Simplicity 7885 (1977): Batik dress and zipper fail

This latest sewing adventure actually started years ago with a piece of fabric that my father brought home to me from Indonesia:

Four yards of authentic, hand-painted, batik, in black, white, and burgundy, decorated with exotic flowers and large birds (Garuda, maybe?).

Obviously, this is the kind of thing that you don't want to mess up because it's not like you can run down to Hobby Lobby and get a couple more yards, right? I had to save it for the right pattern.

I finally settled on Simplicity 7885 (1977), which had a vaguely Asian-inspired wrap top and a plain A-line skirt that wouldn't force me to cut the fabric up too much, obliterating the large-scale pattern.

The results, I swear, are better than this squinting-into-the-sun picture suggest. I don't know why my legs are foreshortened so much, either.

In the backyard of Houston's Beer Can House, which seems to make an excellent alt-fashion photo-shoot location.

That top absolutely needs a camisole. I placed the buttons as prescribed and it's still below the bra line. Granted, my taste in lingerie is very far from racy, but come on, people--this is day wear.

I almost destroyed the whole project in my efforts to improve on the skirt. I had to add side-seam pockets, of course, and I also decided to cut the front and back halves on the fold instead of piecing them in halves as the pattern required. If you do the math, you'll realize that that means I eliminated all four skirt seams. Doh!

I won't waste your time with it here, but I ended up fudging by topstitching the zipper in. You can see this bit of sewing abomination in the Flickr set. If my dad had come home a week later, I could have used Casey's zipper tutorial and not made such a has job of it.

(Luckily, the peplum covers the exposed zipper. I'm also ashamed to admit that my incorrectly-installed zipper went in faster, more easily, and with generally better results than any of my correctly-installed zippers ever has. I am zipper-challenged.)

Prairie Style, 1978: Butterick 6038, McCall's 5948, and dirndl skirt

Clearinghouse post on 1970's prairie style:

The first bit is Butterick 6038 (1978 or 1979), a casual blouse with a split neck, gathered front, collar, and side ties at the waist. I wasn't sure how I felt about this but I think it's growing on me. I'm notoriously fussy about fit and I was sort of afraid this just said, "boxy!", and possibly, "maternity!", but I don't really think now that it's that bad (and I'm trying to become less picky about fit). If I make it again, I'll trim down the tops of the sleeve caps, both to avoid having to gather them so much and to make the shoulder fit a little less awkward.

The fabric is Kona cotton in "Snow" which, ironically, is off-white. It's about the color of unbleached muslin but without the natural brown flecks (I wanted to use muslin but couldn't find any that was opaque enough to look decent). It's kind of stiff but it did behave beautifully, without any stretching or distortion.

6038 also looks cute with jeans.

I have no idea why I'm not smiling.

Here it is with an improvised dirndl skirt, which is not specifically retro but also not really not retro. This one was made of two yards of brown Indienne-style calico and uses this awesome half-elastic waistband tutorial.

I'm from Texas; I'm allowed to wear boots with everything. If it's not already in our state Constitution, it should be.

Here's 6038 again, but with McCall's 5948 (1978), which is full-blown Seventies prairie chic and not ashamed to say so.

The waist ties.

This pattern didn't include pockets, and I am morally opposed to clothing that doesn't have pockets, so I added some small patch pockets to the front, since the side inserts made side-seam pockets awkward.

I've been a busy little sewing bee

...the last few weeks. I've been completely MIA at my own blog because I was sewing like a mad fiend for the Pattern Review "Sewing For Children" contest. I've got three pieces left to make before the end of the month and then I'll heave a sigh of relief. In the mean time, I'll share with you what I've made thus far. Some of it is good. I can't seem to find any bad, but there is ONE fugly. But more on that later.
Let's begin!

Advance 8932
a jumper and blouse pattern.

This is a size 8 or 10, if I recall correctly and hails from the late 50s. I only made the jumper since my childrens' school requires *polo* shirts. Even for girls. Which is better than the button down oxfords *I* had to wear. But I digress. The fabric is a polyester spandexy suiting from Joann's. It was red tag fabric that I picked up for ~$2/yard. WINNING!!!

You can see the pattern envelope here, if you like.

Simplicity 8769
1970

PantDress without skirt

From there, I branched out into some super 70s awesomeness, also known as the "pantdress". Simplicity 8769 from 1970 was the pattern du jour. I used quilting cotton for the outer, juvenile apparel for the skirt and a vintage bedsheet purloined from my nana's closet (with her permission, I promise!) for the lining. I wanted to fully line it because who wants raw edges in their hoo-ha?

I used the owl fabric for the reverse of the reversible skirt. Buttons were from my stash as was the zipper. W00T! for using up stuff in my stash!

Moving right along... We've hit the 60s and the 70s, lets aim for another decade...

Simplicity 4870

Helloooooo 1940s. Now there are some little girls who can't carry off all these frills and ruffles. And to be honest, they CAN look a little dated. Luckily for my little peanut, that's not the case.

For this seafoam green number, I used another one of nana's purloined vintage sheets for the dress and lining. The trim is vintage deadstock lace! How awesome is that? Vintage pattern? Check! Vintage fabric? Check! Vintage trim? Check! Vintage button for the neck closing? Check!

This dress also came with the matching doll dress pattern as well. I took some liberties with the doll dress because I'd pretty much run out of ruffled part (the top of the sheet) and I'm a lazy cuss. I'm NOT going to put as much effort into a doll dress as I am a dress for an actual child. So I cheated a bit.

Simplicity 9529

Since we're like, totally sewing our way through the decades, like fer sure, let's swing by the 80s. They called and they want Simplicity 9529 back. This was a fun pattern to sew. It was all like, totally, a flashback for me. I think I owned an outfit very similar to this as a kid.

The skirt portion and jacket are fully lined with the raspberry fabric to keep the totally rad purple Star Trek TNG fabric from scratching the skin. And yes, I DID have to refrain from singing Raspberry Beret whilst I was working on this one. The skirt and bodice are all sewn together to give the impression of a skirt/blouse. The belt is detachable (and currently lost!?!). This beauty is dry clean only. Someone smack me back into sanity so I don't ever do that again for a 9 year old. But really the fabric was JUST too awesome AND I bought it specifically for my purple lover AND it was all red tag fabric, so what's a girl to do? I just wanted to have fun with it...

Simplicity 2007

I feel like I'm missing a decade in here or something. Let's see, 80s.... Check. 70s.... Check. 60s.... Check. 40s.... Check. That's IT! I'm missing the 50s. Okay. Here we go kiddies, let's take a trip back to the Nifty Fifties!

This here is probably my second favoritest kids' outfit I've ever made in the history of ever. Check OUT the mad plaid matching skillz! Now I know that some people think matching plaid is of the debbil, but for me, it's like.... I don't know how to describe it. It just is one of the most soothing things to do. Which means I'm officially nuts. Or something.

This is my daughter's favoritest - even more than the purple - outfit I've made for her. What I love is that when sewing vintage patterns for her, she's a straight 7/8 and not a 10/12 like the RTW stuff you find in stores. She's freakishly short for her age (just like her mama!) so I've pretty much given up on RTW for this kid anyhow.

I especially love the side invisible zip and the back bow detail on this one. You just don't see stuff like this at the local Big Box Mart.

And now, for the pe-ayce de ray-zis-tahnce...

McCall's 4672
1942

McCall's 4672, overalls and jacket. I'm giving you the big version of the picture so you can really take in the details:

Self-covered "stealth" buttons that are matched to the pattern of the fabric so you just don't see them.
"Stealth" pocket on the jacket.
Chinese dragon that goes across the front from one leg to the other.
Fu Dogs that face each other on the jacket front.

Longevity symbol

overalls without jacket

How cool is THAT? Now that you've seen the good... Brace yourself for the fugly. Because, friends, it just ain't a pretty sight.

1962
Toddler Maternity Pattern?

Yeah. Not quite the result I was looking for. This one did not pass go, did not get entered into the contest. Why? Well, despite the awesome fabric, it just wasn't *right*. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And this was a BIG lose. Laura Petrie might have been able to carry this one off. Or even Lucy Ricardo as maternity wear. But even with dupioni silk(!) and awesome stretch check fabric that feels like taffeta, this outfit wouldn't make the grade. And the shame of it all is that THIS pattern is one that I really, really, really wanted to make up. I'm not even sure I'd resell it, it's so bad. Plus it's missing a couple of pieces.

***And might I say I REALLY hate Blogger's method for inserting photos into posts.

Simplicity 5377 (1972): Stashbuster smock

Well, OK--just a tiny part of my stash, but anything that uses up idle fabric helps, right?

The fabric I used for this was a cute white-on-red sprig print that, alas, had been wasted on some truly horrible cotton-polyester fabric. The kind of fabric that will never, ever, soften in the wash and will almost assuredly be around to mystify archaeologists in the year 3217. I'm incapable of throwing yardage away, though, so it had to get used for something; it just couldn't be used for something with which I might get emotionally involved.

Besides I had barely two yards, and you can't get that invested in just two yards of anything.

Enter Simplicity 5377 (1972), the smock. It's also hard to get that invested in smocks.

The sleeved version wanted 2 3/4 yards, and I was just over 3/4 yard short, so I made some thrifty changes.

1) Shortened the sleeves.
2) Used the smaller patch pockets from the bib apron pattern that was also included in the packet.
3) Sewed the back closed part-way, which allowed me to reduce the two-inch self-facing to a half-inch seam allowance. I left a split with a button and loop at the back of the neck, and I left the tails open for ease of movement around the hips (I have big hips).

I outlined everything in white bias binding, which is the seamstress' equivalent of tall white stockings on a horse. Everybody loves a horse with tall white stockings, just ask the Budweiser Clydesdales.

The front:

The back:

It looks terrible here; it actually looks really cute over jeans and loafers. If I had sewn the butt closed, it could be worn over leggings.