1967-ish Skirt

I picked up this 1967 How To Sew skirt pattern at either Village des Valeurs or my local charity shop, so I must have shelled out a whopping 25 cents or (gasp) 65, depending on the source.  Thanks to the glut of patterns available in thrift shops around here, I'm amassing quite a stash and I'm starting to lose track of where I got them.  I think I'm close to the tipping point where I will have to start unloading some.  Anyway, on to the skirt:

Cute, basic, reminiscent of my elementary school days, but a bit too small and not high on my list to make.  Then 6 months later, I found this 1m of polyester knit for 1$ and it seemed so strangely familiar that I had to buy it.  

Since it is a knit, I didn't think I really had to put a zipper in as shown in the pattern; I just added the waist band and hoped for the best.  It pulls on alright, but after a whole day at work, it was getting a bit too saggy.  That will teach me to wing it without proper sewing experience.

Here are some photos taken this morning before dropping the little man off at daycare.  He wanted to get in on the action, but didn't want to hold the camera, so it's camera-balanced-on-the-stereo + timer to the rescue:

I guess this counts toward my Sewing Through the Decades goal, but I'm not terribly proud of the result.  In fact, I have so many beautiful '60s patterns that would look so much better than this.  I'm crossing off the 1960s for now, but may bring in a replacement later!  

1940s  1950s  1960s  1970s  1980s  1990s  2000s 2010s

Another Sewing Scientist - Cape Town edition

Hello from the sunny side of the earth!  I'm in Cape Town for work, with a little holiday tacked on the end.  Two days of travel to get here, straight into the lab to set up the assay strains, a whirlwind day of touristing with my bosses, two days of meetings, followed by three days of hosting a lab training session.....I was wrung out.

  

Then, during an afternoon break in our lab session, a colleague of mine whisked me off in a share taxi for a little fabric shopping, and Oh! what a time we had!  We unfortunately hit the stores just as they were closing for Friday afternoon prayers (a good thing to remember for the next visit), but they reopened at 13h30 and we got to shopping.

The shwe shwe was available in several widths and interestingly, in pre-printed panels:  the fabric was sold by the section (gore), so you just decided how many sections you needed to go around you and paid accordingly.  Some of the fabric was printed on both sides; I imagine making a stiff pleated skirt with a waistband from the reverse fabric.

My colleague (or by now, I should say friend), lamented that she should buy some shwe shwe and make a skirt too, but never learned to sew and doesn't have the time.  I countered that I have a full time job and two kids, and I still manage to squeeze in a few hours a week, so I may have inspired another sewing scientist.  I mean *another* Another Sewing Scientist  ;)

I also made some great finds at an antique shop in Observatory called Munro's.  (I use the term antique shop very loosely; it was more like one of those junk shops run by a compulsive hoarder.)  She actually started to get very flustered when I opened some drawers....but when I started talking about sewing, she loosened up a bit and showed me a dusty old box of patterns and a drawer full of vintage notions.  I got these two belt slides, two patterns (one Vogue Nina Ricci), a length of machine made cotton lace and an antique hand-tatted lace doily.  I know it sounds heretical, but I'm thinking of cutting the doily to make a lace collar for a black dress.  Since it's a bit damaged and has a stain, I can justify it to myself.

My bag is stuffed, so I think I'll stop there.  Well, if I stumble across more great fabric at a market, I may not be able to resist, but I'll try.

Exhibit A

Your Honour, may I enter Exhibit A into evidence:  My new linen dress, straight from the dryer.  Sigh.  Good thing I pre-shrunk the heck out of it before sewing.

1990s linen shift dress

The next pattern on my list to destash / Sew Through the Decades is this 1 Hour Dress from McCall's (1998).  I always laugh at the label "1 hour Dress".  I guess it would take an hour if you didn't make the sleeves.  Or the long version.  Or the darts.  Or finish the seams.  Or topstitch.  Not that I'm complaining, but it is a bit misleading when you're learning to sew.  I guess I am complaining  ;)

I was trying to copy the pose on the pattern envelope, but I just can't pull it off.  Not without those ugly '90s elasticized sandals and weird topknot.

 It's a bit shapeless, so I made it super mini.  Well, super mini for a 40-something mom.  Isn't there some sort of optimum mathematical relationship between hem length:age?  There should be, considering the woman I saw at the spa last summer, who was pretty close to my age, but wore her skirt so short that we all knew she was coming in for a bikini wax.  Ahem.  Anyway.....

 Believe it or not, the part of the dress that took the longest for me was making that thread loop!  I kept making it too small or getting the thread tangled.  Now that I look at the photo, I see it's a bit too big and too low.

 I picked up this cranberry linen at my local thrift shop last month.  It was yellow-tag day, so I got 3 yards x 35 inches for $1!  The pattern was 25 cents at the same sale, the brass bell that I used for a neck closure button was in my button can forever (0 cents), so I guess the thread was the most expensive part of this project.  Because I am learning how to use my new serger, I bought 4 spools of dark red thread and finished all the inside seams and facings.  (That reminds me: Next time, buy *5* spools, because I forgot I would need one for my sewing machine too, or would have to keep threading and unthreading one spool.  Tabarnouche.)

I also posted to Burdastyle (profile: puffling), explaining how I decided to do the pre-shrink of all pre-shrinking by washing hot and drying on high in order to avoid having DH shrink it in the laundry after I spent a whole "1 hour" on this dress.

2010s  2000s  1990s  1980s  1970s  1960s  1950s  1940s

First project Fini

The first (an easiest) pattern from my Sewing Through the Decades checklist is Butterick 3772.  In fact, it was so easy that tracing, cutting the paper pattern, cutting the fabric and sewing took about two hours.

I bought this cotton tablecloth at the Former Pattern Murdering Thrift Shop in my village.  I still don't know all the proper terminology for fabrics, so I'm going to call this thick cotton.  No, that's not right.  It's only medium weight, but very tightly woven, so I didn't have to worry about finishing the seams - I just pinked them.

(The daycare just finished a unit on insects, so all the little ones really love bugs.  "Bug" was one of Tashi's first words, so I thought she'd like this fabric.)  

Here's a photo of Tashi trying to take a photo, because there would be no photos of this project without letting her have her way, but there would have been a whole hell of a lot of screaming.

Bye bye.

Sewing Through the Decades Sew Along

I just read about the Sewing Through the Decades Sew Along hosted by Debi and Sarah and thought it would be the perfect incentive to get the new year started.  After the chaos of Christmas (family death, travel to the west coast, travel back home, travel to US, getting stuck in Newark for a day and sleeping in the customer service line with the baby, etc. etc.), I have simply been recovering, and haven't even turned on the sewing machine.  But! I received a wonderful Christmas present:

Yay!  

So, since I'm a relative beginner and my pattern collection consists mostly of whatever I have leftover from the '80s-'90s, plus my recent thrift store scores, I think the best approach for me is one pattern from each decade.  My earliest pattern in 1948, so let's start there:

1940s:  Recent Etsy purchase; I plan to make view B in a vintage floral cotton I have around here somewhere.....

 1950s (via 2007):  Well, I had to cheat on this one since I don't have any 1950s patterns for women.

 1960s:  Maternity, but view C is so elegant that I think I'll give it a try.  Maybe just reducing the gathers in front will do the trick?

 1970s:  I already have the fabric and buttons picked out for this one:  View D with khaki for the yoke and snakeskin print for the body. 

 1980s:  I couldn't find a date for this one, but it is so totally obviously 80s.  Like, totally.

 1990s:  I've had this pattern since 1995 and still haven't made it.  It's a bit too mumsy, but maybe with the right fabric......I hope?

 2000s:  Something for my little Tashi.  Should be easy to whip up with some leftover fabric.

2010s:  Hey, I actually bought a new pattern from a real fabric store!  And paid full price!  There's a first time for everything.

So there's the plan for the next X number of months.  Between work, travel to South Africa / Botswana to host my tech transfer, travel to Florida and Cuba in the spring for family visits, and the usual winter sicknesses, I'm not sure how far I'll get.  But having a goal is sure to help me along.  

Pattern Illustrators

I don't know about you, but I have my favourite pattern envelope illustrators.  They aren't credited (as far as I know), but certain works always catch my eye.  Take these Very Easy Very Vogue illustrations below:

I don't particularly love the patterns, but I am always "hearting" them on Etsy because there is something so attractive about them.  Then I realized that they all appear to be drawn by the same artist. 

On the other hand, you probably recognize the woman in these bizarre McCall '70s illustrations.  I call her The McCall's Cutie:  Fake-and-Bake tan, too much rouge, too much teeth, too vacant a stare....

 Marlo Thomas is often transformed into The McCall's Cutie.  Unfortunately.

 

 

What about you?  Are there certain envelope patterns that inexplicably draw you in because of their art?  Is there any way to find out the name of the illustrator for a particular series of envelopes?