New York, New York - Vintage Butterick

Wandering through Textile Traders, this New York print fabric caught my eye. It was a bit polyestery, but I thought the print would make a cool dress, so I went for it. It is all black and white buildings with yellow taxis and red other things.

I chose this vintage pattern, Butterick 5208, that I have made once before in gold fabric. The two dresses turned out completely different, which is a good thing for wardrobe variety.

I omitted the pockets as I thought the fabric was a bit lightweight to hold them. Shame, I liked the pockets. I also left off the collar. I used the all-in-one facing that I had drafted last time. This finished off the neckline and armholes nicely. I had to take in the side seams a bit too.

I cut red knit fabric out for the side panels, sewed it together and then decided the red was a bit much. I recut the panels in black, inserted one and changed my mind again. Not being able to decide whether I preferred the black or the red panel, I left one of each.

I like the squared off armholes in this pattern.

And the front zip feels quite edgy, even though it's a vintage pattern.

I wore my wellies for the photos just for fun. It was warm enough today for sandals but I'm planning to wear this though the winter with tights and boots.

A bit of blurriness and you can almost believe I'm from the 70s!

Vintage sewing - Butterick 5208

You may remember me mentioning a haul of vintage patterns and a dressform that I excitedly got my hands on a few months ago. I have looked through the patterns many times and now, inspired by the vintage sewing contest, I've made one!

I chose this Butterick 'Misses' one-piece dress' pattern. I can't find a date on it but, comparing it to the other patterns I bought from the same lady, I estimate it to be from somewhere in the 1960s, the 70s at the latest. That's round about my vintage actually - perfect!

The pattern was a size 14 and had been cut out very neatly by its previous owner. Although I'm usually a size 10, the bust measurement was right for me so I went with the size as it was. This is my first time making a vintage pattern, but I'm guessing that the sizes have changed over the last 40 years or so!

I loved the lines and in-seam pockets of this dress pattern and, actually, it isn't a million miles from some modern patterns I've seen. However, I did want an up-to-date look, so I decided to leave off the collar and to use a knit fabric for the side panels. My main fabric was a gold linen-like fabric that I'd bought as a remnant in Textile Traders.

I drafted an all-in-one facing for the front and back neckline and armholes, according to this very helpful tutorial. This gives a nice finish on the inside when the zip falls open.

I topstitched all the seams and added a little diamonte charm to the zip pull.

The back has vertical shoulder darts, which give nice shaping and fit. The bust darts needed moving downwards and the side, knit fabric panels were taken in for a better fit. I didn't have enough gold fabric to make the dress any longer, so I added an interfaced panel of the knit fabric around the hem.

 Otherwise the fit was pretty well spot on!

 I must say that I'm well chuffed with my first vintage pattern. It took some minor tweaking to get it right, but I don't think it looks too out of place as we move into 2014.

It's so merry and bright, I might just wear it on Christmas day.

Form-o-matic

I am an avid scourer of the online, local classified ads on Gumtree and look what I found! A lovely lady was selling her mother's collection of sewing patterns from the 60s (above), 70s and 80s. Some of the 60s patterns still have the price in shillings and pence. I love the red tunic in the second row.

Here is the 70s awesomeness:

And the 80s:

I was pretty excited about these, so I rummaged further through the box. It mostly contained old knitting patterns, which are not really my thing, but there were also some old magazines from 1967-74 and one from 1990. I was fascinated to flick through these and see how much things have changed.

Helpful articles:

Delicious food - pickled cabbage anyone, or maybe sliced cucumber with grated cheese?

 A feature on ghost towns of WA. That looks like a thrill-a-minute holiday. I think if I was going to relax in a state of excitement I would choose somewhere other than an empty town surrounded by miles of red desert. ('State of Excitement' used to be the slogan for the state of Western Australia and was printed on all car number plates).

 Some pattern suggestions for making your own wedding dress:

 Interior decor:

I found the advertising particularly interesting. (Australia banned cigarette advertising on TV and radio in 1976 and in print media in 1989).

Ooh la la!

The 'luxury of crimplene jacquard'

I was particularly interested to see that there were lots of ads for knitting machines and sewing patterns and paraphernalia. This dress form ad caught my eye. It's made from cardboard and can adjust to a variety of sizes.  

The reason I was so interested in that ad, was that the Gumtree haul also included a real life version of this dress form. Completely new and unused and with instructions. How cool is that! I can just picture my sister reading this and saying "but Meg, what are you going to do with it?". Well, I don't know. Put it in the garage with the rest of my clutter I suppose! But the point is that I love it, and I'll get it out and admire it from time to time and maybe one day I'll donate it to a museum and it will be admired by generations of space-age sewers who will appreciate that I sacrificed minimalist living for their cause.

This made my day and I think I got a bargain for $40 for the lot. I can't wait to have a go at some of those patterns.