"Dreams Lavender" Dress

   Hello everybody!! I wanted to share with you my latest project, it´s a dress called "Lavender Dreams" , this dress is part of a triligy that shares the same design of lavender, the dress has a collar hand painted by me and then embroidered to highlight the picture.
  The other two pieces of this outfit are the tights also hand painted by me and the little hat that is also made by me. If you want to make any of those twon things, in my blog there are tutorials to make both. 
  Although the pattern of this dress isn´t vintage, (It´s a Burdastyle pattern) I think the look achieved her could pass for vintage , however.
   All details and tutorials, as well as close-up pictures on my blog,   Sewingadicta

Introduction to Sorbetsurprise

I have just joined Sew Retro which I think is a fab blog and I just love browsing through the vintage patterns, vintage fabrics, vintage inspired outfits etc!  A little about me, I live in Wales and enjoy spending time sewing, dressmaking and generally collecting patterns.  I prefer to sew dresses more then any other garment and enjoy using vintage patterns and adding my own modern twist. 

So here are a few examples of my retro work so far:

1950's Vogue Pattern

Pretty pink cotton slub and floral buttons, I made this for my halfway-to-50 party last year and it is a firm favourite. 

1975 Style Pattern

My most recent retro dress with cute puff sleeves and ribbon wasitband.

Simplicity 3780  a reissue of a 1950's pattern

I love this dress!  I made it for my sister for Christmas and I think I will have to make myself one too.  I am currently working on Vogue 2960, another vintage reissue.  If you want to see more please visit my blog
 Sorbetsurprise xx

So Vintage It's Historic

O.k.  I became enamoured with Truly Victorian patterns (www.trulyvictorian.com) and after two weeks of work I have an outfit so vintage it's historic.  It's not completely finished yet and I apologize for the picture quality but you get the idea of the outfit.  It is made of silk dupioni in two colors, with plans to add a knife pleated ruffle around the hem of the dress and single fold bias trim to the tails of the bodice as seen on the collar and cuffs.  The patterns came from the "early bustle" era which started to show up as early as 1865 and really took off in the late 60's and early 70's.  The crinoline began to develop a "bump" in the back but still retain the hoop at the bottom.  that is what you see here.  Pattern numbers are TV405 Vest Basque Bodice and the Grand Parlor Skirt.  These are placed over TV 108 Grand Bustle for the crinoline portion of the dress.  My underwear were made from Laughing Moon's Women's Underwear pattern, using the Chemise and Silverado Corset.
The skirt went together like a dream and I finshed ALL seams with a flat fell.  The bodice was alot of work but well worth the effort with the only trouble being getting the arms in correctly.  The bodice is lined in a blue broadcloath and the silk is flatlined with white muslin.  The fit was fantastic, all I had to adjust on this pattern was the width of the arms and a little fullness out of the bust.  And wha-la.
Check out my blog to see more pics. www.thefadedstitch.blogspot.com

Summer Holiday Dress!

I made this dress a few weeks back from some incredible vintage fabric I'd had stashed for longer than I can remember. I'm so grateful to my former-self that I didn't go crazy with the scissors, as I'm so happy with how this dress turned out, I can't imagine I would have done it justice previously.

I'm obsessed with late 1950's/early 1960's styles, but despite my ever-expanding collection of vintage patterns, nothing quite seemed to fit the bill. So I hashed together the pattern for this by adapting and frankensteining elements of some newer patterns, which thankfully worked well with a bit of tweeking.

I decided upon wide shoulder straps so I could wear a normal bra without the straps on show and ruining the effect. I also added a contrast red ruffle detail to make the whole thing pop a little bit more.

Check that fabric!!!! Don't you just want to be hanging out at that little bar there?! I know I do. Hanging out in an inferior bar in this dress will have to suffice instead.

For full details on this creations, check out my blog post.

Many thanks for all the inspiration you all give me, happy (retro) sewing!

Zoe xxx

Cap Sleeve Dress, 1940s inspired, self-drafted

I drafted this dress pattern recently based on 1940s dress patterns that I've seen. More information can be found on my blog.

Sixties Styles This Summer

Here are some of the dresses I've made from 1960's patterns and blogged about lately.

Simplicity 7120

Simplicity 6634 from 1966

Simplicity 7075 from 1967

All of them were very easy to make.  The only consistent change I made to the patterns was to lower the waist dart and bust dart tips by about half an inch to an inch  -- those 60's styles had some high dart points!

They're all a bit different from my usual style since I hardly ever use prints, but I'm really enjoying all of them.  The slightly fitted skimming style has been very comfortable this hot summer.

"Summer Sky Dress"

  Hi, loved sewing, I just wanted to show you the last dress I sewed, it isn´t made from a vintage pattern, I made alterations in a current pattern to get this dress, but the look is full of 50s fashion, if you curious to know more and see more pictures of it, please visit here .... your suggestions are greatly appreciated.

McCall's 3646, circa 1950s

+ + +

Pattern used:




I recently finished McCall's 3546 last week. More details can be found on my blog.

Butterick 6287, circa 1970s

I finished this 1970s Stevie Nicks inspired dress over the weekend. More details can be found on my blog.

The Tulip Dress: 1940s meets modern

I recently finished this dress. The bodice is self-drafted and the skirt is from a 1940s pattern, Simplicity 4254. More details can be found on my blog.

Vanilla Layer Cake Dress, 1950s inspired

I recently finished this self-drafted 1950s inspired dress. More information can be found on my blog.

Question about hip bands

Hello fellow retro sewers!

I have a little question for you. I'm making a dress for which I don't really have a pattern. I'm using another pattern as a basis and modifying it. It's a drop waist dress and I was thinking of adding a hip band, as seen for example on this pattern (Advance 7043):

The thing is that I don't have at home any pattern with such detail, so I'm not sure how it's made.
It seems most of the time it's a straight band cut in the bias, but not always. And from looking at the pictures, it doesn't look like it's attached to the bust at the top. I was thinking maybe it's just sewn at the waistline at the same time as the skirt... But then if the seam allowance it going upward at the waisline, I would think the band would fall down if it's not held in place at the top.

I was wondering whether maybe someone had done this before or had a pattern including a hip band, and could scan the instructions or describe how it's made. That would be really helpful!

Thank you for reading and have a nice day!

~Lholy-chan from Amelie no mori~

McCalls 6997 - in seersucker!

I finished a summery dress in seersucker this week.  I used this 1994 McCalls pattern, which has a very 1994 look to it.  I thought it had real potential for a comfy, cute summer dress!

There are more photos on my blog!

Hi! The Sookie dress

Hi everyone! This is my first Sew Retro post. I am a fairly beginner sewer, I have been sewing for about 6 months now. I sew clothes for me and occasionally friends (though they have to be very patient as it takes me a long time to finish things!). I have a blog over at http://monkeysockslearnstosew.blogspot.com/.

Sew Retro was one of the first blogs I found when I started looking, and I was so inspired I immediately went and bought loads of vintage patterns off ebay, even though I was pretty much incapable of sewing them at the time! I can safely say that I have never had much difficulty sewing them, even the unprinted ones, the main problem is generally my need to alter them all to fit me. sigh.

After a couple of variable results, I finally got round to sewing the sort of dress that I wanted to learn how to sew in order to make-a 60s super fitted shift dress. I was inspired by the weekly challenge on Sew Weekly, to base something on a television character, and, as it was suddenly very summery, I went for a flowery sundress inspired by Sookie on Trueblood.

I used Butterick 2434, which is a fitted jumper (not sure what exact year) and made view c.

I had to alter it a bit with a slightly bodged FBA (eventually just fiddling about with my dressform) but overall it came out quite like the picture and worked very well.

Here is me posing in a graveyard for full vampire effect (except that it was a very sunny and cheerful graveyard!). I think its one of my favourite things I have ever made! More details on my blog.

50s Day Dress

Hi retro-lovers! I've been enjoying all your creations so much, time for me to add one of my own into the mix. I recently made this dress from a 1963 McCalls pattern, don't know about you but I think it's got more of a late 1950s vibe, which is why I refer to it as my 50s day dress (I hope to make that plural some day soon!).


I was lucky enough to come across this fabric at work which fits with the era of the pattern pretty well. It's such a sweet ditsy design. I've gone into more detail about this pattern, including this interesting under-arm stabilising/finishing technique that the pattern instructions (which I rarely follow!) suggested in this blog post.


I'm gearing myself up to making a full gathered skirt 50s style dress, but this four-gored skirt is full enough to push my comfort zone, and actually wearing it feels really nice. I'm usually more of a wiggle dress girl, but I find they are a bit sexy for day wear, or at least the kind of days I tend to have!


Forgive the flipflops, vintage fiends! Keep it creative,

Zoe xxx

Vogue 9523

I finished a really lovely 1950s sundress yesterday!

Here's the pattern photo:

I did change the skirt to a gathered one. More photos and info at my blog!

Mother's Day Dress

My newly purged and re-organized sewing area has me feeling even more motivated to sew! I was struck with inspiration while in the shower yesterday (because that's where it always hits) and decided to take a day off from doll sewing and make something for myself. Everything I needed I already had in my stash:

Awesome fabric found among the fugly "silkies" at JoAnns + Simplicity 3708 from 1951 + vintage Luckyday buttons ("the talk of the town!") + Sewing Made Easy by Mary Roach for buttonhole advice and general encouragement.

I started cutting it out yesterday morning, and now it's DONE BABY DONE and it's not even lunchtime. Here I am trying to look haughty like the pattern ladies despite modeling it in my bathroom:

It darn near killed me to leave off the pockets when this pattern has such awesome ones, but the fabric doesn't have enough 'body' and I tend to overload my pockets (I have three kids) - they would probably sag and pull and ruin the nice lovely lines of the skirt. If I try this again in a nice firm cotton woven (hint: definitely) the pockets are a given.

Bound buttonholes!

This was a dress of 'firsts': first time doing bound buttonholes, first side zipper, first time machine-sewing an invisible zipper (the one on Betsy's dress was done by hand), first time putting in a zipper without crying. Like most Fifties dresses this pattern called for a self fabric belt, and while I have a huge stash of vintage belt kits, I decided to cheat and sew some red grosgrain over the waist seam (I also have a huge ribbon stash due to the doll sewing thing). It was quick and easy, and I love the little bow at the side.

Where is the zipper, anyway? It must be invisible! I am never going back to regular zips. And I can't wait to wear this dress to church on Mother's Day with red heels and some killer red lipstick.

Vintage inspired Mad Men Dress

Hi everyone! Here is a dress that can't really be classed as vintage, but is vintage inspired (does that count?). I also used some vintage fabric, which I posted about here

The dress was made for a Mad Men themed party, and I think it's something that Joanie would be proud of. It was also my first go at 'frankensteining' patterns together to create one whole outfit. You can read the full story and see pictures here at Curves, Patterns, and Pins! Reana Louise xo

McCall's 3996, view C

First I would like to explain why this outfit and why this fabric? I went to an ASG (Australian Sewing Guild) meeting and ladies may take in scraps of fabric they don't want but are too big to throw and then someone else may take it and bring back what they have made for sow and tell. So the top half of this dress was some fabric I picked up. I just love the pattern and colour and knew right a way what I could do with it. The bottom half is a simple white linen I brought.

I am pleased to say the top fits very well but less pleased with the fitted skirt, it pulls tight across the front thighs and lower bottom. While this did not happen in the fitting I can only guess I moved something between there and the sewing machine. There is little I can do as I can not let the seams out anymore. And don't worry the black belt will be replaced by a brown one when I find one, it just works better they the thin brown belt I have now.

If your after an easy retro / vintage dress then may I suggest this one. More bits and buttons over at

Atomic Mum. Lovely sewing everyone.

Spring Daffodil Dress

Last week, I felt inspired to sew a new dress. I didn't want this one to take a million years (like it usually does...I am still learning, and I have a one year old!), I just wanted to sew it up, sew it up right, and have it done before it became tiresome. Well, I finished most of it in two days, and then I spent a couple more slowly putting on the touches that I like. The dress was spring inspired, and it is spring-y. It is a daffodil dress.

I made it using Simplicity 4491.

More about sewing it up using thrifted materials on my blog, Farmhouse Garden.