Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The First Four

To obey my new sewing rule of four (and only four at all times) sewing projects at a time, here are the first four projects

1) Advance 4780 1940's
- I have done this skirt before so not a big challenge, I intend to make it out of lovely blue fabric I have left over from an awful pencil skirt and then decorate along the bottom with red, white and black ric-rac. I love the suspenders but my attempts before have not worked well and I ended up taking them off the skirt so not going to try this time around.

The pattern was purchased from "Elyse" on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/elyse72

2) Simplicity 1571 1940s - (My Christmas Dress)
As the title sug gests I want to whip the green option dress up for Christmas, I have some lovely vintage fabric (hopefully enough) which is a cream with lovely red and green pattern. Perfect for Christmas but not so much that I won't be able to wear outside the festive period. The tricky part will be resizing the bust luckily I am only going from 40inches to 43inches.

The pattern was purchased from "Lucy and Ricky's vintage and more" on etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/lucyandrickys

3) Simplicity 1061 1940s
I got this pattern as I felt it is the most perfect mid-1940s typical day-dress. I intend to whip this up from some soft red cotton bought for another project who’s muslin test turned out beyond saving. I think this will be the most perfect comfy dress for summer.

The pattern was purchased from "Patternmania" on etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/patternmania

4) Advance 4889 1940s
The final of the first four a late 1940s dress (According to the notes on the pattern 1949) which looks perfect for summer light and easy. The only issue is I have to do some resizing bust needs to go up around 6 inches, and waist and hips need around 3 inches. No fabric has been picked out as yet but I swear that I will find something in my stash rather than going to the store.

Another pattern from "Elyse" on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/elyse72

Right back to the sewing machine
- Claire

Monday, November 16, 2009

Start of a Mad Endeavour

Hello,

I have also been obsessed with the wonderful styles of the 1940s and 1950s, sadly wonderful vintage dresses of this period are very hard to find in my size and hard to find in my country and repro dresses while beautiful have not-so-beautiful prices. So I have decided to get out my vintage patterns and start sewing a great vintage wardrobe.

As I seem to get distracted by new pretty fabric and the new idea of that shiny just thought of project ("which will only take a day and then I will get back to the main dress I promise") I have started this blog and made a few helpful rules to make sure I stay honest:
1. Four Projects at a time on the to do list.
2. Projects can only be removed from the list once completed or deemed a complete fail.
3. I will post all failures as well as successes so I as well as others can learn from my mistakes.
4. I resist the lure of new fabric and always check my fabric stash first before heading down to the stores.

I hope you enjoy my mad endeavour.