Hi from Erica at Recycled Fashion

Hi everyone, I'm Erica, from Melbourne, Australia. I am delighted to be part of Sew Retro. I only started sewing last year, but now that I have started, I find it very addictive.

I have always been a fan of second hand and vintage fashion, which I write about on my blog Recycled Fashion. Sewing has opened the door to another world of fashion, and of course op-shopping, which now involves hunting through patterns and fabric, not just clothing racks.

I am also one of the editors of Refashion Co-op, a worldwide collaborative blog to showcase refashioned clothing projects and share techniques.

Two garments I have made using vintage patterns so far are..

1. 1960's dress using red floral thrift purchased fabric

Buttons

2. A top made out of fabric from a skirt I purchased from a garage sale for a dollar, using the top part of a maternity dress pattern purchased from savers.

The fabric pattern does not quite match at the front, but I did the best I could with the remaining material I had..

I am happy to be part of Sew Retro, you ladies are all very talented, and inspiring.

The 1966 Turnabout Dress

Happy New Year! It is very hot here in Melbourne, Australia at present, and I needed some airy frocks to keep myself cool while pregnant. I'm about 6 months pregnant now, so keeping cool is getting more and more difficult. I recently watched Rosemary's Baby again, and desperately wanted a tent dress, so I decided to sew 'The Turnabout Dress':

I used a checked Japanese cotton and finished with a lovely cool summer dress:

I love this dress. My blog has more pictures and details about my first time using a hong kong seam finish. Hope you're all having lovely holidays!

Gingham Maternity Top

This is the second completed maternity outfit I have made. The pattern is McCall's 6771 from 1963. In my last post I posted a picture of the pattern (along with the pants I made from the same pattern). Read a bit more on my blog: The Vintage Wife.

More Vintage Maternity Sewing

Recently Cedar posted her gorgeous vintage maternity smock and pants here on Sew Retro. It was stunning, and I felt very inspired, as I'm about 19 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and have just begun to sew up some vintage maternity clothing. Here is Simplicity 2554, from the 50's or 60's:

I'm wearing it with leggings here to go out for breakfast, but I also made the skirt from this 60's pattern to wear to work:

Vintage maternity patterns are so cute - and there is such a limited range of modern patterns for maternity, unless you have great pattern alteration skills, which I don't.

Visit my blog if you'd like to see more pics of these projects, and the rest of my maternity sewing!

Vintage Maternity

Hello all! I am currently about four months pregnant and have been stocking up on vintage maternity patterns the past few months, and working hard to get some outfits finished. This is the first. The top is McCall's 6576 from 1962 and the pants are McCall's 6771 from 1963.

Read more about it on my blog, The Vintage Wife.

Greetings from the Shirred Skirt Test Lab

Shirred Skirt Fabulousness from the 1949 Sears Catalog

In between muslining my Sencha blouse, schmoozing over falafel with the fabulous Bloggers and Blogettes (more on this later!), fighting off a nasty cold and decluttering the apartment for Cartoonist Baby, I've been working out the pattern-free pattern for my reversible shirred-waist full skirt:

This skirt is the foundation of my spring mini-wardrobe contest plans--like the no-elastic yoked knit skirts I've been making, it should be stretchy enough to accommodate the most pregnant of bellies, but will still work just fine post-maternity.

But, horrors! As you recall I hit a roadblock recently when I discovered that my purchased Burda shirred-yoke skirt pattern was a circle skirt that just Would Not Do with my vertically patterned purple cotton lawn.

What I really needed was a pattern for a full skirt, like this 1950s number:

Or like this RTW reversible Gap skirt (the reverse side is a solid). It's not a maternity skirt at all, it fit me just fine before I gained 30 pounds of belly, bustage and baby, AND it is still quite comfortable in my third trimester!

Except no pattern is really needed at all for a dirndl/full skirt--as Gertie revealed in her tutorial on a non-elastic version, it's just a bunch of gathered rectangles. All you do is choose how full/gathered you want the skirt to be in relation to your hips (two times? three times?), "draft" a waistband piece, gather, cut and sew.

Construction is a bit different for a reversible elastic-shirred version with a deep yoke instead of a waistband, of course. And I've never shirred a stitch before in my life. So here's a peek at the Mikhaela test lab:

As you can see I've worked out some measurements and a likely construction sequence and cut out my (wearable) test garment pieces in a small-scale gingham ($1.50 a yard from Fulton Fabrics!). Right now I'm playing with different elastic shirring techniques on some muslin--none of my sewing reference books are very detailed on the subject, and online tutorials and advice differ widely on ideal stitch length/tension and how tightly the elastic should be wound on the bobbin.

I don't know yet if the test tube version of my shirred skirt will be a success, but once I achieve World Shirring Domination I promise not to take it too far:

(Crossposted to my blog, Polka Dot Overload).

Vintage maternity Simplicity 2554 reworked

I finished another vintage pattern project last week. I've posted more pics and info on it here but I wanted to share the pattern sleeve.

I took this patter in view 2 and made it up using Amy Butler's new Love line. Love it! Can't wait for warm weather to start wearing it.

Thanks for letting me share!

Sencha Sketch

Today is officially Muslin Monday, and here's the first one of the day--a maternity modification to Colette Patterns famous vintage-style cap-sleeve Sencha blouse. Gertie recently described some different ways to play with a basic button-back blouse pattern like this one, and I'm so far planning to do the following:

• Scoop out the neckline (high necks never really work on me, plus I'm a necklace fiend)
  
• Move the tucks up under the bust to make room for the belly (I asked pattern designer Sarai about this on her Flickr group where she answers questions about all things Colette, and she suggested sewing it up without the tucks to see how it fits, then tucking as needed)
  
• Do a 2-3" FBA on the pattern (for an added total of 6")
  
• Lengthen it a bit in front to go farther over the belly
  

I'm about to trace the pattern pieces (since I want to be able to use the pattern again post-preggo) but deliberating over size 6 (bust measurement 36") vs. size 8 (bust measurement 37"). I usually choose patterns by high bust (which used to be 34" for me but now as my ribcage has grown during pregnancy is more like 36") and then do a major FBA but I've heard Colette Patterns are more generous in that area than the B-cup Big Four standard. I'll still need a serious FBA either way, as my full bust is 41."

I think I'll go put my hair in the mesh roller set I just bought while I think about it...

(Crossposted to my blog).

Plum Polka Dot Maternity Mini-Wardrobe

(Click image to enlarge to much bigger and more readable full size).

As I mentioned before on my own blog, I'm super excited about PatternReview.com's Spring Mini-Wardrobe contest.

None of these patterns are technically vintage, but the wardrobe has many vintage-inspired elements--the dress is from Colette Patterns, the top is B&W polka-dot, the skirt is a full circle skirt (albeit with elastic shirring, but I've seen that in 50s dress images!) and the jacket has a major peplum.

Considering that the one-month contest has already begun and I have not a muslin to show for it... and that I start childbirth classes tomorrow... and that I am taking two of PR's online sewing classes starting this Friday (on facings and underlinings, both with Sarah Veblen)... and that I've never made any of the above patterns, never mind altered them for third-trimester maternity... I'm surprisingly hopeful I can pull this off. Yes, I'm reckless! Just RECKLESS!

There's just one problem. I started planning this last week and bought most of the fabrics online, but now that they have arrived, I find myself worrying the whole thing is just too darn monochromatic, even with punchy colored shoes and/or necklaces (or maybe a scarf?) And that's just not me. I have nothing against gray in moderation, but I seldom reach for it--all my favorite jackets and cardigans are pink, or orange, or green, or red, or plum, or chartreuse...

So I'm thinking this would be a BIG improvement:

(Click image to enlarge to much bigger and more readable full size).

...If I can find the right fabric. I went to Paron's and their Annex today and they had many lovely rayon blend double knits, but they were all various shades of pink, purple or orange. (FYI, wool or pure poly double knit would be way too hot & sticky for pregnant me in spring). And what I'm really craving is chartreuse. Fabric.com has some of the same fabric I got in gray from them already, but the digital swatch doesn't LOOK chartreuse to me--more like mustard:

So I ordered a bunch of swatches of their different double knits--the one above and also ones in turquoise and various shades of green from lime to emerald. And I'll keep poking around the Garment District. I just don't want to look like a boring pregnant plum & gray grape, it's just not me!

As you can see in the top image, if I do end up with the plain gray jacket I'm hoping to punch it up with some trim, as in this RTW example:

Oh, and a note about the patterns--I'm a little bummed that my top pattern is just a plain Jalie T-shirt (which I will redraft to a scoop neck), but I sketched a variety of more interesting tops (vintage pattern silk blouses with Peter Pan collars, the Colette Sencha blouse, knit tops with twist or surplice necklines) on my digital croquis and they all just competed too much with the lines of the Parfait dress. At least it's in polka dot!

Cross-posted to my blog, Polka Dot Overload.

Finshed: My "Carefree" Orange Silk Floral Maternity Dress!

The Pattern:Vintage (1978) McCall's 5921 "Carefree" Maternity Dress in Orange Floral Silk Twill.

It's done and I (mostly) love it, but there was NOTHING carefree about the weeks of blood, sweat and tears I poured into this dress. As I detailed earlier this week on my blog, I'm not sure what possessed me to attempt all of the following on one project on a tight deadline:

• First vintage pattern
  
• First woven dress muslin
  
• First stab at sewing with silk...
  
• First time working with large-scale prints
  
• First collar
  
• First woven sewn garment in 5 years... and first woven dress in over 10 years (I've been on a knit kick!)

But never mind that! Here are various views of the dress before I wore it to my cousin's bar mitzvah today:

It looked cute with my chartreuse silk cardigan, too:

A closeup of the collar:

And the fabric:

Excruciatingly detailed review with my entire process and photos of multiple muslins and FBAs and slashed/spread skirt pattern pieces on my blog, Polka Dot Overload.

Polka Dot Overload: An Introduction

Greetings, Sew Retro readers! Mikhaela here. I'm a cartoonist and graphic designer with delusions of making as many of my own clothes as possible and an irrational attraction to bright colors, bold prints, stripes, polka dots, spirals, peplums, sweetheart necklines and sewing projects far out of my skill set.

I've recently gotten back into sewing with a vengeance after a five-year-hiatus, and as a girl with a pronounced hourglass figure (hello, extreme FBAs), I've always loved the curve-hugging styles of the 40s and 50s. I have a modest vintage pattern collection from those eras, but had always been too nervous in the past to actually take them out of their delicate yellowed envelopes and, well, SEW them.

I recently lost my nervousness about damaging my patterns (thanks to a nice big roll of translucent pattern tracing cloth) and was all set to dive into my first vintage sewing project--but there was just one little hitch. I'm extremely pregnant--27 weeks to be exact. So my first vintage sewing project sadly could NOT be this wasp-waisted, scallop-necked beauty:



So I scoured Ebay and Etsy for vintage maternity patterns that did not resemble tents or muu-muus (NOT easy) and ended up with these three lovelies...

A 1940s jumper/blouse combo with adorable sweetheart-esque neckline and peter pan collar:



It may not LOOK maternity, but what appear to be pleats are created by snaps that can be unsnapped to accommodate an expanding figure (see scan of the pattern instructions here). Except my figure is already so expanded that it's probably too late for this one. Next!

A 1950s Lucy-like polkadot faux shirtwaist dress with collar and self-fabric belt (and a not-so-exciting tent coat option):



It uses a similar snap scheme for waist expansion, but the odd thing is that the waist is a natural, and not empire waist--so I tried to picture how it would look on me now that my waist is long gone:



I even went as far as buying the pictured fabric, but I remained skeptical of the waist problem. Which led me to a surprising (for me) era...

The 1978 tie-waist empire dress (with unappealing shapeless muu-muu option):



The sketch was much more promising:



I've been working on it on and off for weeks--considering how relatively shapeless and loose-fitting the pattern was, it required two muslins to get a perfect fit:



I had hoped to have it ready for my baby shower last weekend, but that didn't work out, so it'll be debuting at my cousin's bar mitzvah Saturday. Full pattern alteration details and finished object photos to come!

So that's me. Also: I've been blogging about cartooning since 2002, but just started my own sewing, style and body image blog, Polka Dot Overload. Thus far I have chronicled my sewing origins, reminisced about some of my best dresses, shared cartoons about your yucky body and shared some sketches and some striped love. Come pay me a visit!

Summer of the (maternity) dress

I absolutely love the idea of a 'summer of the dress' a-thon being promoted by Livebird and her fantastic dresses posted on this blog previously, plus the glorious ones that moo I made it is coming up with too. And not forgetting the gorgeous ones made by Melynda which started this whole concept.

So here's my contribution: a 1972 McCalls pattern that features a maternity dress, tunic, pants AND frilly bloomers! Oh my, I think I'll give those bloomers a miss, but the dress and tunic length certainly caught my eye.

But as with all patterns that only feature a drawing on the envelope and not a photo it is deceiving - this dress turned out ginormous and I am currently in the process of taking it in a bit at the side seams and adding darts to the rear to give a bit more shape. I may be 6 months pregnant but there's no need to be walking around in a six person tent! I also ditched the puffy sleeves because they looked a bit silly.

I made it in a black and white small check cotton/poly fabric, but didn't line it since the fabric is thick enough to avoid embarrassing see through issues and I'm expecting my internal thermostat to start to increase that most preggo ladies experience.

And here is the dress in its huge form, ie made following the pattern:

More details over at my blog if you'd care to join me.