particular its gargantuan sleeves - used up all of it.

Hard to see here but the points on the collar are extreme. I did a bit of adjusting - added significant length to the body and sleeves and curved the bottom hem up at the hips. It might not be true to the era but it was too blocky on me when straight across.

Topped with some lovely rust-coloured shank buttons from the Buttonmania sale stash and worn with one of my awesome 70s polyester ties, it was the perfect thing for my last day in a unloved office job where most people dress to blend in.

The verdict? "You look like you're on an exchange program from Life on Mars."

AWESOME.







(Also, I just have to gloat a little bit. If you click on the photo of the shirt without the tie to embiggen it, check out how the pattern matches. She shoots, she SCORES!)