Fabrics used in the 1940's

I have translated, from Swedish, a list of fabrics used in the 1940's. The list notes drape, what the fabric was used for and mostly some extra information as well. I thought it may be of interest to any of you who sew forties fashion. It's in three parts and can be read on my blog;

Cotton, linen and man-made fabrics
Wool
Silk

catalog Sunday

This Sunday I have dust bowl fabrics and patterns from Wards 29/30. Enjoy!

My Very First Giveaway!

Hello all, I just thought I'd let you know that there's a great giveaway going on at my blog A Few Threads Loose.

The giveaway includes a lovely vintage pattern, a vintage edition of Work Basket Magazine from 1960, some great retro fabric, and some cute buttons to top it all off.
The pattern is really cool.  It's called a "Scoop Neck Skimmer" and it's printed by McCall's for mail order.  It's a size 10-12, Bust 31-32 and is uncut and in factory folds. (Don't you just love being the first person to use a pattern?)

Stop by and enter to win!
Happy Weekend!

A thrifty refashion.

I purchased this pillow case from a local charity shop a few months ago. I fell in love with the beautiful print and for 50c I thought it was a steal. I purchased it without knowing what I would actually use the fabric for.

Today inspiration struct, and within an hour I had made myself the perfect autumn skirt.

You can see more on my blog,

Sam xox

Gorgeous organic fabric giveaway

Hey everyone, there's a giveaway over at my blog to win 2 metres of lovely Cloud 9 or Birch Fabrics organic cotton if you're interested. Enter here!

Is fabric from 1984 vintage? Does that make me vintage?

Hi Sew Retro! My name is Rebecca and I'm new to the Sew Retro team.  I'm a 26 year old sewer and crafter, owner of the cutest dog Pearl, and am starting at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising to study Fashion Design in a few weeks.  I love vintage patterns and have collected quite a few.  Love vintage fabric too.  I guess my first post for Sew Retro will be about my new PJs!

I used baby Disney character fabric from 1984 to make PJs.  Is the fabric considered vintage yet? The pattern is new though.  I hope you like the fabric as much as I do.  I think its really silly.

Pardon the wrinkles. 

For more pictures, visit my blog at UglyCute Designs.  I also post about vintage finds, patterns, etc.  When I finally make up one of my awesome retro patterns, I'll be sure to share! Thanks!!

Fabric recommendation

I desperately want to make something out of this fabric - maybe a shirtdress like this.( teach typography and just love it!

Can anyone recommend the fabric weight that would work best (quilting, sateen or lawn?)- I usually buy by touch and like something with a bit of substance, not too drapey for my curves, not too silky and easy to sew.

Also thinking of cutting on the bias for a slight chevron look - pointing down on top and up on bottom. Perhaps it would be too busy.

Any opinions?

Decades of Style Pattern #3007

So far I've posted a few completed projects, to share my experience and elation at actually finishing. All your comments are super encouraging and help motivate me to jump in and complete another sewing project. What I haven't done yet is post simply to announce to someone other than myself my intentions for a new project, locking me into one of the many possible projects/patterns I have. I get so overwhelmed that I put off doing anything. So now with you all as an excuse, I can put all my patterns away but one. (*sigh of relief*)

Okay, here goes...my latest commitment is to make a dress from the Decades of Style pattern #3007, the 1930s button dress.

The plan is to complete it by September 12th for the Gatsby Picnic.

Based on past experience, this completion date is a bit ambitious, although I have a few days off work this month and the design seems pretty straight forward plus I've found the fabric - yay!

Fabric found at Peapod Fabrics, San Francisco

Locating fabric I like is so difficult, plus I'm not good (yet) at visualizing the fabric and the design together, but I'm feeling pretty good about this fabric. As soon as the pattern arrives, I'll get to work! I. will. finish. on. time. (Don't mind me as I repeat my aspiration a few times...I will finish on time. I will finish on time...) And I always love readers of my blog, so please come visit me some time!

A virtual vintage pattern trading post!

Yeehaw! I just discovered that there's a vintage pattern swapping group over on Flickr! It appears to be pretty inactive at the moment, but I say it's high time to start loading our patterns and get trading away, pardners. Got fabric in your stash that you know you won't use? There's a fabric swapping group over there as well. I've started putting stuff up on both -- if any of you want to join me, come on over!

Red, White and Blue Dress-to-Be

There's a new summer dress in the works, or rather there will be once I get this last batch of foster puppies out into new homes and then decide on a pattern! You can see the (current) contenders at shoesandpie but only you, dear SewRetro family, get to see the fabric in question. Ta-da!

Free fabric Friday

Hi everyone. In my march to de-stash I'm making Fridays the fabric giveaway days. So stop by and enter to win a chance to win one of three lovely cuts of fabric, each long enough to make apparel - at least a yard and half long, and the pink is 2.5 yards of 60" wide.






Next week the vintage pattern giveaways will resume. They're easier to store, but I do have boxes and boxes of patterns that I'll be keeping, so giving away a few dozen is no big deal.

Need some advice

Hi everyone! I posted over on my blog about two vintage patterns that I brought home from my mom's stash last night.

I'd like to combine them so I make the bodice out of McCall's 7208 and the straight skirt from McCall's 6767, 1963/64.

My mom drew little lines on the bodice of one of the models to show the chevron pattern because the pieces are cut on a bias. What would happen if I cut the skirt straight? I am afraid a straight skirt cut on the bias would make me look like a circus ride.

I have a striped cotton/silk blend fabric that I'd like to use and I think would be lovely for the bodice, but would vertical stripes (very tiny) for the skirt clash with the chevron on the bodice?

Thanks for any advice you can give me!

Retro Swimsuits for my Modern Figure?

I probably will never have an occasion to wear a glamorous swimsuit. For me, the only time I need to wear a swimsuit is if I'm kayaking, and even then I don't always wear a suit. Since I've gained my peri-menopausal spare tire with accompanying saddle bags, I don't even wear a suit without wearing shorts over it.

So when I look at swimwear, first of all, I don't look at anything like the sweet tropical print string bikini from Victoria's Secret that's sitting in the bottom drawer of my dresser. *sniff* Yes, I used to wear it. And it's a size 8. *sniff sniff*.

Having accepted that if I *should* ever have occasion to wear a suit that people might actually *see* me in, I choose to look at suits with more coverage. Like, a burkha... ok, just kidding. Here are some sweet vintage-inspired suits that I might consider wearing, once I lose about 25 pounds (to start).

And having said that, I cannot bring myself to pay what they're asking for these suits, so I'm considering sewing one for myself, but I definitely need some guidance from my more experienced seamstress friends out there. (see more about this at the end of the post...)

Popina's Retro Sadie One-Piece

modcloth's The Betty Swimsuit

modcloth's Some Like It Hot Bathing Suit

Anthropologie's En Pointe Bikini

Anthropologie's Nathalie One-Piece

Now here's a question for all you vintage sewing fanatics: If I wanted to make my own vintage suit, what fabrics would be period-appropriate and would drape well with the cuts? Ideas? Any resources you can point me to? Besides the wool suits I've seen from the 20's and 30's, I have no idea what kind of fabric was used. What did they make suits out of in the 40's and 50's, before there was lycra? Thanks for any tips you might have!

Happy New Year!

I have been going through all my stuff, sorting and sifting. Throwing out a lot of stuff which is a little tough for me - I'm a hoarder by nature but I am trying to change that. I have been cleaning out stuff since yesterday and now I'm in the mood for making something - specifically a mini-skirt. What better way to start the new year than with a new skirt? I am sure I have some of that turquoise zebra fabric left. Somewhere. I have been looking for it in my mountains of metres of fabric. I cannot find it. So, I also really want to stop adding to my fabric stash. I can picture this new skirt so perfectly. Where is that fabric????

NEXT!

Swooshy silk twill

Fine quilting cotton stripes

Beautiful thick polished stretch cotton twill. My favourite colours, ever.

Fine, dense vintage cotton (36" wide) begging for chevron cleverness

Sheer silk organza with teal cotton to line

So, I mentioned I like loud prints, right? Well, these are a few from the stash that are jostling to star in my next project. Thought I'd ask you SewRetro superstars what you reckon. What sort of frock do each of these fabrics suggest?

From the top, I'm thinking:

1. cowl-backed 60s sheath
2. shirtdress
3. no idea, I'm still in awe. I love this print.
4. definitely demands some wily playing around with the stripe
5. simple, simple frock. But then again, maybe some ruching on the bodice and full skirt.
   

Your thoughts?

Vintage Fabric - updated!

I have to share my experience of a few minutes ago. Soooo overwhelmed! I hope the topic of fabric is okay to post.

This morning on SF Gate.com I read about a newish vintage fabric store that turns out to be a 10 minute walk from my work. Since completing my two vintage pattern projects, I realised a big issue is finding great vintage or vintage-inspired fabric. Why toil over a great pattern if you can't find just the right fabric, right?! So I walked over to Columbus (170 Columbus to be exact) before grabbing some lunch and heading back to work.

There it was, the oddly named store, Urban Burp. I stepped in the door and what I saw practically brought tears to my eyes. I had trouble getting past the shelves near the front door. The owner, Electra, was amazing helpful. She said 95% of the fabric in the store is vintage and...and... Read more about her and her store at SF Gate and Apartment Therapy and Yelp.

Wow oh wow. Tonight I'm checking yardage on a few patterns and I'll be back!

Correction and website info:
Hello again. Quick correction and website info for those not in the Bay Area.

The store is actually called Urban Burp and they have a website where you can browse fabric and buy online!! http://www.urbanburp.com

Sorry for the misinformation :)

New jacket, new fabric!

I have the sewing bug!! After the success of my Simplicity 5398 pattern, I thought I would try a pattern a friend lent me months ago (about time!!) - Simplicity 1412;

At the moment I am totally obsessed with having amultitude of jackets so went for the little one in this pattern. Find out more about the pattern & finished product on my blog.

I'm not sure if I should make this or the Simplicity 5398 with the new fabric I bought either. Help me out guys!!!

Mystery Fabric

I'm about to show my utter lack of knowledge of fabrics.  I found this at a sale today.  Nice pink print on the front and on the back, almost like mole-skin.  I'm not sure what it is.  It's very thick but pliable.  Any suggestions?  

Fabric in New York?

I'm going to be in New York (mostly Manhattan and Brooklyn) for a weekend at the end of the month and I was wondering if anyone had tips on good places to score (hopefully cheap) fabric, vintage or not.

Thanks,
Jordan