Mod Alteration Project: From Crew Neck to Peter Pan

I took a boring crew neck shirt that I bought at a store and converted it into a peter pan collar shirt with french cuffs. I used a 1972 dress pattern for the collar/cuff pieces.


You can read more at Sew Sixties.

Happy sewing,
Astrid

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.

Faux Retro

The pattern for this jacket is not vintage, but it has very vintage lines, and was partially inspired by Livebird's post on here a week or so ago, so I thought I'd post it. I'd been waffling back and forth over whether to make the band collar view or the peter pan collar view, and the contrast collar on her so-cute dress decided me.

The jacket is made of black fleece with the contrast collar done in a grey and black houndstooth flannel that was left over from a jumper that I made in October (details on that are here, if you are interested). The pockets are also lined in the flannel, and the front is edged in it. that was a "design element" that I had to come up with on the spur of the moment when I realized that I'd messed up the facing. I made this jacket unlined when it is designed to be lined, and I didn't realize the full ramifications of that. Overall I'm not so happy with the way it turned out, but it's really only a wearable muslin for a planned version of the jacket in corduroy lined with minky.

I lengthened the sleeves a bit, as I actually wear jackets to keep warm, and thus the 3/4 sleeve jacket just doesn't make sense to me. Together, the flannel jumper and the jacket make a very cozy winter ensemble.

The best part to me is the buttons, which I got at a local fabric store. They're giant pound symbols.