1940's Blouse Finished!

The 1940's blouse I have been working on this month from the DuBarry 5327 Pattern (1942) is finished!

I chose to view 2A in a nice flower pattern with fabric I had picked up at a JoAnn's fabric store on the Oregon Coast.

Despite being an unprinted pattern, I found all the directions and actual construction to be fairly easy.  This was a lot of 'firsts' for me: first unprinted pattern, first pleats, first gathers, first buttonholes, first covered buttons, first hem, and my first set-in sleeves.  I definitely plan on using this pattern again and again!

The sleeves have these great little pleats on them:

There are pleats at the bottom front and back which makes it super easy to tuck this blouse into pants or a skirt.  The pleats on the back also give a bit of a pouffy look to the back which I think is great:

 And I covered the buttons in the front with the same fabric:

Check out more at my blog.  Ah, I love it!!  Now I feel inspired to make a 1940's skirt in a matching color (purple??)

1958 dirndl skirt

I was having one of those "I have nothing cute to wear" days today, so I decided to make a new skirt to go with a sweater that I got for Christmas.  I dug out this 1958 Simplicity playsuit pattern and some vintage plaid that I bought at an estate sale, and a few hours later... ta-da!  I have cute skirtage!  Woohoo!

This was by far one of the easiest garments that I have ever made.  There isn't even a zipper or hooks - just one button and the opening is cleverly hidden in the pleats.  I usually don't wear skirts that are this full, but this thing was so fast and stress-free to make that I'm a complete dirndl convert now!

YET ANOTHER WALKAWAY DRESS...

I have to say a BIG Thank You to all that suggested sewing a size smaller than your measurements suggest. I think I would have hated this dress otherwise.

It was so easy to put together, I made a small alteration to the centre front by using 'hook and eye closure tape' instead of 'snaps', and it works a treat!

More on my blog.

Have a lovely New Year....

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Hope you have a blessed Christmas as we celebrate our risen Savior!

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

Trudy

and

Emily

Festive Vintage Pattern Giveaway!!!

Hi retro sewers! I recently went more than a little crazy on ebay, the result of which being that I now own far more vintage patterns than I can justify. Seeing as it's the season of goodwill, I thought I'd offer up a couple of dress patterns that are similar to ones I already own in a little festive giveaway on my blog.

The Butterick is Bust 34" and the Maudella is 36", but I'm giving them away together free of charge to anywhere in the world. The envelop of one is a little tatty, but both patterns and sets of instructions seem to be complete and in good condition. If you fancy them, just visit my blog and leave your name and some way for me to contact you in the comments section of the giveaway post before 9pm UK time on 27th December, when I will pick one name at random.

Happy festive sewing everyone!

Zoe x

little black jacket

Simplicity 6027's promise was quick and easy.

It was completly true and turns in a great success.

I wear almost every day my little black jacket!

I used a black technical fabric ( laine polaire?)

(PS: yes, the tree's sketch is one of mines)

Lathelize

Christmas Pyjamas - Coordinating

Next up we have a matching set. I'm making two coordinating pyjama sets for the kids this year because after a once-in-a-lifetime barter last year for some fresh-off-the-bolt bona fide vintage Christmas fabric (in exchange for vintage ric rac, of course) I knew I had to make pyjamas to wear during the Christmas Season this year (and not just the ones for giving on Christmas Eve like our normal tradition.

Vintage Simplicity 3503 size 4 increased in width to size 5-6.

This is the same vintage nightgown pattern I used before, and the same young boys pajama set pattern I have used in years past as well.

This is the first time I've been able to try this style on her because, as you know, the Christmas Eve pyjamas with the gingerbread fabric are a surprise. I am LOVING this pattern and the way it fits - the tie in the back... it makes me swoon. It was a size 4 that I lengthened and widened to be a size 6.

This is actually a picture of SweetPea telling her brother, "don't you dare shoot me with that nerf gun!!!" but we'll pretend it is a lovely side angle of the nightgown.

The green buttons as well as the green cotton ric rac are vintage.

I made the green piping using my zipper foot attachment.

OH! I nearly forgot to mention that I fully-lined both garments with flannel. The flannel adds a nice weight to a lightweight woven and much-needed warmth for this time of year. SweetPea's was lined with white flannel and Cowboy's was lined with green flannel.

Free!!-Vintage Knitting Patterns

the pattern is at my blog www.littlethistles.blogspot.com

I can't knit. I really just can't...but I have a few vintage knitting patterns that I'd be willing to share so I don't feel guilty for owning them when i can't even make them!

i thought these were some classic ones.

and i have a mitten,scarf,beanie set to if anyone was interested.

p.s I have this one on my blog if you'd like it (just the hat, mittens and scarf)
Allison.

first of many

Hello,
I am Isabelle, 32, living and working in France. I have a blog for 4 years (and a son for 2 years!) http://dessinsadessein.hautetfort.com
I posted for a long time only sketches and paintings. For few months, I post also about sewings stuffs.
I used to sew exclusively japanese. Then I bought few vintage patterns on Etsy almost because I am petite (size 8, bust 31). And I had a lot of fun with my vintage patterns ! So I bought few others and few others...
I am looking for vintage patterns in France, in thrift store or flea markets and I hardly find one.
I am very happy to join Sew retro !

Simplicity 7005

Hi everyone! I've just finished my 1967 dress from this pattern and I must say I'm quite happy with the result! You can see more on my blog.

White Christmas Ball Dress

Merry Christmas everyone! I finished my ball dress for the Swing Sesh White Christmas Ball. The Swing Sesh is my swing dancing school, and it was a night full of big band jazz, pretty white dresses and dapper gentlemen (mostly in white!). This was my effort, based on McCalls 5036, from 1959. The pattern called for a lace overlay over the yoke but I adapted it into a strapless gown with a boned bodice instead.

The fabric is from Ikea! A sturdy drill, I embellished the bodice with beaded stars to make it a bit more dressy. After my debacle with the Brown Birds dress, this one is sturdy enough to last for another 50 years!

I also covered a pair of plastic wedges in the fabric to make matching shoes! It was my first time covering shoes and I was really happy with the result.

There are many more pictures on my blog, Whipstitch Sewing.

intro and princess coat!

Hi! I'm Sarah, I blog over at colorkitten.com and I've been following Sew Retro for some time now! I love seeing everyone's projects and the things everyone does to adapt vintage patterns.

I have been sewing for ages but haven't sewn from vintage in a while. (Even though I have collected loads of vintage patterns over the years!) This year I decided that if I wanted to keep them, I had to start using them! And here's the first project I have finished up:




It's from this 1955 Butterick pattern (view B):



I would normally not have attempted such a tough pattern for a 4-year old who's going to grow out of it quickly, but my daughter is firmly anti-jacket and we live in NY so...she really needs to wear a coat! I thought that if I let her have some input maybe she'd wear the result, and she wanted a red coat that "looked like a dress". I assembled some patterns, and this is what she picked out. Gulp! It was hard going but the results were worth it -- and the project was a success! She loves it and I think she's actually going to wear it all winter. For the most part, I followed the original instructions (down to putting in mini shoulder pads) but one thing I did differently was to heavily interface the skirt part of the coat, since it's actually designed to be worn over full skirts and petticoats which would have helped hold it out a lot. It helps a lot, although, when the coat actually is worn over a full-skirted dress and petticoat it looks amazing:



If you want to know more about the pattern and coat, you can read my blog entry, see more photos on flickr and check out the write up I did on Pattern Review!

I look forward to working through my vintage pattern collection and sharing the results!

♥ Sarah

Introduction...

Hi! My name is Monique and I am Original Mischief. I live in Australia (proud Aussie) but am moving to Wisconsin in approx. June 2010 to be married. I met my lovely man on ebay of all places! He was selling vintage fabric... I was buying vintage fabric. We started chatting and here we are!

I have been collecting vintage fabric for about 10 years. I started collecting barkcloth from the 50's to the 70's, then polished cotton and have been collecting vintage terry cloth for the past year or so. I have in excess of 200+ terry cloths... none the same. I just adore the feel of them. It takes me back to my childhood of the 60s and 70s.

Anyway, I have an addiction to retro clothing and enjoy finding and making clothing from vintage hippie patterns. I love bell sleeves, I love mutton sleeves, I love bell bottoms!

If you get a moment, please have a look at my flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/originalmischief) - I've uploaded about a third of my terry cloths. I have to find the time to upload the rest.

My blog is http://originalmischief.blogspot.com. All welcome.

Monique ♥

Introduction

I'm Jane, "retired" engineer and mom to four, who blogs over at Maiden Jane.  I grew up with a love of working with my hands.  Although my mom didn't sew, she fostered my love of crafts by giving me many kits.  My husband bought me a machine when our first child was born 17 years ago and, since then, I've stitched many miles on that machine! 

I've always loved traditional styles.  When my kids were little I enjoyed smocking.  Now my kids are 10, 13, 16, and 17.  (Yes, with three teenagers in the house I have a few gray hairs!)  I enjoy sewing totes, accessories, t-shirt quilts for high school graduates, and dresses for my daughters.  My 16 year old plays piano for a youth chorus and has many opportunities to perform at various venues.  For her "big shows" (Christmas and spring) at the downtown theater I make her a dress.  I posted about all the dresses I made her the past three years here.

My favorite dress was made using a Butterick 4919 Retro '52 pattern.

I look forward to being inspired by all of you!

5 Patterns to Give Away

Hi Everyone,
While in college I discovered the beauty of the fit, detail, and workmanship common to clothing before I was born (I won't say what year!). I've been slowly working on a pattern line up of vintage and retro inspired sewing patterns for quite a few years now, mostly as a hobby, my husband would point out. They were first for sale under the name Nostagic, but the name didn't work out so well. The real point of this post is to let you know that I have 5 patterns of this style I call Mrytlewood, with the Nostalgic name that I'd like to find a good home for. The inspiration for this dress was a style with a similar hip sash I saw in a 1949 Vogue Magazine. It comes in sizes 6-18 (34-45 inch bust). I'm offering them as a giveaway, and all you have to do to enter is become a follower of my blog so I have a way of contacting you. I'll pay shipping, even internationally. The giveaway is open until January 1, 2010. http://www.sewchicpatterns.blogspot.com/

My first ever apron!

A success, I think, and the first of many more aprons:

A little more commentary here....

chinese frog closures

Greetings Sew Retro-ers! 

A couple months I made this dress, and I tied the frog buttons to boot. I know I can't be the only one out there who finds the available closures limiting. Too big, too small, wrong color, cheap shiny look, it makes sense to learn to knot them yourself. I put together a tutorial so anyone wanting to perfectly finish their Mandarin collar, cheongsam, or qipau, can do so with out going crazy trying to figure out how to tie them. 

My mom says she had a book that explained how to tie them. Where are those books now? I searched everywhere and had difficulty finding decent instructions. I don't know how many test frogs I made before I got them sorted out, but hopefully these instructions will save others that frustration. Happy Frogging!

The Dino Blouse

I've made this blouse before (Simplicity 5030), but I've had this fabric sitting in my stash for a while before I finally figured out what to do with it. It was always really quite a cool print, but I only had about a yard, maybe a little bit more. At the time, I was mostly making dresses, but that was out of the question. Finally it occurred to me; a blouse - a dinosaur blouse.

Finding the buttons was a bit of trouble (why do they only seem to make one kind of dinosaur buttons?), but I think it ended up turning out well. A flattering Peter Pan collar, sleeves a bit long but that can be fixed.

More photos at The Year 2050.

The Sad Tale of the Brown Bird Dress:

Or, in which we learn the dangers of falling in love with vintage fabric.

I just finished this dress from a vintage 60's pattern (Simplicity 6194), a really basic a-line dress to show off the lovely brown bird 70's fabric I found in an op-shop. I loved this fabric so much, but it was so fragile I probably can't wear the dress again or it will rip all the way down the back!

The worst thing is, I only noticed this when I had almost finished the dress. :(

More pictures + sad story (with a hopeful ending!) on my blog, Whipstitch Sewing

xo

Little Girl's Red Corduroy Christmas Coatdress

SweetPea's Christmas Dress is from a vintage Hollywood Pattern and has a Coat Dress style. While I don't think there will be a "next time" for constructing with this particular pattern, I would *highly* recommend a muslin first should the opportunity present itself again. Thankfully, I was very careful with the modifications so the corduroy wale was not affected.

Pattern calls for *optional* shoulder pads which I was not planning on sewing. However, after the first fitting, the dress just did not hang quite right. When I added the shoulder pads the drape was much, much nicer.

Buttons are vintage and the white ones reminded me of little snowflakes.
The white ric rac trim was an afterthought, but proved right away to be just the right touch. The little green button was a loner I had in my stash - a most perfect shade of jade-ite green. Now if I could only convince my son that he needs a vintage jade-ite green button tie tack to go with his matching necktie!

My first vintage sewing project EVER...

Hi everyone.  I am very excited to have found Sew Retro and love reading about all of the great sewing projects everyone is doing!  I am very new to vintage sewing (or any sewing for that matter) and decided to start with a pattern that said "simple to make". It is Simplicity pattern 2756 for a one piece dress. I chose the version that has a detachable collar and cuff (the one on the right).

I decided to make 4 different collar and cuff combinations (I know, I just jump right in...). I am very happy to say that I just finished (well, almost...I still need to do the hem) the first version which has a mustard colour collar and cuff.

Check out the other collar/cuffs for this dress and my other sewing adventures at my blog www.fashionsfromthepast.blogspot.com

Hi all!

I'm Karin, a long time seamstress (though I had a LONG break during my first years at work), recently turned vintage-pattern-and sewing-addict. Thank you so much for inviting me to join Sew-Retro!

Other than being a sewing enthusiast and lover of pretty and old things I'm Swedish, live in Stockholm, and spend my days working as a landscape architect. Oh, and I'm addicted to fresh air, and love sailing, so in the summer I spend most of the weekends on the race-corse (sail-racing that is), if I get the chance. But I hope for more time to sew next summer.

My first piece of vintage sewing is this blouse, Mc Call 6520, from 1946. I made it in a very cheap but good quality cotton remnant. It took me a week of enthusiastic weekend- and evening (nighttime too) sewing, although it was quite a simple project.

There are eight darts around the waist, and the cuffs were a challenge for me (I was helped by "The Complete Book of Sewing" by Linda Gibson, I love all my sewing-technique bibles!).It's always a treat to learn new things though. And I'm happy with the result!

The pattern was really easy to work with, and the instructions (except for the cuffs) were clear and helpful. This was a printed pattern, which surprised me a bit (considering it's so old). And I actually made it without copying the pattern first, which for me feels like cheating. But the pattern was in really good condition, so I decided it was ok.

More about this (and future) projects in my blog Ancien-Nouveau (I love Art Nouveu and intend to make loads of modern clothes using antique patterns, preferably from the 1930's, hence the name. And I love wordgames!).
Hope to see a lot more of you all in the future.
Now I'm on to a 1930's dress (my first project using an unprinted pattern)!

hello all!

Hi there retro sewers! I'm Christine from San Antonio, Texas, thanks for welcoming me to the site! I've been snooping around for a while now and I am really impressed with all of the wonderful things y'all have made! I have been sewing for years now, and have recently began collecting vintage patterns, I currently have about a thousand ranging from the 1930's to current times. Some are reproductions but most are the real deals! All of my clothing I make is from 100% recycled and reused materials:

"i used to be a curtain"

"i used to be a pillow case"

"i used to be 2 old t shirts"
You get the picture... Mostly I just use old linens for fabric, but my threads, buttons, zippers- EVERYTHING is rescued! Nothing new... usually.

You can check out my new blog or my new etsy store... more to come on both! I look forward to future posts, and if anyone is in the area and needs a sewing buddy, I'm your girl!