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.)

Weekend Blouse

I made myself a blouse the other weekend in between soccer games and a zillion other things. Lucky thing it was an easy pattern. This one is Simplicity 7896 from 1977 - I almost de-stashed it but changed my mind at the last minute. I love the Forties-inspired styling and the cuffed sleeves and especially the shoulder gathers (I have a thing for shoulder gathers). The fabric was a lucky find in the quilting section at JoAnn's - or maybe a not so lucky find as there was only a bit left on the bolt. Vintage buttons from my neverending stash and I didn't have to buy a thing.

This blouse came together really quickly. The only problem I ran into - and this is something I've noticed with 1970s patterns - is that it was a lot less 'fitted' in real life than the pattern envelope. With the tropical print I thought it looked really 'camp-shirty' so I took the sides in. Next time I will alter the pattern pieces before I sew it again. I didn't have enough of the print to do the tie collar so I raided my stash for some cream colored Kona. I like the contrast but it's a bit too stiff to tie in a bow like on the pattern envelope without looking clown-like. Next time I will try this pattern in a nice limp silky print.

(I really need a better place to take photos besides my bathroom.)

Skirt Mod

Hi, it's Nadia from Nadia's Crafting Adventures, reporting in on my sewing progress.


happy Nadia in a new skirt

I made this wrap around skirt from Simplicity pattern 7876, from 1977. The pattern was very simple, as the skirt was cut from one pattern piece and the waistband is just three rectangles. The hardest part about this skirt was hemming the curved hem, but I made life easy and used a hemming foot. It tucks the fabric twice and then it gets sewn. Easy peasy! Visible hem, but a sturdy one -- perfect for sportswear like this.

For fabric, I used a woven polyester, bought new. It hangs well and is very light and drapey. Great for throwing in the washing machine after a picnic in the park.


chopped skirt!

My blog readers and I thought that the hem cut my legs in an unflattering place, the widest part of my calf, so I decided to hack it up to midknee.


new skirt length

Here is the skirt in its new length. I like it more in its new length and I wear it more often.

This mod has made me look at all my vintage patterns in a new light; if one little cut made this a whole new skirt, what else could could be modernized?

Take a look in your pattern stash -- there could be something that could get a whole new life by taking off a bow, adding a belt, altering sleeve length, changing the neckline, etc, etc.